As there is no end in sight for the distressed power consumers in the city, some instances of unauthorised power supply should be sorted out at earliest to streamline the overloaded electricity system. One such glaring example of illegal connections is in the midst of the Malir Cantonment.

Apart from being an apartment building in the cantonment, the Quaid-e-Azam Square Plaza (residential-cum-commercial project), is also novel because the residents and shopkeepers of the project have been without proper electricity connections. The occupants of shops and flats of the plaza have been availing the power facility without installation of electricity meters.

Flats, shops, and offices of the plaza have been provided electricity through hook electricity connections (Kundas) and the electric supply arrangement has been materialised under complete patronage of authorities from both Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) and the cantonment board.

“As far as I know, up to 90 per cent of the plaza residents had submitted their required charges against the issuance of demand notes for availing proper electricity connections and installation of meters,” said Faiz Shaikh who has been running a real estate consultancy at the plaza. In the absence of meters the power consumers at the plaza are billed for the estimated cost of consumption of electricity used on electrical appliances being consumed by them.

However, there is a catch in the system. Through the estimated bills the dwellers of the plaza are being lured, though unofficially, to consume electricity beyond the calculations by the KESC staff for the issuance of estimated bills. “Most of the flat occupants have been running their air- conditioners more than what they had showed to the KESC staff for the calculation of the power consumption,” said Shaikh.

“I’m running my consultancy on a part-time basis with just an electricity fan and a tube-light for which my bill is fixed at Rs500 per month. However, if the meters are installed and given the limited-hour functioning of my office, this bill would only cost Rs300,” he said, adding he said that now the electricity tariff is being revised again which would cost me Rs700.

Bilal who has been running a general store at the plaza with two refrigerators, a deep-freezer, besides lighting, has been paying approximately Rs2500 for the electricity consumption. He said that the estimates for power consumption were reviewed by the KESC teams after every six months.

Whereas, he added, the flat residents have been paying the estimated bills ranging from Rs800 to Rs1500 with the maximum of the amount being billed to the plaza inhabitants who have air conditioners installed at their homes.

Tahir Mehmood, who runs an estate agency at the plaza with a computer facility, said that he has been receiving an estimated monthly bill of Rs1200. He added that a pole-mounted transformer (PMT) should be installed in front of the plaza without any further delay in order to regularise the electricity connections for its occupants and traders.

The cantonment board initially leased out the flats under the Pagri system to the people who had emerged successful in the auction held for the two and three-bedroom accommodations at the plaza.

“No doubt the unchecked usage of electricity through Kunda connections has created devastating effects on the electric supply system of the adjacent Cantt Bazaar area,” said a KESC official of the Malir-Model Colony zone on condition of anonymity.

He said that on several occasions he had disconnected the electricity connections of the plaza residents who had been consuming electricity beyond their estimated load. “Some of the affected power consumers immediately hired the locally available electricians and within a passage of few hours they were able to restore the electricity through the hook connections. This is a glaring example of electricity theft under the patronage of cantonment board authorities,” he said.