KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has reserved its verdict on a petition against extensive and widespread power outages carried by K-Electric in the metropolis. The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) lawyer had informed a two-judge bench of the Sindh High Court that it had received no complaints against K-Electric. The power-sector regulator will take action against K-Electric only if it receives any complaint, the counsel said leaving the judges shocked. Justice Irfan Saddat Khan, who headed the bench, became visibly irked over the statement of the Nepra’s counsel, remarking that it didn’t know that K-Electric had made the lives of people miserable. He questioned whether the regulatory authority was toothless that it was waiting for a complaint to act against the power utility? Had Nepra fulfilled its responsibility, the petitioners wouldn’t have taken pains to approach the court, he observed. The bench was hearing a petition filed by civil rights activists against prolonged and widespread load-shedding in the metropolis. During previous hearing, the court had censured K-Electric for being ineffective to reduce load-shedding and summoned its head to explain its failure. Advocate Faisal Siddiqui, who represented the petitioners, submitted that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) had earlier directed the power utility to stop unscheduled and prolonged load-shedding, however, it was going on unchecked. He said that the citizens of the metropolis, especially those living in poor neighborhoods were experiencing more difficulties due to power cuts. Karamat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research and other rights activists had petitioned the high court, seeking action against the power utility for carrying out load-shedding and charging excessive bills. The petitioners submitted that the power supply remained quite erratic in the city, yet the power utility issued excessive bills to the consumers. The regulatory body had consistently failed to discharge its duties to take action against K-Electric for that illegal act, they alleged. They said the power utility was unable to regulate power supply to the metropolis as it was carrying out unannounced and prolonged load-shedding. They said the minister for water and power had asked NEPRA to look into the matter and fix new tariff, besides reimbursing the excessively charged amount to the consumers, but the regulatory body had failed to comply with the orders. The petitioners requested the court to form a judicial commission to probe the issue of excessive billing and prevent the power utility to stop power cuts.