PHC directs Pesco to collect textile mills’ electricity bills in installments

PESHAWAR: A two-member bench of Peshawar High Court (PHC) here Thursday directed the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) to collect the electricity bills of textile mills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in installments.

The bench comprising Justice Qaisar Rasheed and Justice Nasir Mehfooz ruled that as the textile mills were closed in March and April due to the coronavirus oandemic in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the electricity bills of these months should be received in six equal installments from June to December.

Advocate Qazi Ghulam Dastageer represented the petitioner while deputy attorney general Mohammad Habib Qureishi and the Pesco lawyer argued the case on behalf of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Pesco, respectively.

The petitioner’s lawyer told the bench that the whole world was under the threat of coronavirus pandemic which had also adversely affected the trade and economy in Pakistan and like other industries the textile mills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had also closed down in March and April. “But the Pesco had sent electricity bills to the workers and employees of these mills at a time when the textile mills had closed their labour sections,” Qazi Datageer argued.

He prayed to the court to direct the Pesco authorities to give relief to the textile mills and receive the electricity bills in installments.

Justice Qaisar Rasheed said that the industrialists should cooperate with the government and announce special package for its employees during the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The bench directed the Pesco authorities to receive the electricity bills of the textile mills for the months of March and April in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in equal installments from June to December.