After the public received ridiculously high amounts of electricity bills during the last two months, they took their complaint to the streets and demonstrated their disgust regarding these bills. Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, taking notice of these protests, formed a federal commitee under the supervision of Adviser to PM on Water and Power Dr Musaddiq Malik to probe into the matter. The results that have come out of these investigations are shocking and disgusting. It turns out the power distribution companies (DISCOS), under the pressure of the power ministry to maximise revenues to reduce the country’s circular debt, overcharged the large chunk of electricity consumers without conducting accurate meter readings. The common law-abiding citizens who pay their bills properly instead of resorting to power theft were pulverised by the DISCOS through overcharging through the illegitimate use of the slab system. Concessional lower slabs were charged at higher slab rates. As ridiculous as it sounds, the government has clearly invited mocking itself. Numerous questions arise out of this unreasonable stunt pulled by the powers-that-be. If the word of the DISCOS be taken to be true, it directly calls the power and water ministry into question. What kind of technique is this to reduce the circular debt, which they say has been reduced from Rs 294 billion to Rs 233 billion (at the cost of excessive billing?). It is a well-known fact that the government itself is the biggest defaulter of electricity bills. So, instead of mending its own flawed payment procedures, it relied on illegal means to hide its inefficiency and the commoner as usual fell victim to this stunt. However, if the government is not involved in this saga and the power distribution companies did this on their own, then it is even more worrisome and requires the authorities to bring these erring officials to justice. Such blunders should not be tolerated at any cost. The incompetence of our system is not hidden from anyone where the fraudulent and powerful, despite being big power consumers, get away easily without paying the due bill. In spite of the appropriate decision by the federal cabinet to overcome this bungling by reversing the bills of August and make the necessary adjustments in the upcoming bills, it should not allow the culprits involved to escape this significant fraud that has invited such wide-ranging public anger. g Corruption cases dismissed In probably the first spot of good news for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in over a month, an accountability court has dismissed a number of corruption cases registered against him and his family. They have been rejected on the basis of being “politically motivated” and without merit. Certainly the premier has reason to smile now but the verdict needs some thorough introspection, not just in the light of the current socio-political situation but also the state of the judiciary and our ruling hierarchy. The cases concern the Hudaibiya Paper Mills, Ittefaq Foundry and Raiwind, with the Sharifs accused of depositing ill-gotten money in decoy accounts and using that money to pay off loans. These cases were registered against the Sharifs by General Pervez Musharraf in 2000 during his rule. That was a whole 14 years ago; why are we hearing of a quick conclusion now? Why has it taken so long for the court to judge so simply that the cases were politically motivated, a rather straightforward verdict. Granted, the Sharifs were in exile for a very long time but they returned to the country in 2007. Why did these cases not merit attention then? However, that still gave the courts more than enough time to get back to work. The problem here lies with the state of our justice system, a system that seems to move along at a snail’s pace. The court has said that there was a lack of witnesses and evidence from the prosecution’s side. Could this conclusion not have come sooner? Now that the Sharifs have been given a clean chit, just how much should one read into this verdict when there was hardly any case developed by the prosecution, whether for lack of proof, laziness or intimidation? Despite the lawyers’ movement in 2007, we have yet to see a justice system that can live up to what is expected from it. There are huge backlogs, pending cases, inability to build strong cases and late verdicts. This is not the judiciary the country stood up for seven years ago. These verdicts also come at a time when Nawaz Sharif and his brother are under intense pressure by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri precisely for such accusations of corruption. Whilst this may be a red-letter verdict for the Sharif clan, it certainly does not mean that all is well. The courts need to work in a timely manner and judge cases while they are fresh and a case can still be made. *