Ghulam Idris Khan
PTI chairman Imran Khan claimed the other day in public meeting and later in press talk, that KP govt has been able to construct about 350 or more dams and is producing electricity at cheap rates than that generated by WAPDA.
In KP, the Pukhtunkhwa Energy Development Organiz-ation (PEDO) is major instrument for producing power from hydel, wind, solar and thermal sources. This organization was established in 1986, was made autonomous and named Sarhad hydel development organization in 1993. In 2013 it was named Pukhtun-khwa Hydel Development Organization (PHYDO). In 2014, through an act, it was made as Pukhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO).
The KP govt energy department and PEDO have completed and operationalized ab-out five hydel projects since 1999. These projects were planned and worked started from 1999. The operation of Malakand 111 power house with the capacity of 81 MW started commercial functioning in November 2008. The Pehur power house started commercial operation in Mar-ch 2010. In Chitral, the power houses started commercial operation in 1999 and 2009. All this electricity generation was inducted in national grid during previous govt of MMA, ANP and PPP coalition govt. About 107 MW of power produced by these small dams w-ere contributed to national grid in KPK in previous reg-ime.
PTI is claiming that it has initiated work on 350 small dams in the province, but looking at the documents and the progress made by PEDO, it becomes clear that the work is still on paper. The tall claims either made by Chairman Imran Khan or CM Pervaz Khattak are far from reality.
Feasibility studies of these ongoing projects were also conducted during the last govt of PPP and ANP. These projects are located in Swat, Dir lower, Mansehra and Shangla.
One project is by the name of KOTO Hydropower project at Dir for which study was carried out in 1992. Progress on it was at snail’s pace, however in 2008 technical study was conducted by German agency, and the feasibility study was completed by M/S Associated Consultant Engineers (ACE) in 201. This also has not been completed to date.
The PTI govt projects are still on paper. It has identified some projects and divided them in three categories namely solicited sites (Feasibility studies carried out but no physical work started yet), semi raw sites (Feasibility studies in progress) and raw sites (Feasibility studies not even started). PEDO has earmarked six locations in the hilly areas of Dir, Mansehra, Chitral, Batagram and Shangla. According to PEDO website, their feasibility studies have been completed and physical work has not been initiated yet. Last month, in November 2017, the government was been able to issue letter of award to successful bidder for one of the projects.
PTI Chairman Khan while addressing a public meeting in 2014 in Swat announced that PTI-ruled government of KPK has launched 350 small dams which will generate cheap electricity for the people of Pakistan along with availability of irrigation water for the local farmers. He also claimed on record that electricity generation will be surplus and it will be “exported” to the rest of Pakistan. The Chief Minister of KPK Mr. Pervaz Khan Khattak claimed while signing agreement for generation of power that they will produce 1200 MW of electricity. The minister of power and energy went a step ahead and doubled the figure. But what is the position on ground? None of them will now come forward to answer that.
PEDO acts as an engine and main governing body for producing power in the KP. The government appointed Shahkil Durrani as Chairman Board of Directors for smooth functioning of the organization. Durrani, a retired civil servant, previously posted as Chairman WAPDA, sent his resignation to the government of KPK due to unsatisfactory state of affairs. A news report in a leading English newspaper claimed that Durrani’s resignation letter says that PEDO is “suffering from incompetence, lack of effective system and a dysfunctional organizational structure.” The letter also said that he tried a number of times to get matters redressed at the appropriate levels but found that “both the Minister for Energy Mr. Muhammad Atif and CEO PEDO Mr. Akbar Ayyub had a near total disinterest in improving matters. They wanted to retain arbitrary control.”
Durrani further stated that even the two dams initiated in the coalition govt of ANP and PPP namely Machai and Ronolia comlpleted in July 2015 are not generating power because the transmission lines have not been completed.
According to media report, Durrani disclosed that CEO has been authorized to draw salary of PKR 1.4 million per month. Other senior officers who were inducted by the present setup were allowed monthly salary of PKR 0.6 to 0.8 million per month. CEO is now seeking to further increase up 1.8 million per month. Durrani who had served as Chairman WAPDA disclosed that Chairman WAPDA gets PKR 0.6 million as monthly salary while members draw PKR 0.3 million per month. WAPDA is hundred times larger than PEDO.
PEDO CEO at that time, Mr. Akbar Ayyub, is a friend of Asad Umer, a member of National Assembly from Islamabad. The Peshawar high court had later shown the door and declared his appointment as illegal on petition filed by one of the employee of PEDO in June 2017. However, the govt of KPK tried its best to keep Akbar Ayyub on position by making amendments in the laws of PEDO Act 1993, that is changing the requirement for the post. Opposition members of KPK assembly strongly reacted to it, due to which he left the position under the court orders.
The other six member of the Board of Directors submitted resignations. The cause of their resignation as reported in the national press was that PEDO has become hub of the corruption.
It is important to note that how the affairs of the organization, responsible to produce energy (purely an engineering organization) were run thr-ough blue eye political nominee of the high ups of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf who appointed non-technical personnel selected on whim from private sector, which created mess and none of the project has been commissioned by them.
Now in KPK and in Peshawar particular, recent summer rains occurred, due to which some famous streets and localities were inundated, due to the drainage system, rain water flowed onto roads and ponds were formed. People jokingly called those streets as Hashtnageri small dam, Dabgeri and Lady Reading Hospital small dam. Locals tell each other that these are the dams of which PTI chief Imran Khan promised with the public. It is now a famous joke in Peshawar, whenever people see a small water pond of rain water, they call it a micro dam of Imran Khan and these are way more than the planned 350. People enjoy it as a joke the same way that of Billion Trees in KP.
