ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: The Ministry of Water and Power is concerned over non-compliance of its directives by Wapda and has expressed inability to defend the government in parliament owing to unilateral decisions of the utility on major policy issues.
“The minister and secretary of water and power are held answerable before various parliamentary committees and public accounts committee but the ministry, in fact, is never consulted by Wapda on major issues,” a senior official told Dawn.
The ministry is being bypassed in all major issues by Wapda and has even been deprived of its “post-office role”.
This has repeatedly been brought to the notice of the prime minister through a number of summaries and letters, the official said.
“How can you expect the ministry to show performance and deliver results when we do not have powers to question Wapda authorities or hold them accountable for their wrongdoings,” a senior official quoted Liaqat Jatoi as telling the prime minister recently.
The sources said the ministry had involvement in the decision-making process, particularly on issues like village electrification, transfer and posting of chief executives of corporate companies of Wapda, award of major contracts and corporatization of Wapda.
The situation has reached such a stage that Mr Jatoi has lost interest in his ministry and been spending most of his time in Sindh.
The ministry’s secretary has also been deprived of his role to take initiatives and restricted to perform only day-to-day administrative business, the sources said.
After thorough consultation with President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, multilateral agencies, and Wapda, the ministry had set a deadline of December 31, 2004, for extending complete independence to corporate companies of Wapda and shifting the headquarters of Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) to Islamabad.
However, Wapda did not allow power companies to function independently and the deadline was extended to June 30, 2005. One year down the road, the power companies continue to work under Wapda.
Similarly, Wapda continues to enjoy full authority over Pepco that was formed to act as an umbrella organization to transform power companies into independent entities. The ministry proposed early this year to appoint an independent chief executive of Pepco but the move was blocked by Wapda chairman.
The ministry has also challenged a unilateral decision of Wapda chairman to appoint Wapda’s member finance Imtiaz Anjum as chief executive of Pepco on additional charge basis without approval from the federal government.
