The KESC conundrum – President Zardari holds the answer?

“Only President [Asif Ali] Zardari can solve the Karachi Electric Supply Company’s problem,” was Federal Water and Power Minister Naveed Qamar’s reply to acting Sindh Governor Nisar Ahmed Khuhro when the latter was discussing with him the issue of the power utility’s management and employees’ row during a meeting on July 15.
Khuhro had invited a delegation of the leaders of the KESC’s protesting employees before they staged a sit-in in front of the Governor’s House.
The delegation included KESC CBA chairman Akhlaq Ahmed and other leaders Ayaz Mengal, Usman Baloch and Aslam Samon.
Awami National Party Sindh chapter leader Shahi Syed and PPP leaders were also present on the occasion.
The delegation spoke with the acting governor and later talked to the Qamar as well as Federal Minister Khurseed Shah.
Both ministers informed Khuhro that they were helpless in this matter and the issue cano only be sorted out by President Zardari.
Khuhro later spoke to the president’s principal secretary, Salman Faruqi about the protesting KESC workers’ demands and was assured by the latter that the matter would be taken up with the president.
The protesting workers, who were staging a sit-in in front of the Governor’s House, warned the government that if their demands are not met within 48 hours, they can resort to severe measure.
The workers had staged a hunger strike to death in front of Karachi Press Club against their possible termination of services on April 29. They ended their strike after 15 days on the appeal of social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi and later staged a sit-in in front of the KESC head office, from where they marched to the Governor’s House on July 15.
More than three months have passed since the KESC management and workers became embroiled in a row, but the government is still not ready to intervene even though the city of lights has plunged into darkness.
It is worth noting that the KESC has inflicted losses worth billions on the national exchequer and has not even paid the dues to the government on the account of sales tax and TV licence fees collected from the consumers through bills.
The company is not only violating the agreement signed with the government, but also refusing to pay its dues to the PSO, WAPDA, SSGC and other departments.
It had obtained loans worth Rs 240 billion from international and local financial institutions and the FBR had recently seized the accounts of the company on financial misconducts.
The KESC had terminated 4,500 workers in January this year, but the intervention of the federal and provincial governments had resulted in their reinstatement.
However, the KESC management disobeyed the government’s orders the following day and the company’s CEO in a press conference said that the reinstated workers must be fired.
Most of the workers were terminated and others were forced to accept the voluntarily separation scheme.
The majority of the workers rejected the management’s offer and started their struggle under the banner of the Mazdoor Ittehad.
With the exception of the MQM’s labour wing, the worker bodies of other political parties – the PPP, the PML-N, the JI, the ANP and the Jeay Sindh – joined the struggle.
It is widely believed in workers’ circles that PPP high ups are the shareholders of the KESC’s owner company Abraaj Capital and the MQM is the other beneficiary of the current situation because their 3,000 workers have been hired by the company on third party contract.
The present chairman of UAE-registered Abraaj Capital, Arif Massod Naqvi, was the general manager of Sakrand Sugar Mill located in Shaheed Benazirabad district (formerly called Nawabshah), which is the home district of President Zardari and owner of the mill, Abdul Sattar Kerio, is a close friend of the president.