Karachi bearing the brunt of K-Electric's monopoly: SC

KARACHI: Hearing a case regarding load-shedding and electrocution deaths at the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry on Thursday, Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed took K-Electric to task over power cuts.

K-Electric cut off power supply to half of Karachi yesterday, just a day after it was directed to end load shedding, he observed. “Are they in their right minds,” the chief justice censured the power company’s CEO.

K-Electric’s lawyer told the judges that power wasn’t cut off. “People die and they [K-Electric] go and get bail from the high court,” the chief justice remarked. “This is a matter of people’s lives. We will not leave them at their mercy.”

CJP Gulzar said people of Karachi are bearing the brunt of the power company’s monopoly.

The NEPRA chairman complained to the bench that K-Electric gets a stay order from courts whenever action is taken against it. Advocate Faisal Siddiqui said if action was taken against K-Electric earlier, people wouldn’t have died of electrocution this year.

The chief justice further observed that people don’t have water, power or any place to live in Karachi but government officials are enjoying themselves as nothing matters to them.