A retired education department employee has died after suffering a cardiac arrest at a Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) office in Charsadda amid a dispute over a Rs50,000 electricity bill, his family said.
The deceased, Noor Hassan, had gone to the PESCO office on Wednesday to complain about the bill, his son Noorullah told a private media outlet.
Noorullah said that his father suffered a heart attack after an argument with the meter reading section staffers. He claimed the bill worth Rs50,000 was served despite the meter showing “almost no reading”.
He further alleged that PESCO officials “ran away from the office” after his father suffered the cardiac arrest.
Noorullah later submitted an application to police seeking registration of an FIR [First Information Report] against the meter reader involved in the case. The accused was identified as one Fayyaz.
PESCO rejected the family’s claim of mistreatment. The Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) said that Hassan had already taken the electricity bill dispute to court.
According to the SDO, PESCO corrected the bill after the court’s decision and reduced the amount to Rs12,000.
The incident comes two months after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) raised concerns over overbilling by power distribution companies (DISCOs), with PESCO recording the second-highest amount after Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO).
At a PAC subcommittee meeting on July 23, audit officials reported that DISCOs had overbilled consumers by Rs47 billion in one month. LESCO accounted for Rs45 billion while PESCO accounted for Rs1.56 billion.
Audit officials told the meeting that 278,649 consumers received inflated bills.
They said lower-level DISCO employees who handled meter readings allegedly used their discretionary powers to manipulate readings and increase bills.
They further said that officials deliberately overbilled consumers who paid their bills to conceal electricity theft and line losses.
Consumers generally received refunds only after filing formal complaints.
