ISLAMABAD: Making bureaucrats the scapegoats, PML-N government didn’t fix the responsibility at ministerial level in its preliminary finding into the power crisis like the petrol shortage.
However, according to reliable sources, the investigations into power breakdown are still underway and something concrete would be possible only after final report once it is completed by NESPAK. The federal and state ministers of Water & Power Khawja Asif and Abid Sher Ali are considered very close to Prime Minister and axe didn’t fall on them after power crisis despite the fact that NTDC and NPCC fall under their purview. Earlier, the government suspended six officials of petroleum ministry including secretary petroleum and two officials from Pakistan State Oil (PSO) over failure of control petrol shortage, while now government has suspended two top officials of power sector entities over power blackout across the country.
At present, officials of petroleum and water and power ministry are facing suspension over energy crisis whereas ministers are beyond any responsibility who failed to implement policy measures to bring efficiency. The energy crisis has also been attributed to failure of government to appoint permanent heads of companies after passing long time. “Suspension of top officials was made in response to an inquiry report submitted to water and power ministry which held them responsible for failing to control the power break down, an official a senior official at power ministry said. He added that chief NTDC and GM NPCC had been suspended and inquiry had been ordered against both in the wake of preliminary inquiry about power break down.
Major power break down had occurred on January 24 and plunged most parts of the country into darkness at the midnight. In initial response, government had attributed power break down over sabotage of transmission line in Balochistan which resulted in black out almost 80 per cent of the country. While imposing responsibility of recent countrywide power break down, the Government has now suspended managing director National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) Tahir Mehmood and general manager National Power Control Center (NPCC) Muhammad Saleem from the top most important slots.
According to officials at Water and Power Ministry, NESPAK (National Engineering Services Pakistan) had submitted its report to Ministry of Water and Power on recent major power blackout that erupted on January 24 and plunged most parts of the country into darkness at the midnight. They said that an attack by terrorists on 220 kv transmission line in Notal area of Balochistan’s Nasirabad district had been blamed in the report that caused tripping in the line.
“After tripping in 220KV transmission line it was the responsibility of NTDC and NPCC to take prompt measures to avoid closure of the entire power system, the officials said while referring to the findings of NESPAK’s report. This major breakdown of the system put areas in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan into darkness. A vast area in Sindh province was also affected. The NESPAK in its investigation report has declared that the entire power system went off due to absence of required measures from both the NTDC and the NPCC to handle with the alarming situation. And, as a result to this, most parts of Pakistan remained deprived of electricity for 7 to 24 hours. The report has made MD NTDC and GM NPCC responsible of the fourth power breakdown in the country.
A senior official power ministry said that further investigation against both officials was underway.
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