PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has temporarily suspended the implementation of two federal government notifications including a recent one that aimed to end the provision of free electricity units to officers of Wapda and its distribution companies, replacing them with a monetised system.
A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Inamullah Khan after preliminary hearing of a petition ordered: “In the meantime, the operation of the impugned notifications dated 05.12.23 & 06.05.2026 shall remain suspended.”
The bench also ordered to club the instant petition with an earlier one filed in 2023 through which the earlier notification issued by the then caretaker government on Dec 5, 2023, was challenged.
The earlier notification had already been stayed by the high court in December 2023. However, no noteworthy proceedings could take place in that case since then.
Issues notices to the secretaries of cabinet, energy divisions and other entities
The present petition is filed by five officers of Tesco (Tribal Areas Electric Company) including executive engineer Ali Askar and four others.
The bench issued notices to the respondents including the secretaries of cabinet division and ministry of energy (power division), Wapda through its chairman, Tesco and others, seeking their response to the plea.
The petition will be heard again on Jun 18, the next date of hearing fixed in the earlier petition.
The petitioners have sought declaration of the court that the impugned notifications of Dec 5, 2023, and May 6, 2026, were illegal and issued without lawful authority.
They also sought declaration that the act of the then caretaker government in interfering with the settled policy matters and service structure of state-owned companies, in violation of the provisions of the State-Owned Enterprises (Governance and Operations) Act, 2023, was illegal and without lawful authority.
Furthermore, they requested the court to declare that the facility of free electricity units forms part of the settled and agreed terms and conditions of service/ remuneration package of the petitioners and, therefore, the same couldn’t be withdrawn, altered or amended unilaterally or arbitrarily to the detriment of the petitioners.
Advocate Mohammad Farooq Malik appeared for the petitioners and stated that the earlier impugned notification declared that the caretaker federal cabinet had approved the monetisation of free electricity units admissible to the employees of Wapda, former Wapda companies including distribution companies (Discos), generation companies (Gencos), National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) and Power Information Technology Company (PITC).
He stated that the government had also ordered the freezing of the monetised cost of free electricity units to all senior employees of power companies and Wapda at the existing level for the future.
He argued that free electricity units had “always been part of the vested and settled” terms and conditions of employees of Wapda and all other Discos including Tesco, Pesco, etc. but the government monetised them after withdrawal.
He said that facility had been provided to Wapda employees since the early 70s, while it was offered to employees by all generation, transmission and distribution companies that came into being after the bifurcation of the Wapda’s water and power wings.
He argued that the caretaker government didn’t have jurisdiction to make such a major policy decision as it was merely tasked with running day-to-day affairs of the state.
Mr Malik stated that the earlier notification was challenged in the PHC as well as the Lahore High Court. He stated that although a single-member bench of the LHC rejected the pleas recently, the matter had presently been under challenge through Intra Court Appeal before a division bench of the LHC.
However, he stated that subsequent to the rejection of those petitions by the LHC, in purported pursuance of the earlier impugned notification of the caretaker government, the government issued the other impugned notification whereby directions were issued to all the chief executive officers of the respective Discos to discontinue/ withdraw the facility of free electricity units available to employees.
He argued that the impugned notifications couldn’t be enforced against employees of Tesco, which was an independent corporate entity having its own Board of Directors fully empowered to regulate service matters of its employees.
Mr Malik stated that it was an admitted position that the Board of Directors of Tesco had not adopted any decision regarding discontinuation or withdrawal of the facility of free electricity units available to its employees.
Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2026