IHC seeks record of Nepra chairman’s appointment

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has sought the record related to the appointment of Tauseef H. Farooqi as chairman of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).

IHC Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani while hearing a petition filed against the appointment of Mr Farooqi issued the pre-admission notice to the secretary of Cabinet Division and Mr Farooqi. The court asked the respondents to submit the reply along with the record related to the appointment of Mr Farooqi by Sept 29.

The petitioner adopted before the court that the said appointment has been made in violation of the rules.

He claimed that the proceeding of the meeting of the selection committee that was convened for the appointment of Mr Farooqi were kept secret and never made public. He added that after his appointment Mr Farooqi approved those allowances for him for which he was not entitled for.

Pre-admission notice issued to Cabinet Division secretary about appointment of Tauseef Farooqi

The petitioner requested the court to set aside the appointment of Mr Farooqi as Nepra chairman.

The post of Nepra chairman was lying vacant since Nov 20, 2018.

Tariq Sadozi, who had joined as Nepra chairman on Nov 21, 2014, had completed his four-year term on Nov 20, 2018. The selection process for the Nepra chairman was started from December.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr Farooqi is an electrical engineer, MBA, and a Columbia Business School graduate with more than 25 years experience of governance of techno-commercial-financial and strategic management and governance of utilities/IWPPs. He is founder and CEO of Alter Consulting Limited.

Mr Farooqi joined Nepra as its chairman in August, 2019. He was appointed for a term of four years with immediate effect. Since 2000 Mr Farooqi has developed top three IWPP projects in Abu Dhabi.

In 2005, he joined Marubeni of Japan on their largest investment outside Japan in Taweelah B, Abu Dhabi’s largest power plant, (2,000MW and 160 MIGD, a 3 billion USD project).

It is pertinent to mention that earlier the process to appoint the Nepra chief was scrapped as members of the selection committee were not satisfied with selected candidates. The first process started when the government advertised the position almost a month after it fell vacant in November, 2018, and received response from 95 candidates, of which 13 were shortlisted for interview.

A selection committee was constituted by the prime minister and Dr Ishrat Hussain interviewed the candidates on Feb 6, but later on the process was scrapped.

The selection committee members had disagreement on the shortlisted candidates, arguing that no one among them was suitable for the job.