K-Electric’s plea upheld

The reconstruction of Shahrah-e-Noor Jehan halted after court’s order 

KARACHI: The reconstruction of the Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan from Abdullah College, which had begun after the rejection of an application of K-Electric demanding Rs 390 million for shifting its underground cables, has again been halted as a division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) has suspended the order of a single judge that had given a go-ahead for the construction of road.

Upon the issuance of written order of the division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Abbasi, the K-Electric also moved a contempt of court application against the manager of the project alleging that despite court’s order for halting the construction, the work on the road continued; damaging the underground cables in the process.

Issuing the notices of the contempt application, the division bench issued notices to the Sindh government and project manager and also directed the K-Electric to present a comprehensive plan for shifting of cables. Meanwhile, the court held that the interim order for halting the road construction would continue till the next hearing.

After much hue and cry of the area residents a couple of months earlier, the Sindh Government had finally decided to reconstruct the Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan from the Abdullah College to the Qalandria Chowk area near North Nazimabad, but the power supplier of the city intervened and refused to shift its underground cables unless it gets paid for the shifting cost. Upon outright refusal of the contractor, the K-Electric filed a lawsuit at the SHC for an immediate halting of the construction of the road. The contractor of the project on September 16, wrote letter calling upon the K-Electric to address the issue relating the underground electric cables. In reply, the K-Electric estimated the cost of relocating the underground electric cables at rupees 390.48 million and asked the project manager to pay the same, and immediately stop the construction work.

Along with the lawsuit, the K-Electric had filed a miscellaneous application mentioning that despite its warning the defendants continued construction of the road which it pleaded the court to halt until the payment of the shifting cost.  The counsel for K-Electric had argued before Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry of the SHC that under clause 3.1.1 of the Consumer Service Manual, the cost of relocating underground electric cables has to be borne by the defendants – Sindh Government and its contractor.

On the other hand, the project manager had stated that the cables were reveled upon excavation and thus the amount demanded by K-Electric was not envisaged in the project cost. The cables have been laid haphazardly without following Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). Had the K-Electric followed the SOP, they would have known the location of the cables underneath before commencing construction, and would have made arrangements with the K-Electric beforehand.

The projected manager had submitted that the K-Electric was not required to relocate the cables but only to align them in a channel on one side and for these reasons the defendants were not liable to make any payment to the K-Electric. On hearing the matter, the counsel for K-Electric was asked by the judge whether the K-Electric can, for now, address the exposed electric cables without prejudice to its claim for costs from the defendants, however, the counsel replied, the K-Electric is bound by the Consumer Service Manual.

Noting that there was a stalemate as the K-Electric was not willing to shift or align its underground electric cables until it was paid the cost estimated, and the defendants were not willing to pay such cost stating that they are not liable while the construction of a main road was lying in limbo to the inconvenience and risk of the public, Justice Chaudhry asked the parties to file documents.