KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the ministry of power, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) and K-Electric (KE) on a petition of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) against prolonged loadshedding and overbilling especially in the name of fuel adjustment charges (FAC).

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi also put the Sindh advocate general on notice for Sept 9.

It ordered to serve notices to the respondents through all modes apart from publication, and to put the power secretary and Nepra chairman on notice through the Islamabad district judge as well.

The lawyer for the petitioner assured the bench that he would place on record the order passed in a writ petition by the Lahore High Court exempting the amount of FAC mentioned in the power bills of the petitioners till the next hearing.

Karachi JI chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman along with two other party leaders petitioned the SHC stating that the KE and other respondents had failed to discharge their obligations for uninterrupted supply of electricity to the citizens.

Petitioners’ counsel Usman Farooq argued that the extended loadshedding in the city was due to poor performance of the KE.

He further submitted that during a number of proceedings, the apex court and the SHC had restrained the KE from loadshedding, but the power utility arbitrarily decided on loadshedding just for its financial gain and deliberately closed down its generating units operated by diesel and furnace oil whereas it was still charging the customers the cost of the power generated from diesel and furnace oil.

The lawyer contended that the loadshedding had become out of control in summer and monsoon seasons. Even when the weather had become much better after rains, the KE was still carrying out extended loadshedding several times in night and day, which made the lives of the citizens miserable, he added.

He argued that Nepra had no mechanism to gauge the actual production of power by the KE and demand of electricity for the provincial metropolis.

The lawyer further submitted that the ministry was providing extraordinary support to the KE in the shape of huge finance on account of subsidiary electricity from the national grid as well as fixed gas quota just to help the power utility minimise the cost of electricity, but the benefit was not being passed on to the consumers.

He argued that the KE was extorting a huge amount of money from its consumers in the name of FAC with the permission of Nepra and added that they had approached the regulatory authority, but to no avail.

They also asked the SHC to restrain the KE from carrying out loadshedding, especially in night-time, and to direct the power utility to generate power as per the required demand and in accordance with the agreements made with the federal authorities.

They also sought directive for Nepra to stop the KE from overbilling in different names, including FAC and sales tax, TV licence fee and income tax.

The petitioners said the KE might be directed to improve its system and replace the old machinery in order to improve its performance in generation, distribution and transmission of electricity.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2022