ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf transferred on Friday Water and Power Secretary Zafar Mahmood — second such removal in three months — as the power sector consumed Rs99 billion in 95 days against the budget allocation of Rs120 billion for the entire year.

Cabinet Secretary Nargis Sethi was given the additional charge of secretary water and power for the time being even though another grade-22 officer, Himayatullah Khan, is already working in the ministry as special secretary.

Although no reason was officially given for sending Mr Mahmood to the establishment division as officer on special duty (OSD), insiders said he was made a scapegoat for continued loadshedding despite falling temperatures.

A number of parliamentarians belonging to the ruling PPP and its allied parties have started criticising the government for its failure to overcome the power crisis before the next elections.

When contacted, Mr Mahmood confirmed his transfer but did not say anything about the reason. He only said he was a disciplined officer who considered transfers and postings as part of the job and tried to deliver to the best of his abilities and left the decision to the government.

But a senior member of the economic team did not agree that electricity crisis was the reason behind his removal, although he conceded that Mr Mahmood who had assumed the post only three months ago had come under criticism at a recent meeting of the federal cabinet held to discuss power sector problems.

He said had this been the reason, Minister for Water and Power Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar should have been the first to go because he had taken over the ministry a month before Mr Mahmood’s appointment as secretary.

Also, he said, the prime minister himself knew how the power sector worked and why loadshedding could not be ended. In his capacity as water and power minister, Raja Ashraf himself missed many deadlines to end loadshedding. “One cannot expect an officer to deliver tangible results in three months,” he said.

A finance ministry official said the government had released Rs17 billion to the power sector this week, including Rs8 billion to independent power producers in compliance with a Supreme Court order to adjust their receivables from public sector power companies. In addition, the finance ministry also released Rs5 billion on Oct 3 and another Rs4 billion on Oct 4.

As a result, the total payment from the federal budget to the power sector increased from Rs81 billion last week to Rs99 billion against the entire fiscal year’s target of Rs120 billion.

Officials said Mr Mahmood was to reach the retirement age in April next year and was not ready to take political pressure in transfers and postings of senior executives of power sector companies and nominations for the posts in boards of directors of distribution companies. In recent days a lot of files have been moving around and a summary for the purpose was in the process of being forwarded to the prime minister for approval.

Zafar Mahmood had adopted an aggressive posture in dealing with the chief executive officers of National Transmission and Dispatch Company, Central Power Purchase Agency and distribution companies for the recovery of about Rs500 billion.