The chairman of the FPCCI Advisory Board and National Business Group Pakistan, President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, as well as former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain, said on Monday that the people’s lives are now in peril due to the rotten and corrupt power industry. Some politicians make good money via corrupt IPPs, and these units are destroying the lives of the masses and the nation’s economy, he said.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the business people who set up IPPs knew their exploits would erase the industry and trade from the country. Still, they preferred personal interests over collective interests and participated in looting. He said that people have always been cheated in the name of investment. IPPs were not installed to resolve the country’s problems, but the motive was selfishness, profiteering, greed and exploitation.

There has been constant looting since the 90s in the name of providing electricity to consumers, in which politicians and industrialists are involved. At the same time, many others have also taken part in the booty, he added.

The business leader said that although the country’s transmission and distribution capacity is limited to 22,000 megawatts, IPPs that can produce 45 thousand megawatts were installed. It is neither a coincidence nor a mistake but a well-thought-out conspiracy, the purpose of which is to cheat the public and continue to do so. That’s why politicians behind facilitating IPPs are not willing to give any reasonable explanation in this regard.

Mian Zahid Hussain said the nationwide business community is protesting against the electricity rates. If any discount is given on electricity rates for them, the burden will have to be borne by someone else. So, instead of making electricity cheaper, they should demand a forensic audit of the electricity supply chain and increase pressure on the government to remove the weaknesses.

He said the matters would only be resolved if handled professionally. Mian Zahid Hussain said that the price of electricity per unit without tax for industrial consumers is Rs 35, which after tax reaches Rs 60. Out of Rs 35, about Rs 18 per unit of electricity is paid as capacity charges, leading the economy to collapse.

Mian Zahid Hussain further said that this year, two billion rupees will be paid to IPPs through capacity charges, which is oppressive to people with low incomes.

He said that without solving the problem of IPPs, it is impossible to promote employment, make manufacturing cheaper and increase exports.