Claim: The K-Electric has announced changes in its metering system by banning three-phase metres for all consumers, who will be required to pay PKR 45,000-85,000 to replace the existing ones with the Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) metres. This will bring the total cost of purchase and installation to PKR 135,000.
Fact: The claim is false as the K-Electric has not made any such decision or announcement. The text was copy-pasted from a news report that actually attributed the development to the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO).
On 12 June 2024, Soch Fact Check received a text message on WhatsApp that claims the K-Electric (KE), Karachi’s sole power-supplying company, has “announced a significant change in its metering system by banning three-phase meters for all consumers”.
The message details that the Government of Pakistan has banned three-phase metres; therefore, the KE has “begun installing Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) meters”, which “enhance the accuracy of meter readings, reduce overbilling issues, and curb electricity theft”. This is why consumers would be required to pay an extra PKR 45,000-85,000 and the “total cost for the purchase and installation of an AMR meter will be PKR 135,000”.
The text ends with the phrase, “Pakistan Zindabad jahan Bhutto ab bhi zinda hai”, referring to the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) slogan “Kal bhi Bhutto Zinda tha, aaj bhi Bhutto zinda hai [Bhutto was alive yesterday and he is alive today as well].” The chant focuses on late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the party’s founder, as well as the country’s former president and prime minister.
The PPP has been in power in the Sindh province for over a decade (archive).
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check did not find any relevant news articles about such a claim.
We did, however, come across news reports by Business Recorder, ProPakistani, 24 News HD, and Pakistan Observer here, here, here, and here (archived here, here, here, and here), respectively, which report on the measures announced by the government-owned Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO).
The viral WhatsApp message reproduced the first three paragraphs from ProPakistani’s report verbatim, except with two main changes: “LESCO” was replaced with “KE” and different amounts of costs were mentioned in the third paragraph.
According to the original report, “LESCO has stated that consumers will need to pay an extra 20,000 to Rs 25,000 due to the price difference between the old three-phase meters and the new AMR meters. The total cost for the purchase and installation of an AMR meter will be Rs 42,000.”
On the other hand, the costs stated in the viral WhatsApp message are: PKR 45,000, PKR Rs 85,000, and PKR 135,000.
Soch Fact Check also spoke to K-Electric Communications Manager Ovais Rasheed Munshi, who denied the claims.
“This news was reported a few days ago with regard to the LESCO. Business Recorder officially reported on it. After that, some people have started [circulating this claim by] linking it to the K-Electric. This is incorrect,” he said.
“We have made no such decision nor have we made any such announcement. If we had, it would have been available on our social media and our website,” Munshi added.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, rates this claim as false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check observed that the message has been labelled “Forwarded many times,” which means that it was shared through a chain of five or more chats.
The claim has also been posted on Facebook here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The claim is false as the K-Electric has not made any such decision or announcement. The text was copy-pasted from a news report that actually attributed the development to the LESCO.
Background image in cover photo: @evening_tao
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com