ISLAMABAD: The crucial position of managing director of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) — a one-window facility to process power sector investments — has fallen vacant when a special task force on energy sector reforms is taking off.

Informed sources said the post fell vacant last week on the expiry of three-year contract of Shahjahan Mirza, but the government — both power division and the PPIB — did not process the case for his replacement well in time.

Under the rules, the process for induction against a government position from the private sector should begin three months before the vacancy of the post as to ensure expiry of the outgoing and incoming officer on the same day.

The sources said the power division had now forwarded a request to the prime minister for extending the contract of Mr Mirza until the completion of the process for fresh appointment. Along with it, approval for an advertisement has also been sought to invite fresh applications.

Special task force on energy sector reforms is set to kick-start work

When contacted, spokesman for the PPIB Sami Rafi Siddiqui said the process for hiring a managing director of the board was required to be started by the power division being a government position. He said the PPIB had informed the division quite in advance about the vacancy. The federal cabinet has to approve the appointment on completion of the selection process by the authorities concerned.

Last time, the advertisement for the position was designed in a manner that attracted fewer applications and restricted competition. The advertisement offered a management pay scale (MP-1) to the candidates envisaging about Rs500,000 per month remuneration instead of a market-based package to attract private sector professionals.

Once Mr Mirza, already officiating as acting MD, was hired on a three-year contract, a case was moved to the board of directors of the PPIB to enhance his package worth about Rs2 million per month. The board, having overwhelming influence of the power ministry, approved the proposal. A market-based package worth Rs2m in the advertisement could have attracted greater number of private sector applicants.

The sources said Mr Mirza had been assured by an influential member of the proposed task force on energy about his extension for the time being and then on a permanent basis through the process.

The cabinet division has separately moved a summary to the federal cabinet to set up a task force on energy reforms led by Nadeem Babar, an influential player of the independent power producers and a member of the IPPs Advisory Council — a lobbying forum.

Interestingly, the proposed eight-member task force does not include an expert from the hydropower sector, even though major focus of private sector investments is proposed on water sector projects instead of thermal power of which Mr Babar is the key player.

The proposed task force also included former federal secretary Ashfaq Mehmood. He has been assisting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on energy sector issues. Another member of the panel is Akbar Ayub, former chief of Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation, who was removed from the position by the Peshawar High Court for not being qualified for the post.

Other members include Shaheryar Lodhi, a capital market player; Shahid Than, managing director of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company; and Mansoor Ghayyur, manager of United Energy Petroleum, besides federal secretaries of power and petroleum.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2018