KARACHI, Sept 17: The province of Sindh has moved a petition in the Sindh High Court through its irrigation and power department against high electricity tariffs determined for its consumers by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).
Citing the federal water and power ministry, Nepra and the Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company (Hesco) as respondents, the petition, signed by provincial additional secretary (power) Karim Bukhsh Sheikh and filed by Advocate-General M. Yusuf Leghari, says that the tariffs, particularly for tube wells and public lighting, are the highest for the company that serves the province. They are 42 per cent higher than those determined for the Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company and 45 per cent higher than those prescribed for the Lahore Electricity Supply Company. Hesco supplies electric power to the province of Sindh excluding Karachi, which has its own privatized electricity supply corporation (KESC).
The petition says that the federation is responsible for formulation of policies and promulgation of laws, including the policy for approval of power tariff, in the best interest of citizens without discrimination. Under the Regulation, Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997, Nepra is empowered to fix the tariff keeping in view the interest of consumers.
Referring to the high tariff rate of Hesco, the petition says that the chief minister wrote to the prime minister to request for a direction to the water and power ministry to bring the Hesco rates on a par with those of other distribution companies. The PM’s secretariat explained that the rate was attributable to transmission and distribution losses and recovery pattern of the various companies. The petition also referred to the Sindh Assembly resolution of Sept 1 unanimously calling for a reduced new tariff, which went unheeded.
The petition says that the province has been burdened with additional electricity charges for no fault of its own. It is not responsible for Hesco’s transmission and distribution losses. The provincial government, it says, has no option but to move the court n its extraordinary jurisdiction to seek redress.
Haj quotas
A division bench of the Sindh High Court asked the ministry of Haj and religious affairs on Wednesday to produce the entire record pertaining to the allocation of quotas to private Haj group operators on Sept 23.
A division bench comprising Justices Mohammad Athar Saeed and Qamaruddin Bohra also restrained the ministry from extending the date for allocation of additional quotas beyond Sept 22. The record is to be produced by the ministry’s secretary or an officer of the rank at least of deputy secretary duly instructed by he secretary to enable him to answer the court queries on Sept 23.
Four leading operators have moved petitions through Advocates Abid S. Zuberi, Khalid Jawaid Khan, Sana Minhas and Rana Ikramullah Khan to challenge reduction of their quotas and greater allocations to smaller or new operators to ‘oblige favourites’.
The petitioners’ counsel contended that the petitioners and other operators make arrangements with authorities in Saudi Arabia six months before the pilgrimage but an official committee decided all of a sudden to curtail their allocations and transfer them to others. The religious affairs adviser was on record having said that the quotas were given to accommodate operators recommended by politicians.
They claimed that the newly-inducted operators had not been able to find sufficient number of intending pilgrims to fill up the quotas available to them. They were waiting for official ballot so that the unsuccessful applicants approach the ‘favoured’ operators and perform the pilgrimage on their quotas. The counsel said the seats not availed by the operators should be given back to them so that they were able to recover the expenses already incurred by them.
Deputy Attorney-General Amer Raza Naqvi, who appeared on Wednesday along with a section officer of the ministry carrying incomplete record, was asked also to produce the Haj policy and other relevant documents, including reservations for the armed forces and the criterion for allocation of Haj quotas to group operators.
Society land
The provincial land utilization department denied on Wednesday that a five-acre plot out of the land leased out to Mai Kolachi Co-operative Housing Society in Gulistan-i-Jauhar was allotted to the Pakistan Rangers for housing. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani adjourned further hearing of the society’s petition to Oct 14 for rejoinder by the respondent Rangers.
Appearing for the land utilization department, Advocate M. Ahmed Pirzada submitted that neither a lease agreement was signed in favour of the Rangers not possession was delivered. There was no mutation or recovery of lease money on record. On the other hand, the petitioner society was granted lease for 79 acres but was also given possession. The society paid not only the price of also the development charges but also, subsequently, the price differential between the allotment price and the market rate.Advocates Abrar Hasan and Masroor Alvi argued on behalf of the petitioner that in the light of unequivocal official statement on the basis of revenue record, the Rangers possession was unlawful and the five acres claimed by them should be restored to the society. They also filed a counter-affidavit to rebut the SHC official assignee’s assertion that the land in dispute belonged to a cement factory being liquidated by him under a court order. The property was purchased by the society from the provincial government and no court order was involved in the transaction. The society paid Rs430 million as price and Rs700 million as development charges, they claimed.
Milk price
Another division bench consisting of Justices Khilji Arif Hussain and Bin Yamin, meanwhile, asked a senior officer nominated by the chief secretary to inform it of the milk price calculation formula. The court had earlier asked the chief secretary to fix the price after consulting the stakeholders, including the petitioner Milk Retailers Association and the respondent city district government. The chief secretary asked former provincial secretary Shoaib Siddiqui to carry out the assignment and he fixed the price at Rs37 a litre after holding consultations.
Advocate Abdul Rehman questioned the price as unreasonably low on behalf of the milk sellers. The bench asked Mr Siddiqui to explain within two weeks the formula on the basis of which he worked out the price and also state whether he took into consideration the objections raised by the petitioner association.
The bench disposed of as infructuous a petition moved by Ms Shahida Wizarat, former director of the applied economics research centre, University of Karachi, as the petitioner had retired from service in the normal course. Advocates Mohammad Tasneem and Asif Mukhtar appeared for the respondent university.
Charge quashed
The bench headed by the chief justice, meanwhile, ordered an investigation officer to drop charges against a free-will marriage couple after petitioner Asma recorded her statement within the courtroom that she was neither kidnapped by nor eloped with Rizwan but married him in exercise her free will. A case against the couple was lodged by a police sub-inspector, Asma’s father, at the Gharo police station. The couple moved a petition against the registration of the case through Advocate Jawaid Ahmed Chhatari, saying that the complainant had implicated him in a bogus case.
Notices issued
The bench issued notices in a petition moved on behalf of two Pakistanis who fled to Sweden in 1978 and are living there since. They were convicted by a military court for life imprisonment for killing a Ranger in a clash during protests over Dr Shirin Soomro’s murder.
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