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KESC ends load shedding at water pumping stations
KARACHI: Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has immediately stopped conducting load shedding at water pumping stations of Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB) in compliance with Sindh High Courts interim orders passed on Tuesday.
In a statement, KESC said KWSB didn’t comply with SHC’s earlier orders passed in the same case HCA 60/2012 on Feb 28th 2013 & re-affirmed on Oct 23rd, 2013. It said it could not ever think of committing contempt of court.
Having limited resources, KESC cannot bear the burden of Rs 600 million to 650 million every month. KWSB has been defaulting upon for over five years on its payments, accumulating to Rs 25.2 billion. Therefore, KESC is consulting with their legal experts in order to explore all avenues to achieve recovery from KWSB including moving relevant applications for the urgent intervention by the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan.
KESC recalled that SHC had earlier in February and October 2013 authorized the power utility to disconnect power supply to KWSB installations in the event of default in paying its monthly power bills. While maintaining that KESC always respected the courts and it had followed all the legal steps including issuance of legal notices as well as public notices in the first week of November 2013 with a deadline of 18th November for KWSB to make up the defaults in current billing.
Unfortunately, KWSB had ignored all this and created an artificial water crisis in the city on ground of only four hour load shedding while they were getting 20 hours of electricity without any payment. KESC said it was KWSB which was committing contempt of court but not KESC.
PPI
Courtesy www.geo.tv