Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Wednesday ordered the federal government to file a substantial reply on petitions against the power outages.
The court ordered that a substantial reply be filed till October 11, otherwise, the Water and Power secretary would have to appear before the court in person.
The court also sought a reply from LESCO, GEPCO and NTDC on private housing societies being exempted from loadshedding. The chief justice passed orders on various petitions against loadshedding filed by judicial Activism Panel, Muhammad & Ahmad and Rizwan Gill.
Earlier, the federal government’s counsel informed the court about reasons for observing loadshedding. The counsel pointed out that a sum of Rs 16 billion had been given to IPPs and they would produce electricity according to their capacity.
He mentioned that the federal cabinet had approved a draft of bill against electricity thieves and special tribunal would be constituted under it.
However, the court expressed dissatisfaction on submissions made by the counsel and observed that a substantial reply had not been given regarding court queries on the matter.
The chief justice ordered government to submit a substantial reply by October 11. The petitioner’s counsel pointed out that loadshedding was not being observed in a private housing society located in Gujranwala. The hearing was adjourned till October 11.
