Pedo without regular CEO for over one and a half year

PESHAWAR: Uncertainty still prevails at the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) as it has been without a regular chief executive officer for the last more than one and a half year.

Another ad hoc step was taken recently when Bahadur Shah, the general manager at Pedo, was given additional charge as the chief executive officer (CEO) till the selection of the regular CEO. He had served as head of the organization, which was earlier known as SHYDO, earlier and had been replaced. His case had also been in the court.

Bahadur Shah has replaced Syed Zainullah Shah, who too was earlier given additional charge as the CEO and allowed to continue in office for fairly long time. He was serving as the chief planning officer at the provincial Energy and Power Department when he was given the additional charge as CEO Pedo. The Pedo has lurched from one crisis to another. Earlier its CEO Akbar Ayub was removed from the job on the orders of the Supreme Court as it ruled that his appointment was illegal because he lacked experience in the field of energy.

The staff union had moved the court against his appointment. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tried its best to reinstate him by fighting the case in the court, but all this was in vain. There was no mention of academic qualification except expertise in the field of energy for the CEO position in the Pedo Act and this created problems for Akbar Ayub. To avoid such a difficult situation in future, the KP government tabled a bill in the assembly to amend the Pedo Act for CEO position with candidates required to have educational qualification in engineering, finance, law and other disciplines as is the case in the federal government. However, this will also pave the way for Akbar Ayub if he wishes to apply again as a candidate for the CEO Pedo job.

After some delay and two attempts to appoint the Pedo CEO through a long selection process, the authorities failed to select any candidate for the job. Naeem Khan, former provincial secretary energy with a good reputation, was among the 16 shortlisted candidates out of a list of about 50 applicants. Those shortlisted were interviewed intensively.

Naeem Khan reportedly topped the list of candidates in the final selection process, but he wasn’t appointed as the CEO. Another top candidate was Anwarul Haq Yousafzai, a former chief executive of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), but his chances of selection were less as he had a non-engineering background.

The government has now decided to restart the selection process of the CEO by re-advertising the post. The matter may be referred to the Board of Directors of the Pedo, though it will amount to violation of the Pedo Act and rules. According to the Pedo Act, the CEO is to be appointed by the government and rest of the staff by the Board of Directors. In fact, giving additional charge to someone is also not covered under any rule of Pedo. It is worthwhile to recall that Saleem Khan, presently the chief secretary of the province, had initiated the process of selection of the CEO of Pedo when he was serving as secretary energy. But now under his watch the selection process is being started all over again or the matter could be referred to the Board of Directors of Pedo.

It is unclear how long will the process take to appoint a regular CEO. Until then, ad hocism will continue and someone working in Pedo or the provincial Energy and Power department will be given additional charge to manage Pedo.