A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, taking suo motu notice of the loss of both arms of a seven-year-old boy of Faisalabad due to the electric shocks received from an unprotected power transmission line, has directed all electricity supply companies to formulate a unified policy to pay expeditious and reasonable compensation to all victims of loose, unprotected, worn out electricity transmission lines throughout the country.
In a landmark ruling the apex court has also directed Fesco's managing director to pay Rs 700,000 in compensation to the boy, arrange his treatment and education abroad and provide him job on completion of education. This ruling sets a good precedent, that can be evoked by people who may fall victim in future to the faulty supply lines of power distribution companies.
Victims of such accidents have so far had either inadequate or no redress because of lack of a clear compensation policy framework. They have therefore had to depend on their individual efforts to get compensation. Erratic power supply and short-circuiting have also caused burning of expensive appliances as well as fire outbreaks in residential and commercial areas, resulting at times in huge loss of life and property.
Prolonged power shutdowns and outages in Karachi over the last couple of weeks have prompted enraged citizens to attack KESC stations and customer service centres in many localities.
Furious mobs have attacked KESC stations in Liaquatabad, Gulbahar, Pak Colony, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Malir and North Karachi. According to the explanation offered by a KESC official, a breach in extra high-tension supply line at Quaidabad bridge had forced the shifting of extra load to other lines, causing the cables to heat up and trip the power supply.
Fatalities or injuries caused by electric shocks received because of unprotected or worn-out supply lines, power breakdowns followed by public protests or the hide and seek of electricity have almost become a routine affair in nearly all major urban centres of the country. The whole problem is essentially the result of bureaucracy's apathy, worsened by the lack of an accountable dispensation in the country.
Our planners have either failed to understand or pay adequate attention to the dynamics of urbanisation. Their policies have failed to keep pace with the growth of urban population, which has led to the mushrooming of katchi abadis, thereby further straining the worn-out civic infrastructure. (It is said that nearly half of Karachi's population is living in katchi abadis.) And illegal power connections (or kundas) which are responsible for serious wear and tear of power supply lines, are not restricted to the katchi abadis alone.
The situation can be extrapolated to other major urban centres of the country. Further, despite the unbundling of Wapda and the handing over of power generation and distribution functions to private companies, the old power distribution infrastructure essentially remains unchanged, while rapid rural-urban migration and high population growth rates have stretched the load-taking capacity of distribution networks almost to the limit.
According to an estimate, while Karachi's population rises at 6 percent per annum - far above the current national rate of 3.1 percent - civic services in the megapolis are expanding at a rate of only 1.2 percent.
There is a perception that the power sector at present is not up to the task of meeting the growing demand efficiently or reliably. The solution lies in tapping all untapped power generating sources in the country. The existing challenges include minimising the high technical and commercial losses, removal of bottlenecks in old transmission and distribution networks, and a phased replacement of the existing old and worn-out infrastructure.
The Supreme Court, by ordering the electric supply companies to formulate a comprehensive compensation policy for victims of their malfunctioning, has set a commendable precedent that will help bring order in the prevailing chaos.
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