Importing powers: SC accepts plea against India electricity import

Supreme Court accepts petition seeking to prevent power agreement with New Delhi.

ISLAMABAD:

A petition seeking to prevent a breakthrough between India and Pakistan on electricity was accepted by the Supreme Court on Thursday.

The court accepted the petition by the Watan Party despite objections by the Registrar’s office. The petition is against Pakistan accepting India’s offer of 5,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity to meet its energy requirements.

At the Nuclear Security Summit in March, India had formally offered Pakistan 5,000MW of electricity during a brief meeting between Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. It was reported that Pakistan has accepted the offer, which will be formally responded to via diplomatic channels.

A two-member bench of the apex court, comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal and Justice Athar Saeed, was hearing the petitioner’s counsel Barrister Zafarullah Khan. Barrister Khan asked the court to stop the federal government from importing 5,000MW of electricity from India.

The petition stated that the deal will be “shameful” for Pakistan because India produces electricity from “stolen water from illegal dams”.

Due to this theft, Pakistan is facing scarcity of water for the Kharif crop, the petition said. Zafarullah Khan said that by buying Indian electricity, Pakistan would approve India’s theft and accept violations to the Indus Waters Treaty, 1960.

On Monday, the apex court directed the counsel for the petitioner to furnish the Indian Supreme Court’s judgment on rivers’ interlinking in 2005.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2012.