LAHORE: The Senate Standing Committee on Power has expressed displeasure over the power division for not satisfying it over the appointment of the members and constitution of the boards of directors (BoDs) for power distribution companies and other power-related state-owned entities. The committee postponed its proceedings after a senior official of the power division didn’t behave with the participants well.

In a recent meeting presided over by Senator Saifullah Abro, power division representative Musaddiq Ahmed Khan (additional secretary) briefed the participants about the selection process of the members of board. Members are appointed according to rules of securities exchange commission of Pakistan under which they must be enrolled with Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance and have expertise of different fields.

“The chairman asked the question as these are higher level appointments made for three year, whether or not advertisement has been given for the hiring of the members of the board. The power division AS replied that the procedure for hiring is not laid down anywhere and only the eligibility criteria is there. Senator Fida Muhammad said if newly-appointed BoD are serving on multiple boards of DISCOs. The AS replied that according to the corporate governance rules, they can be a member of not more than six boards at a time,” read the meeting’s minutes.

However, the chairman, according to minutes, was of the view that these rules can be applied only in corporate side and not the public sector companies.

“The committee wants these members to perform while serving in the boards. If there is any change required in the law, the committee will ensure to bring amendment to the law”, the minutes quoted the chairman as having said.

The committee showing displeasure over the briefing was of the view that even for the appointment of a peon or daily wager, an advertisement is repeated 10 times but no interviews are being taken for the appointments on higher level.

The committee added that in the Sukkar Electric Power Company (Sepco) board, the chairman is 82 years old meaning that the whole department seems to be inefficient. “The AS power division admitted that there is no employee capable enough to be appointed as member/chairman of the Sepco board”, reads the minutes.

The committee directed the power division to provide detail related to the total expenditure related all boards of Discos, Gencos (Generation Companies), the NTDC and other departments from date of formation along with appointment of their members.

The committee also questioned procedure related to the appointment of the NTDC managing director. The power division representative said the post fell vacant on April 14, 2020. The cabinet approved the name of Mr Azaz as MD, NTDC. The committee chairman asked how many applicants were there for the post. The NTDC representative replied that there were 47 applicants and they were shortlisted by consultants. The ministry sent the names of the four candidates for the approval to the cabinet. Due to the eligibility criteria, no in-service department employee was short listed. The power division representative also stated that there was no general manger eligible to be appointed as NTDC managing director. He said the new MD salary package was $15,000 per month while the MD on acting charge was given Rs280,000 per month.

The committee chairman also reprimanded the power division staff for not listening to the point of view of the members of the committee as he got offended by the queries. “The chairman committee said since there was a constant cross talk and interruption from the AS power division, the committee decide to postpone the meeting and deferred the agenda items to be further discussed in the presence of the secretary of power division in next meeting. The committee also directs the power division to provide a complete report on the appointment of new NTDC MD along with all documents from advertisement to summary approved by the cabinet) in the next committee meeting”, read the minutes.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2021