Punjab Assembly panel grills LESCO chief over overbilling, load shedding

LAHORE  –  A joint meeting of two Punjab Assembly committees on Tuesday took up complaints of electricity overbilling, hanging wires, load shedding and the treatment of consumers affected by accidents involving electricity infrastructure, with lawmakers pressing the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) to improve its response to public complaints. The meeting of the Law Reforms Committee and Special Committee No. 16 was chaired by Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, who said the session had been convened to address public grievances rather than hold a routine meeting. Members complained that consumers often had to visit several offices to get overbilling complaints resolved, with the speaker saying it could take months to correct an inflated bill. “Consumers have to go around three offices,” Mr Khan said, calling for a system under which complaints could be resolved at a single point rather than forcing citizens to repeatedly visit government offices. Lawmakers also raised serious concerns over hanging electricity wires, describing them as a “death trap” and demanding immediate action to remove them. “Hanging wires are inviting death,” the speaker said, urging LESCO to take measures to eliminate the danger. The committees also questioned the practice of imposing load shedding on entire feeders because of electricity theft in particular areas. The speaker asked how it could be justified to cut power to an entire village because of the actions of a few electricity thieves. “Catch the electricity thieves, but why punish those who pay their bills?” he asked. Member Malik Ahmad Saeed Khan said it was unacceptable to penalise consumers who regularly paid their bills instead of taking effective action against those involved in electricity theft. Other members similarly questioned what fault lay with consumers who paid their bills regularly. The LESCO chief told the meeting that load shedding was linked to losses caused by electricity theft. He said feeders with zero losses were subjected to zero load shedding, while feeders with higher losses faced load shedding to recover losses caused by power theft. The explanation, however, failed to satisfy several lawmakers, who termed the existing load-shedding categories and mechanism inappropriate and questioned why compliant consumers should suffer for the actions of electricity thieves. The meeting also discussed complaints about electricity infrastructure and transformer repairs. Member Noor-ul-Amin Wattoo said residents sometimes collected money themselves to repair transformers but were subsequently booked by LESCO, raising concerns among the committee members. The speaker also sought details about compensation for victims of accidents involving WAPDA or LESCO infrastructure. The meeting was told that after an accident is reported, police conduct an investigation. Mr Khan and other members expressed concern over what they described as a complicated procedure for obtaining compensation in such cases and sought a simpler mechanism for affected families.

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The lawmakers also complained about difficulties in contacting LESCO officials to resolve problems in their constituencies. Samiullah Khan said he had tried twice to contact the LESCO chief but had been unable to establish contact.

Other members said they frequently received no response from LESCO officials when they contacted the company regarding public complaints.

The Additional Secretary Power assured the committee that LESCO officials would ensure timely communication in response to complaints in future. He said committees were also being formed at the level of executive engineers (XENs) to address electricity-related complaints.

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The speaker directed the LESCO chief to provide answers at the next meeting to all questions raised during the session, particularly those relating to prevention of electricity theft and the removal of hanging wires.

He said the government would have to find practical solutions to public complaints, whether this required setting up committees or ensuring that calls from elected representatives were answered.

“This is not just a meeting; it has been convened to resolve public problems,” the speaker said, urging officials to leave their offices and address people’s grievances on the ground.

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Law Minister Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan said the concerns raised by lawmakers should not be viewed as expressions of personal displeasure.

“This is not our anger; these are the complaints of the people,” he said.

The meeting was attended by Law Minister Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Samiullah Khan, Amjad Ali Javed, Mian Tanveer Aslam Malik, Ahmed Iqbal Chaudhry, Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Chaudhry Javed Ahmed, Uzma Kardar, Arif Mahmood Gill, Malik Ahmed Saeed, Ghazanfar Abbas, Ahsan Raza Khan, Rana Muhammad Arshad and Noor-ul-Amin Wattoo.

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Officials from the Punjab Energy Department, NEPRA and LESCO also attended. NTDC Board of Directors Chairman Dr Fayyaz Ahmed Chaudhry and National Grid Company Managing Director Islamabad also participated in the meeting.

LESCO Chief Ramzan Butt, Chunian XEN Tariq Bashir, SE Kasur Ahmed Shehzad and LESCO Chief Engineer Abbas Ali were among the officials present, while the Additional Secretary Power participated online and briefed the lawmakers.

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