The appointment of the CEO of GENCO Holding Company Limited (GHCL), which runs four power generation companies, has been challenged in the Sindh High Court on the basis that he lacks the required engineering qualifications.
In this regard, the Hyderabad circuit bench put the respondents, including officials of the Ministry of Energy, Pakistan Engineering Council chairperson, Pakistan Electric Power Company managing director and officials of GHCL on notice on Saturday.
The petitioner, Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority Employees secretary general Muhammad Sajan Panhwar, claimed that CEO Muhammad Imran lacked the required engineering qualifications. Therefore, he added, according to the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) Act, 1976, and the Supreme Court’s (SC’s) orders, the CEO is ineligible for the post.
“... government should not allow or permit any person to perform professional engineering work as defined in PEC Act, who does not possess accredited engineering qualification from accredited engineering institution and who is not registered as an registered engineer or professional engineer under the PEC Act,” reads the order, cited in the petition.
According to the PEC Act, “no person shall, unless registered as a registered engineer or professional engineer, hold any post in an engineering organisation where he has to perform professional engineering work.”
Four power generation companies, including the Jamshoro Power Company Limited, Central Power Generation Company Limited, Guddu, Lakhra Power Generation Company Limited, Jamshoro, and Northern Power Generation Company Limited, Muzaffargarh, are under GHCL’s management.
The petitioner stated that Imran was appointed as the finance director in the Guddu-based company in August 2007, on the basis of his qualification in finance and accounting. In 2018, the GHCL appointed him as the CEO,.
Panhwar contended that the PEC Act, as well as the SC’s order, was being violated. He informed the court that the PEC had twice written to the Ministry of Energy in January and July this year, to no avail.
The petitioner accused Imran of weakening GENCO’s power generation capacity. “He is focusing on the closure of public-sector power plants, [citing] inefficiency, fuel shortage and no demand of electricity from the national grid.”
He prayed the court to declare Imran’s appointment unlawful and restrain him from work until the verdict.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 11th, 2020.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ