The recent fiasco at Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has sent a very wrong message for private investment and future of privatisation in this country.
The governments have misuses state owned corporations by stuffing them with political appointments, both at the executive level and amongst the workforce. These organisations have become an instrument of abuse, where daily wagers from contractors are initially hired as cheap labour without any security clearance and in complete disregard for basic academic qualifications and aptitude for the skilled jobs.
This abuse has assumed an alarming situation in Karachi where political stakeholders have forced state organisations to hire them under pressure. Once hired, they are then regularised without going through the process which is used for regular recruitment.
Similarly, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) was stuffed with surplus staff to accommodate the political activists and sympathisers of major political stakeholders. Other state organisations like PIA, KPT and NBP have been subjected to the similar abuse.
The KESC was privatised when its losses and electricity theft went out of control by the Musharraf government. When PPP took over, they negotiated the transfer of management shares to a Dubai based company, who were required to run it efficiently and make it profitable by making huge investment in their infrastructure development. Why doesnt the government take into consideration all factors before deciding something?
GULL ZAMAN
Peshawar
