Karachi, 28th July 2014: K-Electric (KE) through its press statement has expressed disbelief and disappointment at how some members of the Pakistan People’s Party have pointed fingers at a power utility whose performance has been far better than the rest of the country. Karachi is the only city where all the 5 export zones have been kept exempted whereas more than 56% of Karachi is load-shed free. Catering to an area as big as 6,500 Square Kilometers, KE has invested and has improved its infrastructure, its network and its operations on a continual basis.
The KE statement added that since these members are busy with illogical and absurd claims, they are unaware as to what the original situation is. Firstly the ongoing circular debt issue which is at a mesmerizingly high number has to be taken care of, something that the Sind Government along with the Federal setup have been ignoring for a while. The Sind Government owes KE almost PKR 40 Billion, hence, KE completely rejects the untruthful and laughable claims made by PPP ministers where they said KE owes the Sind Government money. Addressing claims made by one of the serving ministers who is also looking after Karachi’s administration and the KWSB, it is sad to learn that someone who is looking after the water and sewerage board is making such tall claims when the city is without water supply and has one of the worst drainage and sewerage system. KWSB apart from its usual day to day lies, owes KE more than PKR 30 BN, and still none of the pumping stations have any sort of load shed.
Secondly KE has an installed capacity of well over 2,300 MW, but some of these plants are obsolete and not running at full capacity due to their age. KE has been upgrading these plants ever since the company was privatized, and will continue to do so. Bin Qasim Power Station 1 has an installed capacity of 1,260, out of which 420 MW are being converted to coal. Bin Qasim Power Station 2 which was setup by the new KE management, has a capacity of 560 and which is currently producing 520-530 MW. The Combine-Cycle Power Plant is producing approximately 190 MW out of the installed 220. The Korangi Gas Turbine along with the Site Gas Turbine are both producing around 90 MW each. If these numbers are added up as per the simplistic mathematic rule, then the generated capacity from KE is almost 1,700 MW, barring the 420 MW that is being converted to Coal and has been constantly delayed due to the ill-management of Nepra. Therefore the claims made by PPP saying KE only generates 600 MW is quite shocking and sad especially since Karachi’s demand has touched an all-time high of almost 3,000 MW.
As far as the claims regarding KE’s property and assets being on Sind Government’s land, this was another baseless and illogical claim made by the PPP members. KE has all the records and has the ‘Right Of Way’ for the properties KE owns and makes timely payments for anything that is due. A frivolous claim was made a few years back where a PKR 5 BN claim was raised by the local government on account of charging pole rentals from K-Electric, then KESC. Such pointless claims were struck down by the Honorable Courts, and it is astonishing as to why these claims are being raised once again when the honorable court had already struck it down. It is also pertinent to mention that’ such a payment is not derived anywhere else in the country.