ISLAMABAD: The Public Accou­nts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday annulled the recruitment of more than 2,000 assistant linemen in Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and issued orders for initiation of a fresh recruitment process in a transparent manner.

“The inductions in Pesco are completely illegal. Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat, Peshawar, Malakand, Hazara Division have been ignored when vacancies were advertised and merit has been overlooked,” said PAC chairman and Member of National Assembly (MNA) Noor Alam Khan.

According to an investigation report presented to the committee, Pesco had advertised 2,605 positions of assistant linemen (ALM) and the induction was finalised by conducting scrutiny and fulfilling the procedure.

The report said that the appointm­ent letters were issued in Feb­ruary 2022 to a total of 2,044 selected candidates.

Meanwhile, complaints were received against appointments claiming that all candidates were allegedly selected holding a domicile of the same district.

The report said Pesco, while advertising the vacancies did not mention district-wise allocation, rather it was mentioned that 1,954 posts of ALM would be filled on open merit for competing candidates with domiciles of various districts under the operational jurisdiction of Pesco.

This clarification was given only for the purpose that after the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) merger with Khyber Pakhtun­khawa, candidates of erstwhile Fata districts could be facilitated.

Written tests were conducted but the decision to issue appointment letters on the basis of a specific domicile of the district was taken in February, which changed the completion of the induction.

The PAC chairman, in light of findings of the investigation team and on the basis of facts explained in the report, annulled all appointments and ordered officials to initiate legal action against those involved in the alleged scam.

“The promotions of these officials should be stopped and this direction should go down in their annual confidential reports (ACRs) in red ink,” said Noor Alam Khan, who directed that all vacancies be filled following proper criteria.

The committee also expressed displeasure over performances of all electric distribution companies, adding that they had failed to make recoveries causing losses to the exchequer that ran in billions.

The PAC was informed that Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), had failed to recover more than Rs108 billion from 563,700 energy defaulters, mostly domestic consumers.

The committee was also informed that 411,177 consumers of all categories defaulted to pay energy charges of more than Rs93 billion. The equipment removal orders were issued but not implemented.

However, members said that companies had no right to remove meters and transformers, which were properties of consumers who had paid for their installations.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2022