KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday extended its previous interim order restraining the civic utilities from digging up roads and streets without the prior intimation to the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited in the metropolis.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry was on Thursday seized with a petition filed by the telecommunication authority.

During the hearing, the bench extended its previous restraining order against the civic utilities till August 18.

In November last year, the telecommunication authority had petitioned the SHC against the power, water and gas utilities for damaging its underground network while digging up streets and roads to lay or repair pipelines of the water, gas and sewerage in the metropolis.

The authority had maintained that it was the largest telecommunication and cellular services provider in the country.

It said that local and federal civic bodies – including the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, K-Electric, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, Karachi Development Authority, Defence Housing Authority and cantonment boards – used to dig up the streets and roads for the purpose of laying pipelines of water, gas and sewerage.

The authority said that the respondent civic bodies’ staff disturbed and damaged its telecommunication network and installations during their works due to which its services were badly affected and disrupted.

The telecommunication authority said further submitted that its installations and infrastructure was being damaged on daily basis due to the negligence on the part of the staff of these civic bodies. The authority was suffering from financial losses as well as those related to the infrastructure.

The court was pleaded to direct the heads and other executives of the local, federal and private civic bodies to intimate the PTCL prior to carrying out their operations in any part of the metropolis to avoid any losses to the petitioner’s installations or network.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2023