ISLAMABAD: The federal capital is abuzz with speculation that Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Power (SAPM), Tabish Gauhar has tendered his resignation.
However, there has been no official confirmation from the government on this development. Gauhar, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of erstwhile KESC (now KE), who, according to sources is in Dubai for the last four to five days, did not respond to a message sent by this correspondent till the filing of this report.
If this development is correct Gauhar would be the second SAPM on power during the two and a half year tenure of the Khan administration to leave office.
In November, 2020, Prime Minister’s SAPM on Power Syed Shahzad Qasim, tendered his resignation a few days after Prime Minister asked him to focus on Coordination of Marketing and Development of Mineral Resources.
The sources said, Gauhar, a technocrat, was disturbed after an inquiry into the petrol crisis undertaken by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cited M/s Byco refinery in the scam. The FIA recommended punitive action against Byco Refinery and further probe into its suspicious/illegal activities.
An official confirmed that Tabish Gauhar has not come to office for the last few days. Another source said, he was last seen a week ago on Friday.
An insider told this scribe that Tabish Gauhar has reservations on the way, government is dealing with IPPs with respect to payment and other issues.
Gauhar was on the Byco Board and Chairman of audit committee of the refinery. A committee headed by Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar is investigating the matter and will submit a report to the Federal Cabinet.
On December 15, 2020, when Business Recorder enquired from Tabish Gauhar on this issue he replied “I resigned from Byco’s Board before joining the government. I haven’t read the whole report but let’s not jump to the conclusions too soon. According to the report, almost everyone’s either guilty or incompetent or complicit!.
The reality is always a lot more nuanced. There are also some serious structural issues in the petroleum/energy sector that this report doesn’t at all.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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