KESC: Abraaj’s name added to case against privatisation

KESC labour union maintains privatisation was illegal.

KARACHI:

In a development with the petition against the privatisation of the Karachi Electric Supply Company, a court agreed to include in the case Abraaj, the company that has the most shares.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) division bench accepted an application filed by the KESC labour union, praying the court to include the Abraaj group as a respondent to the anti-privatisation case. Abraaj is the company that manages KESC but up until now was not made party to the petition.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Salman Hamid, was hearing three petitions on Wednesday pertaining to the power utility. The KESC labour union questions the legality of the privatisation in one petition and the other two petitions, filed by the Law Foundation and Human Rights Commission for South Asia, are against the utility’s performance, high tariffs and unannounced load-shedding in Karachi.

The labour union maintains that the privatisation was illegal as the bidding was not transparent. The privatisation was not approved by the Council of Common Interests, it also alleges.

KESC’s management should provide all the documents needed by the petitioner’s counsel, Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed, the bench ordered. The court also asked the counsel to submit the amended title that cites Abraaj as a respondent. It extended the stay against the rise in power tariffs till the next hearing, which is to be fixed by the court’s office.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2011.