Chairman of the FPCCI Advisory Board and National Business Group Pakistan, President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain has said that the rotten and corrupt power system has put the public lives and country’s economy at stake. Talking to business community on Monday, he said that some politicians make good money through corrupt IPPs, and these units are destroying the lives of the masses and the nation's economy Mian Zahid Hussain said that the businessmen who set up IPPs knew that their exploits would erase the industry and trade from the country. Still, they preferred personal interests over collective interests and participated in looting, he added. “People have always been cheated in the name of investment. IPPs are not installed to resolve the country's problems, but the motive iss selfishness, profiteering, greed and exploitation,” he added.

The business leader said that there has been constant looting since the 90s in the name of providing electricity to consumers, in which politicians and industrialists were involved. At the same time, many others have also taken part in the booty, he added. He said that although the country's transmission and distribution capacity was limited to 22,000 megawatts, IPPs that can produce 45 thousand megawatts were installed. It was neither a coincidence nor a mistake, but it was a well-thought-out conspiracy, the purpose of which was to cheat the public and to continue to do so, he added. He said, that was why politicians behind facilitating IPPs were not willing to give any reasonable explanation in this regard. Mian Zahid Hussain said that the business community across the country was currently protesting against the electricity rates. If any discount was given on electricity rates for them, the burden will have to be borne by someone else, he added.

So, instead of making electricity cheaper, they should demand a forensic audit of the entire electricity supply chain and increase pressure on the government to remove the weaknesses. He said that the matters would only be resolved if they were handled in a professional manner. He said that the price of electricity per unit without tax for industrial consumers was Rs 35, which after tax reaches Rs 60. Out of Rs 35, about Rs 18 per unit of electricity was paid as capacity charges, leading the economy to collapse. Mian Zahid Hussain further said that this year, two billion rupees will be paid to IPPs in the form of capacity charges, which is oppressive to the poor people. He said that without solving the problem of IPPs, it was impossible to promote employment, make manufacturing cheaper and increase exports.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan