The Lahore High Court wants to know if the VVIPs are being treated the same way as the rest of the public.
The court on Thursday directed Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) to submit power outages’ schedule for residences of the president, prime minister, governor, chief minister and ministers by February 10.
The court had earlier asked Wapda for the schedule. At this Deputy Attorney General Naseem Kashmiri told the court that it was Pepco, not Wapda or individual power distribution companies, that had the required details. Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed then ordered Pepco to submit the schedule. Justice Saeed asked a company officer to appear in court at the next hearing.
The CJ was hearing a petition seeking a stay order against power outages.
Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique, who filed the petition, argued that the government had failed in supplying uninterrupted power to hospitals. He contended that there was no shortfall of electricity in the country.
He also prayed that the uninterrupted electricity supply to VVIPs be declared a violation of Article 25 of the constitution.
Hearing an identical petition, the CJ sought reply from the federal government and other respondents about the cost of electricity production and the amount being charged from consumers. In this petition, Advocate Siddique has also challenged surcharges, including fuel adjustment, being collected from consumers.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2012.
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