Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Water and Power on Tuesday demanded formation of a sub-committee to scrutinise the working of the power distribution companies (DISCOs) to curb rampart corruption and inefficiency, which were compounding problems for the people.
Ire of the people
The meeting of the committee was held under the chairmanship of Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah. Abid Sher Ali of PML-N and Ijaz Virk of PPP severely criticised the Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO), which they said was holding the people of Faisalabad hostage due to corrupt practices and inefficiency. Abid Sher Ali said FESCO had best recovery ratio of more than 90 percent and still people were suffering 16 to 18 hours load shedding. He demanded formation of a sub committee to know what DISCOs were doing, why power theft was rampart and why there were no electricity supplies to honest bill-payers. Ijaz Virk also raised similar concerns and demanded formation of a national energy authority to overcome the energy crisis. He said the politicians were facing the ire of the people for the inefficiency of those at the helm of DISCOs. He demanded sacking of all the staff of FESCO to address the issue. He also proposed holding a joint meeting of petroleum and water and power committees to address lingering problems. Nawab Talpur of PPP pointed out that the minister and secretary for the water and power and managing director pakistan electric power company were absent from the meeting.
Prominent by absence
Chairman Ghulam Mustafa Shah said a sub-committee would be formed to look in the issues of DISCOs. He also directed calling DSP Police and SDO Umarkot to the next meeting, as Nawab Talpur complained that the DSP misbehaved with the SDO after an electric fault and kept SDO in illegal confinement. The committee had to defer its first agenda item as the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water and Power Hamid Ali Khan informed the committee that CEO and other senior officers of the Alternative Energy Development Board were abroad. Additional Secretary Hamid Ali Khan informed the committee that the PEPCO receivables were Rs297 billion, out of which Sindh had to pay Rs39 billion, KP Rs19 billion, FATA Rs10 billion, AJK Rs9 billion, Balochistan Rs9 billion and Rs 131 billion from private sector.
Upgradation demanded
The committee directed the ministry of water and power to expedite the recovery process from provincial governments and other departments that have not paid their dues. It also demanded efforts to upgrade the obsolete system, and an inquiry report to be submitted about the allegations in the matter of faulty transformers being installed in different areas.
The committee was briefed by the chief executive of PESCO on the electricity situation.
He said the prevailing law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and floods of last year were responsible for poor transmission system. He said power theft was rampant in FATA areas.
Chief Executive of QESCO informed the committee that the law and order situation in Balochistan was the main factor for slow recovery of dues.
He said they have requested the provincial government to provide protection to recover dues from different departments as well as consumers.