Pakistan

K-Electric chairman Ikram Sehgal resigns

Vacates post following differences over issues related to business strategy

Salman Siddiqui November 06, 2019

Ikram Sehgal. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Ikram Sehgal has tendered his resignation from the post of K-Electric chairman following differences between him and board directors widened apparently over some of the issues related to the company’s business strategy.

“Board members have taken decisions on certain issues which I do not support,” Sehgal, who had assumed the chairmanship of K-Electric in January 2019, said while talking to The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

“Almost all directors on the board were on one side (excluding me),” he said, adding that it had become morally unjustified for him to continue.

He, however, declined to share specific details of the decisions which widened the differences. “It would be unethical and morally incorrect to share such details,” he said.

Sehgal added that it was not justifiable to continue as the chairman in the public as well as national interest. “It is high time to quit the chairmanship of K-Electric,” he stated.

He reiterated that he would continue serving Pakistan’s interests where and when required but at the moment it was better to disassociate.

Speculations suggested that differences had developed over the timing of establishing an imported gas (re-gasified liquefied natural gas) based 900-megawatt power plant by the company.

The board was divided whether the new plant should be set up by the current management or the expected new Chinese management, which is likely to take over K-Electric when it gets all the regulatory approvals which have remained pending for about three years.

On Wednesday, K-Electric’s share price increased 1.3%, or Rs0.05, to Rs3.91 with trading in 14.7 million shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

K-Electric announced Sehgal’s resignation decision in a notice sent to the PSX in the dying moments of the trading session.

“Director/chairman of the board Ikram Ul-Majeed Sehgal has resigned from the directorship of the company with effect from November 6, 2019,” the company notified.

Sehgal’s appointment as K-Electric chairman back in January 2019 was considered to accelerate the long pending sale of K-Electric’s majority stake to China’s state-owned Shanghai Electric Power by the crisis-hit Abraaj Group. His resignation is feared to again slow down the acquisition process.

COMMENTS (1)

Mohammed Arifeen | 2 years ago | Reply Unlawful transplantation exist in abundance Due to avarice wretched poverty ignorance and feeble rule of law unlawful transplantation exist in abundance. The Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority has taken notice of some rather biased data dealing to transplant surgeries at the 60 government and private hospitals in the province that are authorized to carry out the procedure. Not only is the number of transplant surgeries small considering the potential but the government hospitals have performed only 40percent of the total. Approximately 44 000 such procedures during the last four years. Further of these 95 percent have taken place at only two government health facilities. Government has initiated an exercise to assess the facilities offered by the private and public hospitals with the objective of creating a favorable environment for ethical organ transplantation. The initiative is a sensible one taking its hint from data that does not seem to line up a situation that if allowed to go on may become a reason in the revival of the organ trade. Pakistan had acquired world fame as organs a market place where transplant tourists could fly in and for a huge price buy themselves a new kidney. After the practice was forbidden in 2007 the incidence of illegal transplantation relating to foreign or local patients declined highly for some time. Application led to this exploitative business again spreading particularly in the poverty hinterland of Punjab. The large criminals that play different roles in the fraud devised clever tactics to evade knowing which included setting up cautious operating theatres inside private residences. In the last few years the FIA caught several organ trafficking rings and this disrupted the trade in organs to a large extent. Nevertheless recent stories illustrate that remaining of the illegal business continue to prosper secretly. FIA caught several members of a huge organ trade ring including doctors and agents which had been carrying out their illegal activities in Punjab and KP. There is need for stringent implementation of the law. Instead even the health professionals that are caught tend to make bail and go right back into medical practice sometimes repeating their criminal activities. In the United States the most generally transplanted organs are the kidney liver heart lungs pancreas and intestines. There are around 75 000 people on the active waiting list for organs but only around 8 000 deceased organ donors each year with each providing on average 3.5 organs. The recent death of a Jordanian national following an illegal kidney transplantation carried out by two local doctors in Lahore Pakistan has once again notified the increasingly illegal organ trade that has prospered in private hospitals in the country. It has been mentioned that other foreigners including Omani Saudi and Libyan nationals had also sought kidney transplants through the guilty doctors who have been arrested along with their active companion including a local anesthesiologist and paramedical staff while an investigation to arrest other doctors involved in this crime fraud is proceeding. Organ trafficking was outlawed in Pakistan in 2007 by the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Ordinance followed by the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act 2010. This legislative great change arose from a threesome of influences advocacy by local medical community national media coverage spreading awareness of the exploitative nature of this transplant commercialism and reinforcement of the above through efforts of international medical bodies the Transplantation Society and the WHO. Before to this legislature Pakistan was a place for transplant tourism with 66 percent of the 2000 kidney transplants performed on foreign nationals by 2006. Although the incidence of illegal kidney transplants fell extremely before the 2007 ordinance it began to rise again in the midst of weak implementation and corruption. Several reasons contribute to the decline effectiveness of Pakistan s legislative changes. The frustration of sensitive populations such as illiterate and poor individuals undocumented immigrants prisoners political or economic refugees and the bonded labor working in the agricultural sector Pakistan s economic support forces such unfortunate individuals to donate their kidneys in order to make food requirement meet with very little priority given to the long term health effects of organ removal. Moreover with the local nature of these secret transplantations carried out in private hospitals any attempt to shut down this practice through law enforcement encounters strong resistance from physicians and hospital owners involved in the rich organ trade as well as from the feudal system that encourages bound labor and bondage. Not only does illegal organ trade risk the lives of both donor and recipient but is also spoiling Pakistan s international reputation since the country is presently a signatory of Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group which works under the WHO to prevent transplant tourism and organ trafficking. Suo-moto notice of this matter was taken by the Supreme Court in August 2016. A possible option to this problem is to increase awareness and encourage deceased organ donation by organizing various programs among the general public the majority of which is either not conscious of or else has religious reservations regarding the concept. In spite of having a population of more than 200 million Pakistan has only seven deceased organ donors on record the most well known being the philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi. The hard responsibility lies upon the government to push forward this option which will not only put an end to the illegal kidney trade but also serve to advantage the thousands of Pakistani citizens suffering from end stage renal failure yearly. Kidney plant is a procedure where a diseased kidney is replaced by a healthy kidney from a donor. This is performed for people experiencing kidney failure and usually at the end stage of kidney disease. The Kidney Transplant programme at The Aga Khan University Hospital also offers proactive transplants and offers transplants to qualifying patients across ages and disease complexities. Kidney Transplant Programme is one of the few programmes in Pakistan that accepts complex cases including patients suffering from Diabetes and Hepatitis B C and patients who may have been declined by other transplant programmes in Pakistan. The hospital follows strict international and local legal medical practices to safeguard both the diseased person and donors. The transplant protocol and post care services have been designed around those regulations in order to decline the risk of infection kidney rejection and other accidental medical challenges. Mohammed Arifeen Research Content Writer

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