The seminar, titled ‘Privatization-the only solution for electricity distribution companies’, was organized by the Parliamentary Forum on Energy and Economy, a newly created cross-party group of the members of the National Assembly.

Addressing its participants, Ayaz Sadiq, Speaker of the National Assembly, emphasized the need for non-partisan and deep deliberations on the issues and problems concerning DISCOs. Though he said the government should take itself out of running any business, including DISCOs, he also highlighted the need for an informed parliamentary and policy debate so that any negative fallouts of privatization can be both predicted and prevented. “We need the right person for the right job whether it is in the government or the private sector otherwise our situation will worsen,” he said.

Syed Naveed Qamar, senior parliamentarian and former minister of privatization, also told the audience that it is the management of a company that matters, not its ownership. “Even in DISCOs, you see that some of them are running efficiently. For instance, Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (IESCO) is doing very well so there is no need to privatize it”, he said. He also advocated a diversified approach to address the problems plaguing DISCOS. “While most of these problems can be removed by improving their management, we need to keep in mind the peculiar situation of each DISCO to decide how to reform or restructure it”, he added. He further emphasized that the regulator must live up to its role and not just act as a power tariff setter.

Earlier, Dr Nafisa Shah, senior parliamentarian and the convener of the Parliamentary Forum on Energy and Economy introduced it to the audience. She said that the energy crisis has become so severe that it is now threatening the entire national economy. “We therefore need to debate and address it in a non-partisan manner and that explains why we have set up this forum,” she said.

The seminar included presentations by energy experts Shaheera Tahir, Rimsha Rehan, and Manzoor Alizai on the need for reforming and restructuring DISCOs and analyzed and critiqued various options being considered for the purpose. They highlighted the pros and cons of public-private partnerships, management concessions, and provincialization as an alternative to the privatization of DISCOs.

Tahir Basharat Cheema, former head of Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) also shed light on the costs and benefits of privatizing DISCOs. He summed up this speech by advocating that allowing the private sector to take over the management of these companies rather than privatizing them can lead to an improvement in their performance.

Summing up the proceedings of the seminar, Dr Amjad Ali Khan, a parliamentarian from Swat, said that the provincial government should be engaged in debates and discussions about DISCOs and they should have the authority to decide whatever they want to do with DISCOs in their respective jurisdiction. “Once the DISCOs are given in the provincial jurisdiction, the provincial authorities should either improve their management or they should develop public-private partnerships to enable investments in DISCOs,” he concludes.-PR