November 13, 2008	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1429

HYDERABAD, Nov 12: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to chief executive officer of Hesco and deputy attorney general (DAG) to appear in court on Nov 18 on a constitutional petition filed by an executive engineer, challenging a show-cause notice issued to him by Hesco high-ups.

Saulat Rizvi advocate who represented the petitioner Mohammad Akbar Khan Durrani argued that the petitioner was issued the notice under Removal from Service (special power) Ordinance 2000 on the basis of a fact-finding inquiry.

The notice alleged that an electricity meter was installed in a consumer’s bungalow in July 1997 in Qasimabad subdivision but it was not put on record till March 1999, he said.

Subsequently, the tenant of the bungalow did not pay bills between October 1998 to July 2000 and after sometime the consumer had to pay Rs42,452 to clear all the arrears, he said.

The consumer challenged the before Federal Ombudsman, who ordered that the first three months bill should be recovered from the consumer and the rest should be recovered from Wadpa employees, he said.

The petitioner contested the notice, terming it fabricated and unfounded and said that he had been posted in Qasimabad between Jan 1, 2000 to April 6, 2000 and he had himself disconnected the line after finding that the connection was running without payment but did not remove the meter with 4,384 units pending.

He said that Hesco’s chief executive imposed a penalty of Rs4,607 and stoppage of one annual increment without waiting for his reply to the notice and carrying out enquiry or affording personal hearing.

His counsel said that nobody could be penalised for the acts of others but in this case the official had been taken to task for the deeds which had been committed by his predecessor.

He prayed the court to set aside the penalty and restore all consequential benefits because the notice was illegal and issued in a mala fide manner.