KARACHI, Dec 7: The Sindh High Court has put the KESC and the advocate- general Sindh on notice for Dec 21 in a petition filed by an industrialist alleging harassment by officials of the utility.
A division bench, comprising Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi and Justice Mujeebullah Siddiqui, also directed the utility not to harass the petitioner. The parties were required to maintain the status quo until the next date.
The order was passed in a constitutional petition filed by Sagheer Ahmed Burney who, represented by counsel Gohar Iqbal, had made the Sindh government, KESC, Col Sabir and Akram Mallah, working on deputation as member of the monitoring team of the utility, and Chaudhry Shareef, the SHO KESC police station, respondents in the case.
It is the case of the petitioner that he is a bona fide industrial subscriber of the KESC and always paid the electricity bills.
However, due to bad effect of frequent loadshedding on production, continuous loadshedding and electrical fault, the petitioner decided to buy a generator and in this regard completed all the required formalities, including certification from the authority concerned.
The petitioner then bought a 75-kva generator that was installed on plot No 569 in sector 35-A in Korangi industrial Area. This facilitated uninterrupted production activity.
The petitioner alleged that from last month the above-mentioned respondents visited the plots and pressured the petitioner to discontinue the generator, without any justification. When that was not acceded to, the respondents harassed employees of the petitioner and created difficulties in the way of smooth working. The matter was reported to the highups of the utility with a request to restrain the respondents Nos 3 to 5.
However, due to unjustified indulgence of the respondents and discontinuation of electricity to the workshop, as well as wrongful interference in manufacturing process, the petitioner and his wife separately filed CPs in the Sindh High Court.
But the petitioner alleged that soon after the information of the filing of CP reached the respondents, they crossed all limits and apprehended employees of the factory and kept them in wrongful confinement to pressure the petitioner to strike a deal with them. Such illegal acts of the respondents not only affected production, but also damaged the reputation of the petitioner in the market due to almost daily visit by the so-called army monitoring team.
This was allegedly done due to the petitioner’s refusal to meet illegal demands of the of the three above-named respondents.
The petitioner has therefore prayed for directing the respondent Nos 3 to 5 not to visit and harass, force, intimidate and in any manner intervene in the manufacturing process and also not to discontinue the electricity available through the KESC and the generator.
He also prayed for directing the provincial government and the KESC managing director to take appropriate legal actions against the respondents Nos 3 to 5 regarding their alleged wrongful and illegal confinement and arrest of the petitioner’s employees.