Mukhtar to axe power sector officials

Water and Power Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar said on Monday that National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) Managing Director Rasul Khan Masud will be removed.
The minister had suspended the NTDC MD on the first day of assuming his charge. However, the MD still performs his duties as he can be only removed from office by the prime minister who is the appointing authority. Talking to reporters, the minister said the MD is using his influence to continue working in the department. Mukhtar added that he had ‘made up his mind’ that either Masud or he will have to leave.
Officials say the removal of Masud, who is on an extension, will pave the way for removing all the incumbent chief executives of distribution companies (DISCOs), a majority of whom are on extension or acting charge for the last many months.
Their continuation is one of the major hurdles in the smooth implementation of the power sector reforms, which stress the induction of professional management to pave the way to resolve lingering issues.
The government announced in October last year that the professional management in all DISCOs will be inducted in a month to bring the power sector out of the crisis. However, the plan could not be implemented as the incumbent chief executives ganged up against the move and slowed down the bill recovery and created an artificial energy crisis.
Most of the incumbent CEs had approached the former prime minister who assured them that they will be granted extensions till the end of the current government’s tenure.
This stopped any further progress on the induction of new management even though the boards of five DISCOs have submitted their recommendations to the former premier for choosing a candidate for the post of the CEOs.
Mukhtar said the government had finalised some recommendations to overcome the power crisis, under which fuel supplies will be ensured for the power plants. He said the logistic constraints were hampering fuel supply to power plants in Punjab.
He said the government had decided to provide more gas and fuel to the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) and that the export of 700 MW to the company will be diverted to other areas.
Under the plan, the government will be implanting two days of gas load shedding for CNG and industrial units in Sindh. The additional gas supply will be diverted to the KESC.
A study carried out by the Planning Commission on gas allocation and its impact on the power sector said the captive power plants (CPPs) are currently estimated to be using 1.2 billion cubic feet gas per day out of which 250 million cubic feet gas per day alone is allocated to plants in Karachi, which is higher than the KESC supply of 153 million cubic feet.
For finding an immediate solution to the power crisis, the study recommended diverting 800 million cubic feet from the CPPs to the Independent Power Plants (IPPs), which will increase generation by 3350 MW.
This will help in savings $ 5.2 billion. It says the CPP only benefits a few industries while resulting in load shedding for the entire nation. It also stressed gas allocation on rational basis as it is a scarce commodity.