LAHORE: The Senate Standing Committee on Power has reprimanded the relevant ministry over appointment of 42 former officials of the K-Electric (KE) as chairmen and members of Boards of Directors in most of the distribution companies (Discos) despite the ministry earlier calling the officials incompetent to hold such positions.

Some of the committee members walked out of a recent meeting twice over the behaviour of the ministry’s representatives. They also raised questions over the appointment of Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) human resource general manager, asking why 10 former army officials with a human resource background were disqualified and a ‘favourite’ was chosen for such an important slot.

“It is shocking to see adjustment of many favourite ex-KE officials in various Discos’ BoDs for vested interests. A person previously a consultant with one of the companies later became a BoD member of the same company,” a source said. “It has become a practice to resign from top government offices after installing your favourites on key positions.”

According to minutes of a recent meeting issued a couple of days ago by the Senate secretariat, the committee chairman observed that about 42 ex-officials from one Disco (K-Electric) were now either chairmen or members of BoD of various companies.

“As per the statement of power division additional secretary (AS) during a previous meeting, none of the officials from any Disco was capable to be appointed as member of BoD/chairman board. Then how 42 members from one Disco (K-Electric) alone became efficient suddenly, as six members of the Board of Directors of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) are from K-Electric? This company will become East-India Company for the Power Division. If the Hesco board has been sold to its chairman then a notification may be shared with the committee so that we do not discuss this matter again,” the meeting minutes mention the committee chairman lashing out at the ministry.

Over a clarification from the power division additional secretary about the procedure adopted for the appointment of Pepco GM (HR), the committee observed that there were 10 former army officials with a human resource background. But they were disqualified over not having experience in the power sector.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2021