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A two-judge bench, comprising justices Nadeem Akhtar and Faheem Ahmed Siddiqui, fixed the matter for April 26.
A group of non-profit organisations had approached the court seeking judicial inquiry into overbilling by K-E management to the tune of Rs62 billion and the sale of the power utility to the Shanghai Electric Power Company Limited.
The petitioners, including Karamat Ali, Nazia Fida Hussain, the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Urban Resource Centre and others, had alleged that the ministry of water and power and National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) had failed to investigate issues such as overbilling by the K-E management to the tune of Rs62 billion in the past few years and unpaid dues owed to and by K-E by and to various federal government entities.
Shanghai Electric Power and Karachi
They alleged that the authorities had also failed to probe the use of K-E's metering and billing system and lamented Nepra's failure to resolve the pending disputes before the transfer of the indirect shareholding and accounts of K-E to the Shanghai Electric Company Limited.
The petitioners contended that the authorities had also failed to investigate K-E's agreement to sell up to 66.4% of its shares to the Shanghai Electric Power Limited, a company incorporated under the law of China, subject to the terms and conditions signed between the two parties, which had not been disclosed to the public.
To support their argument, the petitioners placed on record a January 26, 2017, letter issued by the ministry of water and power to Nepra, advising it to take into consideration the matters highlighted in the letter, while setting the new tariff for K-E by correcting anomalies in the new tariff and ensure transferring excessive payments recovered by the power utility back to the consumers.
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They contended that the ministry's letter was responded to by Nepra by denying the allegations made against the power utility and defending its new tariff.
They alleged that Nepra, being a regulatory authority, was not acting in a proper and prudent manner and was not exercising its functions and powers as it ought to have taken timely action against K-E in order to save consumers from arbitrary and excessive billing.
The petitioners pleaded that the only solution for a proper inquiry into the illegal affairs of K-E and the provision of relief to the consumers was the appointment of an independent judicial commission. Therefore, the court was pleaded to order a judicial inquiry into the issues through a serving superior court judge.
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