Govt changes Discos’ BoDs in Sindh, Punjab

ISLAMABAD: Owing to deteriorating state of affairs of two power distribution companies (Discos) in Punjab and Sindh, the Ministry of Water and Power has made changes in their Boards of Directors (BoDs) by appointing highly qualified directors and representatives of provincial governments on their boards.
Those companies are Sukkur Electric Supply Company (Sesco) and Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and changes in them were imperative, as previous boards had failed in coming up to expected standards of performance and were unable to achieve the targets agreed in a performance contract signed with Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) in 2014.
The federal government has also given representation to the provincial governments in both these Boards - i.e. Commissioners of Sukkur and Larkana have been appointed to the Sepco Board and Commissioners of Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas have been appointed to Hesco Board.
It is worth noting that till recently, Hesco and Sepco were in a consistent state of deterioration on account of bad governance and mismanagement.
After the ministry’s significant steps to address the situation, its efforts have helped bring about significant and tangible improvement in the working of these two distribution companies, which were being considered worst performers of all Discos.
The newly constituted Boards have started functioning and Chairman of each Board has been elected in accordance with the Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules, 2013, both of whom are well reputed individuals belonging to the Sindh province.
In Sepco, Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui, an MBA from Boston University has been chosen by the Board as its Chairman. Siddiqui is well known educationist of Sindh and recently, in recognition of his valuable services for education of Pakistan, Government of Pakistan has conferred the award of Sitara-e Imtiaz on him. The credit of establishing the Institute of Business Administration at Sukkur is also attributable to him. He has served in different top-level positions during his career such as MD Site, Commissioner Sukkur and Secretary to Government of Sindh, and retired from Government service in 2004. He has wide experience in management, administration and academia at the national and international level. Nazar Hussain Mahar has been elected as Chairman of Hesco Board. Nazar H. Mahar carries excellent experience of managing public sector entities. He retired from Government Service in 2010 as Federal Secretary, after having worked on a number of national and international projects. He has a wealth of experience in the fields of public sector management, finance, planning and administration. His experience of steering the provincial Planning Department as Additional Chief Secretary is valuable to the management of the affairs of Hesco. His last assignment was that of Chairman Sindh Revenue Board.