ISLAMABAD:Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s plan to weed out political influence from the boards of eight power distribution companies has hit its first major roadblock as the government has hit the brakes on dismantling these boards after encountering pushback from various quarters.
The decision about the removal of the boards came to a halt days after the prime minister decided to sack the boards on the allegations of causing a colossal loss of Rs589 billion due to “alarming indicators of bad governance and poor performance”.
These boards had been appointed during the tenure of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).The development came amid increasing load shedding particularly in areas that have high financial losses. The power minister said that “economic load shedding of up to 16 hours would continue in areas where the losses are 90% and more”.
The sources said that the decision to remove the directors of eight boards and replace them with new people has been halted for a while.
The prime minister had authorised the Power Division to seek the approval of the cabinet committee on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to remove the existing directors and replace them with new ones. Subsequently, the cabinet committee last week endorsed Shehbaz Sharif’s decision.After the committee meeting, the finance ministry announced last week that the cabinet committee on SOEs sanctioned the Power Division’s proposal to appoint independent directors for specific electricity distribution companies, pending submission to the cabinet.
Sources told The Express Tribune that immediately after the decision was made public, the backers and the members of these boards started pressurising the government.They also threatened to take the government to court on the grounds that the boards had been constituted for a period of three years and their tenures had statutory protection.
The government, while succumbing to the pressure, did not take the cabinet committee on SOEs recommendation to the federal cabinet last week for the final endorsement before issuing their termination notices, the sources said.
When contacted, Power Minister Sardar Awais Leghari said that the Power Division had withdrawn the summary from the cabinet committee on the SOEs and that a fresh summary would be resubmitted for approval.
Leghari said that there was a complete resolve to reconstitute these boards in a way that the mafias’ back is broken.
