Govt finalises LESCO CEO appointment

Cabinet approves hiring of Muhammad Amin for the position

ISLAMABAD:

In a second attempt, the government has managed to finalise the appointment of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) chief executive officer.

Lesco is a power distribution company under the administrative control of Power Division. It is one of the 10 power distribution companies under the administrative control of the Ministry of Energy (Power Division).

It is a public sector company as defined under Section 2(1)(54) of the Companies Act 2017 (the Act) and Rule 2(1)(9) of the Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules 2013 (the CGR).

The matter of appointment of the CEO of a public sector company was governed under Sections 187 and 188 of the Act, Rule 5(2) of the CGR and the Public Sector Companies (Appointment of Chief Executive) Guidelines 2015 (the guidelines) and the fit and proper criteria framed thereunder.

The cabinet, in its meeting held on December 15, 2020, approved the terms and conditions for appointment of CEOs of distribution companies, and accordingly, the board of directors of distribution companies initiated the process of recruitment.

The post of Lesco CEO was advertised on January 24, 2021 and was later re-advertised on June 12, 2021 in pursuance of orders of the Lahore High Court.

A total of 80 candidates applied for the post. The nomination committee of the board evaluated the applications and shortlisted 41 candidates. In further shortlisting, seven candidates were selected.

The board held interviews of the seven candidates and after detailed deliberations recommended to the Power Division a panel of three candidates in the order of preference for appointment on the post of Lesco CEO.

The Power Division put Muhammad Amin at the top of the list in line with the merit order. It placed Dr Rana Abdul Jabbar Khan at the second position and Adnan Riaz Mir at the third position.

Keeping in view the merit order, the Power Division proposed that the candidate at the first place might be considered for appointment as the Lesco CEO for a period of three years.

It sought approval of the cabinet last week. The cabinet considered a summary and approved the proposal of appointing Muhammad Amin as the new Lesco CEO.

Resignation of STEDEC MD

The Science and Technology Division briefed the cabinet that the STEDEC Technology Commercialisation Corporation of Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, established in 1987 under the Companies Ordinance 1984, was a government-owned company working under the administrative control of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Its mandate is to assist the public sector R&D organisations in commercialisation of their indigenously researched products, processes and technologies.

The vacant post of managing director was advertised on January 29, 2020 in national dailies. After following due procedure, the nomination committee of STEDEC recommended a panel of three candidates to the federal cabinet for appointment of one of them as the STEDEC MD.

The cabinet considered the case and accorded approval to the appointment of Amjad Ali Awan as the STEDEC MD.

Awan took up his duties on January 6, 2021 but after serving for four months, he resigned from the post on April 20, 2021 due to personal reasons.

The board of STEDEC, in its 67th meeting, considered the resignation of Awan and gave directives to initiate the recruitment process afresh. The Ministry of Science and Technology requested the cabinet to accept the resignation of Awan. The cabinet considered the proposal and gave its approval.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2021.

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