Karachi — The Sindh High Court on Friday directed K-Electric to submit its response on complaints of unannounced load shedding across various parts of Karachi, after a petition was filed by the Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi.
During the proceedings, the bench first heard arguments on the maintainability of the petition. K-Electric’s counsel maintained that the Supreme Court had earlier ruled that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) must be consulted on technical matters such as load shedding. He added that multiple factors, including line losses, contributed to the outages.
Justice Iqbal Kalhoro, however, expressed concern over the hardships faced by paying consumers. He remarked that those who regularly clear their bills and do not engage in electricity theft deserve uninterrupted supply. “If even one household in a street is paying its bill, it should not be subjected to unnecessary suffering,” he observed.
The court also questioned why K-Electric had not introduced a prepaid card system, which would prevent misuse and theft. Justice Kalhoro noted that while such a system might take up to five years to fully implement, “the process has to begin at some point.”
Responding to the court’s observations, K-Electric’s lawyer said the utility had taken several steps to curb theft since privatization. He cited the installation of ABC cables, which he said were designed to block illegal connections, though “propaganda” later emerged alleging that the copper from these cables was being sold off. According to him, nearly 70 percent of the city is already exempt from load shedding.
The court suggested that a new system should be designed to ensure that electricity cannot be used without a prepaid mechanism. K-Electric’s counsel assured the bench that the proposal would be forwarded to the relevant authorities for consideration.
