Enlightened darkness

If you think Karachi has hit the bottom, think again. With target killings, burnings hovering over the whole city, having electricity in houses and offices has become an almost extinct species. As a city already reeling from losses of all kinds the last thing they needed was a complete breakdown of being able to see, sleep, work due to a complete vanishing of energy supply. Tragically, Karachi has become another scapegoat of the vendetta between KESC and the labour union. The 4500 workers who have been laid off by KESC have made life of people living, moving and working in the city miserable. This is the revenge they want to seek from KESC for having made their life miserable by removing them from jobs that were their own till they retired. The versions of the two parties diverge in their justifications and actions but the fact remains that with none of them willing to give in the agony for the ordinary citizen is going to have a long life expectancy.
KESC sold off to Abraaj Capital has done what most private sector organisations would do after having taken over public sector organisations. They would hire a new management from the private sector and ask them to prepare a restructuring plan. Restructuring is primarily a process where you identify what changes in the strategy, staff and systems are required to make the organisation more efficient and effective. The public sector criteria for hiring and the private sector criteria for hiring are diametrically contradictory. Private sector hires a person on the basis that this person will deliver maximum results with minimum resources. The public sector hiring is many times based on having maximum people who will be part of the power lobby regardless of their performance and merit. Herein lies the difference between running an organisation for growth and development or running an organisation for providing favours to friends, family or those dissident voters whom you want to keep in your camp. The consequence of the latter is that costs escalate, revenues fall and the organisation becomes unsustainable. The case of most state enterprises be it PIA or Pakistan Railways or KESC is identical where the only reason for their survival is the amount of subsidy being paid to them by the government out of the tax payer’s money.
In KESC’s case their analysis of restructuring showed that these 4500 workers were in the non-core staff category and were redundant keeping in view the new business model of efficient and professional management the organisation was envisaging. They offered golden handshake schemes for which very few workers volunteered. They also say that they had offered some workers pay without attending the offices. If this statement is true it reflects a sad truth that their presence is more damaging than their absence. The attraction of coming to the job must be other than just fulfilling their duties. Encouraged by political backing they went on a strike and have made the operations of KESC almost dysfunctional.
The answer to all these complaints is that the union leaders have made a plea to the government that their removal is unfair and they will not end their harassment till their demands are met. The response of the government is that discussions and mutual negotiations are being carried out and soon there will be a resolution. However like so many other issues none is so far forthcoming.
The implications of this impasse are far reaching. The immediate impact on the users is self-evident. The misery of households and the agony of industries without power is manifesting itself in riots, burnings and anger that has deepened the already depressed city of Karachi. The losses KESC is suffering due to its stalled operations must be running into billions and their future strategies must be all in shambles at the moment. The long term impact is that the foreign investment in Pakistan has shown a steep decline in the recent months. For a company to consider Pakistan viable they have to undertake huge risks. There are risks of ownership and control. With Pakistan’s history of nationalisation and the demand of KESC workers for the same, the specter of having a government desperate to win over votes and make policies against the private sector is a huge foreign investment repellant.
The KESC case is thus not just a stand-alone incident that may go down as another case of bad management but is reflective of the lack of governance and protection provided by the government to all stakeholders. The private investor after having been promised protection is left stranded. The workers promised life long jobs are left on their own to deal with legal downsising. The public is treated as just a constant cribber who will cry foul and then become too exhausted to continue with their protest. However the long term impact of this dissatisfaction of all stakeholders is bound to make the sustainability of the government itself a toss of the coin.

The writer is a consultant and CEO of FranklinCovey Pakistan and can be reached at [email protected]