KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday again issued notice to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on petitions against prolonged loadshedding and overbilling especially in the name of fuel adjustment charges (FAC).

On the last hearing, the SHC had put the ministry of power, Nepra and K-Electric (KE) on notice. However, nobody was in attendance from Nepra on Friday.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi repeated notice to Nepra through the district judge of Islamabad as well as courier service with direction to file para-wise comments on or before next hearing.

The counsel for the KE filed a counter affidavit to an application while the lawyer for the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), one of the petitioners, submitted the copies of the orders of the Lahore High Court and Peshawar High Court about interim exemption of the amount of FAC mentioned in the power bills.

The lawyer for the power utility sought time to file counter affidavit to the main petition as he contended that complete documents along with the petitions were not received.

While putting off the hearing till Sept 21, the bench directed both sides to file affidavit/rejoinder, if any, and exchange the same before next hearing.

Karachi JI chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, along with two other party leaders, had petitioned the SHC, stating that the KE and other respondents had failed to discharge their obligations for uninterrupted supply of electricity to the citizens of Karachi.

They contended that loadshedding had become out of control and Nepra had no mechanism to gauge the actual production of power by the KE and demand for the provincial metropolis.

The petitioners maintained that the KE was extorting huge amount of money from consumers in the name of FAC with the permission of Nepra. Some private firms have also filed petitions challenging the FAC.

Nazir appointed to inspect water connection to hospital

The SHC has appointed its nazir as commissioner to carry out site inspection regarding a water connection being given to a private hospital located in North Nazimabad.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi directed the commissioner to inspect the site in presence of all parties as well as relevant official respondents and submit a report till Sept 15.

The bench said its earlier restraining order for respondents to maintain status quo in respect of subject water connection will continue till next hearing.

Some officials of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) appeared before the bench without any record and sought time to file comments while police officials said that matter purely pertained to the KWSB.

Representing the hospital, senior counsel Anwar Mansoor Khan in a counter affidavit contended that the KWSB following its rules and regulation had approved a request of the hospital for a water connection of two-inch pipeline from the 48-inch mainline after a payment of Rs8.7 million and pleaded to dismiss the petition for not being maintainable.

Last week, some residents of the area had petitioned the SHC and contended that the KWSB through a sanction certificate issued in May had approved an illegal water connection of two-inch from the 48-inch main pumping line to the Ziauddin Hospital which would be utilised for commercial purposes.

They maintained that the hospital had connected four-inch pipeline from bottom of the 48-inch mainline which otherwise was illegal and even contrary to the impugned sanction certificate.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2022