K-Electric: Senate body seeks details of power purchase deal

Company official insists there is no plan to remove employees

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Monday sought details of K-Electric’s generation and power purchase agreement with the Central Power Purchasing Agency after a committee member said the utility was receiving 750 megawatts from the national grid instead of 650MW as per the expired agreement.

The Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power, which met under the chairmanship of Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, expressed annoyance at the absence of top brass of the Ministry of Water and Power and recommended to send the issue of net hydel profit of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to the Council of Common Interests.

The committee discussed the point of order raised by Mian Raza Rabbani, now Senate Chairman, on July 22, 2011 drawing attention of the government to the low-paid employees of K-Electric.

PPP Senator Taj Haider, who hailed from Karachi, told the committee that an agreement was signed between the K-Electric management and employees, which was witnessed by him and the Sindh governor. However, the company management cancelled the agreement just five hours later.

He pointed out that the employees won the case in the high court but the K-Electric management challenged the decision in the Supreme Court.

He said the employees and their families should not be punished, suggesting that the committee should ask the Supreme Court to hear the facts. The standing committee chairman, while agreeing to the proposal, assured the committee that rights of the employees would be protected.

K-Electric representative Khalid Rehman argued that the employees opted for a golden handshake scheme in 2011 and the matter was in the court.

He assured the committee that there was no proposal to remove other employees of the company.

Senator Nisar Mohmand said K-Electric was getting 750MW from the national grid instead of 650MW for the last two years.

The committee chairman directed the Ministry of Water and Power to submit details of the company’s own generation and the new power purchase agreement in the next meeting. The committee decided to exclusively discuss K-Electric’s matters in the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2016.

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