ISLAMABAD: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) is said to have become a battleground between the incumbent Chairman Tauseef. H. Farooqi and Authority Members representing different provinces.
According to a notification issued by Waseem Anwar Bhinder, Additional Director General (Admin& HR), with immediate effect, the majority of the Authority Members have withdrawn the powers delegated to the Chairman under Section 12 of the NEPRA Act, 1997, previously delegated under Authority administrative meetings (AM-96-14) (AM 10-17) held on December 12, 2014 and February 10, 2017 respectively.
According to the notification, the following departments shall now report to the Member representing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) for an initial period of three months which may be extended, if needed: (i) Registrar and Coordination & Implementation; (ii) Administration and Human Resource; (iii) Finance; and (iv) Legal.
During this time, the guidelines for the future course of action on the matter of delegation shall be issued in accordance with Section 48 of the Act.
Well informed sources told Business Recorder that tension was building up between the Chairman and Members due to some “activities” which are not in the domain of NEPRA including CSR, adding that millions of rupees have been spent on this initiative. In this regard a consultant has also been hired on a fat salary.
Unconfirmed reports also suggest that three staff members of NEPRA have recently been admitted to hospital due to the tense situation.
A clear grouping was witnessed in NEPRA due to the inflexible behaviour of the top brass due to which other staff members are suffering. Recently, representatives of business community from Karachi boycotted public hearing due to “insulting” behaviour of Chairman.
It is being contended by some that the Authority Members’ meeting without prior notice to Chairman is not legal.
Some of the employees have also shared their grievances with the members of the Authority informally against the treatment they got from incumbent Chairman.
This correspondent sent a message to Chairman NEPRA along with the notification for comments. However, he did not respond till the filing of story.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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