NEPRA has put CPPA-G recruitment news at the centre of a public hearing in Islamabad, saying open-merit hiring at the Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guarantee (CPPA-G) breaches the provincial quota system and the Constitution, and directing the agency to supply full staff details.
The remarks came as NEPRA (the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority) heard CPPA-G’s petition, filed as Special Purpose Agent, for its revenue requirement for FY2026-27. The session was chaired by Chairman Waseem Mukhtar. NEPRA Sindh Member Ghulamullah Shaikh said hiring on open merit runs against the quota framework and violates Article 38 of the Constitution, which the member said requires fair representation of each province and region.
What NEPRA ordered on hiring
Shaikh directed CPPA-G to provide a list of employees so the regulator can see how many staff come from Balochistan and rural Sindh. That instruction is the concrete next step in the CPPA-G recruitment news trail from the hearing.
A CPPA-G official argued that the agency is a company, not a body of civil servants, and therefore need not follow the quota system and may appoint on open merit. The member rejected that reading, saying the Constitution makes quota-based hiring mandatory for civil servants and for government-owned corporations and companies alike.
Fee petition and industry pushback
In the same petition, CPPA-G sought a 38% rise in its service fee to Rs14.47 per kW per month for FY2026-27, compared with Rs10.53 allowed for FY2025-26, using an average monthly demand of 19,400MW against 26,500MW used previously. It asked for a revenue requirement of Rs3,554 million; after adjustments including a prior-year adjustment of Rs471 million, other income of Rs550 million and recovery of employee loans of Rs106 million, the net figure was put at Rs3,369 million.
Industrialists opposed the fee rise and called for mergers among Power Division departments to cut spending and tariffs. Industry representative Rehan Javed said every rupee added in the company’s fee is passed to consumers through electricity tariffs. He argued that core costs had risen 25.1% to Rs3,241 million from Rs2,591 million allowed earlier, while other income had fallen to Rs550 million from Rs900 million, shrinking the consumer credit by Rs350 million.
Javed also said the 19,400MW demand base was unexplained and 26.8% lower than the 26,500MW used before; at Rs14.47 on 26,500MW, he said collection would be about Rs4.6 billion — roughly Rs1.2 billion above the Rs3.37 billion sought. He noted that the market operator function moved to ISMO (the Independent System and Market Operator) on 30 April 2025 with a licence and 20 employees, yet core costs still rose, and argued consumers must not pay for one function through two fees.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- FY2024-25: Demand for the fee was determined on 27,102MW and recovered on 26,264MW, according to the industry presentation at the hearing.
- FY2025-26: NEPRA had allowed a service fee of Rs10.53 per kW per month; recovery was cited as Rs3,448 million against Rs3,347 million determined.
- 30 April 2025: The market operator function moved to ISMO, with licence and 20 employees transferred, industry told the hearing.
- FY2026-27 petition hearing (Islamabad): CPPA-G sought Rs14.47 per kW per month and Rs3,369 million net revenue; NEPRA flagged open-merit hiring and ordered employee details by province and region.
What comes next
NEPRA’s immediate demand is disclosure of CPPA-G’s workforce composition. Separately, the regulator still has to decide the FY2026-27 revenue and fee case, including industry requests to strip ISMO-related costs, hold to earlier caps, and stop shared IT and other items from being loaded twice onto consumers. Further CPPA-G recruitment news will hinge on how the agency answers the quota and staffing questions raised in the hearing.
Aasan alfaaz mein
NEPRA ne kaha hai ke CPPA-G ne open merit par bhartiyan ki hain, jo quota system aur Constitution ke khilaf hain. Agency se employees ki list mangayi gayi hai, khas tor par Balochistan aur rural Sindh se kitne log hain. Isi hearing mein CPPA-G ne service fee 38 percent barhane ki darkhwast bhi ki hai. Industry ka kehna hai ke yeh zyada fee bijli ke billon ke zariye consumers tak pohanchti hai.
