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| August 03, 2007 | Friday | Rajab 18, 1428 |
KARACHI: KESC earns SC ire over breakdowns
KARACHI, Aug 2: The Supreme Court warned the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation on Thursday to streamline its working or face suo motu notice over the situation created by frequent power breakdowns.
The corporation has long been resorting to unannounced and unscheduled shutdowns under the garb of load-shedding causing misery and hardship to the consumers.
The Supreme Court, whose registry is in session these days with about six judges disposing of petitions for leave to appeal, has also been adversely affected by the breakdowns. The KESC incompetence is impeding hearing of pending cases to the detriment of the court, the lawyers and the litigant public.
KESC operations director Jamil Gul called on the members of the bench in chambers on Thursday to explain the situation. He was told to rectify the faults in power supply and distribution and warned that the court would have to take suo motu notice if it failed to improve its working.
A three-member bench consisting of Justices Abdul Hameed Dogar, Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi and Saiyed Saeed Ashhad declined a Karachi Development Authority (since merged into the city district government) petition for leave to appeal against a Sindh High Court judgment. The case pertains to transactions between the Evacuee Property Trust Board and the KDA in respect of the land utilised for the establishment of Surjani Town.
The transactions were referred to a tribunal under a martial law regulation and the tribunal ruled in favour of the trust. The KDA went in appeal to the high court, which upheld the tribunal’s order but allowed the parties to evolve a method for resolving the dispute keeping in view the public interest. The high court order was maintained by the three-member Supreme Court bench on Thursday.
The bench also heard arguments on the commercialisation of a plot at the Khalid Bin Walid-Tariq Road junction. Advocates Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, Naimur Rahman and Manzoor Ahmed are appearing for the various parties.
The Sindh High Court stayed on Thursday work on the sprawling Sukkur Township housing project being built by a firm of developers.
The interim injunction was passed by a division bench comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Zia Pervez when Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada submitted on behalf of the provincial government that the title of the petitioner builder and developer was doubtful and irreversible loss of public property would be caused if the project was allowed to continue.
The senior member of the provincial board of revenue found that about 32 acres of the 177 acres of land comprised in the project had been acquired through ‘foul means’ from land grabbers. He, therefore, asked the board’s member for land utilisation to initiate suo motu proceedings to scrutinise the status of the remaining 145 acres. The AAG said the project was unlawfully raised on municipal land.
Claiming to be renowned developers with a number of projects in various cities to their credit, the petitioners, M/s Arif Builders, said in their petition that the land was acquired from M/s Indus Builders and other rightful owners.
Adjourning the hearing to Aug 7 for arguments, the bench stayed the project in the meantime.
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