Fused: Adviser gets charged up after KESC’s ‘excess billing’

Haleem Adil Sheikh claims he is being maligned by the organisation.

KARACHI: The adviser to the chief minister and a member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), Haleem Adil Sheikh, has apparently had enough of what he says is the Karachi Electric Supply Company’s (KESC) excess billing. At a press conference on Tuesday, he announced that he would start a movement against the utility.

“With the help of my supporters, I will free the people of Karachi from the corrupt management of KESC,” he said. KESC had disconnected the power supply to a farmhouse in Gadap called Palm Village, as its electricity bills had not been paid. It also allegedly associated Sheikh with the property. “I do not own Palm Village. It is not registered in my name and neither is the meter. I have no involvement in the case,” he said.

He added that he had not defaulted on any payment and that he was being maligned by KESC so that it could conceal its own misdeeds. Shaikh said that he could not be held accountable for the default as his cousin, Tariq Qureshi, was the chairman of the farmhouse.

In the past three years, Palm Village’s electricity bills has come to Rs6.5 million. A petition against KESC for the alleged ‘excess billing’ of Palm Villages has already been filed at the Sindh High Court. Shaikh said that he is seeking Rs500million in damages from KESC with the help of his lawyer, Advocate Ashraf Sammo. If the organisation’s management does not apologise within the next nine days, he will take the matter to the Sindh High Court.

“KESC’s management has apparently adopted a policy of defaming the representatives of the people,” said Sheikh. “They just want to use my name.” He said that the National Accountability Bureau should take action against Abraaj Capital, which manages the power utility. Shaikh announced that he will participate in every protest against the KESC and will provide legal as well as other forms of support to anyone who wants to go against it. “My supporters and I will start a movement and refuse to pay our bills,” he said. In reply to a question, he said that his struggle for the people would continue even after a KESC apology is made.

Sheikh is not the first such person to find themselves in the spotlight with KESC. Law Minister Ayaz Soomro’s residence was cut off for unpaid bills last week.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2011.