ISLAMABAD
The Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power on Friday recommended the inclusion of technical people in the Board of Directors of electricity distribution companies to resolve the performance issues.
Parliamentary Panel that met with Zahid Khan in the chair also suggested dissolving the old Board of Directors.
 Panel also emphasised that political people should not be on the board and the technical people selected following the strict merit criteria should only be appointed as the members of BoD.
Committee discussed the issue of intense load-shedding in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, progress on 132kv Grid Stations Munda, land acquisition for construction of Grid Station Malakand and Mohamand (Munda) dam.
Chairman Wapda Zafar Mehmood told the panel about an important project of Munda dam and said that loan of French government was also available for the dam. However, the Planning Commission has not yet authorised the project to Wapda.
He said World Bank was financing the Dasu dam and it was the sole project for which the bank has also provided funds for land acquisition.
He said the WB has approved the project and also transferred the amount and it would generate 4320MW cheap hydel electricity. The CEO of Pesco informed the committee that 6 to 8 hours power load-shedding was being carried out in urban and rural areas respectively.
However, more load-management was being observed in areas where losses stood at 60 per cent and above. He said the Nepra had allowed 20 per cent losses and the company losses stood at 30 per cent.
He said currently 950 MW was being supplied to Pesco against its demand of 1600 MW. The CEO said mostly losses were recorded from Bannu circle. He said uninterrupted supply to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) was also a major reason for the losses.
The committee recommended that it was the responsibility of the federal government to provide electricity to the IDPs and the government should pay in this regard.
Senior Member KPK Board of Revenue Waqar Ayub told the Senate Panel that amount for land acquisition should be deposited with district collectors and land would be acquired for the proposed grid stations.