Colleagues join rebels’ protest, KESC in denial

Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC)’s employees observing hunger strikes received support from their colleagues on Monday when various KESC offices were closed down, intensifying the contention between the KESC management and the company’s over 4,000 reinstated employees over KESC’s move to dismiss the employees again.
On the other hand, after the power company refused to bear the medical expenses of KESC Labour Union (CBA) Chairman Akhlaq Ahmad who was admitted in a private hospital when he fell unconscious due to the prolonged hunger strike, has further inflamed the already-irritated KESC employees who left their offices to join the protesters outside the Karachi Press Club.
The sacked employees had been reluctantly reinstated by the KESC following protests that had turned violent due to the intervention of the government and political parties. However, the power company is all set to sack them again through a compulsory retirement scheme. As a result of the prolonged strike and closure of various offices, many substations remained closed and numerous cable and PMT faults were left unattended. Power supply to almost 90 percent of the industrial sector remained suspended.
Moreover, PECHS, Lyari, SITE Area, Manghopir, Orangi Town, Defence and Gulistan-e-Jauhar among other parts of the city faced over 15 hours of power breakdowns. Some other areas, including Sultanabad and Malir, have been facing power breakdowns since Saturday morning. The KESC management claimed that the annoyed employees had closed down the substations and damaged the underground cables as a move against them, but the protesters rejected the allegation and said that the substations were closed by the management to obtain the government’s sympathy.
Through a statement issued on Monday, the KESC also claimed that the labour union’s protest and violent disruption had no justification and it was in clear violation of the Sindh High Court’s order issued on Saturday, declaring the union’s ongoing protest as illegal. The management said that since Monday morning, the labour union’s office-bearers and activists, with the involvement of external allies, had intentionally and illegally blocked the power utility’s operational activities in various parts of the city.
The miscreants have forcefully stopped the on-duty staff from working, halted maintenance works and rendered the on-duty employees unable to use the office equipment and vehicles at most of the utility’s offices, bringing the KESC’s essential operation across the city to a standstill, the management added.