PESHAWAR: Employees of a hydropower project in Malakand, including senior engineers, on Wednesday demanded of the provincial government to regularise their services and revoke the contract given to a private company.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club, the Makaland-III Hydro Power Plant Engineers Association general secretary Munsif Shah said the project had been commissioned in 2002 and the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) had awarded its contract to a private company for construction, erection, operational maintenance and changing of oil in units at the plant.

Flanked by the project worker union president Maqsood ur Rehman, assistant plant managers Falak Naz, Rahmatullahn and others, Mr Shah said the project was vital for boosting the province’s economy, which had so far generated a hefty Rs22 billion since the project’s commission a decade ago.

He said a total of 232 staffers, including engineers, maintenance workers and others, were recruited on contractual basis at the plant, but due to lack of interest by the provincial government and Pedo, the project was still running through a private company which, he said, was against the constitution of the department.

Though, he said, the power plant was a profit-making project, it was now heading towards deficit under the current circumstances.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2017