HYDERABAD: Expressing his resentment over implication of Hyderabad power utility officers in a strange case and alleged tactics to harass its personnel, visiting Federal Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali used harsh words against the Sindh police and accused the MPA from Qasimabad of indulging in such practices. He also lambasted the provincial government for its indifferent attitude in this regard.

It was the height of indifference on the part of the provincial government that Hesco officers had been booked even in a donlcey killing case, he remarked while speaking to journalists outside the Bhitai Nagar police station on Tuesday where he, along with the Hesco chief executive officer, an executive engineer and the sub-divisional officer as well as some other officers, had gone to court their arrest.

Hesco executive engineer Tajammul Hussain, SDO Niaz Lashari, linemen Aziz Gopang and Riaz Rajput and meter readers Sarwar Abbasi and Sarwar Hingoro were booked under an FIR (87/15) on Sunday on the complaint of a man, Mohammad Jaaro Palari, whose donkey was electrocutedwhen a live wire snapped and fell on it on Jamshoro Road. The nominated suspects obtained pre-arrest bail from the Hyder abad sessions court on Monday.

`Come on!... arrest me and my officers, he kept telling the police, declaring that he had waged a war against those who were obstructing official work. He vowed to continue the fight on roads and in courts.

The minister argued that Hesco officers were booked in the donkey death case but no action was taken on about 6,500 applications filed by the Hesco and Sepco (the Sukkur Electric Power Company) against power thieves. Criticising the Sindh police, he said only 28 cases were registered against the power thieves but no one was arrested.

`Why don`t they [police] arrest the power theft suspects,` he asked.

When he was asked why he was showing his insensitivity over the killing of an animal as if it did not have the right to live, the minister said he was talking of protection of ofñcers and police being sensitive about FIRs. `Why are they reluctant to arrest power thieves?` he repeated the question.

`The area [Qasimabad] MPA threatens [Hesco] officers and he will not let them enter the area to get illegal connections cut off,` Mr Ali said without naming the lawmaker, who is Minister for Livestock JamKhan Shoro. The Hesco CEO, however, named the minister on journalists` insistence.

Minister Ali was scheduled to hold a press briefing in the local Hesco offices but it did not take place and journalists were told that he would, instead, talk to the media outside the Bhitai Nagar police station.

Although the minister knew that the officers nominated in the FIR had already obtained the pre-arrest bail, the minister along with the officers spent close to an hour outside the police station telling the media that he was here to court his and the officers` arrest.

`I am not politicising the matter. Either we should close institutions or stop our fight against power thieves,` he replied when asked whether the way he was behaving would help resolve the conflict between his ministry and the Sindh government.

He insisted that the Sindh police chief and the Hyderabad SSP should feel ashamed of bringing top Hesco officers to book in such a petty issue. He also vowed to take up the issue with the prime minister.

Sindh minister reacts Reacting to the remarks by the federal minister of state for water and power, Sindh Livestock Minister Jam Khan Shorotold Dawn that `we will lodge an FIR against the minister [Mr Alij if there is a loss of human or animal in future due to their [Hesco`s] mismanagement. A donkey perhaps doesn`t matter to the minister, but it is an asset and a source of livelihood for the villager who owns it`.

He observed that `whenever the minister visits Sindh, it appears as if he is visiting some other country`.

Mr Shoro also dismissed Mr Ali`s claim about non-payment of electricity dues by the Sindh government. `While we are clearing liabilities, Hesco is refusing to pay the dues pertaining to the municipal services it was getting from the Qasimabad and Hyderabad municipalities and the services of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) which come to billions of rupees, he said.

`Power supply to the Hur Camp having a population of 10,000 was cut off by snapping the main link only to punish defaulters and regular bill payers alike. Is this the right approach?` he argued.

Mr Shoro said people would certainly resist if Hesco didn`t mend its ways.

While Sindh owed Rs26 billion to the ministry of power, Punjab owed Rs40 billion to it, he further argued.