KARACHI: Nine chairmen of as many town municipal corporations (TMCs) belonging to the Jamaat-i-Islami have moved the Sindh High Court against prolonged loadsheeding being carried out by the K-Electric in hot and humid weather in the city.

JI’s nine chairmen of New Karachi, Liaquatabad, Gulberg, Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Model Colony, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Jinnah and Landhi TMCs filed the petition.

Citing the secretary of power division, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) and KE as respondents, the petitioners asked the SHC to declare the KE’s loadshedding policy illegal and unconstitutional.

They submitted that the regulatory authority had also declared such power outages not in line with applicable laws and illegal.

The petition is fixed for hearing before at two-judge bench of SHC comprising Justice Muhammad Faisal Kamal Alam and Justice Muhammad Hasan Akber next week.

Ask court to declare KE’s policy on outages illegal

The petitioners submitted that they were representing the residents of their respective towns who were aggrieved by excessive loadshedding carried out by the KE.

They argued that after receiving several complaints of public, Nepra had conducted an inquiry against prolonged loadshedding in the city and it transpired that loadshedding was being carried out by the KE in pursuance of its Aggregate Technical and Commercial (At&C) Losses Policy in proportion to the losses being incurred by KE in each area.

However, they contended that the regulatory authority had passed an order in April last year declaring the AT&C losses policy not in line with the Nepra Act, 1997 and Performance Standards (Distribution) Rules, 2005 as well as illegal.

Nepra had also held that it was the responsibility of KE to ensure equitable and uninterrupted distribution of electricity services in its territory. It also imposed a fine of Rs50 million on the city’s sole power utility, they maintained.

The petitioners submitted the superior courts have time and again held that access to electricity was part of right to life as enshrined under Article 9 of the Constitution, but the policies of KE materially infringe upon such a right of residents of Karachi.

They contended that in response to another identical petition filed earlier by JI city chief Monem Zafar, the power utility had submitted an “action plan” to reduce loadshedding, which was nothing but an eyewash since the same only focused on social media campaigns and heatwave camps instead of illegal loadshedding policies.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2025