The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday requested the Sindh High Court to dismiss a petition against excessive loashedding in the city, saying that it, being the regulator, had already declared the KE’s aggregate technical & commercial (AT&C) policy contrary to law and imposed a penalty on it.
Filing comments on the petition of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s town chairmen against excessive loadshedding in different parts of Karachi and the lack of action by Nepra, Nepra’s additional director said Nepra had also decided the complaints of one of the petitions with regard to the electricity supply failure in Liaquatabad Town.
Nepra said it actively enforced its mandate including imposing a Rs50 million penalty on the KE for violations of the regulatory standards and also directed a technical survey of the KE. It said that the KE has been directed to upgrade the distribution system in the area of the complainant and ensure installation of ABC cables and AMR meters and to take all measures to curtail theft of electricity to ensure provision of an uninterrupted supply of electricity.
The court on the previous hearing had observed that the basic object of privatisation is that the state-owned entity once privatised would and should operate in an efficient and feasible manner. The court had directed Nepra to undertake a technical survey to ascertain if the KE had improved its infrastructure over the years, as claimed by its counsel, for the betterment of the city and other areas where the KE was supplying electricity.
A Sindh High Court division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, after taking comments of Nepra on record, adjourned the hearing till September 15 and directed the office to not place the matter before the bench of which Justice Mohammad Abdur Rehman is a member.
The JI’s town chairmen said in the petition that the KE had earlier told Nepra that it carried out loadshedding under the aggregate technical & commercial losses policy that lays down that loadshedding would be carried out in proportion to the losses being incurred by the KE in each area.
The petitioners’ counsel Mohammad Vawda said Nepra had held that the AT&C policy was not in line with the Nepra Act and the Performance Standards (Distribution) Rules, 2005, so it is not recognised by it, and it declared it as illegal.
Vawda said the petitioners had written to Nepra to draw their attention to the KE’s excessive loadshedding, but the regulatory authority belatedly initiated proceedings, which had not been materially perused or concluded to date.
He said Karachi is going through a hot summer weather, along with heatwaves, during which the need for electricity is dire, so in such circumstances, excessive loadshedding by KE in pursuance of its AT&C policy is illegal and inhumane.
He also said the KE had earlier presented an action plan before the court to address the loadshedding issue, which was nothing but eyewash and did not strike at the root of the problem of loadshedding.
He added that Nepra has failed to decide applications of the petitioners to date, and delaying to take action against KE is a violation of the due process of the law, and constitutional and fundamental rights of the city’s residents.
The counsel said the petitioners are representatives of the areas in which loadshedding is being carried out for up to 18 hours. He requested the court to declare that Nepra’s failure in taking action against the KE for excessive loadshedding is illegal.
He also requested the court to declare that the AT&C policy for justifying excessive loadshedding in different parts of the city is in violation of the Nepra Act and the Performance Standard (Distribution) Rules.