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KARACHI, Oct 26: The Sindh High Court on Friday ordered that all cases against the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation about unannounced prolonged load-shedding and an increase in power tariff be combined for joint hearing.
The SHC division bench comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Salman Ansari ordered this while hearing a petition filed by Iqbal Kazmi against the KESC for carrying out unannounced load-shedding.
Besides Iqbal Kazmi, former Karachi nazim Niamatullah Khan, Advocate Qadir Khan Mandukhail, Ahmed Zafar Qureshi, trustee of Al-Qanoon Trust, and others also filed petitions against the increase of Rs0.20 per unit in power tariff, unannounced prolonged load-shedding and other difficulties regarding electricity supply faced by citizens.
In all the petitions, it was submitted that all social, commercial, industrial and even judicial activities were disrupted due to the unannounced and unscheduled load-shedding by the KESC. Lives of patients who needed prompt care through medical apparatus were also endangered.
The petitioners submitted that the KESC had repeatedly announced that load-shedding would be done for specific periods but contrary to the commitment, unannounced load-shedding continued without any specific schedule, irrespective of day or night.
They said six to seven hours-long load-shedding could never be justified by the KESC as it appeared to be a conspiracy to agonize the public to such an extent that they start agitating, adding that prolonged power outages created frustration and generated psychological conditions of anger and agitation.
The applicants’ counsel stated that the KESC, through the fast-running new meters, was already excessively charging the consumers apart from the extra amount being charged as electricity duty and general sales tax. The KESC bills did not show any tariff breakdown of electricity charges per unit.
The KESC administration failed to provide uninterrupted power supply to the consumers and made their life miserable due to the hours-long load-shedding. They alleged that despite such load-shedding, the electricity charges had been increased by Rs0.20 per unit.
The court was prayed to direct the respondent that if load-shedding was inevitable, the KESC should announce a permanent schedule for each area of the metropolis with a period of not more than half an hour and not more than thrice a day.
Direction was also sought for the KESC to mention the charges per unit on electricity bills and to withdraw the unannounced, unwarranted increase of Rs0.20 per unit, which was exorbitant and levied without any justification.
Drug smugglers
A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery and Justice Mehmood Alam Rizvi on Friday set aside the conviction of two women in a drug smuggling case and remanded it back to the trial court for retrial.
Accused Fatima and Shamim were awarded 10 and seven years imprisonment, respectively, by Special Anti-narcotics Court judge Bin Yameen on Oct 3 after finding them guilty in the case. The court also granted bail to them against a surety of Rs30,000 each.
They were arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Force in a Balochistan-bound train on June 6, 2004 and four kilograms of hashish was seized from them.
Meanwhile, another division bench comprising Justice Musheer Alam and Justice Muhammad Afzal Soomro granted bail to a former officer of the Communication Ministry, Muhammad Faisal Farooqui, against a surety of Rs1 million in corruption cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau.—PPI
