Nepra, KE put on notice over plea against ‘unannounced’ loadshedding in District East

The Sindh High Court on Monday issued notices to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), the ministry of energy and others on a petition against unannounced loadshedding of 12 to 14 hours by K-Electric (KE) in five union committees (UCs) of Jinnah and Gulshan towns.

Petitioner Mohammad Aamir Siddiqui, an MPA elected from provincial assembly constituency PS-102, submitted in the petition that residents of five UCs of his constituency -- UC-I, UC-3, UC-5, UC-6 of Jinnah Town and UC-I of Gulshan Town -- had been daily protesting against unannounced loadshedding in the area.

He submitted that the KE had the responsibility to provide uninterrupted electricity to its consumers, but it was carrying out unauthorised loadshedding of 12 to 14 hours in the five UCs, which was badly affecting the education of students, business activities and operations of healthcare facilities. The MPA said the federal and provincial governments were providing financial assistance to the KE from the public exchequer and taxpayers’ money for the betterment and upgradation of its system to curtail line losses, but the government functionaries had miserably failed to implement the regulations and policies for the improvement of KE’s affairs.

The high court was requested to declare unannounced loadshedding in Jinnah and Gulshan towns unlawful and order a forensic audit of the KE for the 2023-24 regarding the amount it had received after an increase in the electricity tariff.

The MQM-P legislature also sought a direction to abolish the slab system payment for consumers, submitting that such a system was unjustly burdening citizens leading to extraction of millions of rupees from them in an unlawful manner. In July, Nepra had taken notice of loadshedding in Karachi and told the KE to adopt different measures immediately to avoid outages in the city.

In a letter addressed to the KE chief executive officer, the power-sector regulator had referred to a communication of June 26, 2024 about casualties due to heatwave and loadshedding, and a public hearing conducted on June 27, 2024 on a multiyear tariff petition filed by the private power utility.