PHC dismisses petition against appointments in PEDO

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has dismissed a petition filed against appointments in the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO).

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth declared all appointments from the private sector in PEDO valid and dismissed the writ petition filed by Ziaullah Afridi, a former Member Provincial Assembly.

When Ziaullah Afridi was setting MPA, he had invoked quo warranto jurisdiction of the high court and alleged that appointments in the PEDO were illegal.

The former lawmaker had challenged the appointments in PEDO including the chief financial officer, HR director, director business planning and analysis, managers, assistants and accountants in PEDO.

He had also challenged spending of millions of rupees by PEDO CEO Akbar Khan for hiring a private firm for his case from the PEDO fund.

During the hearing, the lawyer for the PEDO argued that provincial government had decided to fully corporatize PEDO and run it like a company.

He said the government this decision was upheld even by PHC when employees challenged it.

The lawyer informed the court that the PEDO works in the supervision of a Board of Directors and amended PEDO Act authorized the BoD to hire anyone including from private sector.

He stated that PEDO had been run by the government sector for 30 years but it wasn’t performing. The provincial government, he said decided to give management to the private sector. The lawyer said corporate setup saved money because of leaner management and fewer positions with relevant expertise.

He said the hiring wasn’t done by CEO but was rather done by HR committee of BoD. The petition was actually prompted by government’s employees who didn’t want the private sector to take hold of the organisation.

The petitioner had said that it was a government organization and private sector should not be hired. He said that PEDO CEO could only hire people in case of emergency and there wasn’t any emergency. He stated that the private sector was a burden on the exchequer.