PESHAWAR, Oct 22: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday extended the stay order against recovery of fuel adjustment charge or fuel price adjustment by the Peshawar Electric Supply Company Limited in the province until Oct 29.

Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani later adjourned hearing into around 80 petitions of industrial units and other entities against FAC and FPA asking the relevant high court official to fix the said cases at serial No 1 of the cause list on next date for decision.

They directed Pesco not to include FAC and FPA in the monthly bills until Oct 29, the next date of hearing.

The stay order was issued in Feb 2012 when the petitions were filed.

Naeem Bukhari, lawyer for the federal government, requested the bench to allow him to submit written arguments in the cases, saying he’d turned up around eight times but decision of them is still awaited.

He said Pesco had gone to the Supreme Court against the continuous stay order of the high court.

Pesco lawyer Abdur Rauf Rohaila said the prolonged effectiveness of the stay order had caused accumulation of huge amount of money against power consumers.

He said if the stay order was vacated after long time, it would be difficult for consumers to pay arrears.

The chief justice observed that very important constitutional questions were involved on the matter, so it would be appropriate to decide the cases in presence of all relevant lawyers.

He requested Naeem Bukhari that instead of producing written arguments, he should spare time to appear on the next date of hearing and that the court would ensure hearing into the cases early on the next date.

Shumail Ahmad Butt, lawyer for most petitioners, said the country had an overall stated hydroelectric generation capacity of 6,645 megawatts (MW) of which hydroelectric stations from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone generated 3,917MW, which was more than 58 per cent of the total hydel generation.

He said the cost of power generation through hydel sources was much cheaper compared to other sources as in certain cases, it amounted to only 30 paisas per unit, but the province had been sold expensive electricity at rate of Rs12-Rs15 per unit.

Chief Justice Dost Mohammad observed that the court would also look into the question whether the province was bound to pay FAS/ FPA even when cheap hydel power had been generated in the province.

Mr Rohaila said the Supreme Court had decided most of the issues in the Gadoon Textile Mills case in 1997. He said hydel power had become part of national grid from where it had been distributed across the country.

These petitioners have also challenged a Nepra order issued on Sept 19, 2011, in an identical matter, which was earlier challenged before the high court by an organisation, Human Rights Commission South Asia, but was referred to Nepra in 2011.

Nepra had declared the levy of FAS/FPA as legal and in accordance with law and constitution.

They also questioned the legality of the law introduced in 2011 through which Nepra was empowered to levy FAC/FPA saying without the consent of the Council of Common Interest, such amendments could not be made to the law.