ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Sajid Nawaz Khan wore a garland of electricity bills as he appeared in the National Assembly session on Thursday to protest what he called overcharging from the power consumers.
Sajid then moved an amendment titled ‘The Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill 2018? during the session. His amendment suggested that the consumers who can’t pay excessive electricity bills must be awarded amnesty and their outstanding dues should be waived. However, the amendment was rejected as 47 lawmakers from treasury benches voted against it and only 29 votes went in favour.
Sajid said he was wearing electricity bills of Rs 20 million. He added that all the bills were the ones on which power consumers had been charged despite the fact that these consumers had no electricity meters. He questioned since there were no electricity meters installed, how was it possible that the consumers were being heavily charged for electricity? Minister of State for Power Abid Sher Ali in response termed Sajid’s protest a ‘drama’, adding that the PTI lawmakers may also come to the House while wearing kundas, a local term for hooks used to steal power from the electricity lines. He said the country was not created for ‘power thieves’ and that the electricity bills won’t be waived off come what may.
Published in Daily Times, March 16th 2018.
