The row between Senate's Standing Committee on Water and Power and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) may further widen as the latter has suggested to the former to hold a meeting on issues related to the KESC in Karachi instead of Islamabad.
The CEO KESC is unlikely to attend the meeting on November 8 in Islamabad despite the warning made by the committee that they would get an arrest warrant issued against the company's head for his failure to attend Tuesday's meeting held in Islamabad. The members of the committee who are already irked by the continues absence of the CEO despite repeated invitations to attend the meeting to discuss important issues related to the KESC may get further irked as the CEO KESC has invited them to hold the meeting in Karachi, apparently apologising for being unable to visit Islamabad for the next meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday.
Through a letter sent to Senator Zahid Khan Sahib, chairman Senate Standing Committee on Water & Power, Tabish Gauhar, CEO KESC on Wednesday repeated his stance that he could not attend the committee's meeting on November 6 due to due ill health. Referring to the meeting on Tuesday and the revised notice of meeting of this Committee on November 8, 2012, he said, "At the outset, let me state that the KESC assigns due importance to all such parliamentary committee meetings and has always made it a point of responding in a timely manner to its queries, furnishing the requisite information, and attending these sessions whenever required. In the case of the 6th November meeting also, we provided a comprehensive information pack in advance, and three senior officers of our company (Mr Syed Moonis Alvi, CFO & Company Secretary; Mr Khalid Rehman, Director Management Co-ordination; and Mr Amer Zia, Director Strategy Planning & Compliance) attended the session this morning to respond to various queries, provide clarifications, etc. I had also planned to attend but due to my ill health, I could not take the scheduled morning flight to Islamabad."
The letter further said "however, it is not entirely clear to us, as a private sector organisation, the rules of business that obliges a specific "individual" to appear before such committees when another duly authorised senior representative(s) of the "institution" is equally able to present and explain the case. The Board of Directors (BOD) of KESC, to whom the CEO reports, has authorised/empowered certain specified Islamabad-based directors (and not just the CEO) to attend meetings in Islamabad on behalf of KESC. In the meanwhile, we are also seeking external legal opinion on our institutional as well as individual constitutional rights as well as obligations vis-à-vis parliamentary committees, and would appreciate your guidance and support as required."
"Furthermore instead of meeting in Islamabad on November 8, 2012 at such short notice, I would request you and other members of the Committee to visit us in Karachi for an opportunity to give you and your colleagues a detailed presentation on KESC, followed by visits to key sites including brand new state-of-the-art 560 MW plant commissioned in 2012 if your time permits. A similar such visit to KESC/Karachi was undertaken by the earlier Senate Standing Committee on Water & Power on 8th July 2010 under the Chairmanship of Senator Lashkari Raisani that was extremely helpful in developing a better on-the-ground understanding of KESC's issues, challenges, and achievements and would also give an opportunity to meet the senior management, which is working as a team in turning around KESC," it added. "We look forward to welcoming you at KESC at your earliest possible convenience and await a convenient date in Karachi for a meeting" it concluded.