PESHAWAR: The Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) will pay a fee from Rs8 million to Rs10 million to the country’s top legal firm to plead its case of retaining the services of its former chief, whose appointment by the KP government was declared illegal by the Peshawar High Court.

In light of the court’s judgment, the government had terminated the services of the former Pedo chief executive officer, Akbar Ayub, last month.

The high court on June 6, 2017, had declared Pedo chief executive officer Mr Ayub’s appointment illegal, ruling that the process of appointment of the Pedo CEO was a violation of merit and that he even should not have been shortlisted for the post.

Mr. Ayub had on June 15 obtained a 60 days reprieve from the court so that he can challenge PHC decision in the apex court and provincial government had conditionally terminated his services on Aug 24 after he submitted his civil petition for the right of appeal (CPLA).

Legal firm’s bills await energy, power secy’s approval

KP secretary for energy and power department has been given additional charge of Pedo chief.

On August 25, a day after the provincial government issued Mr Ayub’s termination letter, an Islamabad-based legal firm, Sajjad Law Associates, sent two invoices worth Rs8.4 million to Pedo chief financial officer Saeed Akhtar Chughtai.

One invoice valuing Rs6.5 million was about ‘professional charges for consultation, drafting and appearance on behalf of Pedo in the appeal before the Supreme Court against the judgment of the PHC’, while the other amounted to Rs1.9 million for ‘professional charges for legal opinion on the question whether Pedo is a government department in terms of a previous Supreme Court judgment.’

The provincial government has filed the CPLA before the apex court through provincial advocate general Abdul Latif Yousafzai, while Sajjad Law Associates would represent Pedo in the same case.

A senior government official criticised the payment of a huge amount of money for a person, who was no longer in the service of the KP government.

Another source told Dawn that the amount had yet to be paid to the legal firm and would be paid after the approval by the secretary of the energy and power department, which oversees the Pedo.

He however said the Pedo board met a day after PHC disqualified Mr Ayub, and approved the litigation charges amounting to Rs8-Rs10 million.

The source claimed that the energy and power secretary and another board member Latif Khan opposed the hiring of the private counsel for the retention of Mr Ayub.

He added that Mr Latif told the meeting that during the course of government service, he was once suspended and that he paid the litigation fee against it by himself.

The minutes of the board’s meeting available with Dawn read that the board decided and directed the Pedo management to peruse the legal course of action (appeal) at the apex court level and engage the services of a reputed legal counsel to contest that case and ensure the retention of Akbar Ayub as the Pedo CEO.

“The board further resolved and approved the cost associated with the litigation process,” it said, adding that the cost would be estimated to be around Rs8 million to Rs10 million.

The same meeting also approved amendments with retrospective effect to the Pedo Act to give legal cover to the CEO appointment.

The energy and power minister and secretary weren’t available for comments, while Pedo board chairman Sahibzada Saeed Ahmad didn’t respond to calls and messages sent on his cellphone number.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2017