ISLAMABAD: Forced by hunger, 25-year-old Maha requested her house-lady, where she works as a house helper, for advance salary to feed her siblings, who are almost facing starvation for the last two days because they were left with no money after paying their electricity bill of the month.
Maha lives in a single-room house in Kachi Abadi of G-8/1 and received an electricity bill of Rs17000. After paying the bill and doing basic grocery at the start of the month, they had not a single penny to buy food at the end of the month.
After getting half of her salary in advance, she bought flour and essential food items like oil, grains, and vegetables. She told WE News, “My father is a daily-wager and hardly gets any work nowadays. My brother and I work to meet our necessities, but electricity bills have increased our burden manifolds for the last two months and made our lives more miserable. It’s painful to see your younger siblings starving for food.”
The rising cost of power in Pakistan has severely harmed the already marginalized and underprivileged sections of the society. The daily routines of numerous low-income individuals and families have been seriously affected as the price of power keeps rising.
As electricity cost continues to surge, the daily lives of countless poor individuals and families turn into painful struggles for survival. People experiencing poverty are trapped in a never-ending loop. They must make wrenching choices about spending their limited funds on essentials like food, healthcare, and education or paying for power.
It is pertinent to mention that the government has proposed to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) another potential rise of Rs3.55 per unit in power tariff to recover the additional money within six months.
This action aims to stop the collection of electricity bills from declining. The Central Power Purchasing Company (CPPA)-G had previously requested a 5.40-rupee increase per unit and a three-month recovery period.
A public hearing held by the power regulator was informed that businesses had stopped operating their enterprises due to the sharp increase in electricity prices, and as a result, demand for ex-Wapda distribution companies (Discos) had sharply decreased. The government was worried that if the rise of Rs5.40 a unit were passed on to customers, they wouldn’t pay their bills.
The regulator was informed during the public hearing by the Power Division staff that customers had stopped paying their electricity bills the previous year as a result of a significant increase in the power tariff. They asked the power regulator to recover the bill hike in six months rather than three to prevent such a situation.
People already struggling with skyrocketing inflation have burnt their electricity bills and are staging their protests nationwide.
In the AJK district of Kotli, residents who were already fed up with inflation burned utility bills totaling more than Rs 60 million and announced in the mosque that no one would be paying their bills. Residents
in the AJK announced a 20-day sit-in to protest the increased taxes collected through power bills in the face of skyrocketing prices.
Anwarul Haq, the prime minister of AJK, delayed the implementation of higher utility rates on Tuesday out of concern for a potential act of civil disobedience. He also established a committee that will provide recommendations to the cabinet within 15 days.
Shopkeepers, Traders, and residents of Jabbar, Gujar Khan, took to the streets in protest of the city’s high electricity rates and onerous taxes on electricity bills. They chanted antigovernmental and anti-utility company slogans. They showed that they would not be paying the electrical bills by tearing them.
The District Bar Association of Rawalpindi has scheduled a meeting for August 26 to protest the consistently growing costs of petrol, water, electricity, and other necessities. The DBA Rawalpindi representatives will talk about the general public’s miseries, the wealthy lifestyles of the ruling class, and the elite class at this time of price increases. The meeting was called on the resolution of the former president’s DBA President, Sajjad Akbar Abbasi Advocate.
