Wapda autonomy

Chairman Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Lieutenant General Muzzammil Hussain (Retd), during the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power presided over by Senator Ghous Khan Niazi, acknowledged that "the truth is somewhere in between" when Senator Wazir stated that Wapda did not operate as an autonomous body. According to Wapda's website, "it was established through an Act of Parliament in 1958. It is an autonomous and statutory body under the administrative control of the Federal Government... Wapda was unbundled in the year 2007 whereby the functions of its power wing were redefined as Hydel Power Generation and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) of power houses. Following unbundling of its power wing, Wapda's mandate is now development of water and hydropower resources in an efficient manner." There is no doubt that the federal government would highlight its administrative control over Wapda as a justification for interfering in its affairs while those who support its autonomy in letter and spirit would refer to the fact that it claims to be an autonomous and statutory body.
Be that as it may, the Sharif administration third time around has persistently exhibited a disturbing tendency to manipulate decision-making of autonomous entities/authorities through the administrative control of the relevant minister. For example, the autonomy of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) remains in question with the final staff review for the 6.64 billion dollar Extended Fund Facility by the International Monetary Fund maintaining that "while some progress has been made in strengthening the SBP's autonomy, more ambitious steps are required to address the remaining recommendations of the 2013 safeguards." And to assess the level of independence of the SBP, the recent statement by the Governor maybe cited in which he vehemently supported the veracity of the rather obvious data manipulation by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Finance, a support that he cannot back with either the manpower or the expertise. In marked contrast, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) under its Chairman has emerged as an entity that has been taking independent decisions that are not in line with those supported by the Ministry of Water and Power. A recent example is Nepra's opposition to the one percent security charge for all CPEC projects due to legitimate economic and legal reasons. However, sadly this may have prompted the ministry to attempt to muzzle the Authority's powers.
The admission by Wapda chairman that its autonomy is limited and that the Ministry of Water and Power does interfere in its decisions is being seen as an honest admission. One can only hope that the Sharif administration acknowledges that there is a very good reason for granting autonomy to any entity and that its consistent failure to do so is compromising its own ability to take informed and timely decisions. It is precisely for this reason that Business Recorder has always opposed the usurpation of powers of autonomous entities and/or compelling them to take decisions that are linked to political as opposed to economic considerations.
Notwithstanding the fact that power sector governance remains a serious issue in spite of the reforms that were implemented under the recently concluded IMF programme one must support the ministry's recent efforts to rationalise the circular debt amounting to 138 billion rupees, defined as debt owed by one sub-sector to another through non-cash adjustment.