Privatisation of KESC â€" I

Last week, I was invited by Khurram Hussain of Dawn TV channel to participate in a programme on the above subject. Other participants included Zubair Mottiwala, former Chairman KCCI and SITE Association, Tahir Basharat Cheema, DGl Energy Management PEPCO and Tahsin Iqbal, former Secretary Privatisation.

When Khurram asked Tahsin Iqbal if he was optimistic about improvement in KSEC’s performance after the take over by the Al-Abraaj Group of Dubai, he was honest enough to admit that he was not. He then proceeded to give a detailed explanation for his pessimism. While Cheema stated that he was very optimistic, but failed to give any reasons for his optimism. Khurram repeatedly asked Cheema to throw some light on the terms and conditions of the privatisation agreement, as he had been part of the team that had visited Karachi in September and had spent two days in the discussions.

But, despite repeated requests, Cheema continued to give evasive answers and explained that he was ‘out in the field’ the whole time and was examining the distribution lines for two days.  He then proudly announced that, ‘within three days we reduced the load shedding by 70%’.

I congratulated him on performing the ‘KESC Miracle’ and on the resurrection of a patient who was dying and was in the ICU one day and up and running in the Olympics the next. He then admitted that the reason for the sudden decrease in load shedding was because the power generating units had been deliberately reducing costs by saving money on the consumption of gas and furnace oil and were running their power generating units much below their capacity.

Yet surprising enough, no one has been questioned, held accountable or penalised for paralysing industry and making the citizens suffer for four days.

I informed the ‘experts’ in Lahore that the power crisis in Karachi had started in 96 and showed them news clippings, in which the headlines had screamed ‘WATER, POWER RIOTS FEARED’. I also showed them a report titled ‘The looming Power Crisis in Karachi’.