Lahore High court moved against unannounced outages

Lahore's High Court has been approached over unannounced power cuts, forced load management, recurrent tripping and low voltage in the city and Pakpattan, according to a lawyer's petition. Muhammad Irfan, representing Advocate Azhar Siddique, claims that numerous areas of Lahore endure eight to 10 hours of daily blackouts, while certain regions of Pakpattan suffer from 10 to 12 hours of continuous outages.

The petitioner argues that customers are billed for full electricity services despite being denied consistent power supply. He asserts that extended outages have a detrimental impact on water provision, food preservation, medication management, internet connectivity, remote learning, commercial activities and healthcare services.

The petitioner demands comprehensive, feeder-specific data on load shedding, encompassing load management parameters, recovery rates, line losses, tripping incidents, faults and restoration records. He also requests the court to instruct Lesco, Mepco and other pertinent agencies to release feeder-specific load shedding timetables.

Additionally, the petitioner asks Nepra to conduct an investigation into load management and feeder selection policies, bill adjustments, rebates or alternative legal remedies for consumers facing prolonged and documented outages. Interim relief seeks a court injunction halting unannounced, arbitrary and discriminatory load shedding, alongside an immediate disclosure of the reasons for power disruptions, except in genuine emergencies. This petition was filed in Dawn on September 2nd, 2026.