December 13, 2006	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 21, 1427

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LAHORE, Dec 12: Ad hocism seems to be ruling the Water and Power Development Authority with almost half of its top management surviving on `extensions’, blocking the path of many and de-motivating rest of the cadre.

To begin with, Chairman Tariq Hamid himself leads the list of those working on extensions. He was to retire on Nov 12 after a three-year stint at Wapda, but was told to continue. He is awaiting an extension order any moment.

Mr Imtiaz Anjum, member (finance), belonging to the Central Board of Revenue (CBR), has been serving on deputation in Wapda. His contract with the authority expired earlier this month, but he has been granted an extension for a year.

The extension beneficiaries also include three general managers belonging to the army, who came to Wapda during previous management led by Lt-Gen (retired) Zulfiqar Ali Khan. All of them have been granted extensions in their stay in Wapda in varying degrees, and are still enjoying the privilege.

Brig Najamus Saqib (retired), general manager (administration), whose term was expiring April last, got an extension till April next. Similarly, Brig Mukhtar Ahmad (retired), general manager (monitoring and surveillance), was to quit Wapda in September last, but his stay has been extended till September next. Brig Mushtaq Ahmad (retired), general manager project (North), is also working on extension and so is Brig Saifullah Khan (retired), former chief executive of Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GepCo), who is currently working in Wapda House.

Mohammad Ajmal, general manager and personal staff officer (PSO) to the Wapda chairman, was to retire on Nov 5, 2005, but has got repeated extensions and is still working with the authority.

Mr Abdul Manan, general manager, Central Contract Cell (CCC), has also seen his `fortune’ winning him a one-year extension in his service when he was due to retire earlier this month.

Another gentleman, Dr Azharul Haq, general manager (Diamir Bhasha Dam, is currently on second extension after retiring from Wapda two years ago.

Mr Akram Arain, chief executive of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LesCo), who retired on Nov 5, 2006, was not only given an extension for a year, but also promoted a day before his retirement date.

Besides the officers in general manager rank, most of those in the chief engineers’ have either been given extension or they are expecting it. Asghar Ali Shah of Multan Electric Power Company (MepCo), who was to retire on Dec 2, has also been granted six-month extension.

“The most painful part of this saga is that different people have been promoted for all these posts at different times, but all have been denied postings,” says an official of the authority. For example, he says, at least three recently promoted officers are waiting for their posting as the CCC general manager, but none seems to be fortunate enough.

The officers, whose career growth had been blocked by these en mass extensions were not the only losers, he said and added: “The authority also loses heavily as it is not benefiting from their (officer’s) extensive experience. Instead, the management is dealing with a de-motivated lot, which is professionally harmful for Wapda. Most of the people who were, or will be promoted, as general managers are at the fag end of their career with massive experience. Depriving them of such prime posts at this stage of their career has worsened management and professional crisis in the authority.”