PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has approved the reconstitution of the Economic Zones Development and Management Company board of directors and removed all private members for disinterest in work.

Sources told Dawn that chairman of the EZDMC’s BoD Ghulam Dastagir had applied for a three months leave and that his successor would be appointed during that time.

They said industries secretary Faheem Wazir had been given the additional charge of board chairman, while the government had also approved the reconstitution of its board.

“The reconstitution of the board has been approved but yet to be notified,” a source said.

He said the government had approved 17-member board.

The Chief Minister’s Secretariat also issued a statement confirming the decision on the board’s reconstitution.

“The reconstitution is aimed at speeding up industrialisation of the province and that some of the existing board members had resigned, while others were not taking interest in their job,” it said.

Govt removes BoD private members for disinterest in work

The sources told Dawn that the industries department had moved a summary to the chief minister few weeks ago seeking the EZDMC board’s reconstitution.

They said the summary was also followed by a nine-page dossier detailing weaknesses in areas of the company’s governance and management.

The sources said summary stated that private sector led company’s affairs were not professionally managed and it lacked clear priorities and it also detailed several such instances.

A source said the company’s earlier in August this year invited application for allotment of plots in Jalozai Economic Zone without required approval, feasibility study, master planning and predetermined offer price causing embarrassment to the government.

He said the recent process to select the company’s chief executive officer was not in compliance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association and Public Sector Companies-Corporate Governance Rules, 2013, which forced the provincial government to intervene and direct the company to stop the process and streamline the criteria and selection process.

The source said the BoD’s minutes were also not being properly documented and were released immediately without seeking comments of the members on drafts as required under the Companies Act, 2017.

He said the summary noted that the practice done in order to exclude the comments of other members had impaired the board’s proceedings.

The source said the industries department was of the view that the current board operated through the company’s CEO was neither willing nor in a position to achieve the company’s objectives and if it continued to operate, there were imminent chances that eventual liabilities of colossal magnitude would be borne by the provincial government.

He said the summary asked the government to reconstitute the board and remove private members of the board.

The source said the provincial government-owned company’s board had fired two of its top executives, including the chief financial officer and chief human resource officer, earlier in August accusing them of inefficiency and that the affairs had worsened since then.

However, a member questioned the board’s dissolution.

“The government cannot dissolve the board and such a move will be illegal,” he insisted.

He said under the law, the BoGs of the companies would cease to exist only if their terms were completed or their members stepped down en masse and since nothing of the sort had happened, the reconstruction of the board went against the law.

When contacted, EZDMC BoD chairman Ghulam Dastagir expressed ignorance about the development and said, “nothing has been communicated to him officially.”

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2017