PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to amend the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) Act, 1993, to evade a recent Peshawar High Court decision, which declared the appointment of the organisation’s current chief executive officer illegal.

On June 7, the court had struck down the Feb 18, 2015, notification of Akbar Ayub’s appointment as the Pedo CEO declaring the post vacant and directing the government to fill it strictly in accordance with the law.

The sources told Dawn that Mr Ayub’s disqualification was taken up by the Pedo’s board of directors during a meeting on June 9.

Law to be amended to evade PHC decision on Akbar Ayub’s disqualification

An official requesting anonymity said board chairman Sahibzada Saeed Ahmad told members that he would take up the issue with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

A board member however insisted that the decision to amend the Pedo Act 1993 was not made during that meeting.

The draft amendment, a copy of which is available with Dawn, proposes to substitute Section 5(1) of the Pedo Act in order to broaden the appointment criteria so that Mr Ayub’s selection could be legalised with retrospective effect from Jan 1, 2014.

Section 5(1) of the Pedo Act reads that the government shall appoint the CEO of the organisation from amongst the persons having expertise in the field of energy and power sector on such terms and conditions as the government may determine.

The same clause led to the disqualification of Mr Ayub as he lacked experience of energy and power sector and his only expertise was in finance.

The draft amendment reads, “Government shall appoint CEO of the organisation from amongst the person of known integrity and competence, with minimum of 12 years of experience in the field of law, business, engineering, finance, accounts, economics, or power industry on such terms and conditions as the government may determine.”

On June 15, the KP energy and power department, which oversees administrative issues of the Pedo, shared the draft amendment with the law department for vetting.

The law department in its reply filed the same day advised the energy and power department to examine the vetted draft minutely and ensure that it is in order and may not be in contradiction to the order passed by PHC on June 7.

The law department also asked the energy and power department to fulfil the requirement of Rule 19 of the KP Rules of Business 1985, which calls for placing proposals for legislations, promulgation and revocation of amendments before the provincial cabinet.

However, sources told Dawn that the energy and power department was not happy with the law department’s advice and forwarded the case to it with a plea to review its opinion.

“What the energy department is planning to enact was in total disregard and contradiction of the PHC judgment,” a source said.

He said the energy department wanted to make the amendment through an ordinance.

A relevant senior government official confirmed the proposed amendment.

“We are currently discussing whether amendment should be retrospective or prospective,” he said requesting anonymity.

The official said a meeting on the matter was scheduled to take place next week and that the draft amendment would be put up to the provincial cabinet once deliberations on it were complete.

He said the broadening of the eligibility criteria for the Pedo CEO’s appointment was aimed at ensuring that a person of diverse capabilities is selected as the head of the organisation.

“The criterion the KP government is going to introduce has already been followed by the federal government for appointments to similar positions,” he said.

Fazal Rahim, an accountant of Pedo, had filed a petition with the high court challenging the appointment of Mr Ayub as the Pedo CEO insisting the respondent was not qualified to occupy the post.

On June 15, the court granted 60 days stay to Mr Ayub asking him to file an appeal against its decision with the Supreme Court.

Despite repeated attempts, energy and power minister Atif Khan wasn’t available for comments.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2017