Islamabad - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Saturday filed a petition before Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the over-billing of the electricity bills by the federal government and demanded of the court that this action of the departments concerned should be declared null and void.
Three senior leader of PTI including Asad Umar, Dr Shireen Mazari and Dr Arif Alvi filed a petition before Islamabad High Court against the inflated electricity bills. The petition says tat the government/respondents are over-billing its consumers and issuing unjustified and inflated bills to maximise revenue.
The federal government last month had issued excessive bills to power consumers that resulted into the public protests at small levels and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had taken up this matter in the cabinet meeting.
The petitioners have made the secretary ministry of water and power, chairman Nepra, chairman WAPDA, chairman PEPCO and 11 other electricity distribution companies as respondents in the case.
The petitioners claimed that increase in electricity rates was not only discouraging new investment and industrialisation in the country but it would also hit exports and decrease employment opportunities.
According to the petitioners, the people of Pakistan are forced to come out and sleep in the outdoor because of prolonged power outages. Despite massive loadshedding, the people are made to pay full electricity bills much above the power consumption that are an explicit malpractice on part of the respondents, the petition says.
The petitioners have prayed to the court to declare excessive billing as unlawful, null and void and without jurisdiction. The government should be asked to refund the collected excessive amount to the consumers and the legal action should be taken against the responsible officials.
The petition has been filed through counsels Farrukh Dall, Qaiser Shah and Fatima Hasan Gilani.