ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: The federal government on Wednesday reconstituted the board of directors of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) by inducting seven private and semi-private sector members to process independent power projects (IPPs) on a fast-track basis.

Informed sources said the reconstituted 15-member board would be headed by the minister for water and power as before but seven public sector members including five provincial and AJK secretaries have been replaced by semi-private sector members.

Wapda general manager and chief customs tariff, CBR have been removed from the PPIB membership. The previous PPIB board of directors constituted in June 2000 comprised 14 members.

The seven members from the federal government include secretaries of Water and Power, Finance, Board of Investment, Petroleum and Natural Resources, member infrastructure of the Planning Commission, chairman Wapda and managing director of the PPIB.

The seven semi-private sector members include Chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission (SECP) Dr Tariq Hassan, Managing Director Pakistan State Oil Tariq Kirmani, member of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) Shahzad Alam, PICIC Managing Director Mohammad Ali Khoja, President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, a Citibank representative Alman A. Aslam and former chairman State Engineering Corporation (SEC) Hussain Siddiqui.

The government, these sources said, has also done away with the approval of new IPPs by the secretaries committee comprising federal secretaries of almost all the economic ministries.

The sources said the government felt that secretaries committee in the presence of a high-powered PPIB board of directors was in fact duplication of work and wastage of time. Hence the forum of secretaries' committee has been abolished.

However, the government did not give its consent to eliminate the negotiation process with the power purchaser and instead decided to reduce the time period for such negotiations from 90 days to 30 days.

The sources said the board of directors of the PPIB was reconstituted following dissatisfaction expressed by President Musharraf over the working of existing board.

The president had desired that the PPIB board should function as a very proactive forum for speedy processing of private sector investment proposals for the power sector instead of just giving away brochures and power policy booklets to investors he had been wooing from across the world.