MHCBA slams govt for burdening poor with power bills

MULTAN: The Multan High Court Bar Association (MHCBA) widely criticised the government for depriving poor consumers of relief in electricity bills and levying justified taxes, while the consumers of 200 units are the prime victims of government policies.

Speaking at a press conference here in the bar room on Monday, the MHCBA president, Malik Sajjad Haider Maitla, General Secretary Syed Anees Mehdi, Vice President Ali Raza Alvi, and Library Secretary Sardar Rafiq Dogar protested against expensive electricity and overbilling. The Mepco officials have started a series of atrocities by adding extra units to poor people to show false performance. Even consumers of up to 200 units have been billed with income tax and other charges on the electricity bill, the MHCBA office bearers said. The poor consumer’s bill should be at most Rs 3000, but he received a bill of more than Rs 8000, which is an absolute injustice. They demanded that Mepco not charge common consumers as per the slab against Nepra’s tariff. Billing should be stopped, and correct bills should be issued. They also demanded that action under criminal law against the officials who billed additional units to the customers, and they should be suspended forthwith.

Meanwhile, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, Dr Safdar Hashmi at a press conference condemned the corrupt IPP contracts and the cruel taxes levied on Pakistan’s salaried class and businessmen. The anti-peasant policies of the government are highly condemnable. The 1994-2002-3 IPP agreements have proved a death trap for Pakistan. He said that under the IPP agreement 2013, the government is paying 100 payments to IPPs for getting 47% electricity, which is absolute cruelty. The past governments have mortgaged Pakistan with IPPs and IMF. Dr Safdar Hashmi, the office bearers of Islamic Lawyers Forum, Rafi Raza, Athar Aziz Chaudhry, Mahmood Ansari, Tahir Qureshi, Rana Ishaq, and Khalid Goheer, in briefing about the Islamabad sit-in on July 26 against electricity over-billing, said that all the lawyers of the Islamic Lawyers Forum will fully participate in the Islamabad sit-in.