“Maafi chahtay haen bhai, zara dair ho gayee (Sorry for being late, brother),” said Saleem*, one of the members of a field team sent by the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) to Gulshan-e-Iqbal’s Shanti Nagar Block-19 to restore electricity earlier this week. “We were late because a police van not available to accompany us. As soon as they came, we left,” Saleem told Pakistan Today.
The practice of police teams escorting KESC field staff is growing by the day. But while faults are being rectified, the security protocol means that there are delays in restoring electricity supply and even ordinary faults take hours to get fixed. But this does not concern the police: Saleem’s team was accompanied by a police mobile that had an assistant-sub-inspector (ASI) and five constables. The policemen told Pakistan Today that they had been instructed by their high-ups to escort the field teams, and in return, the company would pay senior officials for diesel and “kharcha paani.”
Sources within the KESC told Pakistan Today that an understanding has been reached between the power utility’s management and the police regarding security of field staff. “The KESC is covering fuel costs of police mobiles that are sent; the police teams are given between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200 per trip. No team leaves the complaint centre until a police mobile accompanies them,” sources said.
The KESC management, sources claimed, had become wary of the attacks on its staffers, offices and property after the attacked on maintenance teams in power utility’s division offices in Bahadurabad last week. The local police acted as mere bystanders while KESC property was attacked. “A police mobile was parked near the office, but they acted as ordinary spectators while people from the unions attacked,” sources alleged.
This episode sparked a decision by high-ranking officials of the KESC to ensure foolproof security, with police stations of respective areas approached by zonal managements and extended the “kharcha paani” deal. It is worth remembering that the power utility had demanded of the city’s administration to provide protection to the utility’s employees and installations under the directives of the federal government as well as orders of the Sindh High Court.
