SHC dismisses plea challenging KE’s privatisation

The Sindh High Court dismissed on Thursday a plea challenging the privatisation of K-Electric, ruling that the utility's privatisaiton was not illegal.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Justice Arshad Hussain Khan, issued the written order on the plea, stating that the petitioner, Karachi Electric Supply Company's labour union, had failed to satisfy the court.

The union had filed the plea in 2005.

In its written order, the court stated that the privatisation of KE was a policy decision taken by the government and it couldn't be interfered with.

The court observed that the utility's privatisation was under consideration since 1993 and that the KESC had been incurring a loss of around Rs16 billion annually. So much so, that the deficit reached Rs80 billion in 2002, the court stated, noting that the government institution, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, was still the monitoring authority on the utility.

It stated that the government still had shares in KE and its privatisation did not violate the Constitution.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2021.