Senate body asks govt to abolish BoDs of all Discos

ISLAMABAD: Senate Committee on Water and Power has asked the government to abolish the Board of Directors (BoDs) of all power distribution companies (Discos) saying the board mainly comprise the politically motivated people as the non-political persons should have been made parts of the board to professionally run the companies.
It was the last meeting of the Senate body with Senator Zahid Khan of Awami National Party in the chair as he retired from Senate on Friday.All the members of the Senate committee asked the government to appoint technical individuals as members of the Board of Directors. Additional secretary of Ministry of Water and Power also endorsed recommendation of the members of the Senate body.
Wapda Chairman Zafar Mehmood sensitised members of the committee saying Munda Dam would not only be generating electricity and irrigating the command areas, but would substantially mitigate the floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Senator Zahid Khan said that 97 percent people of the Malakand Division paid the electricity bill, but the installment of grid station and construction of Munda Dam was too much delayed in the Division which was injustice to the masses of the area.
Khan also complained that in the Malakand Division, the load shedding duration hovers around 20 to 22 hours a day.Wapda chairman told the participants of the committee that Dasu Dam would generate 3,000-4,000MW electricity for which World Bank committed the loan for the Dasu project.
Out of $588 million committed credit line, World Bank has transferred $50 million to Pakistan. The transmission line from Dubair Khawar to Dasu would be laid down in the current month, he said.
Umar Rasul, additional secretary and MD of Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) said that in the wake of inefficiency of the concerned departments, the line losses were not being controlled.
Senator Nisar said that even in the posh area of Peshawar-Gulbahar Colony and its suburbs, ‘Kunda culture’ was common and all this was being done with the connivance of the officials of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco).
The Pesco official admitted that system in the vicinity of Pesco was facing 30 percent line losses. Senator Shahi Syed said that in the areas of Gomal and Tank, people were facing power outages of 20 to 22 hours a day.