Sindh govt sets eyes on HESCO, SEPCO
Photo: File
The Sindh Cabinet in its five-hour marathon meeting decided to purchase the two power utilities, Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) and Sukkur Electric Supply Company (SEPCO) that are being sold by the Privatization Commission of Pakistan.
Sindh Minister for Energy Imtiaz Shaikh told the meeting that the Privatisation Commission had decided to privatise all federal government-owned distributing companies (DISCOs) to private sector management, but finally, it decided to hand these over to the provincial governments concerned.
Shaikh told the cabinet that Hesco and Sepco would be the first DISCOs in the country that would be transferred to a provincial government. Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah said that under the constitution the provincial government was authorized to undertake power distribution.
Therefore, he directed the energy minister to appoint a consultant firm to study the number of employees, sales growth, target losses, financial cost, and recovery ratio for both the companies, Hesco and Sepco so that they could be acquired.
The cabinet decided on the acquisition of Hesco and Sepco and decided to operate them with the help of a professional private partner.
Hospitals takeover
After a few years of a row over the control of three major hospitals in Karachi, the Sindh government finally took over the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Child Health (NICH), and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) initially for an extendable period of 25 years.
The provincial cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was informed that in July 2011 the Sindh government had taken over the administrative control of three devolved institutions under the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
However, the Sindh High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the demands of some employees of the said government hospitals gave verdicts against the devolution of these institutions, therefore JPMC, NICH and NICVD were restored to the federal government in May 2019.
Later the federal cabinet decided to hand over devolved institutions to the respective governments in July 2019.
In response to the cabinet decision, the federal government shared a draft bill about the Operating and Management Agreement (OMA) to finalise an agreement between the federal and the Sindh governments to run the devolved institutions.
The cabinet members were informed that the federal and provincial governments deliberated the draft and finally presented it in a meeting held under the incumbent Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on August 18, 2022.
As per the initial term of the agreement, effective from the date of signing of the agreement, hospitals would be transferred to the provincial government for a period of 25 years.
Under the agreement, the Sindh government would be authorised to operate, develop, maintain and upgrade the hospitals through its health department.
The operating cost, including salaries, medicines, utilities, and development expenditures to be borne by the Sindh government. The provincial government would be entitled to hire the staff necessary to perform work; the employees are to be governed as per the laws of Sindh province and their services would be reverted to the provincial government after the expiry of the agreement.
Under the draft agreement, all the federal employees working in the hospital would continue. The Sindh cabinet approved the draft agreement and referred it to the federal government for final approval.
Sindh cabinet in its over five-hour hectic sitting took some other important decisions such as approval of Rs23.559 billion subsidy on wheat and acquisition of two power utility companies - Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and Sukkur Electric Company (Sepco).
The marathon meeting also approved ban on the hunting of migratory birds and the regularisation of teachers who have passed the IBA test to confirm their appointments made 10 years ago in 2012.
Wheat policy
After thorough deliberations the cabinet sub-committee on agriculture recommended that the wheat in government warehouses should be issued to flour mills at the rate of Rs5825 per 100kgs or Rs58.25/kg.
The new issue price would require a subsidy of Rs23.559 billion.
“You must prepare a foolproof strategy to ensure that the subsidy was passed on to the real consumers and the price of flour was kept in the range of Rs58 to Rs65 per kilogramme,” the CM directed the food department officials.
The cabinet also decided to purchase 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation (PASSCO) for which Rs16.768 billion were approved. The cabinet decided that PASSCO would give Sindh 100,000 tonnes of local wheat and the remaining from imported lots.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2022.