KARACHI HEAT STROKE ???

A Business Hub, Cosmopolitan & Multiethnic Port of Pakistan, now is known for another quality i.e. the rising death toll.
Last month, within a fortnight of hot weather, the number of deaths in Karachi, due to the alleged hot stroke, was more than the official stated figures. Doubtless the inhabitants of Karachi are not familiar with the extreme hot or extreme cold weathers, but sultry June also is not new for them. This June weather was not too extreme to kill the people of the port city. Casting responsibility of the causalities upon the hot weather merely would be a fabricated and criminal pretext when in whole of the month the temperature never touched 48c. Nucleus of the debate must be specific criminal activities & omissions on behalf of certain persons, whether in the form of government or of corporate which forced people to suffer from want of the electricity which, even, could not be termed as Load shedding. Most of people died due to non availability of basic human needs especially the electric supply and the shortage of drinking water. But no one dare to say upon the same as both are sacred, i.e. the corporate which supply electricity to the city and the imported traditions which forbade the citizens to eat or drink any thing during the daylight for the sake of sacred month of the Muslims.
The government authorities proclaimed the safety instructions to the citizens especially to drink more and more water or juices etc but the same could not be possible out of the homes when all the hotels etc were strictly closed. If someone tries to utter a word upon the same the professional priests would be there to impose a fatwa of Kufar.
Let us come to the Karachi Electric (KE), the key & only electricity seller, supplier & distributor in the city, incorporated .in 1913 as Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) (Ltd) shares of which were acquired by Government of Pakistan in 1952; ultimately taking control of the company by the Government tantamount to nationalization. But in 2005, during Musharaf’s Military Regime (1999-2008), KESC was privatized and was sold out to Trans-national Corporate namely Abraaj Group, despite the fact that the Pakistan Army had taken control of KESC since 1994. So the direct involvement or interference of army in matter of privatizing the company could not be ruled out. The Abraaj group continuously transformed KESC into KE.
Unlike any other company, government institution or department such as Pakistan Railway or WAPDA, the KE could never claim any monetary loss in her business in the Cosmopolitan since 2005. KE supplies the electricity to residential, commercial and industrial areas of the city and roundabouts covering almost an area of 6500 square kilometres. The annual profit from Karachi city is in Millions of US Dollars (Billions of Pakistani Rupees) which is confirmed even by Pakistani Bourgeoisie Electronic Media showing KE liable to pay more than Rupees Five Billion as a share in profit to its consumers. The company website also shows her profit accordingly.
The above mentioned amount of profit includes not the profit derived from illegal and secret sources, while the large amount being usurped by the local officers and authorities of KE is in addition to the same. It is firmly alleged by the Media and the local inhabitants of the city that KE replaced all the Copper wires in the city with the Silver those, in order to earn additional amount valuing in Billions of Rupees, which also was the main cause of trapping of feeders resulted in complete breakdown of the electricity even for many days in several localities.
Blackout for hours is another roaring trade to increase in profit when during load shedding oil etc is saved but full line rent plus all other charges and taxes are received from the consumer which along with the corporate benefits the government as well.
In view of the barbaric way of profit generating at the expense of helpless people of the city the tragedy could be termed only as a massacre especially when even the government figures show the rate of death almost 250 people per day.
Nevertheless there is another tragedy bigger then the massacre: the complete silence after the change of the weather. The government departments, political parties and the media have kept themselves quite upon the issue, trying to let the people forget the same. The Federal Minister for Power exposed himself and the system when instead of taking responsibility of the tragedy or even showing a false sympathy with the victims, he openly threatened the people of Karachi of disconnection the electricity of the area from where there found deficiency in the payments of bills: a clear message to the Karachities that the government is bound to save the interests of the corporate more then the so called job of saving the lives of the poor and miserable people of the country. No one could dare to take strict action against the culprits responsible for the human tragedy and even no FIR, till the date, has been registered against anybody. NEPRA without conducting any enquiry and without releasing any report placed KE in the clear from the liability of the human tragedy since the criminal actions, omissions, corruption or fatal negligence of a corporate could not be called the same. The question is there whether the Bosses & Heads of KE, their protectors i.e. the federal & provincial governments and other state institutions especially the Ministry of Power may be exonerated of the charge of the killings of innocent people of Karachi ?
It must not be matter of astonishing that prior to launching operation against the alleged corruption, the Rangers provided full security to KE, ignoring the stories of corruption of the corporate in the media. On the other hand the provincial government also staged a drama of sit-in in the premises of provincial assembly against KE. Sindh government within a week has expressed her anger against the Para-military force Rangers the fact which establishes KE more powerful then the security forces, exposing the bourgeoisie political principle guaranteeing the supremacy of monetary capital upon the state.
Specific religious elements, being backed by the Establishment who had staged the so-called Million March (procession) for the “Muslims of Gaza”, avoided to stage even a Hundred March for the people of Karachi; the omission which exposed their crush on monetary capitalism as well as hatred against the working masses.
In discussion upon the topic, the bourgeoisie media deliberately ignored the key point: the countless wealth & unlimited powers of trans-national corporate. Much has been said about the Karachi recent tragedy but no one could dare to expose the real faces of the actual bosses of KE i.e. the Abraaj group directly responsible for the affairs of Karachi Electric. In fact such exposure would topple the real characters the politics in Karachi either nationalists, religious or the so called patriots head over heals.
A former senator of PPP on electronic media alleged Arabs for the recent killings and shed the issue one of sectarian but he deliberately hidden the names of key persons in the corporate i.e. the Group Founder & Chief Executive Mr. Arif Naqvi who at least is not a Wahabi.
Likewise the popular political organization of Karachi becomes dumb when it came to the names of the Urdu speaking members of board of directors of the corporate especially Mr. Naqvi, Mr. Siddique. If the deaths in the hands of Punjabi speaking Rangers could be termed as killings then why no voice is raised by MQM upon the deaths in the hands of certain Urdu speaking capitalists??
We should not forget the basic structure of monetary capitalism where poor or needy people may be utilized for the secret services whether of the country they live in or the alien state and the secret services are utilized for big shareholders/owners of trans-national corporations. Hence the most sensitive allegations regarding involvement of Indian agency RAW in Karachi seems to be suspended in the issue of KE when many close their eyes upon the presence of Indian nationals in the key posts and in the Board of Directors of the Corporate running KE in Pakistan. The Federal Minister of Pakistan for Climate change when alleged India for exporting heat waves to Pakistan deliberately overlooked certain persons like Sev Vettivetpillai, Purshotam Ramchandani and Ashish Patel the key figures in Abraaj Group directly responsible for the deaths in Karachi.
We also find nothing strange when the sectarian groups in Pakistan despite their open hatred against the poor and miserable Hindus of India could never utter a single word against the above mentioned Hindus of the corporate. Similarly Islamic anchors in electronic media also avoid such issues missing the opportunities of raising their ratings. While the most coward elements in Sindh who (by profession) forcibly abduct helpless Hindu child girls to rape them in the name of conversion and marriage remained fail to dare to preach a single teaching of Islam to the daughters of the above said Hindu capitalists simply because beggars could never stand against their donors.
In English it is said “Money Talks”, but in Pakistan much louder.
(witten on 08th of July 2015)