ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has expressed concern over the government`s attempt to undermine the autonomous working of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) by curtailing its powers.

Reacting to the recent decision of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to clip powers of Nepra to independently determine electricity tariff, the PTI chairman in a statement here on Thursday alleged that the present rulers were seeking `limitless powers and complete arbitrary authority` to do whatever they wanted to do with no constitutional or institutional checks and balances.

On the other hand, while defending the decision, the government claims that it will make Nepra a vibrant, independent and more transparent institution as per theinternationalstandards.

The proposed changes bind Nepra, the main power sector regulator, to follow government directives in determining tariff.

This means the authority would lose its independent powers to set consumer-end tariff. Moreover, an `independent panel` would be formed which could challenge Nepra`s decisions.

The participants in the CCI meeting made the decision reportedly af ter Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah criticised Nepra for allegedly impeding the efforts for bringing foreign investments and creating irritants to renewable energy and the promotion of Thar coal projects.

The CCI meeting was also attended by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who belongs to the PTI, and sources in the Ministry of Water and Power claimed that he did not oppose the move of curtailing Nepra`s power during the meeting.ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has expressed concern over the government`s attempt to undermine the autonomous working of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) by curtailing its powers.

Reacting to the recent decision of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to clip powers of Nepra to independently determine electricity tariff, the PTI chairman in a statement here on Thursday alleged that the present rulers were seeking `limitless powers and complete arbitrary authority` to do whatever they wanted to do with no constitutional or institutional checks and balances.

On the other hand, while defending the decision, the government claims that it will make Nepra a vibrant, independent and more transparent institution as per theinternationalstandards.

The proposed changes bind Nepra, the main power sector regulator, to follow government directives in determining tariff.

This means the authority would lose its independent powers to set consumer-end tariff. Moreover, an `independent panel` would be formed which could challenge Nepra`s decisions.

The participants in the CCI meeting made the decision reportedly af ter Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah criticised Nepra for allegedly impeding the efforts for bringing foreign investments and creating irritants to renewable energy and the promotion of Thar coal projects.

The CCI meeting was also attended by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who belongs to the PTI, and sources in the Ministry of Water and Power claimed that he did not oppose the move of curtailing Nepra`s power during the meeting.The PTI chairman reminded that earlier the government had sought to undermine Nepra`s powers by trying to bring it under the control of the Ministry of Water and Power but the court checkmated that move. `Now it has used the CCI to undermine Nepra`s powers. As always, it is the poor power consumers who will suffer as now the government can fleece the consumers as much as it wants,` he said.

Mr Khan regretted that the nation would once again be paying the price for the rulers` corruption and for the incompetence and inefficiencies of the system of power generation and distribution. He committed that the PTI would not accept the `systematic destruction` of the institutions by the PML-N government and would evolve a strategy to ensure that the rulers did not succeed in their plans to undermine all institutional checks and balances that were an integral part of any functioning democracy.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Water and Power said the new amendments approved by the CCI in the Regulation of Generation of Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997, entrusted more powers to Nepra for making it a vibrant, independent and more transparent institution.

The spokesman said there were 26 new powers, not previously available to Nepra, which these amendments would provide to the authority thereby adding toits role as an even effective regulator of the power sector.

`The present government while introducingthenewamendmentshasrestricted the federal government to policy level while all other powers have been entrusted to Nepra,` he said.

The new amendments, he said, would put a check upon the federal and the provincial governments to recommend members and chairman of the authority, who had vast sector-related qualifications.

`Accordingly, now the eligibility criteria of the authority members and chairman need sector-related experience mandatory for appointment and generalised experience and qualifications no longer prerequisite,` the spokesman said, adding that reputation, expertise and eminence would be mandatory.