LAHORE: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), one of the country`s largest state-owned entities with a portfolio of almost $70 billion, has found itself mired in red tape in the absence of key decision-making officials.

The failure to fill two vacant slots on its governing body despite the passage of nine months, has hampered its operations.

This bureaucratic paralysis is particularly worrisome, given that Wapda is currently tasked with executing three of the biggest hydroelectric projects in the country`s history the dams at Diamer-Bhasha, Dasu and Mohmand.

In addition, the authority effectively serves as the operative wing of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), which distributes water among federating units and ensure national irrigation supplies.

Ironically, Irsa too is embroiled in litigation over the composition of its board, withthe appointment of a permanent member from Sindh being the focus of the dispute.

The Wapda Act envisions a governing body, comprising three permanent members for water, power and finance and a regular chairman heading the authority, which looks after hundreds of billions of rupees allocations every year.

Currently, the body is without permanent members for water and power, and their functions are being `looked after` by two senior officials Syed Ali Akhtar Shah and Muhammad Arfan, respectively.

The former previously served as General Manager Water (South), while the latter is also the CEO of the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Company.

`Look after` charge By its very definition, `look after` charge implies that the current holder of the post cannot take `financial and administrative decisions` of any consequence much like a caretaker government.

In June, when former chairman retiredLt-Gen Sajjad Ghani stepped down, the sole permanent member, Naveed Asghar Chaudhry, was given additional charge of that role too. Mr Chaudhry`s original designation is member for finance, and he is a permanent appointee on that post.

This means that, effectively, the fourmember board is currently operating with one permanent officer and two who have been given `additional charge`.

Mr Chaudhry also served as the interim Wapda chairman in 2022, after retired Lt-Gen Muzammil Hussain resigned due to `personal reasons`. He then passed the role to Lt-Gen Ghani three months later.

According to a former director general of human resources at Wapda, `This is administrative chaos with a huge national cost`.

For instance, the authority at present cannot meet even its quorum requirements a legal necessity for taking any decision.

For quorum to be complete, the chairman and at least one regular member are required to be present, but these posts are currently held by the same person.In such a situation, any decision taken by the board can potentially attract audit objections or legal challenges.

Blame game Dawn made several attempts to contact Muhammad Moeen Wattoo, the incumbent federal minister for water resources, over the course of two weeks.

However, both the minister and his spokesperson did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the composition of Wapda`s governing body.

But insiders told Dawn that the tenure of the two members for water and power expired in November last year.

Sources claimed the ministry was also informed of this in advance, and an advertisement to fill both posts was sent to the ministry for approval in October 2024.

However, the ministry has not advertised the posts, nor allowed Wapda to do so, they said.

The outgoing members, meanwhile, were reportedly instructed to remain in their posts. This arrangement continued tillMarch 13, 2025, when they eventually relinquished their posts on verbal instructions from on-high, after the ministry inquired about the expiry of their tenures. After that, the authority gave `look after` charge of the two vacant posts to two senior officers.

Wapda sources claimed they kept pressing the ministry for the appointments, but to no avail. It was in the midst of this confusion that the previous chairman abruptly quit on June 20.

Following his exit, the ministry handed his responsibilities to the only surviving permanent member (finance) of the authority.

The ministry, however, shifted the blame for blocked appointments onto the PM`s Office. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official from the water resources ministry told Dawn that selection boards were named to hire these officers and sent the PMO, but there had been no response.

The ministry was subsequently told that the names of the selection board members had been sent for `vetting` and the process is still ongoing.