The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled that power sector employees have no legal right to free electricity units as part of their employment. The court upheld a government policy replacing free electricity units with direct cash payments for eligible power sector staff.
Justice Malik Javed Iqbal Wains issued the fourteen-page written judgement on Friday, dismissing the petition brought by affected employees. The ruling confirmed a federal government notification, originally issued on 5 December 2023, which introduced the monetisation policy.
That notification applied specifically to officers in grade 17 and above working within the power sector across the country. The court stated that free electricity units were a service-related benefit and not a permanent entitlement protected under Pakistani law.
It further ruled that such administrative benefits could be amended or withdrawn by the government at any time through policy changes. The judgement found no violation of fundamental rights had been established by the petitioners in their legal challenge to the policy.
Petitioners failed to provide any legal basis proving that free electricity units formed a guaranteed or statutory part of their salary. The court also found no law or rule that required the government to supply free electricity units to these power sector officers.
It described the facility as an administrative concession, meaning it existed at the discretion of the government and not as a right. The court ruled the policy change did not constitute discrimination, as grade seventeen officers form a distinct and separate service cadre.
It added that the policy was grounded in reasonable financial considerations relevant to managing the government’s overall fiscal discipline. The court further held that monetisation was a necessary administrative step to bring greater financial discipline to the public sector.
It clarified that employees’ overall pay had not been reduced, since the benefit was now being provided in cash rather than units. The judgement also stated that courts could not interfere in financial and administrative decisions that fall within the executive’s domain.
The petition had been filed by power sector employees challenging a decision of the federal cabinet’s energy committee on the matter. They argued free electricity units were part of their contractual salary, a claim the court rejected in its detailed written judgement.
The court rejected claims of constitutional violations under Articles four, nine, and twenty-five of Pakistan’s Constitution as unsubstantiated. Assistant Attorney General Malik Tanveer Ahmed Awan represented the federation and assisted the court throughout the legal proceedings.
