KARACHI, July 10: The Sindh High Court adjourned on Monday hearing of three writ petitions against loadshedding to July 18 to enable the counsel for the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation and other respondents to submit their comments.
The petitions were taken up by a division bench, comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro, in the afternoon after the swearing-in of the former as acting chief justice in the absence of Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany.
On behalf of Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Associates, Advocates Rana Ikramullah Khan and Hisamuddin filed powers of attorney for the KESC, M/s KESC Power Limited, M/s Hasan Associates, M/s Premier Mercantile Services (Pvt) Limited and M/s Siemens Pakistan Engineering Limited. Deputy Attorney-General Akhtar Ali Mahmood appeared for the ministry of Water and Power and the Privatization Commission. Additional Advocate-General Chaudhry M. Rafiq Rajorvi represented the provincial government and Advocate Anwar Ali Shah the Karachi Building Control Authority.
Petitioner-lawyer Nadeem Ahmed and his counsel, Dr Amjad H. Bokhari, requested the bench at least to make an interim order to oblige the KESC to announce a schedule for loadshedding. They said the power cuts were on the increase and an injunction was essential to provide relief to the consumers. The bench observed that no order could be passed without hearing the respondents, particularly when they were already before the court.
Other petitions have been moved by Advocate Pervez A. Qureshi on behalf of the Association for the Rights of Karachiites and Sohail Shelan for another non-governmental organization. A fourth petition was filed by Maulvi Iqbal Haider of Awami Himayat Tehrik through Advocate Sohail Hameed. The bench issued preadmission notices in the petition.
Advocate Ikramullah submitted preliminary objections seeking summary dismissal of the petitions. He said the respondents represented by him were all corporate entities performing no function in connection with the affairs of the federation, a province or a local authority. The KESC, a limited company, took charge of all corporation affairs on November 29, 2005, has been in exclusive control of M/s KESC Power Limited and three other private respondents since.
The respondents, the counsel said, were not amenable to the jurisdiction of the high court under Article 199 of the Constitution. No writ or direction or restraint order and declaration could be issued to any of the companies in exercise of the writ jurisdictions. Besides, the petitioners had no locus standi or legal right to maintain the petitions. Relief sought by them was also beyond the scope of Article 199. The request for a commission of inquiry for ‘inquisitorial proceedings’ into the KESC affairs made by one the petitioners was also against ‘the letter and spirit of the Constitution’, he maintained.
The petitioners, the counsel said, have failed to exhaust a remedy provided by law before approaching the high court in its extraordinary jurisdiction. A National Electric Power Regulatory Authority had been set up by the Nepra Act to deal with complaints relating to power supply and since the petitioners had failed to move it, the petitions were liable to be dismissed ‘in limine’.
Advocate Amjad Bokhari said the respondents should have filed detailed comments instead of preliminary objections. The bench asked the respondents’ counsel to furnish copies of objections to the petitioners. It declined a request by Advocate Ikramullah for adjournment to July 25 to enable Advocate A H Pirzada, currently on a visit to London, to argue the respondents’ case. It said the matter was too urgent to warrant a long adjournment. July 18 was fixed as the next date of hearing by consent.
