SHC reserves judgment on plea filed in 2005 against K-Electric’s privatisation

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a petition against privatisation of the K-Electric and transfer of the company’s shares and administrative control to a Dubai based company.

The electricity utility’s labour union had challenged the company’s privatisation in 2005, contending that the process for privatising the organisation, then Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, was carried out in violation of Article 154 of the constitution, as neither prior approval of the Council of Common Interests was sought, nor was the process supervised or controlled.

The petitioner has also questioned the transfer of shares and administrative control of the public utility to a Dubai based company, Abraj Capital. The labour union contended that the Privatisation Commission kept everyone in dark about the exact terms and condition regarding the sale of KESC to the reconstituted Hasan Associates.

The petition maintained that the shares of the company were transferred without inviting a fresh tender or bid for selling the shares. The counsel of the petitioner further submitted that the KE’s current shares were now being sold to a Chinese company by the Abraj Capital.

The case has been pending in the SHC since 2005 and the commission had earlier submitted in its comments that the privatisation process of KESC was not conducted under any secrecy, and that all the major stakeholders of the company were consulted and kept abreast of all major development at every stage.

The commission had received a full price of US $265 million (Rs15.90 billion) and 73 per cent shares of KESC along with management control were transferred to the reconstituted Hasan Associates, in 2005.

The counsel for Abraj Capital submitted that the transfer of shares of KE to its company was done in accordance with the law and approval of the commission. Maintaining that the transfer of shares to a Chinese company is a business agreement between two companies that could not be challenged here, the counsel requested the court to dismiss the petition. The SHC bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi after hearing the arguments reserved its judgment.  

Solid waste and Malir River

A petition seeking complete ban on burning and dumping of solid waste in the Malir River near the Korangi Causeway was moved in the SHC.

Petitioners Yasir Khursheed and others, residents of Mehmoodabad, Air Force Housing scheme and adjacent areas, challenged the hazardous practice stating that it causes adverse impacts on the environment and health of citizens.

They submitted that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Faisal Cantonment Board and other civic agencies are illegally dumping solid waste in the Malir River near the houses of the petitioners so as to embezzle funds allocated in their budgets for collection and disposal of garbage at designated landfill sites.

The burning of garbage releases pollutants that cause respiratory diseases including asthma, maintained the petition. Due to burning of solid waste the area’s people, especially children, are suffering from respiratory diseases, whereas many have been diagnosed with asthma, the petition further reads. The petitioners said that due to illegal acts of the civic agencies, lives of the residents were at great risk.

Citing the chief secretary, KMC, Solid Waste Management Board, Faisal Cantonment Board and Sindh Environmental Protection Agency and others as respondents, the court was requested to declare open burning of garbage a permanent threat for a locality, hazardous for public health and violation of fundamental rights.

They requested the court to declare Malir river bed used by the respondents for open burning of solid waste was illegal and amounts to play with the lives of the citizens and direct the chief secretary to impose ban on burning of solid waste in Malir river at Korangi causeway.