USAID advisers get seats on NTDC board

The government on Monday reconstituted the board of National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC), which is in the business of electricity transmission, and appointed two Pakistani consultants of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on its board.

The Cabinet Committee on State-Owned Enterprises (CCOSOEs), which took the decision, also reconstituted the board of Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL). It declared the Pakistan Housing Authority – Foundation (PHA-F) – the entity constructing houses for government employees – as essential. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb chaired the CCOSOEs meeting and took the decisions.

The cabinet committee approved a proposal of the Power Division for appointing candidates as independent directors and chairman on the NTDC board, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Finance. The CCOSOEs is in the process of categorising 41 SOEs as essential or non-essential, which will be privatised. Out of 84 entities, the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) has already approved the sale of 24 entities over a period of five years.

The 41 SOEs to be categorised as strategic and essential or non-essential would then be presented to the CCOP for approval. NTDC, which earned a profit of Rs11.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, is under administrative control of the Power Division. It is now governed by provisions of the State-Owned Enterprises (Governance and Operations) Act, 2023 and the Companies Act, 2017.

The CCOSOEs made three new appointments on the NTDC board, of which two had been advising the USAID. Of the seven independent directors, four had submitted resignations including chairman Khalid Ishaq. The board nomination committee last month considered a fresh panel of candidates and recommended three names including Fiaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Sheikh Imranul Haque and Emreena Asad Malik for appointment on the NTDC board.

The nomination committee also decided to recommend a reduction in the number of ex-officio directors in the NTDC board from five to four to bring the total number of members to 11 and excluded the position of joint secretary of the Power Division. Dr Fiaz Chaudhry has been made the NTDC chairman. He has a doctoral degree in electrical power engineering with over 39 years of experience in management and engineering consulting, electric utility business and academic environment. He heads a consulting firm having offices in Canada and Pakistan.

Chaudhry is the founding director of LUMS Energy Institute and the Transmission Lead Adviser of the USAID Power Sector Improvement Activity (PSIA) project. He remained as the NTDC managing director in 2016-17.

Sheikh Imranul Haque had been the managing director of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) from 2015 to 2018. Ermeena Asad Malik is the World Bank Group Senior Consultant on Energy Policy and Infrastructure Development. She is also the senior adviser to Hagler Bally Pakistan and a consultant to the USAID-funded PSIA project.

The finance ministry said that the cabinet committee also reconstituted the ZTBL board. It appointed Ayesha Waqar, Dr Talat Naseer Pasha and Sahibzada Rafat Raoof Ali as independent directors. The board nomination committee had recommended four names but Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif rejected the name of Abul Barin Tareen for appointment on the ZTBL board.

Last week, the CCOSOEs decided that ZTBL would be privatised, although it was already on the privatisation list approved by the CCOP. ZTBL earned Rs11.2 billion in fiscal year 2023. The finance ministry said that the cabinet committee also considered a proposal presented by the Ministry of Housing and Works. It decided to categorise the Pakistan Housing Authority – Foundation (PHA-F) as essential with directives to present a revised plan to the committee, said a statement.

The PHA-F constructs apartments for government employees – a business that could have been transferred to the private sector. Yet, the CCOSOEs decided to declare it as a strategic entity. Earlier, the finance minister had said that only those entities would be kept under government control which were essential and the subject matters could not be transferred to the private sector.

A member of the CCOSOEs proposed the merger of PHA-F with House Building Finance Company, which also constructs homes for government employees. However, instead of merging the two or winding them up, the government decided to retain the PHA-F.