The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) said on Monday that Sindh Chief Minister’s Adviser Haleem Adil Sheikh could have contacted the power utility over his grievances about the disconnection of power supply to the Palm Village Farmhouse, instead of agitating on the streets and setting up a private complaint office. “The chief minister’s advisor has lost confidence in the government’s complaint redressing system, whose functioning he had the authority and responsibility to supervise and improve,” the KESC said in a press statement. Referring to a news conference and a protest rally by the adviser on December 18, the KESC said that five electricity connections at the Palm Village were disconnected last week and the media was allowed to cover the event as per normal practice.
The farmhouse included a restaurant, a cinema house and an auditorium. “The KESC did not name Sheikh in this regard as none of the five meters was registered under his name; but the media might have obtained his link to the place through other sources, if any,” the power utility said.
The reasons for the disconnection included non-payment of an accumulated outstanding amount of Rs 6.138 million against the five meters up to December, forceful resistance and violent behaviour by the employees at the farmhouse during past disconnection attempts; forceful continuation of domestic power tariff even though the place was being used on commercial basis; enhancement of the allocated 94KW load to over 1,000KW load without prior permission under the laws and NEPRA rules; undertaking of major construction activity at the place without any legal temporary connection with no proof of using generator either and illegal use of direct low-tension power supply in parallel while bypassing the meters in addition to the PMT-based bulk power supply.
The KESC expressed “surprise” over the fact that Sheikh had earlier publicly disowned the farmhouse but was now protecting it.