Karachi: Ameer Jamaat-e Islami Karachi Muhammad Hussain Mehanti while expressing his grave concern on unchecked rise in prices of essential goods condemned increasing the electricity tariff and declared the decision was a portrayal of deliberate injustice to the poverty-driven and crime-hit people of the city. In a statement issued here on Saturday, Mehanti said that the increase in electricity tariff was uncalled for and it was the responsibility of the government to keep the National Electric and Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) within its limits and should not impose tyrant decisions on the people at a time when the government had only a few months left for its tenure to complete. He said that by increasing the electricity tariff, the trade and economic activities that were already declined to an alarming level would further get squeezed and would lead to unemployment, poverty rate and would cause the already high prices of the essential commodities to rise to the skies.
He said that the recent increase in power tariff by Rs1.60 per unit of electricity consumed was a true manifest of the government to the poor masses. He said that the load shedding had already wreaked havoc on trade and industrial activities while the power utility had already extorted money through sending the highly inflated electricity bills but the government had yet hiked the electricity tariff, which was unacceptable.
He demanded the government to immediately withdraw the recent rise in the power tariff and review the power tariff and bring them to a justified level.
