The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday ruled that every house in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's (KP) Afghan refugee camps should be provided its own electricity metre in order to curtail power theft.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Dost Muhammad, heard a case regarding the provision of electricity to Afghan refugee camps in the province.
The bench concluded that every house in the refugee camps should be given its own electricity metre in an effort to curb the number of illegal electricity connections in those localities.
Justice Dost Muhammad lamented the increase in the power tariff, saying that there appeared to have been a rise in illegal connections "once the price of electricity reached Rs14 per unit".
He added: "When [affordable] electricity will be out of people's reach, what will people do but steal it through illegal power connections. Circular debt worth Rs400 billion haunts every citizen here."
Justice Dost Muhammad also expressed disappointment over the state of Afghan refugee camps in KP.
"One should take a look at the state of these camps; Afghan refugees are not given proper rights or facilities in this country... Even though they have been given special status under United Nations conventions."
"In 2012, the court ordered that the migration of Afghan refugees into other localities should be controlled. However, that order was not heeded," the judge observed.
He explained that Afghan refugees move out of refugee camps into other localities in search of better facilities.
As a result of this resettlement, "people of those communities faced difficulties and asked that these refugees leave the country within two months," he claimed.
