Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC)’s sincerity in resolving the power crisis in the city is being questioned after the power utility has failed to negotiate with thousands of its workers and unilaterally withdrawn from discussions. Sources claimed that it is in the best interest of the KESC to keep the tussle between its management and its workers going on in the summer when the company’s power generating capacity reduces.
Due to an enormous gap between demand and supply, the power utility has not only increased the duration of scheduled load shedding, but it has also been keeping many parts of the city without electricity because of, what the KESC claims, technical faults. The power company claimed that its protesting workers were forcing its on-duty employees to close their offices and stop carrying out their responsibilities.
On the other hand, the protesting employees alleged that the KESC management was deliberately causing power breakdowns to save furnace oil. The protesters said that they had tried to negotiate with the KESC management, but the company is reluctant to showing any flexibility in its stance, which is unacceptable to over 4,000 of their employees. In the two rounds of talks held between the KESC management and its workers, none of the issues were able to be resolved.
The management is unconcerned about the workers and citizens’ issues and wants to stretch the row, some of the protesting workers told Pakistan Today. “They want us to end our protest without meeting any of our demands, but the workers would continue their protest until all of their demands are accepted,” the workers added. It is pertinent to mention here that the KESC management had set the condition of restoring the power supply system for holding further talks, but sources claimed that this condition was aimed at stopping the dialogue process.
