ISLAMABAD: The management of the Pakistan Engineering Company (PECO) is said to have virtually halted the working of the company since 2019 as the Board of Directors (BoD) has been disbanded due to which no board meeting has been held for the past few years.
Well-informed sources told Business Recorder that the company has not held any board meeting, general meeting, audit of accounts and issuance of accounts, and consequently, the company is on the defaulters’ counter of the PSX.
The management has contended that it enjoys a divine power under the Economic Ordinance 1972, which is against the opinion issued by the Law Department and the SECP, which are the departments who can interpret the relevant laws.
The MD is holding the post since 2015.
Initially, the appointment was for three years but he is continuing on the post even after the expiry of three years without any extension or new notification.
The management of PECO has filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court against the decision of the NAB and the SECP, which cleared the way for normal working of the company under the supersession of the BoD.
The sources said, administrative Ministry is not taking appropriate administrative measures under the guise that the matter is sub judice.
The company is at present non-functional and the government is suffering heavy losses for the last 30 years or so.
The Ministry of Finance and the Privatisation Commission have extended loans amounting to approximately Rs3 billion for the last 30 years and so, and at the same time neither interest is provided nor paid to the Ministry of Finance on such loan.
The PECO continues to plead with the authorities concerned that the NIT has sold the PECO shares, which was not authorised by the government.
This scribe has confronted the NIT on this account, and they maintained that these shares were their own purchase and the NAB has twice cleared this issue that the NIT was authorised to sell these shares.
The PECO has also raised this issue with the PAC, who have instructed the concerned ministry to submit a report to that effect.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021