JI moves SHC against Nepra officials over Karachi loadshedding order

KARACHI: Jamaat-i-Islami on Monday approached the Sindh High Court with a contempt application against officials of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), alleging they had failed to comply with an earlier court order on loadshedding in Karachi.

The application was filed by JI Karachi chief Munim Zafar through lawyer Usman Farooq. It named Nepra Chairman Waseem Mukhtar and Abid Hussain, adviser on consumer affairs at the regulator’s Karachi office, as alleged contemnors.

According to the application, the SHC had disposed of a petition on Nov 6 last year and directed Nepra to decide the matter of loadshedding within one month. The court had also ordered the authority to submit a compliance report through an SHC member inspection team.

The applicant argued that despite the passage of considerable time, neither a decision nor a compliance report had been submitted. He contended that this amounted to clear and blatant disobedience of the court’s order and said such conduct by the alleged contemnors was obstructing the administration of justice.

The plea further stated that the SHC’s clear and time-bound directions had been ignored without lawful justification, undermining the sanctity and effectiveness of judicial orders. The continued non-compliance had caused grave prejudice to the public, particularly Karachi residents facing persistent power outages during rising temperatures, and called for immediate court intervention through contempt proceedings.

Earlier petition and court order

The matter stems from a petition filed in June 2024 by Munim Zafar and two other JI leaders. In that petition, they had argued that K-Electric, which handles electricity generation, transmission and distribution in Karachi, was carrying out loadshedding for an average of 10 to 16 hours a day in different parts of the city.

However, the SHC dismissed that petition in November last year as not maintainable. The court said that in light of a Supreme Court order issued in October 2023 on the subject, the appropriate forum for redress was Nepra, which it described as a specialised forum with the powers to provide an adequate and efficacious remedy. Even so, the SHC directed the regulator to decide the matter within one month and submit a compliance report.

JI criticism of KE

Speaking to media persons on the SHC premises, Mr Zafar criticised KE’s performance and said Karachi residents were enduring prolonged outages despite paying the highest electricity tariffs and heavy taxes.

Referring to a Nepra decision issued in April 2024, he said the regulator had declared loadshedding illegal when carried out on the basis of theft and non-recovery of dues. He said Nepra had imposed a Rs50 million fine on KE and ordered uninterrupted supply.

Mr Zafar said this had been publicly stated by the power utility’s former chief executive officer.

He also pointed to the effect of the outages on students, saying ongoing matriculation examinations were being disrupted by long hours of loadshedding.

Further criticising the utility, he said KE had recovered Rs50 billion from consumers in 2025 on the basis of past recovery claims and was continuing to collect billions of rupees every month under operation and maintenance charges without improving services.