Caretaker Minister for Water and Power, Dr Musaddiq Malik said on Wednesday that his top priority is to reduce power loadshedding during his stay in the Ministry but will not make any unrealistic promise. Talking to Business Recorder prior to formally taking charge of the Ministry outside the A block of Pak Secretariat, he said that he will have an interactive session with the top brass of the ministry and its attached departments to understand the working and problems of power sector.
Replying to a question he said that as he gets briefing from the Ministry and its affiliated departments, he will interact with the media to reveal the targets during his stay in the Ministry. Answering another question, Dr Malik said that he would share his plan with the media next week. "I will prioritise one or two goals, top of which will be reduction of load shedding," he added. According to a recent presentation to caretaker Prime Minister, Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, presently people are facing 12-16 hours load shedding due to lower supply of gas and furnace oil.
The Ministry of Water and Power has sought Rs 89 billion from the Ministry of Finance to deal with load shedding issue till May 2013 whereas Petroleum Ministry is demanding Rs 109 billion to ensure smooth supply of furnace oil during election months. The caretaker Minister for Water and Power who met all the top officials individually, will also have to deal with rival groups in his Ministry - one group is led by Additional Secretary Incharge Water and Power, Rai Sikandar and the other is being headed by District Management Group (DMG) Arshad Mirza, Additional Secretary who is senior to Acting Secretary. The sources said, both the Acting Secretary and Additional Secretary are not on talking terms and the junior officers are worried about this situation.
Sources close to Acting Secretary told this scribe that whatever proposals are recommended by the Additional Secretary are being rejected by the Acting Secretary, who reportedly claims he spent years in jail for his friendship with President Zardari.
According to sources, as the Acting Secretary replaced Nargis Sethi, he transferred all the top officials of the Ministry including the Additional Secretary, Arshad Mirza. However, the Supreme Court cancelled all the transfer and posting orders issued by the Establishment Division on March 16, 2013. The officers who were transferred returned. However, Acting Secretary reportedly does not mark "Dak" to those officers who returned to the Ministry upon the orders of the Supreme Court.