KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has asked the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to conduct a technical survey to ascertain whether the K-Electric (KE) has improved its infrastructure, as claimed before the court.

The direction came as a two-judge bench comprising Justice Muhammad Faisal Kamal Alam and Justice Muhammad Hasan Akber took up a petition against prolonged loadshedding in the city, filed by nine chairmen of as many town municipal corporations (TMCs) and a member of the City Council of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI).At the outset of the hearing on Friday, counsel for KE filed a counter-affidavit along with documents, claiming that the power utility had made improvements in electricity supply to its consumers.

Nepra officials, along with their counsel, appeared in court and submitted that a penalty of Rs50 million had earlier been imposed on KE.

They sought additional time to submit their comments.

However, the court was also informed that the appeal regarding the penalty was currently sub judice before the appellate tribunal under Section 12G of the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997 (Nepra law).

After hearing all sides, the bench directed the appellate tribunal to decide the appeal within four weeks. It also asked Nepra to undertake a technical survey to ascertain whether KE had improved its infrastructure.

`Nepra should also undertake a tech-nical survey that whether during the years, K Electric has improved its infrastructure as claimed by its counsel today, for the betterment of the city of Karachi and other areas, where K-Electric is supplying the electricity,` the order reads.

The court observed that the metropolis continued to face prolonged power outages, particularly during the summer months, which added to the miseries of the residents of Karachi.

It further remarked that this persistent issue must be addressed by both the KE and Nepra.

`We may observe that the basic of privatisation is that the state owned entity (SOE) once privatised would and should operate in an efficient and feasible manner, all the more, when the entity is tasked with the generating, transmitting and distributing of electricity, which is a public utility service,` it added.

Meanwhile, the court also allowed Nepra`s request for additional time and directed it to submit its comments within10 days and adjourned the hearing till Aug 12.

`KE will remain available for any technical surveys` Later in the evening, a spokesperson for the KE said in a statement that the power utility received the court`s order and it `will remain available for any technical surveys`.

It said that during the hearing of the case related to loadshedding in Karachi, the KE submitted before the bench that 70 per cent of its network was exempted from loadshedding.

Following privatisation, KE had invested over $4 billion in its infrastructure and as a result of this investment, distribution losses had been halved and the customer base had doubled, the statement added.

It claimed that loadshedding was carried out only in areas with high electricity theft and losses.