Ramazan and electricity: LHC asked to issue stay order on loadshedding
Petitioner seeking publication of loadshedding schedule.
LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court has been asked to restrain the federal government from cutting power to households in the Punjab during sehr, iftar and prayer times in Ramazan.
The Judicial Activism Panel, through its chairman Advocate Azhar Siddique, filed a civil miscellaneous application to this effect to attach to an already pending petition asking for a loadshedding schedule for the entire country.
The petitioner said that the federal government, through the minister for water and power, had made a commitment that there would be no power cuts during sehr, iftar and prayer times in Ramazan, but had failed to keep its promise. He said that citizens of the Punjab faced lengthy power cuts at all times of the day.
He accused the federal government of defrauding the citizens of the Punjab, because while the citizens were paying their bills on time, the Water and Power Development Authority and its sister companies were not paying their bills to independent power producers or to the companies providing them furnace oil.
The petitioner argued that the federal government was violating citizens’ fundamental rights as envisaged in the Constitution under Articles 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 19-A, 23, 24 and 25.
He asked the court to issue a stay order against loadshedding, and to order authorities to present loadshedding schedules in court, particularly for housing societies that allegedly did not have any power cuts.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2012.
The Lahore High Court has been asked to restrain the federal government from cutting power to households in the Punjab during sehr, iftar and prayer times in Ramazan.
The Judicial Activism Panel, through its chairman Advocate Azhar Siddique, filed a civil miscellaneous application to this effect to attach to an already pending petition asking for a loadshedding schedule for the entire country.
The petitioner said that the federal government, through the minister for water and power, had made a commitment that there would be no power cuts during sehr, iftar and prayer times in Ramazan, but had failed to keep its promise. He said that citizens of the Punjab faced lengthy power cuts at all times of the day.
He accused the federal government of defrauding the citizens of the Punjab, because while the citizens were paying their bills on time, the Water and Power Development Authority and its sister companies were not paying their bills to independent power producers or to the companies providing them furnace oil.
The petitioner argued that the federal government was violating citizens’ fundamental rights as envisaged in the Constitution under Articles 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 19-A, 23, 24 and 25.
He asked the court to issue a stay order against loadshedding, and to order authorities to present loadshedding schedules in court, particularly for housing societies that allegedly did not have any power cuts.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2012.