Prime Minister Anwarul Haq’s statement that only Wapda’s employees, including retired ones, get free electricity and no such facility is available for anyone else, including judges and generals, is not based on facts.
The prime minister appears to have been misinformed as not only the utility bills (including electricity bills) of the serving judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are paid by the government, but the retired ones also get free electricity up to 2000 units a month in case of an ex-SC judge and 800 units a month in case of a former high court judge.
Not only this, the serving president and prime minister enjoy free utilities, including free electricity, without any limits, but in the case of the ex-president, he is provided 2000 units a month of electricity at the cost of taxpayers’ money.
NAB chairman also enjoys the facilities like that of a Supreme Court judge, which includes free electricity. There is no confirmation of what the prime minister claims about service chiefs.
President’s Salary, Allowance and Privileges Act, 1975, as amended in 2018, says in Section 7 that the actual charges for electricity and gas consumption shall be paid each year to the president.