Families of electrocution victims wonder if KE will ever be brought to justice

Civil society and families of those who lost their loved ones due to electrocution during the recent monsoon rainfall in Karachi have given a 10-day ultimatum to the authorities to make headway in their cases else they plan to launch a massive protest.

Nine bereaved families staged a protest outside the K-Electric (KE) head office in the Sunset Boulevard area on Monday. Old and young protesters held placards on which “Why are killers still free?” and “Save the next generation” was written.

Farhan Wazir had lost his three friends-cum-younger brothers in electrocution just a day before Eidul Azha in early August in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) near Khayaban-e-Shahbaz. Since then, Wazir has been in contact with all the affected families and helps them with their legal matters.

Addressing a press conference, he said that the affected families wanted the city to get rid of the power utility. He recalled how a few days ago in Baldia Town’s SITE area there was a case of electrocution in which Abdul Hanan and Abdul Raoof lost their lives. “Sadly they were making their ways to their homes from a masjid,” he said and added that they got electrocuted on a road.

Wazir demanded the arrest of CEO KE Monis Alvi along with other high officials immediately. He narrated how National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) chairman Tauseef H Farooqi had recently said in the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat that the KE that supplies electricity to Karachi has installed “dynamites”.

Nepra has already held the KE responsible for 19 of the 35 deaths from electrocution in Karachi after the two spells of showers in July and August. For all these 19 cases that Nepra had identified, he said, Alvi should be arrested and his name placed in the Exit Control List (ECL).

The provincial and federal governments should also form a committee comprising elected representatives to look into this issue. He added that the people of Karachi had realised how difficult it had become to get justice. He said that if in 10 days Alvi was not arrested, they would protest on every street of the city, which would turn into a big procession until the city got rid of the power utility.

He requested the federal and provincial governments to take action else the bereaved would have no option but to take to the streets.

Arif lost his son in Kharadar in the recent rainfalls. What would a father be going through after giving shoulder to his son’s coffin? “No one can feel the pain of this,” he said and added that had the authorities realised their pain, things would be going against the power utility right now.

For the past 45 days, the people of Karachi had been looking forward and expecting justice would prevail. “Forget about the justice being served, no high official or authority has made their way to our homes,” he said.

Romaila lost her 17-year-old brother Faizan in DHA’s Khayaban-e-Shahbaz a day before Eidul Azha. She asked if justice would ever be done. “Rain scares us. We lost our brother in rain,” she said and feared that there may come a time when the entire city would lose children at the hands of the KE.

Faizan’s mother said that people dying of electrocution after rainfall had become a new norm of the city. Electric wires break and fall on commuters, and no one does anything about it, she said and demanded the killers should be taken to task immediately.

Meanwhile, the KE in a statement said that they had already submitted a detailed response to Nepra, including all governmental departments. The KE is a law-abiding company and also cooperating with all organizations, the statement said, adding that they deeply feel sorrow for the recent electrocution cases.