Court seeks K-Electric’s privatisation details
Petitioner calls for cancellation of selloff, return to state control.
KARACHI:
The Sindh High Court has directed the K-Electric management to submit complete details of the privatisation agreement of the power utility, which is resorting to hours-long outages in the metropolis despite collecting monthly bills.
The bench, headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh, issued the directive here on Tuesday while hearing a miscellaneous application filed by civil rights campaigner, Rana Faizul Hasan, seeking details of the privatisation agreement.
In his petition submitted back in 2011, he had named the federal minister of privatisation, federal secretary, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), Karachi Metropolitan Corporation administrator and K-Electric as respondents.
He said the government privatised Karachi Electric Supply Company – later named as K-Electric – for Rs16 billion and the company borrowed Rs100 billion by mortgaging its assets.
According to him, K-Electric is carrying out power cuts for 12 hours in Karachi’s industrial zones and sending bills to the consumers on an average basis. This means that the electricity charges are not in accordance with the units consumed and the company is charging money on presumed consumption. “This is a violation of Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan.”
The petitioner requested the court to direct Nepra and Ogra to order K-Electric to stop unannounced and prolonged load-shedding. He also asked the court to revoke the privatisation of the company and order its return to state control along with compensation to the workers who died during protests.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 19th, 2014.
The Sindh High Court has directed the K-Electric management to submit complete details of the privatisation agreement of the power utility, which is resorting to hours-long outages in the metropolis despite collecting monthly bills.
The bench, headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh, issued the directive here on Tuesday while hearing a miscellaneous application filed by civil rights campaigner, Rana Faizul Hasan, seeking details of the privatisation agreement.
In his petition submitted back in 2011, he had named the federal minister of privatisation, federal secretary, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), Karachi Metropolitan Corporation administrator and K-Electric as respondents.
He said the government privatised Karachi Electric Supply Company – later named as K-Electric – for Rs16 billion and the company borrowed Rs100 billion by mortgaging its assets.
According to him, K-Electric is carrying out power cuts for 12 hours in Karachi’s industrial zones and sending bills to the consumers on an average basis. This means that the electricity charges are not in accordance with the units consumed and the company is charging money on presumed consumption. “This is a violation of Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan.”
The petitioner requested the court to direct Nepra and Ogra to order K-Electric to stop unannounced and prolonged load-shedding. He also asked the court to revoke the privatisation of the company and order its return to state control along with compensation to the workers who died during protests.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 19th, 2014.