The Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) on Monday suspended power supply to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) headquarters in Sector G/7 for non-payment of dues.Sources in the CDA told Pakistan Today that electric supply to its main office was suspended at around 10am and could not be restored until the closure of the office. They added that the entire work of the authority had come to a standstill due to unavailability of power supply.
An IESCO official said the CDA had to pay millions of rupees to the IESCO, adding the authority was one of the biggest defaulters of the region. He said as the CDA could not pay the total amount in one instalment, the burden on the authority increased after every new bill. He further said the IESCO had served many notices on the CDA for payment of the dues. “An advertisement in national dailies was also published to warn all defaulters to pay their outstanding dues,” the official added.
A CDA official said the authority had paid outstanding dues of Rs 80 million and Rs 16 million had been left, which would be paid soon. Some two months ago, a row between the CDA and the IESCO had prompted both the authorities to take every possible step against each other. Initially, the IESCO cut power supply to the main CDA headquarters after which the civic body declared 30 buildings and installations of the IESCO illegal. Unavailability of power supply forced the city bosses to use power generators, but without regular supply of electricity, working at the authority’s headquarters suffered a lot as a large number of complainants were not entertained.
Discrimination in the CDA was at its peak as the generators were supplying electricity only to the offices where the chairman’s office exists whereas the other side of the headquarters, including the planning wing, was not entertained by the power generators. CDA spokesman Ramzan Sajid could not be approached for his version despite repeated attempts made by this correspondent.
