ISLAMABAD: Amid conflicting circumstances, process for the appointment of Chairman National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has been scrapped at the last moment.

The post has been lying vacant since Nov 20, 2018 after the retirement of then Chairman Tariq Saddozai. Under the rules, the top government and regulatory positions meant to be filled through competition should be advertised by the concerned ministries before the vacancy of the post to ensure smooth transition and avoid loss of public work.

The government, however, advertised the position almost a month after it fell vacant and received a healthy response from about 95 candidates, of which 13 were shortlisted for interview. A selection committee constituted by the prime minister and his adviser on governance reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain interviewed them on Feb 6 but scrapped the process after few days.

This comes at a time the power regulator has to deal with tens of upcoming generation and distribution licences, a substantial increase in consumer tariff to meet International Monetary Fund targets and process the crucial K-Electric sale to Shanghai Electric among other important emerging power sector challenges.

According to sources, the selection committee led by Hussain and comprising four other members apparently had disagreements.

The members included secretary cabinet, managing director of Private Power & Infrastructure Board (PPIB) and additional secretaries of Power division and Establishment Division. Nepra is to process and approve applications or projects proposed by the PPIB director or additional secretary power.

Hussain when contacted said the selection committee could not find a suitable panel to recommend for selection of a Nepra chairman by the prime minister even though perhaps one of the candidates appeared to be very promising. He said the committee decided unanimously to scrap the process because candidates did not meet the criteria. “We will re-advertise the post,” he said.

Responding to a question, he said he was not aware if a parallel move was in progress to amend Nepra act to enhance the age limit for chairman to induct a candidate of choice. Among the 13 shortlisted for interview were

four officers of Nepra, heads of Alternate Energy Development Board, Central Power Purchasing Agency and a few former officials of Nepra and public sector power companies.

In this regard, a summary has been submitted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to the Federal Power Division suggesting the relaxation of age limit to apparently facilitate the selection of pre-selected candidates for the post of Chairman Nepra otherwise ineligible in light of the present statutory limitations.

The Power Division has forwarded the said summary to the other provincial governments for comments so as to move a case for amendment to the Nepra Act. In the same background, the KP government has now withdrawn the candidature of an earlier applicant, Arbab Arif, replacing with Bahadur Shah.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2019