KARACHI, July 21: The Siemens-led operations and management contractors have been eased out from power distribution and billing responsibility in a major shake-up of the top KESC management hierarchy that got under way on Saturday, sources told Dawn.

The overdue changes have apparently been prompted by months of public criticism of the contractors’ poor performance that culminated in an unending power crisis in Karachi. The public outrage forced the government to set up a special committee to undertake a comprehensive study to find out the causes, besides ways and means to drag the city out of the power crisis. The committee observed that the O&M contractors “do not possess the required experience.”

The contractors had ignored the need for spending extra amounts to upgrade the distribution system on a fast-track basis. It appeared that the new operational systems and procedures laid down for the utility remained confined to papers and files.

The first indication of ongoing changes surfaced at the KESC executives management committee meeting on Saturday when Tanzeem Naqvi, Executive Director, Business Operations, was given the additional responsibility of ‘distribution network’.

By virtue of this change, Safdar Ibrahim, Chief Technical Operating Officer, has been relieved of his responsibility of handling distribution system. He has now been entrusted with the responsibility of ‘generation and transmission’ as executive director.

The O&M contractors would, for the time being, look after the ‘generation and grids’.

When contacted to comment on the changes, including Mr Naqvi’s additional responsibilities, a KESC spokesman expressed his unawareness about the decisions, saying he had not seen any order in this regard.