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CM invites political parties for sit-in in Islamabad against power outages
ISLAMABAD: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah on Thursday expressed reservations over raids conducted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the bias of federal government while placing names on the Exit Control List (ECL).
“NAB calls for placing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s name on the ECL but the federal government refuses to. However, Sharjeel Memon was placed on the ECL despite being abroad,” Shah said.
Earlier today, secretary and minister of the Sindh local government met with the province’s chief minister to discuss a raid conducted by NAB a day earlier at their offices.
Ramzan Awan, the local government secretary, and Jam Khan Shoro, the local government minister, met the Sindh CM and informed him of the recent surprise NAB-led raid carried out at the local government offices.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had dismissed the bail application of Sharjeel Memon, who was allegedly involved in advertisement corruption worth billions of rupees.
Along with Sharjeel Memon, Salman Mansoor, Umar Shahzad and Zulfiqar Shirani are also among accused in the case.
‘INVITES POLITICAL PARTIES FOR SIT-IN AGAINST LOAD SHEDDING’:
Murad Ali Shah invited political parties of Karachi to stage a sit-in in Islamabad against prolonged electricity load shedding in Karachi.
Addressing a press conference, Sindh CM said that the unannounced power outages in the metropolis are unaccepted and that his government will raise voice against this matter to wake up the federation.
He said the province that produces natural resources is being deprived of basic needs. He said that 73 percent of Sui Northern company is being owned by federal government.
A recent row between K-Electric (KE) and Sui Southern Gas Company has resulted in citizens facing hours of outages at a stretch. The tussle started with KE blaming SSGC for the long outages, but the latter refused of having any role to play in the matter. SSC stated it had not cut gas supply for electricity despite the power utility company owing it dues.
It is said that nearly 2.5 million households were affected by the 10-hour-long power outage.
However, recently, KE and SSGC made a headway in their negotiations as former agreed to pay the security deposit to SSGC as a customer.
Following the payment of the deposit, SSGC has agreed to provide more gas to the power utility company to assist in the reduction of load-shedding.
Earlier on Tuesday, a protest demonstration, led by Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar was held outside the head office of K-Electric (KE) against prolonged and persistent load-shedding in the city.
The protestors chanted slogans against KE accusing the power utility of over-billing consumers and cutting power supply for longer durations throughout the day.
The protesters also included elected members of the city council.
Recently, KE had hinted that load-shedding would continue throughout Ramadan and no exception would be made during Sehr and Iftar timings, unlike earlier promises in which it claimed to provide uninterrupted power supply at least at the two times of the fasting days.
