WHAT does it say for the state of our utilities and our politics when one political party carries out a long series of rolling street protests against a power utility for overbilling, while the chief minister of the province threatens to `storm the offices` of the gas utility for its reluctance to provide fuel for a new power plant set up by the provincial government? Of late, the streets of Karachi have been plagued by a series of protests led by the Jamaat-i-Islami against overbilling of consumers by K-Electric. The issue is a real one, even if the tactics of the party can be seen as trying to gain political mileage out of the situation. And since at least 2014, the Sindh government has been trying to set up a gas-fired power plant using the Sindh Nooriabad Power Company Ltd, only to face delays and obstacles. Even Nepra, the power sector regulator, said the objections raised by these federal bodies were `irrational` during the hearings for the grant of a generation licence for SNPCL.

Most recently, the project has met with opposition from the top, with the railways minister, Saad Rafique, indicating that it is owned by Asif Ali Zardari. If these are grounds for denying the project a licence, then the matter of ownership should have been raised when the company applied for a generation licence. That was the moment to raise objections such as these, but the ministry gave its approval.

Now that the project is ready to commence operations, suddenly they find that the fuel supplier, the Sui Southern Gas Company, is demanding Rsibn as security deposit before allowing the 10mmcfd of gas the plant requires. No wonder the chief minister has resorted to such thundering rhetoric.

But the protests and rhetoric are not likely to sway any minds in the utilities. Power and fuel decisions lie largely in the domain of the federal government, and it is there that the problem is located.

In both cases, that of alleged overbilling by K-Electric, and the obstructions that the Sindh government has had to face in setting up a power project that has all the approvals it needs from the regulator and the power ministry, the critical role of the federal government is missing. The obstacles faced by SNPCL are all creations of entities reporting directly to the centre, whereas other projects that are viewed more favourably find their path smoother. Likewise, in the matter of overbilling, Nepra has an important role to play in oversight, but the reason why there are street protests is because this role has not been discharged properly. The highly disaggregated and diffuse responsibilities across the power sector have created the conditions that give us protests on the streets and threats in the provincial assembly.