HYDERABAD: Minister of State for Water and Power Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali has complained that Sindh police is not cooperating with employees of power distribution companies of Wapda in their drive against power pilferage and for recovery of dues.

He said that he would write to MQM parliamentary leader Dr Farooq Sattar to complain against his party`s Hyderabad MNA Wasim Hussain, who was issuing threats to Hesco employees and causing obstruction to discharge their duty.

He urged courts to hear Wapda`s viewpoint before granting stay to power thieves and also asked Hesco management to keep power supply suspended for 20 hours in the areas where line losses were 80 per cent or more.

He was speaking to journalists at Hesco offices here on Wednesday after attending a briefing on recovery of power dues. Mr Alisaid: `MQM MNA Syed Wasim Hussain issues threats to the CEO and other staff of Hesco and obstructs their work during the drive for recovery and disconnection of illegal connections. It is better we are allowed to discharge our responsibilities without interruption, otherwise, we know how to overcome hurdles.

He appealed to MQM leadership to take notice of the MNA`s attitude and said that he would write a letter to Dr Farooq Sattar, warning that if any harm came to any Hesco worker the MNA would be held responsible.

The HDA was a big defaulter with Rs7.9 billion power dues and Sindh government had allowed them to cut off its power supply, he said.

He expressed utter displeasure over stay order by Sindh High Court`s Hyderabad circuit bench and said that it was an irony that HDA was a defaulter yet it managed to obtain the stay order.

Having said that he hastened toadd that he did not mean to say he wanted to violate the court`s order.

`Then (every) department will resort to hooliganism instead of paying dues, so I appeal to courts to hear us before passing the order, he said.

In addition, the minister said, the Public Health Engineering owed Rs2.75 billion and some other provincial and former district government departments had to pay Rs1 billion power dues.

He said that in Hesco region alone Sindh government was to pay Rs26 billion, including HDA`s Rs7.9 billion. Wapda had adopted even handed approach to all power thieves and not shown any leniency even to the Capital Development Authority in Islamabad. The parliament lodges had also been asked to clear liabilities of Rs2.5 billion and Rs17.8 million by April 28, he added.

`Sindh government should talk to us over the power dues or pay 50 per cent of the amount. After all, we have to clear the circulardebt,` he said.

He said the government was already extending a subsidy of Rs242 billion to power sector while Rs350 billion went down the drain thanks to power pilferage. For how long the government would bear with it, he asked.

About free units that were being consumed within Wapda, he said these were being checked and a summary would be submitted to the prime minister in this regard.

The minister complained that Sindh police were not cooperating with Wapda in its drive for recovery and said that he would take up the matter with IGP Sindh. `If any of our facility or machinery is damaged it will not be repaired and Sindh government will have to pay for it,` he said.

He said the situation was alarming in Larkana where power pilferage was 98 per cent and attacks were being reported on the utility`s installations but police were not ready to take any action.

He said the power utility hadsubmitted applications for registration of FIRs in 748 cases but police had so far lodged only 20 cases.

Sindh police would be held responsible if any harm came to any lineman, he warned.

The minister said that power distribution companies had been asked to exempt all those areas from loadshedding where recovery was 100 per cent. Five feeders had been completely shut to recover Rs400 to Rs500 million from there, he said.

He claimed that power pilferage amounting to Rs1.60 billion had been contained through load management in Hesco region by using less than sanctioned load supplied to Hesco from national grid.

He said that monitoring in recovery drive yielded Rs172 million for Hesco. He said that 2,000 to 3,000 connections had been regularised as recovery drive continued across the country, in which connections of Lahore jail and facilities of different taluka municipal administrations had been cut off.