Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on Wednesday grilled the chief executive officer of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), telling him to "admit his failure" for the company's inability to provide electricity to the province.
Justice Nisar was hearing a suo motu case at Supreme Court's Peshawar registry regarding load-shedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pesco CEO Amjad Khan admitted before the court that the power supply company lacked the infrastructure to curb power cuts in the province. He further said that the demand exceeded the supply due to which people had to bear load-shedding for hours.
"We produce 2,100 megawatts while the demand is for 3,000 MW," he told the court.
Justice Nisar reprimanded Khan at his admission and said that it's been over "20 years [since Pesco's inception] and yet the company could not fix its infrastructure". The chief justice expressed surprise that the company lacked infrastructure despite being able to produce electricity.
The Pesco CEO claimed that the company did not have enough funds to upgrade its infrastructure. "We need Rs1.5 billion this year and Rs5 billion for the next five years, but we only get Rs7-8 million annually," Amjad Khan said.
"We can collect charity funds for you if you say so," the chief justice remarked.
The Pesco CEO told the court that the minimum duration of load-shedding in the province was three hours while the maximum time period was eight hours. He added that there were heavy line losses in some of the areas in KP, sometimes reaching up to 90 per cent.
The chief justice demanded Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority — which created Pesco — officials submit KP's record to the Supreme Court on Thursday. Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.
CJ orders authorities to withdraw court's vehicle from KP interim CM
In another case regarding government vehicles being used by state employees beyond their official entitlement, the chief justice ordered authorities to withdraw the car that had been provided to KP's caretaker Chief Minister Dost Muhammad Khan by the judiciary since he was "not a judge anymore".
Retired justice Dost Muhammad was appointed KP's interim chief minister by the Election Commission of Pakistan on Tuesday.
