MQM-P Demands Inquiry Into Transformer Blast

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2021 ) :The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Friday urged the Federal Government hold an inquiry into the Pole Mounted Transformer (PMT) blast in Hyderabad, which claimed 5 lives and injured 18 others.

Addressing a press conference here at the Hyderabad Press Club, MQM-P's Deputy Convener Kunwar Naveed Jamil blamed the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) for the incident.

He requested Federal Energy Minister Hammad Azhar to visit Hyderabad and form a high level inquiry committee which should be tasked to submit its report within 15 days.

He also demanded that compensation which was equal to the one received by the HESCO employees, who died or got injured during field work, should be paid to the deceased and injured of the Thursday's PMT blast.

"The Federal Government should also conduct a third-party audit of HESCO's financial management for the last 10 years," he said.

The MQM-P's leader announced that his party would observe a black day in Hyderabad on July 24 to express solidarity with the victims and their families.

Jamil said the HESCO's officials and staff responsible for the incident should be booked in a FIR.

He recalled that Thursday's explosion was not the first such incident which had claimed lives of innocent people.

He deplored that the HESCO even lacked a workshop for repair of the PMTs as the private persons charged money from the company's consumers to repair the transformers.

The MQM-P's leader also bemoaned that contrary to the claims of Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) Sindh government about improving the public health sector's services, Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad's burns ward was not equipped to deal with patients with critical burns injuries.

Jamil said the party would raise voice over the incident in the national and provincial assemblies and in the Senate.

The MQM-P's MPAs Rashid Khilji and Nadeem Siddiqui and other party leaders accompanied Jamil.