KESC short of power but full of spokesmen

In 2012, Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) fired 1,000 employees from its 13 departments by declaring them non-core staffers of the power utility, but the company then hired more than one man on one post to prove that it had sacked thousands of employees, maybe with a bad intention.
The power utility had stated that it fired non-core employees because it had to improve the organisational structure of the power giant as well as to improve the company’s financial position. After this move, the company started hiring more than one man on one post. The purpose of hiring two or more than two persons on one post was to befool the 2.2 million consumers of the power utility of the provincial metropolis.
One had to look no further than the KESC media and public relations department as an ideal example of above mentioned fact. The power company had hired three spokesmen and their sole task was to befool the public and the media.
For instance, if any of the three spokespersons issued a statement to any particular media group on any specific issue, then the next day a second spokesman from among the remaining two issued a detailed clarification-cum-press release on the topic which was earlier reported along with the power company’s version.
The three spokesmen of the company were engaged in a competition with each other by engaging in story-telling and hiding the facts. If any of three spokesmen felt that their colleague could not hide the facts successfully, then he himself issued a detailed clarification on the issue without consulting with the colleague who had earlier issued the party statement for the first time.
If we look into the power company’s organisational structure, the media and public relations fell under the Marketing and Communication department. Ghufran Atta Khan is the chief of the department which had been divided into two parts, namely marketing and public relations and media.
Taha Siddiqui is Manager Media and Public Relations, while Syed Ahmed Faraz and Adil Murtaza were working under the former. All the three persons were simultaneously acing as KECS spokesmen. The job description of all spokesmen, it seemed, was to issue statements against each other. The power company had its representative in Islamabad as well who had been assigned the task of putting pressure on media groups.
“We are three people who are working as the company’s spokesmen,” Adil Murtaza said while talking to Pakistan Today. “There are a number of news channels and newspapers and it is not possible that a single person can handle them all,” he argued. “The company has hired three persons to facilitate the media organisations and the public in case of any emergency,” he added. “The three spokesmen remained engaged to respond to media queries and to inform the media about every update related to line faults and maintenance,” he maintained.
“We have been working as the company’s spokesman simultaneously,” Ahmed Faraz said. “If any of us is busy, the other is ready to respond to any query raised by any media group,” he added. When the Media and PR Manager Taha Siddiqui and Adil Murtaza could not respond to any issue accordingly, they contact me to come up with a clarification,” he said.