Electricity woes: Court orders arrest of PESCO officials

CHITRAL: A consumer court on Tuesday issued orders to arrest Hydel Power Resident Engineer of Chitral, Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) and Xen Timergara Division over non-provision of electricity.

In July 2012, a panel of lawyers filed a petition against SDO Ghulam Rasheed, Resident Engineer Muhammad Ayub and XEN Murad Khan for not providing electricity while sending bills every month. Consequently, they received a warning by the consumer court’s judge, Zafar Iqbal, after which the electricity supply resumed. However, the supply was stopped once again following which Advocate Qazi Sijad filed a petition in court against the accused. After hearing the case, Additional Sessions Judge Chitral, Muhammad Jamal Khan, ordered the arrest of Rasheed and Ayub from court premises. However, police could not arrest Murad Khan, who was not home when his house was raided.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2013.