THE advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meter was installed recently at my premises by the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) without any notice. Subsequently, I received a monthly bill of Rs213,548 for 4,300 units consumed in July compared to Rs18,038 in just the preceding month.

According to Hesco, the bill for July covered unit consumption of one-and-a-half months although I had received and paid in full the bill for June. I went to the sub-divisional officer (SDO), Jamshoro, to request him to provide me the details, including date and time of AMI meter installation, initial reading of the meter, and the technical inspection, testing and calibration report of the meter in question.

I also wanted to understand why I was supposed to pay the bill of one-and-a-half month when I had paid the full bill in the previous month. I wanted to confirm whether the installed meter was in order and that it was new. The SDO did not bother to listen to my concerns and simply asked me to submit an application to the clerk. I did so and returned.

I also submitted a request at the Roshan Pakistan mobile application to provide me an exemption from late charges as my complaint was pending and the deadline for bill payment was getting closer. The next day, I received a call from an official who was calling from a mobile phone. He insisted that I press the ‘matter resolved’ button on the mobile application. He was not interested in discussing the content of the complaint. I refused to do that.

For the next few days, the complaint status was shown on the application as ‘assigned to SDO’, and then as ‘assigned to EXEN’ till I received a message that my complaint had been ‘resolved’. To avoid any inconvenience, I was left with no other option but to pay the unjustified bill, which I did so.

I would like to ask the Hesco chief as well as the minister concerned what purpose, if any, online complaint portals serve when the complaints are marked ‘resolved’ without any proceedings. The authorities concerned should take action against Hesco officials in Jamshoro, and get the matter resolved at the earliest.

Salar Lateef
Jamshoro

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2026