SUKKUR: The Sindh High Court Sukkur bench comprising Justices Irfan Saadat Ali Khan and Shahab Din Sarki on Monday admitted a petition filed by former chief minister Syed Ghous Ali Shah against the inclusion of his native village in Kingri taluka after denotifying its status as the union council.

The bench issued notices to respondent principal secretary to the chief minister, secretary to the provincial election commissioner, senior member Board of Revenue, Sukkur commissioner and other officials for April 20.

Mr Shah in his petition filed through Advocate Nisar Bhambhro submitted in court that the move to strip Mori village of Khairpur district of its UC status and annex it to Kingri taluka was politically motivated.

He alleged that the move was aimed at victimising his voters for not supporting Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah in the May 11, 2013 general elections.

The petitioner also claimed that the move was resorted to without the consent of the Provincial Election Commission.

He prayed to the court to issue directives for the restoration of the UC status of Mori village and retention of its inclusion in Khairpur taluka.

The bench admitted the petition and fixed April 20 as the date for the hearing.

Villagers protest over inflated power bills, outage

A large number of villagers of Dad Leghari near Keenjhar Lake took out a rally in Mirpur Mathelo on Monday in protest against prolonged loadshedding and issuance of inflated bills by the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco).

Waving power bills in their hands, the villagers led by president of the Ghotki chapter of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Ghulam Murtaza Leghari, and others marched from the press club to Bhitai Chowk where they held a sit-in and demonstration.

The protesters told journalists that they were supplied electricity for only an hour out of 24 hours a day but they were getting bills of domestic connections running into Rs30,000 to Rs35,000 which was sheer injustice.

They said Sepco officials were not ready to correct the inflated bills as per the actual reading of meters but were forcing them to pay up the inflated amount in instalments.

They urged high officials of the power utility to take notice of injustices with consumers and redress their genuine grievances.

The protesters dispersed peacefully after staging a sit-in for an hour at Bhitai Chowk.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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