PESHAWAR: Opposition lawmakers on Thursday criticised the provincial government over a controversy surrounding the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo).

During the debate on supplementary budgets, all those spoke on the floor of the house touched on the controversy, pitching KP energy and power minister Mohammad Atif Khan and Pedo chief executive officer Akbar Ayub against Shakeel Durrani, chairman of the organisation’s board of directors.

KP chief minister Pervez Khattak accepted Mr. Durrani’s resignation as the Pedo BoD chairman.

In his speech, opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman drew the house’s attention to the spat between the BoD chairman with ministers and organisation’s head.

He said Mr. Durrani had resigned from his position while charging the provincial government for failing to do proper planning.

ANP leader says govt should probe Durrani’s allegations instead of being jittery

Mr. Rehman said the PTI government in its third year was succumbing to the temptation of blaming previous governments.

“This government has been in power for the third consecutive year so it’s inappropriate to blame others for its problem,” he said.

ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak asked the government to investigate Mr. Durrani’s allegations instead of being jittery.

He said the Pedo board members had resigned along with their chairman.

The ANP leader said the government was handing over the province’s assets to private companies to please some people.

He said it was not the opposition but the government, which had appointed Mr. Durrani as the Pedo BoD chairman.

“It has become the defining point of the PTI government to start fighting its handpicked functionaries after they have been into office for around four months,” he said.

PML-N lawmaker Raja Faisal Zaman said Shakeel Durrani was an honest person.

In a reference to Mr. Durrani’s allegation of inefficiency being rampant in Pedo, he said inefficiency was also a form of corruption.

PPP lawmaker Saleem Khan criticised the energy and power department for making a token money allocation for Lawi hydropower project in Chitral and other projects.

He said the Lawi project’s estimated cost was Rs21 billion and the government had allocated just ‘10 rupees’ for it, while another project valuing Rs21 billion also got the same allocation.

Energy and power minister Mohammad Atif Khan said the government had policy related differences with Mr. Durrani.

He said the government had planned the corporatisation of Pedo and also decided to pick up competent people from market but Mr. Durrani being a former bureaucrat was opposed to the idea.

The minister said Mr. Durrani was opposed to micro-hydel project wanted the large-scale project, while the department was interested in MHPs.

He said the government told Mr. Durrani that the department was already executing major projects and that MHPs would benefit the off-grid communities in remote parts of the province.

The minister said the government had differences over salaries of Pedo corporate officials and that there was always salary differential in public and corporate sector.

He said Mr. Durrani was also unhappy with the current pace of work and said he had remained the Wapda chairman for around five years, which was the worst managed and corrupt entity in the country.

The minister said Mr. Durrani should do a little self-accountability of what he had achieved as the Wapda chairman.

He said he would take Mr. Durrani to the court if he accused him of corruption.

The minister insisted the cost escalation of a project was not illegal.

He said Pesco and NDTC were not lying down transmission lines for two completed projects despite the repeated requests of the provincial government.

The members also criticised the spending under the Rs26 billion supplementary budget and said it reflected the government’s ‘weak planning system.’

The MPAs criticised allocations for the Billion Tree Tsunami programme and other projects and said hefty sums of money diverted from other areas were hurting the province.

Special assistant to the CM for information Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani condemned the murder of popular qawwal Amjad Sabri.

The house also offered Fateha for the deceased.

The session was later adjourned until Friday afternoon.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016