Naveed Ismail, CEO of KESC Pakistan, refuted this story from The Nation and other media outlets in a press conference this morning. His statement is that “he works for a public limited company and his salary will be printed in the annual report. But the reports of the salary are much higher than he actually makes.”

The Nation ran this story this morning and cleared up why KESC can not be trusted. 

The CEO of Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) is being paid in dollars despite serious financial crisis in the organisation, well-informed sources told The Nation here on Wednesday.

The CEO, Naveed Ismail, received his initial pay worth US$ 60,000/-. It is noteworthy that CEO and rest of the 40 senior KESC officials are getting their salaries through A.F Ferguson Audit Company in a bid to dupe the lower staff of the company. Moreover, the total amount being paid to them is Rs. 4.8 million (after conversion into rupees), which is the highest salary of a KESC CEO in the past.

These hefty salaries being offered to the new team KESC management are an extra burden on the company already facing serious financial crisis. The new KESC management had successfully curtailed its above-mentioned liabilities amounting to Rs. 65 billion through negotiations with the government before taking the charge.

On the other hand, the company has transferred the financial burden to the government by not owning the debts.

Sources further revealed that the amount paid to these officials would be around $8.22 million annually. Meanwhile, the demand and supply gap of electricity in the city is still lingering on despite tall claims of the new KESC management. Since the privatisation of the company, no substantial step has been taken with regard to improving the situation.

Meanwhile a KESC official, Qashif Effendi, has strictly rejected the report given above. He said the CEO was getting pay in Pakistani currency adding the total amount would be published in the annual report of the company. He further said that no audit company has been hired for this purpose. “We are the employees of the KESC and are being paid by the company”, he added. On the other hand, the longstanding issue loadshedding still persists in the metropolis and the city is facing 6 to 8 hours long power breakdowns on rotational basis.

A couple of nights ago, The Pulse with Jasmeen on Business Plus had Taj Haider, Bhatti (former KESC Engineer) and a member of the MQM which categorically stated that:

• KESC is currently running at 20 – 30% of generation because they are trying to conserve funds
• the new KESC management and Abraaj has assured that the required US$ 360 million investment for improvement is not included in the Privatization contract with the Government of Pakistan
• there are over 40% line loss due to poor distribution network
• if KESC would run at 100% generation, Karachi would never see any loadshedding

Now, here is what I don’t understand:

While the new government is having a heyday criticizing the Musharraf – Aziz government for the messed up privatization of KESC, they have repeated the same and done worse. As Karachi, and Pakistan, suffer from the worst electricity crisis in its history, the Government of Pakistan and KESC are only interested in generating a profit for themselves, while causing the consumer as much difficulty as possible.

Take Back Pakistan believes that all the crises that facing Pakistan today are engineered by an incompetent and unprepared government. These problems are because the “elected” government is again back to fighting non-issues rather than putting their attention toward the resolution of Pakistanis’ problems.

Additionally, we hold Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and the Pakistan Muslim League responsible for the atta shortage in Pakistan as the Punjab has massive surpluses of wheat allowing them to sell naan for Rs. 2 while the rest of the nation pay between Rs. 5 and 8. I don’t understand how someone can call themselves a national leader while only being concerned with the Punjab. Nawaz Sharif has shown Pakistan that he is ready to abandon leadership in Pakistan if he can’t sit on the Prime Minister’s seat. Your only excuse for not helping the other Pakistani provinces is because the Punjab government believes that wheat is being smuggled from Balochistan and the NWFP into Afghanistan. Even if that is happening, does that mean that starve the rest of the nation?

Think Pakistan, why is this happening to this nation?

Because we allow these thieves and criminal to destroy our country under the guise of democracy.

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