Senate Panel Moves to Block DISCO Privatisation, Demands Fresh CCI Approval

ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel has threatened the Privatisation Commission with a privilege motion if it pushes ahead with DISCO privatisation without fresh clearance from the Council of Common Interests (CCI). The threat opens a fresh constitutional dispute over the government's power-sector privatisation programme.

The Senate Sub-Committee on Devolution, convened by Senator Zamir Hussain Ghumro, met on Monday. It rejected the commission's reply defending its decision to continue DISCO privatisation on the strength of an old CCI approval. Ghumro told the commission to follow the committee's earlier directions or face parliamentary action.

The panel argues that electricity distribution carries a provincial dimension and that the matter therefore requires constitutional consultation with the provinces.

A 15-year-old approval under fire

The commission rests its case on a CCI decision from 2011. Senators reject that.

At a September 8 meeting, Senator Jan Muhammad Buledi argued that the CCI has changed its composition several times since then. The matter, he said, must go back to the forum for a fresh decision.

In August, the committee argued that selling the companies without CCI consent would breach Articles 154 and 157 of the Constitution. According to reports of that meeting, the committee named six companies: IESCO, FESCO, LESCO, GEPCO, SEPCO and HESCO. To support the CCI's role in disputes over provincial rights, it cited the Supreme Court's 1993 judgment in the Mian Nawaz Sharif case.

Also Read: Pakistan Pushes Ahead With DISCOs Privatization Despite Growing Opposition

Ghumro wants the provinces to take ownership of the DISCOs themselves. Failing that, the committee says the federal government must regularise its control through the proper constitutional route, with provincial assemblies involved.

The 100 percent question

The sharpest attack targets the business case itself.

On September 8, the committee heard that the Islamabad Electric Supply Company recovers 100% of its billing. The Lahore company recovers 99% and the Faisalabad company 98%. Ghumro asked why the state should sell companies performing at that level.

That argument challenges one of the assumptions behind the DISCO privatisation drive. The committee questions why companies reporting near-total recoveries should be among those considered for private ownership.

The committee also raised the privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills and PIA. It said both processes had raised serious questions, and it demanded full transparency this time.

A bigger fight over Islamabad's footprint

The DISCO fight belongs to a much larger campaign by the sub-committee against what it considers federal overreach after the 18th Amendment.

The sub-committee wants 24 federal ministries and organisations abolished because they work in provincial or CCI domains. It also wants federal spending cut from about Rs19 trillion to Rs13 trillion. It has directed the Auditor General of Pakistan and the Controller General of Accounts to produce audited spending figures for those bodies covering the past 16 years. Ghumro estimates the total runs into trillions of rupees.

The cabinet secretary told senators that the Cabinet Division had sent a note on the committee's concerns to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He described the CCI as a key constitutional forum, comparable to the federal cabinet.

What comes next

The committee's demand does not legally freeze the programme, and the government has not suspended it.

Attention now turns to how the Privatisation Commission and the federal government respond. If they refuse a fresh CCI referral, senators could take a privilege motion to the floor of the House. If they agree, the provinces gain a formal seat at the table. They would also get a chance to reopen the underlying question of who should own Pakistan's power distribution business.

The DISCO sell-off now faces a fresh political and constitutional challenge alongside the financial test awaiting potential bidders.