Karachi power company warns government | GulfNews.com
Karachi: The Karachi Electric supply Company (KESC) on Friday warned the government to pay up its bills — which run into billions of rupees — warning that failure to do so would force it to increase power cuts in the city.
The KESC published front page advertisements in several English and Urdu dailies raising alarm about longer hours of load shedding from Saturday.
“In Karachi the duration of load shedding is compellingly being raised to 10 to 13 hours,” the headline of the ad read.
The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made the chronic power crisis its first priority after taking office in June.
The government raised a hefty 500 billion Pakistan rupees (Dh17.8 billion) to pay off the debts and payables of the power and fuel companies.
However, the KESC complained its payment was still stuck and the government did not fulfil its commitment.
“The KESC has repeatedly requested to the government to pay mere 10 per cent of its 84 billion rupees so that the lights of the city of Karachi could be kept intact,” the company said.
“But we are not paid anything so far.”
The company said it had utilised all of its available resources to buy fuel and had no means to restock.
KESC said that, in view of the fact, it was compelled to increase the load-shedding from August 17 for residential, commercial and industrial consumers.
“Undoubtedly it is an unpleasant step, yet we don’t have any other solution,” it said.
Pakistan has witnessed rampant riots across the country over prolonged power outages because of sheer bad governance of power companies both privately and publicly owned.
Karachi, being the largest industrial city and contributor to the national economy, comparatively remained better as it suffered shorter spells of load-shedding compared to the northern parts of the country.
why becoming enemy of Karachi? PMLN?