Energy crisis: PEPCO dissolution deadline unkept for third time

Power secretary claims that the govt had implemented PHC orders.


Manzoor Ali July 01, 2011

PESHAWAR:


The government was once again unable to meet the Peshawar High Court’s deadline to dissolve the state-owned Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco), the third time it has missed its deadline over the past year.


A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court comprising Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel was conducting a hearing in a suo motu case on unscheduled power outages in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by the Peshawar Electric Supply Company.

As part of its defence, the government had submitted its plan to deregulate the power sector which includes dissolving state-owned Pepco and empowering the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to regulate electricity tariffs in the country.

On two occasions prior to Thursday’s hearing – July 8, 2010 and December 23, 2010 – the government has failed to meet the Peshawar High Court’s deadline and been forced to explain why it has not yet acted on a plan that it had devised itself, along with assistance from international lenders.

The government and the state-owned power companies are being sued by Muhammad Esa Khan, a Peshawar-based lawyer, for unscheduled and prolonged power outages in the province.

Federal Water and Power Secretary Imtiaz Qazi claimed that the government had already implemented the court’s decision to dissolve Pepco but then seemingly contradicted himself by saying that the dissolution process will take some time, since the company needed to deal with its liabilities and redeploy its 800-odd employees.

Qazi claimed that first step in a four-step dissolution process had been completed and the remaining three steps would take some more time, though he did not specify how much longer it would take. The court’s latest order to dissolve Pepco had been issued on June 14.

Meanwhile, the court observed that the government’s decision to supply electricity to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s electricity quota was unfair to the residents of the province.

The bench directed Qazi to arrange a meeting that would grant an additional quota for power to Fata. The court asked Qazi to submit a report on the outcome of such a meeting at the next hearing in the case, scheduled for August 11.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2011.

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