PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa planning and development department has asked the transport and mass transit department to appoint the chief executive officer and chief financial officer to TransPeshawar, the operator of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit, as full-time employees.

TransPeshawar has been working without the permanent CEO since Feb this year after Fayyaz Khan quit the top post, while the position of the CFO fell vacant after the expiry of the contract of the incumbent, Safdar Shabbir Awan, in Oct this year.

In a letter to the transport secretary, the international development section of the P&D department noted that it would like to highlight the matter of “utmost importance” concerning the leadership positions at TransPeshawar.

“The transport department should take appropriate measures to hire full-time professionals for the positions of CEO and CFO at TransPeshawar. These roles are critical and integral to the success of the project and having dedicated individuals in these positions will undoubtedly contribute to its effective and efficient management,” it said.

Says matter is of utmost importance

The section also said the request for “changes of the specimen signature” had been forwarded to the ministry of economic affairs for its sharing with the Asian Development Bank and Agency Francaise de Development.

Meanwhile, sources told Dawn that the TransPeshawar approached the Election Commission of Pakistan in March for permission to hire the CEO but it was asked to put up the request through its administrative department.

They added that the government-owned company later formally asked the transport department to seek the ECP’s consent for the CEO’s hiring but the latter had yet to do so.

On Aug 4, the KP Urban Mobility Authority contacted the transport department with a request for a recruitment ban’s relaxation for the hiring of the TransPeshawar CEO.

“The competent forum may be approached for sanctioning relaxation for hiring of CEO for TransPeshawar, whose post fell vacant in February in the wake of resignation of Mr. Fayyaz Khan,” the KPUMA said in the letter.

The source said that under the finance department’s Policy Framework that offered guidelines on matters regarding CEOs of public sector companies and autonomous bodies in the province allowed the company’s board to appoint an individual from among senior executives of the respective body or company for a period not exceeding three months, within 14 days of the office of the CEO falling vacant.

“This period shall serve as a stop-gap arrangement and shall not be extendable. It will be ensured by the Board that a full-time chief executive is appointed within the aforesaid 3 months,” Section 9 of the guidelines read.

However, the source said that the TransPeshawar had been functioning without a permanent CEO since Feb this year and had been managed by an official of the transport department holding the acting charge of the top office and that he had been the third to do so since June this year.

Regarding the appointment of the CFO, the source said that the finance committee of the TransPeshawar’s board recommended in May this year the extension of the officer’s contract but the issue was not placed before the board in the next three meetings.

He added that the ADB, which was the funding of Peshawar BRT project, had been insisting on running the company by professionals as they wanted to the execute Phase II of the BRT project through TransPeshawar in contrast to Phase I of the project, which was executed through the Peshawar Development Authority.

The secretary of the transport and mass transit department didn’t respond to a text message seeking his comments on the issue.

However, another official of the department blamed the delay in the regular appointment of TransPeshawar CEO and CFO on the ban imposed by the ECP on recruitment until the holding of the general elections.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2023