Govt urged not to allow KESCs request for tariff increase.

KARACHI, September 09, 2009 (Balochistan Times): Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister, Ms.Sharmila Farooqi has appealed to Federal Government not to consider KESCs request for tariff increase as the load-shedding stricken citizens of Karachi cannot pay higher prices of electricity due to already inflated prices of items of daily use. Talking to a traders delegation at her office Wednesday she said that prolonged power load-shedding by KESC has resulted in closure of several factories and reducing trade activities which rendered a large number of people jobless. She contended that when KESC is responsible for unemployment of people, then how it can expect people to afford to pay higher and inflated bills of the utility. Sharmila said most of the population is living under poverty level and is unable to pay higher tariff. She pointed out that Karachi is the economic hub of Pakistan but prolonged load-shedding has badly affected trade activities here and has increased the woes of its citizens. She questioned why private management of KESC cannot fulfil its promise of making investment to improve its power generation capacity so that people could gel rid of power outages. She was of the view that KESC should be re-nationalized if its private administration fails to improve power production. Sharmila Farooqi said un-announced and prolonged load-shedding during the month of Ramazan, particularly during Sehri, Iftari and Taravih timings is an unlawful act. This attitude of KESC is compelling the law abiding and peaceful citizens to register protests and resort to agitation against the utility.

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)