PESHAWAR - Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on Wednesday took a notice of the frequent power breakdowns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and sought reply from the PESCO chief as to why the company has failed in ensuring uninterrupted power supply to consumers during the holy month of Ramazan.
PESCO Chief Executive Dr Muhammad Amjad Khan informed the Chief Justice that infrastructure of the country is extremely poor which could not generate enough electricity while the existing demand is 3000 megawatt but they hardly produce 2100 megawatt.
The Chief Justice asked that why the infrastructure could not improve in last 20 years. The PESCO CEO replied that there was a huge lines loss in Tribal Areas, which put extra burden on production companies.
The CJ said that if the companies could not deliver then they should accept responsibility for failure. The PESCO chief said that minimum duration of loadshedding is three hours while the maximum loadshedding is upto eight hours and there are still some areas where 90 per cent line losses existed where loadshedding is carried out.
He said that WAPDA needs Rs five billion for next five years to improve infrastructure but they are receiving Rs 800 million annually.
The Chief Justice remarked that if there is a need then the public would arrange donations for you to improve the system. The CJ said that the people are suffering from power outage while PESCO officials are enjoying Iftari at their homes.
The Chief Justice said that if PESCO receives sufficient quota of electricity then why it could not be provided to the people. The Chief Justice directed all companies chiefs to appear in the court on Thursday (today) alongwith relevant records aimed to fix responsibility that who will improve the infrastructure.
