ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered K-Electric (KE) to utilise its own resources to clear its substations and other facilities of rainwater, which has inundated almost all the areas of Karachi in the monsoon.

“Being a private company, K-Electric cannot wait for any assistance from the government; rather it has to do its own work,” said an order authored by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, adding that power supply could not be interrupted for the mere reason that its installations had been affected by heavy rains.

The bench also consisting of Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan had taken up a suo motu case relating to excessive and unannounced loadshedding in Sindh.

The directive came when Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan during the hearing highlighted that the situation in Karachi had worsened day by day since the last hearing on Aug 13 regarding power supply to the city. Presently, the AGP regretted, almost half of the city did not have electricity.

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Senior lawyer Abid S. Zuberi, while representing K-Electric, contended that the present state of affairs was because of rains in Karachi as the infrastructure of the company had been submerged or had been inundated by water.

If that be so, K-Electric being a private company, should apply its own resources to ensure clearing of its sub-stations and other distribution network of rainwater, the chief justice observed, adding that being a private entity K-Electric should immediately care for its installations and have it cleared immediately so that electricity supply was restored to its consumers.

K-Electric could not blame any institution of the government as the company had to do its own work and maintain its installations and also secure them from any weather effect, the apex court said.

The AGP also referred to Section 26 of the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997, which allows the authorities to conduct a public hearing in public interest if it considers necessary to amend or vary the conditions of any licence issued or generation granted in the absence of the licensee’s consent.

The public hearing could be conducted on the question whether the proposed amendment or variance was in public interest and would make a determination consistent with the outcome to this hearing, the AGP suggested, adding that the issue of electricity in Karachi was that K-Electric had exclusive right of generation and distribution of electricity in the city and therefore, to overcome the issue of exclusivity, Section 26 should be given effect and the determination had to be made by the authority.

The apex court said that it did not see any impediment why the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) was not empowered to give effect to this provision of law and that the authority might proceed to implement Section 26 of the act and make its determination.

While making such determination, Nepra would not be hampered by any court, either by issuance of any injunctive order or any writ, the court made it clear.

The authority, after making the determination within a month, would file a report before this court, it said.

The chief justice regretted that K-Electric neither paid a single penny to the federal government. Billions of rupees were released for Karachi but not a single penny was released for development of the city, the chief justice bemoaned, also regretting that those who mattered were more interested in minting money and had activated their foreign accounts when the city had already witnessed a huge capital flight worth billions.

The mayor who represented the city for four years could not even lay a single drain line in the city, he observed.

Where the writ of the federal government had gone, the chief justice asked and said though upkeep of the city was responsibility of the Sindh government, “we know they will do nothing for development and welfare of the residents of Karachi”.

Those who mattered had deprived the people of the opportunity to earn their bread and butter, the chief justice observed and pointing towards the AGP, said the federal government seemed helpless.

Justice Ahsan also regretted that the hapless people of Karachi had become hostage to K-Electric.

The Supreme Court also rejected a reply furnished by the Power Division of the Ministry of Energy saying the reply had been examined by the court and found it to be thoroughly unacceptable since it did not comply with court’s earlier order.

Power Secretary Umer Rasool appeared before the court to inform it that the reply was filed by him.

“It seems that this very reply of Power Division goes contrary to what Nepra is doing and taking action against K-Electric and there seems to be no coordination between the power division and Nepra and further with the National Transmission and Despatch Company,” the court regretted.

“The energy ministry is required to ensure that there is proper coordination between all the departments. And whatever is to be done with regard to K-Electric a coordinated decision should be taken by all the relevant departments, agencies and companies, and the same should be executed by one department, in that, there should be one window operation with K-Electric,” the court ordered.

K-Electric should not be allowed to approach different government departments or companies or agencies for achieving its objectives, the apex court said.

It asked the government to constitute an appellate tribunal and appoint its members within 10 days to make the tribunal functional and provide necessary infrastructure to ensure its immediate working.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2020