Consumers continue to be at the receiving end, with their limited rights and resources to fight powerful monopolies, organised price manipulations and inefficient utility firms protected by government institutions.

After the apparent inability of government institutions, regulatory bodies and ombudsman organisations to steer the energy sector out of the vicious cycle, the government has now decided to create a fresh judicial layer by setting up the special purpose Public Utility Courts for speedy disposal of cases related to electricity and gas bills, theft and meter tampering etc.

The government and its utilities also seem to be going too far in their zeal to recover artificially inflated bills from consumers to camouflage their own inefficiencies and incapacities, which has repeatedly resulted in circular debt.

Gas and electricity firms are in bad shape, bleeding over Rs500 billion per annum in inefficiencies, and drawing budgetary injections to remain afloat. In today’s hi-tech world, Pakistan is one of few countries where energy companies operate with system losses as high as 35pc.

They continue to enjoy a 17.5pc guaranteed rate of return, even though the legal guarantee expired three years ago, and their executives are drawing fabulous remunerations and perks that are unmatched even by private sector standards.

In the given circumstances, when National Accountability Bureau cases are in progress despite the pressure on witnesses, gas utilities need to be kept afloat with marginal profits, but only after recovering over Rs30 billion adjudicated by regulators, including Rs13 billion approved by the Lahore High Court in the case of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited.

The argument advanced by gas and electricity utilities is that even though theft and tampering are already criminal offences, these issues are on the lower priority list of normal courts. And the law enforcing agencies do not cooperate with them in these cases, resulting in the emergence a culture that promotes evasion of utility bills and leads to the build up of arrears.

With the increase in delivered costs of electricity and gas, utility companies are also increasingly facing the menace of theft, tampering, pilferage and subversive activities on their infrastructure, including main and auxiliary transmissions and pipelines.

“These activities are not only inflicting serious financial losses to the utilities and the government, but are also a potential threat to public life and property,” said petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

He argued that it was expedient to put in place a procedure for speedy trials to ensure quick recovery of due amounts, value of gas, fines and penalties etc.

Over the last few months, electricity and gas theft and meter tampering have been declared criminal cognisable offences after amending Pakistan Penal Code 1860 and Criminal Procedures 1898. But these amendments dealt only with criminal proceedings, and no mechanism was available for civil proceedings.

Mr Abbasi said under existing legal remedies, gas utilities could charge a maximum of one year of average bill in case a gas theft is detected. He also agreed that in many cases, the staff of gas companies is instrumental in gas theft.

Therefore, a new law, “Gas Theft and Recovery Bill 2014,” would equally treat gas consumers and the company staff if any of them is found involved in gas theft or a related crime.

But some clauses of the bill appear to be draconian because they infringe upon the privacy of citizens. For example, section 23 of the proposed bill seeks to allow any BPS-17 or equivalent grade officer of a gas utility to “search any premises where gas is supplied or consumed in a manner that is or may constitute an offence under the ordinance”.

The crimes of theft and tampering etc would be cognisable and non-bailable, except in the case of domestic consumers.

The respective high courts would be empowered to notify Gas Utility Courts at the district level, to be led by district and sessions judges. The utility courts would be required to decide the civil cases within 90 days. But they would virtually be able to take up only those cases that are filed by or on behalf of gas utility companies.

Once the bill is adopted by parliament, all gas-related cases in any court would stand transferred to the gas utility courts.

Interestingly, rights of consumers have been curbed under the proposed bill because the utility court would not be entitled to accept a complaint or suit from a consumer unless it is supported by a gas sales agreement.

In practice, except for large industrial and bulk consumers, most consumers, particularly domestic ones, do not have gas sales purchase agreements because these are always kept by gas companies at the time of meter installation.

The court will have to be empowered to order recovery of fines and additional amounts on account of stolen gas, or monetary benefits accrued through the stolen gas.

Under the bill, a person involved in tampering with a pipeline would be liable to 14 years of imprisonment and to pay a Rs10m fine. Tampering of industrial or commercial meters would be punishable 10 years of jail time and a Rs5m fine.

Tampering of domestic meters would be punishable with six-month imprisonment and a Rs100,000 fine, even though all gas meters are installed outside the premises and could be tampered with anybody.

The cost of gas theft, along with fines and arrears, would be recovered as arrears of land revenue under the Land Revenue Act.