UAE- Dar rules out K Electric takeover despite recent power outages
Date
7/4/2015 11:40:25 AM
(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Power outages amid the recent heatwave were the root cause of deaths in the provincial capital.
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Dubai — Karachiites are counting their dead and this time around not due to any terror attack but victims at the hands of corporate mismanagement.
Power outages amid the recent heatwave were the root cause of deaths in the provincial capital. More than 1200 have died and Karachiites are still counting. But the apathy is that stakeholders are looking the other way.
Talking to Khaleej Times Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar ruled out government’s takeover of K-Electric which is responsible for power supply to the largest city of the country with 20 million population. But the company has failed to fulfil the power needs of one of the world’s most populated cities even after six years of operational and management control.
K-Electric formerly known as Karachi Electric Supply Company is the only privately-run electricity company in the country. In 2009 a leading private equity company Abraaj Capital which is based in Dubai bought the power utility.
“There is no plan to take over K-Electric” Dar told this scribe on the sidelines of an event in Dubai on Thursday evening. Karachi the financial hub of the country generates more than 70 per cent of the total revenues for the national exchequer but lacks uninterrupted power supply and clean water.
Solution to energy crisis was on top of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) manifesto during the May 2013 election campaign but it failed to fulfil its promises after more than two years in power. On June 30 2015 Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he never promised during electioneering that the electricity loadshedding will be eliminated in six months after coming into power. This is irresponsible leadership to say the least according to critics.
In a latest move the Sindh High Court on June 30 issued notices to the provincial government K-Electric and others over the heatwave deaths in Karachi.
Federal and Sindh governments have held K-Electric responsible for the deaths in the port city. On the other hand K-Electric objected to the statements made by some ministers for ‘incorrectly’ portraying KE’s performance last week. A KE’s spokesman claimed that the company has been generating electricity at full capacity.
It seems that K-Electric is only making money and not investing to improve the infrastructure and power generation capacity. More than a month ago the power company raised Rs22 billion through Pakistan’s largest sukuk which was fully subscribed on its launch day.
The company also reported a 160 per cent increase in its net profit for July 2014-March 2015 period compared to same period in the previous fiscal year. The profit increased from Rs6.27 billion to Rs16.28 billion for the period ending March 31 2015.
After 10 days of heatwave and deaths of more than 1200 people Sharif landed in Karachi and returned to Islamabad after a few hours saying that it’s unfair to hold any single entity responsible for the recent deaths but it is a collective failure of all departments.
Pakistan’s leading English daily Dawn in its July 1 editorial said: “An escalating quarrel between the government and K-Electric the country’s only privately owned power distribution company carries grave risks for everybody. What is making the whole spat even more frustrating is that both parties to the dispute — the government and the management of K-Electric — lack credibility in the eyes of the public.”
The government and K-Electric should stand trial for criminal negligence according to Karachiites and opposition parties in the country.
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