Senate body okays Electric Power Amendment bill

The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat unanimously approved "the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2019" to strengthen the administration of the regulator in power sector.
The committee met with Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood in the chair here at Parliament House on Thursday. The committee discussed 'the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2019, accidents and deaths due to electrocution in Karachi, proposal for constitution of Engineering Service of Pakistan for the civil servant engineers submitted by the Pakistan Engineering Council, and Central Superior Services (CSS) exam procedure.
The bill was moved by Leader of House in the Senate Syed Shibli Fraz in the meeting for passage. The committee unanimously approved the Bill with minor amendments.
According to the Bill, "The Authority shall consist of a chairman and four members out of whom one shall be designed as Member Tariff and Finance, one as Member Technical, one as Member Law and one as Member Admin and Enforcement. The chairman and members of the Authority shall be appointed by the federal government for a term of four years and shall be eligible for appointment for a similar term or terms."
The committee expressed serious resentment over absence of representative of K-Electric and said if the officials of K-Electric do not attend next meeting then IG Sindh Police would be approached to issue arrest warrants and present them in the meeting.
The committee members expressed serious concern over the deaths of 35 people due to "dynamite" transmission line system of K-Electric.
Committee Chairman Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood said that 19 deaths out of 35 are directly involving K-Electric system. He said that NEPRA should cancel the license of K-Electric if it does not improve its system.
Chairman National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Tauseef H Farooqi told the meeting that the people died due to the new system installed by K-Electric. He said that the new system with ADM insulation was faulty and it didn't have the necessary earthen in the electricity cables.
He said that even the K-Electric is not following own SOPs for making the system safe and sound. He said, "The NEPRA investigated the incidents and we had issued the show case notice to K-Electric." He said that K-Electric replied the notice at Wednesday midnight after its closing date. He said that NEPRA would examine the reply of K-Electric.
"The NEPRA has authority to impose fine or cancel the license of K-Electric," said the NEPRA chairman.
The committee also asked for information about the total number of deaths occurred so far entirely due to the new system and also asked NEPRA to give details of any and all violations being committed by K-Electric.
The committee decided to summon the officials of Power Ministry and Privatization Commission to hear more in the matter in the next meeting.
While discussing the proposal for constitution of Pakistan Engineering Service for the Civil Servant Engineers submitted by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), the chairman PEC said that at present not a single person with engineering background is working in grade-22 and only one engineer is in grade-21 in the civil service of the country and all the decisions relating to jobs requiring specialized engineering expertise are being taking by non-professional people. He proposed having a parallel system of testing for engineers alongside the CSS examination.
The committee members while discussing the matter remarked that many ministries including power, energy, planning, science and technology, water, petroleum, etc, are now of technical nature and proposed that no person other than an engineer should lead these bodies.
The committee members were unanimously in favor of the proposal and agreed that the engineers should be given a specific cadre in the civil service.
The minister was of the view that the special committee constituted under Dr Ishrat Hussain may be heard as a relevant stakeholder so that it may be known if they are working on any such proposal under the ambit if its reforms.
The committee decided to take information as to how many non-professional people are working on engineering posts. The committee recommended constituting this cadre for engineers as Pakistan Engineering Services.
The committee discussed at length a public petition regarding the proposal of screening test by FPSC for competitive examinations. The committee left the decision of introducing or not introducing the test but at the same time recommended to reduce the time duration of the exam as reasonably as possible for the Federal Public Service Commission.
The public petition by Princess Zainab, mother of Jam Kamal, regarding Flashman's Hotel Rawalpindi was also discussed in the meeting. The committee was told by FIA that all stakeholders of the issue should sit together and resolve the matter amicably. The committee expressed dissatisfaction at the situation of the hotel despite being at the prime location in the city and decided to take 10 year record of the hotel's performance and details.