SHC moved against auction of water hydrants in Karachi

A petition was filed in Sindh High Court on Monday seeking injunction against the auction of six water hydrants in different parts of Karachi.

Petitioner Moulvi Iqbal Haider submitted that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board had issued an advertisement for the auction of six hydrants in each district of the city for two years on an offer rates basis from interested contractors or firms and this would make water more expensive instead of improving the city’s distribution infrastructure.

He submitted that water board authorities were bound to supply clean water to the citizens and they had failed to perform their duties and function specially towards supplying water to those areas where pipelines were narrow and needed to be replaced.

He submitted that the KWSB, instead of improving its supply infrastructure and its sewerage system, was focusing on tankers and hydrants on the behest of or in connivance with the tanker mafia and the move would make water more expensive.

The six tenders will generate Rs4.2 billion per year for the water board.

The petitioner submitted that helpless citizens were compelled to buy water costing up to Rs4,000 per tanker, and by awarding the contracts of hydrants, their entire control would be handed over to the winning candidates, who will sell water at the rate of mineral water, which cannot be permitted under the law. Therefore, he added, the invitation of tender notices through publication was unjust, unfair and illegal.

The petitioner further mentioned that the KWSB authorities had misinterpreted the Supreme Court’s order ass the six hydrants were committed by the board’s managing director and could be operated only in case of an emergency such as heat wave in the city last year.

He submitted that another provision made in the tenders, according to which the six hydrants would not be operated by the KWSB but will be given to a contractor for operation, raised the question as to how could the water board control theft.

He submitted that main purpose of the apex court’s suo moto proceedings was to ensure that the KWSB supplied line water to citizens and stop supply through tankers, but the respondents instead of improving the infrastructure, illegally inviting tenders for the auction of hydrants which was illegal and in violation Article 37 and 38 of the Constitution.

He submitted that there was no provision that allowed citizens buying tankers and the commercialisation of water supply was against the law

The petitioner requested the court to direct the KWSB to focus on supplying water through pipelines by improving is infrastructure instead of forcing citizens to buy the water from the hydrants at expensive rates.

 

May 12 case

The SHC issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers on an application seeking reopening and constitution of a larger bench to hear the May 12 violence case.

The court was hearing the application of Syed Iqbal Kazmi, who submitted the high court had restored his petition regarding the May 12 case and directed police to provide protection to him.

Kazmi stated in the application that he had survived an assassination attempt in June 2012 besides his nephew, cousins and other associates had been killed in terrorism incidents because of filing the May 12 violence case.

He submitted that he had been forced to withdraw the petition when he was in a jail. “I was implicated in false cases at the behest of the previous government,” he said.

He further submitted that former president Pervez Musharaf had imposed emergency in November 2007 and to prevent the judges from hearing the May 12 case, he had deposed several judges of the SHC, including judges of the larger bench, who were hearing the May 12 case.

He submitted that supporters of the Muttahida Quami Movement had besieged the high court premises to create hurdles in the court proceedings of the May 12 case.

He requested the court to reconstitute a full bench to hear the case and necessary protection be provided to him and his family.

Narrating the incidents of violence on May 12, the petition says that the then home secretary and the Sindh IGP had violated the court’s order for the provision of security to the then chief justice of Pakistan during his visit to Karachi.

It adds that mobs had laid siege to buildings of the Sindh High Court and the city courts, and manhandled lawyers. It says that the government had failed to protect the life, liberty, freedom of movement and other fundamental rights of citizens.  Thee petitioner requested the court to initiate contempt proceedings against then home adviser Waseem Akhtar for issuing derogatory remarks against the chief justice.

More than 50 persons were killed in violence and armed attacks on political parties and lawyers’ rallies that wanted to welcome then the chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, during his visit to Karachi on May 12, 2007.