A constitutional petition has been filed in the Sindh High Court against privatisation of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) and unannounced load shedding in the city. The petition was filed by United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan General Secretary Rana Faizul Hassan, pleading to make the privatisation report of the KESC public and also directing the power utility to stop unannounced load shedding. The plaintiff accused the government of causing huge financial losses to the exchequer over privatising KESC as it was handed over to the private sector at a very low price. He mentioned that the power company was privatised for the sum of Rs 16 billion and the company had taken loans of Rs 100 billion from some financial institutions by mortgaging KESC assets. Besides, the petitioner submitted that the citizens have been suffering from power failures, unannounced load shedding and poor performance of the electricity supplying authorities. He added that the consumers have been facing over 12-hours of load shedding, but there is no one who would seek explanation from the KESC in this regard. He asserted that there is no reason for unannounced load shedding and disruption in electricity supply as the KESC has enough resources to acquire electrical energy.
He stated that on June 3, KESC labour union Mazdoor Ittehad had announced a strike call against the power company’s higher authorities, and this strike was also supported by various political and non-political parties. As many as six people were killed during the strike, 12 vehicles were set on fire and other public properties were damaged in different parts of the metropolis by unidentified miscreants. He added that neither a proper action was taken against the culprits nor the victims were compensated for their losses. The Federal Ministry for Privatisation, the KESC, the National Electric Power Regularity Authority, the Oil and Gas Regularity Authority, the Sindh chief secretary and the Karachi administrator were cited as respondents. The petitioner pleaded to the court to direct the respondents to produce the privatisation commission’s report regarding KESC’s privatisation, and to produce the sale agreement to ascertain as to why the company was sold on cheaper rates. He also prayed to the court to direct the power utility to stop load shedding and maximise its efforts to resolve the load shedding issue in the city. It was also pleaded to provide compensation to the families of those who lost their lives during the strike given by the KESC union. The court admitted the petition and fixed June 15 as the next date of hearing.
