The Senate's Standing Committee on Water and Power on Tuesday postponed its decision to issue arrest warrants of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), Tabish Gohar, to forcibly bring him to the committee meeting till November 8 on the request of the Ministry of Water and Power.
Tabish Gohar was scheduled to attend a long scheduled meeting of the Committee headed by Senator Zahid Khan but at the eleventh hour his health did not permit him to travel to Islamabad.
The meeting is seeking a detailed briefing on two issues :(i) agreement with KESC along with installed generation capacity of electricity and current generation; and (ii) detailed cost of per unit along with total megawatts/units of electricity being provided to KESC by Wapda.
"He wanted to attend the committee meeting along with the CEO of KESC, but last night his health was not good that is why he did not come to Islamabad," said Syed Monis Abdullah Alvi, the power utility's Chief Financial Officer (CFO)/ Company Secretary.
The words "he did not come" visibly irked all committee members who unanimously maintained that Tabish Gohar deliberately skipped the meeting, as KESC "is involved in scams"
When Special Secretary Ministry of Water and Power Himayatullah Khan pointed out that Secretary Water and Power Nargis Sethi had personally telephoned the CEO, asking him to attend the meeting. She had promised the committee on Monday that she would ensure his presence. "I myself made three phone calls to Tabish Gohar, but he did not respond. As a last resort, we sent him written instructions in which he was directed to attend the meeting," Himayatullah Khan added.
When the committee took a unanimous position to issue arrest warrants of the CEO of KESC, one member and Special Secretary Water and Power, requested the Chairman to give 10 minutes to the CFO to talk to CEO and give assurance of his presence in a day or two.
CFO and a couple of other officials went out from the committee room to convey the committee's message to CEO, but the CFO came back after 20 minutes and said that the CEO could not be contacted and even his Secretary did not know his whereabouts. Senator Shahi Syed of the ANP, who hails from Karachi, urged the committee to issue the CEO's arrest warrants immediately as, according to him, he "must attend the meeting because of trillions of rupees of financial mismanagement".
The CFO tried to intervene during the comments of Shahi Syed, but Chairman of the Committee warned him not to, otherwise he would be sent out from the meeting room.
Senator Humayun Khan Mandokhel and Senator Khalida Parveen calmed down the situation and requested the Chairman to give two days more to CEO to present himself before the committee and if he still did not attend the meeting, then committee should issue his arrest warrants as Parliament is supreme.
After seeking views of other committee members, Chairman Zahaid Khan decided to convene the next meeting of the committee on November 8 and directed Special Secretary Water and Power to ensure presence of CEO and the Minister for Water and Power, Ahmad Mukhtar.
KESC's CFO requested the Chairman to convene the committee meeting on November 12, 2012 but his request was turned down was unanimously turned down by all the members.
Privatisation of KESC was finalised on November 29, 2005 through transfer of 73 per cent GoP ownership to a consortium of Al Jomaih Group (AJG) and National Industrial Group (NIG) for $293 million.
AJG and NIG approached Abraaj Capital (Abraaj) of Dubai in 2008 for an equity stake in the KESC holding company and Abraaj acquired 50 per cent controlling stake in KES Power Holding Company of KESC along with 100 per cent transfer of management control. Management team under Abraaj took over on September 16, 2008. In April 2009 Abraaj and GoP signed an IA amendment agreement under which Abraaj committed to injecting $361 million over a period of three years in the company.
Initial shareholding of KES Power was 71.5 per cent and has gradually increased to 72.84 per cent following multiple rights share issue over the last several years (a number of minority shareholders did not subscribe to the rights issue which KES Power underwrote).