Till further notice: PHC stays appointment of PESCO chief

High court says employees have not been given representation in BoD despite govt’s orders.

PESHAWAR: The appointment of a new chief executive of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) has been stayed by the Peshawar High Court till further notice and replies have been sought from the federal government.

Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Lal Khattak of the Peshawar High Court issued the order on Friday while hearing a petition filed by the president and general secretary of All Pakistan WAPDA Hydro Electric Workers Union’s provincial chapter, Gohar Taj and Mustajab Khan.

During the course of the hearing, Ijaz Anwer, counsel for the petitioners, told the court a few names were sent to the federal government for as poetential candidates for Pesco’s chief executive officer (CEO).

According to Anwer, Pesco is a public limited company and all its affairs are run by a board of directors (BoD) which chooses its chairman, who is also the company’s CEO, through a consensus.

The counsel further said the federal government has given a 12% share in the company to its employees as well as representation in the board. However, the petitioners have been not been given representation as yet and the board of directors is incomplete, said Anwer.

“The federal government had moved a summary of some officials to the prime minister for consideration as CEO. But these names were sent without the approval of the BoD,” Anwer contended.

Subsequently, the court issued a stay order and barred the federal government from appointing a new Pesco chief till its next order. The bench also directed the government to submit a written reply in the case before the next hearing scheduled for March 3.

Outage woes

In a separate case on Thursday, Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Musarrat Hilali ordered Pesco to follow the schedule it has announced for power outages and not increase their duration. The order was issued while the court heard a petition filed by Noor Islam, a resident of Rehman Baba Colony. According to Islam, the people of his locality are being discriminated against because the area has been experiencing up to 22 hours of load-shedding in a day.

Pesco Deputy Director Masood Khan and counsel Asad Jan appeared before the bench and argued that the duration of outages is longer in areas where line losses are high and lesser in areas where line losses are lower. The counsel said the load-shedding schedule was approved by the Pesco BoD. The court then directed the utility company to follow the set schedule and refrain from exceeding it.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2015.