Power companies: Seven officials working ‘illegally’ post-retirement

Pepco chief claims not to have received ministry directions to sack the officials.

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) is not following the ministry of water and power’s directives to sack seven officials who are illegally working at senior positions after retirement.

The ministry had written a letter to the managing director of Pepco – a position currently occupied by Rasul Khan Mashud, also the CEO of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) – asking him to sack those officials.

“It is requested that necessary action may please be taken under intimation to this ministry at the earliest,” said the letter sent on April 28, a copy of which was made available to The Express Tribune.

When contacted, however, Mashud denied that he had received any such letter and declined to comment any further on the matter. Mashud himself was re-employed at the NTDC, the state-owned power distribution company, after his formal retirement.

Pepco is the largest power entity in the country and owns several power generation and distribution companies, including the NTDC. The firm was sued by electrical engineers working at many of its subsidiaries who allege that seven senior officials have continued working illegally at their posts after having formally retired.

Four of the seven retired officials work at the NTDC as general managers: Rana Amjad, Masood Ahmed, Munawar Malik and Habib Anwarul Haq. The remaining three are Shafiq Ahmad Khan, the CEO of the Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco), Giftar Amed, the CEO of the Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco), and Rasul Khan Mashud himself, who is currently serving as CEO of the NTDC.

The engineers allege that the continued presence of these retired officials on their posts has delayed the promotions of several junior officers for several years.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2011.