Pakistan's Power Bureaucracy Resists Merger of Obsolete State Firms

Despite these obsolete entities serving "little practical purpose beyond preserving bureaucratic hierarchies," the task force's directive remains unimplemented, the report from Business Recorder said.

The task force had recommended merging four GENCOs - Jamshoro, Guddu, Nandipur and Lakhra - along with their parent, Genco Holding Company Limited, arguing that the plants these companies once operated have been shut down or auctioned and the entities now function largely as administrative shells. Hundreds of employees have already been temporarily transferred to distribution companies following plant closures making these entities obsolete, the report said.

"Their ageing plants have either been shut down or are in the process of disposal after years of low efficiency, high operating costs and persistently poor performance," it added.

However, board members of these entities continue to hold frequent meetings and receive substantial sitting fees and allowances, which make them want to maintain the status quo despite zero operational rationale for these.

"Each sitting brings with it compensation of at least Rs 1,00,000 per board member, in addition to travel and boarding expenses," the report said.

The report cited experts saying the pushback to such reforms reflect a broader pattern in Pakistan's bureaucracy, where institutional interests can blunt reform efforts that threaten entrenched privileges.

Experts said that Pakistan's bureaucracy has for decades "refined resistance to change into a veritable art form, expertly placing institutional turf and bureaucratic prerogatives above the efficiency and accountability the country so urgently requires."

A recent report said Pakistan has locked itself into a "dangerous economic trap" by prioritising short‑term expatriate remittances and foreign aid over productive development.

Remittances now account for nearly 10 per cent of GDP and rival export earnings, masking failures of the system such as idle factories, high unemployment and underutilisation of productive workforce, it noted.

- IANS