Saman Hamid
Formal definition of regulators is; “A regulatory agency (also regulatory authority, regulatory body or regulator) is a public authority or government agency responsible for exercising autonomous authority over some area of human activity in a regulatory or supervisory capacity. Regulatory authorities are commonly set up to enforce standards and safety or to oversee use of public goods and regulate commerce.” A lot is left on the imagination when it comes to Pakistan and her regulators and law making bodies but over the years the basic sanctity of institutions is at least apparently kept intact or it used to be the case until recently. The government has recently placed five regulatory bodies under their respective ministries compromising their independence under the Cabinet division. National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has been placed under the Water and Power Division; Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been placed under the Information Technology and Telecom Division; Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) has also been placed under the Information Technology Division; Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has been placed under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources; while the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PEPRA) has been placed under the Finance Division.
Bypassing Council of Common Interests (CCI) hence the constitution, the decision is in direct violation of Islamabad and Lahore High Court. The Chief Minister (CM), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), as well as CM Sindh also opposed the move proposed in December last year, when administrative control was placed under the ministries. The manner in which the Government has ignored the relevant law making bodies and the Provincial interests are compromised is nothing less than alarming. Such regulatory bodies are a result of conditions from International Financial Institutions to ensure transparency in the utility of funds provided by them.
Last month in China the full extent of the CPEC plan was revealed in last month’s OBOR summit. There is massive investment expected in agriculture and industrial sector, as well as development of soft economy, trading zones are expected to be developed. The best part is that nations in Europe, Central Asia, and Middle East all want to be part of CPEC. The biggest concern of anyone interested in investing in Pakistan is primarily transparency. Transparency International places us in the “Global Corruption Perception Index”; at 116 out of 170 countries. With this recent move power, IT, telecom and fuel are not independently regulated at all and are likely to serve the ministries’ interest; this is directly raising red flags for parties involved in CPEC. There are several aspects of the concern arising out of this action.
First and foremost this has direct bearing on the cost and ease of doing business in Pakistan. With costs of fuel, power and telecom directly under the ministries now there is a concern that realistic translation will be out ruled by the drive for “Public Revenue’s” growth, source of government’s income. Hence there is a real risk of costs driven upwards. Secondly the perception of integrity in public offices and bureaucracy suffers from massive trust deficit and the perception unfortunately knows no borders, our stature as a developing country helps the cause in a negative manner. Placing control of regulators leaves a big question mark as to the integrity of the ministries as a whole and fuel concerns for potential for wrong doing, regime change eminent next year is another area that will leave the entire scenario blatantly exposed. Last but not the least; right now in defiance with the law and interest of the country as a whole what other regulators and law making bodies’ stand exposed is a question no one wants to answer
With a future GDP growth rate expected to safely hover at around 5-6%, Pakistan is at the brink of standing shoulder to shoulder with many developing and developed country. We cannot leave a perception of mistrust of partiality in the wake of countries beginning to take us seriously. Needless to say there are many countries in the East and West that are relentless to bring all possibilities to a halt and recent admissions from different criminals are a blatant truth that we cannot run from. In such precarious times our political leadership needs to have a slightly more serious attitude and self servicing tendencies must be replaced with fervor for the country and those who do not or cannot adapt must be replaced and made an example for others not to follow.
