KARACHI, July 18: The Sindh High Court decided on Friday to hear two appeals against the termination of an electricity project in the city on July 24 and extended the suspension of a single judge’s order in favour of a private power producer till that date.
The Karachi Electricity Supply Company and the power and infrastructure board have challenged the single judge’s order decreeing a suit instituted by M/s Tri-Star Energy (Ltd) against cancellation of an agreement allowing the plaintiff to set up a 110-megawatt thermal power project in Karachi. The plaintiff said the infrastructure board had issued a letter of support for the project in 1994 and followed it up with a power purchase agreement and had, finally, opened a letter of credit in favour of the KESC but the agreement was cancelled without any justification.
The KESC said in its appeal that the letter of credit established by the plaintiff company was found to be flawed and, therefore, unacceptable. The company was asked to establish a letter of credit in accordance with the power purchase agreement signed by it with the infrastructure board but it failed to make amends and the permission allowed to it for setting up the power plant had to be cancelled.
The letter of credit, the appellant said, was part of the conditions required to achieve ‘financial close’ but it did not cover the damages payable for delay in the implementation of the project and was made payable in US dollars. The infrastructure board and the KESC reached the conclusion that the concern was not capable of financing, operating and maintaining the project. It also contended that the suit was adjudicated by the single judge without framing issues.
A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Azizullah M. Memon and Justice Khalid Ali Z. Qazi said the appeal preferred by the infrastructure board against the same judge should be tagged on to the KESC appeal for consolidated hearing on July 24. The interim order for suspension of the impugned judgment was extended till that date.
Notice to KBCA
The bench, meanwhile, issued notices to a builder and the Karachi Building Control Authority in a petition alleging unauthorized construction in violation not only of the building regulations but also of the construction plan sanctioned by the KBCA.
Petitioner Waseemul Haq and six other residents of Nazimabad alleged that a multi-storied apartment complex had been raised on a plot (No IV-B 2/13) reserved for a children’s park. They said the plot was purchased by a builder who got a ground-plus-two-floor-floor plan sanctioned by the KBCA. The ground and two floors were stipulated to be part of a single housing unit. Subsequently, however, the builder constructed a multi-storied housing complex consisting of a number of flats.
The petitioners said there were a large number of judgments by superior courts consistently declaring that once a plot had been reserved for public amenity, it could not be put to any other use. Besides, the conversion of an amenity plot to a residential one did not warrant construction of a housing complex in violation of the rules.
Admitting the petition to regular hearing, the bench issued notices to the respondents for July 30.
Harassment
The bench also issued notices to the Al Falah Society police station and private respondents in a petition by a widow, Mst Afsar Begum, alleging that she was being harassed by her widowed daughter-in-law and her brothers for suspecting their hand in the murder of her son. The motive was to acquire the considerable assets belonging to her son.
The petitioner said she conveyed her suspicion to the police but they were not investigating the case satisfactorily. On the other hand, she was being harassed by her daughter-in-law and her brothers for involving them in the murder. Citing the home secretary and the inspector-general of police as respondents in addition to her daughter-in-law and her brothers, she requested the court to assign the investigation of the murder case to some honest police officer.
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