KP govt picks Bahadur Shah as Nepra member

ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has at last nominated Engineer Bahadur Shah, GM Hydel Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (Pedo), as the Nepra member and requested the Cabinet Division, through a letter, to notify the appointment.

When contacted, Bahadur Shah confirmed that the KP government had nominated him as the Nepra member. He said the process was underway, as the Cabinet Division had not yet issued a notification. Shah said he had 32 years experience in the energy sector and got his MS Engineering degree from Birmingham University, UK. With the nomination of KP member, the Nepra now will have four members each from every province.

Himayat Ullah Khan was the last Nepra member from the KP from August 21, 2014 to August 20, 2018. He is now serving as adviser to the KP government on energy and power. Since the emergence of Nepra, Fakharuddin Mallick remained the KP member in the regulator from March 1998 to December 30, 1999 and after that Abdul Rahim Khan was notified as the KP member from September 1, 2000 to August 30, 2008.

Shoukat Ali Kundi performed as the KP member in Nepra from April 27, 2009 to April 26, 2013. Saifullah is currently representing Punjab in Nepra as member, whereas Rehmatullah Baloch is representing Balochistan and Rafique Ahmad Shaikh Sindh. However, the government has so far failed to appoint the Nepra chairman even after interviewing candidates. Rather the government scratched down the whole process and decided to reinitiate the whole exercise to select a chairman of its liking.

The post of Nepra chairman has been lying vacant since Nov 20, 2018 after the retirement of Tariq Sadozai. Under the rules, the top government and regulatory positions meant to be filled through competition should be advertised by the ministries concerned before the vacancy of post to ensure smooth transition and avoid loss of public work.

The government had earlier advertised the position almost a month after it fell vacant and received a healthy response from about 95 candidates, of which 13 were shortlisted for interview. A selection committee, constituted by the prime minister and his adviser on governance reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain, interviewed them on Feb 6 but scrapped the process after a few days.

Dr Ishrat Hussain said the interviewing committee had decided unanimously to scrap the process because the candidates did not meet the criteria. “We will re-advertise the post,” he said.