PESHAWAR: Having failed to corporatise the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation in the last three years, the ruling PTI is seriously considering to abandon its plans to convert the government-owned entity into an independent company.

The Pedo’s corporatisation was also opposed by its board in the Oct 25 meeting.

The information department later issued a statement claiming that in the meeting, most board members declared the corporatisation of the entity unworkable saying the proposed system was ‘against the basic rights and to be a conflict of interest’.

Energy organisation’s board also declares corporatisation plan unworkable

The statement declared that the board also voiced concerns about the slow pace of work on the ongoing hydel power projects and decided to act against those responsible for the delay.

It added that the corporatisation experiment, wherein professionals are hired from market on huge remuneration has also failed in other similar bodies’ setup in the province.

A board member requesting anonymity told Dawn that the energy and power secretary told the meeting that the corporatisation was not the way forward for the entity.

However, the board members told the secretary that the corporatisation of the entity had been on the board agenda in several meetings and only the Energy Apex Committee was competent enough to decide about it. They asked him to produce his viewpoint in writing.

The statement came in the wake of the sacing of Pedo’s chief financial officer Saeed Akhtar Chughtai on Oct 18 over ‘unseriousness, unprofessionalism and lack of interest’ in the company’s affairs.

The termination letter said Mr Chughtai had failed to offer advice on securing funding for energy projects, failing to furnish a plan for securing funding and entity’s unrealistic budget figures for 2018-19 among other things.

As Mr Chughtai has challenged his termination in the Peshawar High Court, the company’s board deferred decision on the matter due to litigation.

However, Mr Chughtai’s removal and official statement following the board’s meeting show that the government has changed its mind on the corporatisation of the entity formed to tap the province’s hydel power potential.

The decision to make a corporate body of the organisation was made during a meeting of the Energy Apex Committee in June 2015.

The meeting was attended by the current federal finance minister, Asad Umar, and then provincial energy minister Mohammad Atif Khan.

On July 7, 2015, the energy department moved a summary proposing the formation of the provincial power holding company.

Thereafter, the provincial government hired a large number of professionals from market on huge salaries. However, the effort met a stumbling block as the entity’s permanent employees challenged the appointment of its then chief executive officer, Akbar Ayub, in the high court, which later declared his appointment null and void.

The provincial government later moved the Supreme Court, which upheld the PHC decision. The post of the Pedo CEO has been vacant since then and has been run on the ‘acting charge’ basis since then.

In March this year, a summary was moved incorporating some minor details. In it, the then secretary of energy and power department termed the corporatisation the most viable option.

However, since the current government took over, the energy department is understood to have moved another summary proposing the government to either go for corporatisation or otherwise. The emails exchanged between two senior officials and seen by Dawn also confirm it.

E&P secretary Mohammad Saleem Khan said the corporatisation was a ‘critical’ issue, which was currently under discussion.

He however said no decision had been made about it yet.

Regarding the summary proposing to make corporatisation optional, the secretary confirmed that it had been moved for approval.

Adviser for energy and power Himayatullah Khan expressed ignorance about the proceedings of the board meetings and said he was neither a board member nor was he in the city on the day the meeting took place.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2018