Saudi business tycoon writes letter to Pakistani PM against adviser ‘interfering’ in K-Electric deal

KARACHI: Saudi business tycoon Abdulaziz Hamad Aljomaih, a major investor in Pakistan’s power utility company K-Electric (KE) Limited, this week wrote a letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to complain about his special adviser on power, Tabish Gauhar, for causing hindrance to the process of removing impediments to conclude a 2016 bid by Shanghai Electric Power (SEP) to acquire 66.4% controlling stakes in KE.
Dubai-based, now collapsed, private equity firm Abraaj Group and Aljomaih/National Industries Group (NIG) of Kuwait have a 66.4% stake in K-Electric, formerly known as Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), while the government of Pakistan holds 24.36% shares.
Aljomaih is one of the largest investors in KE through the consortium that bought out KESC in 2005 and was the main driver of the privatization process of the company. He also served as the first chairman of KE’s board of directors and continues to serve on the board of KES Power, the controlling and shareholding company of KE.
Former K-Electric chairman Tabish Gauhar was appointed special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) on power last October. In March this year, he was also given additional charge as the PM’s adviser on petroleum.
In March, Aljomaih visited Pakistan and met with the Pakistani PM, president, and other key officials to resolve outstanding payment issues so that the 2016 SEP deal could be concluded. Soon after Aljomiah’s visit, Gauhar wrote a letter to the Privatization Commission, highlighting objections to the arbitration terms of reference (TORs) under consideration.
“When we met I was assured by all including your excellency [PM Khan] that a dispute resolution document was in the final stages of negotiations to be approved by your office soon”, Aljomaih said in a letter to PM Imran Khan, dated Monday. “However, the matter remains unresolved and potentially even at risk due to last minute negative comments on the agreed documents by your SAPM.”
He added that the document had been finalized by all stakeholders through a “lengthy painstaking process” and was due to be put before the federal cabinet for approval.
“It is my duty to inform you that there is a clear conflict of interest vis a vis involvement of your special assistance Mr. Tabish Ghaur with KE matters,” the Saudi businessman said.
Aljomaih said Gauhar had not been involved in the March deliberations because he had a conflict of interest as a former chief executive and chairman of KE and thus was ill-placed to represent the interests of the federal government without tainting the process.
However, Tabish told Arab News on Tuesday he had no current direct or indirect economic stake in KE, and serving as the company’s CEO and chairman between 2009 and 2015 did not constitute a ‘conflict of interest.’
“I’m just doing my job as one of the GOP [government of Pakistan] functionaries to protect the public interest. I don’t have any personal views on KE, they simply reflect the institutional views of the Power Division, Ministry of Energy,” Gauhar said.
“My internal letter on the arbitration TORs is self-explanatory, and it was written to protect public money,” Gauhar had had told Arab News last month, denying any conflict of interest. “I have no current conflict of interest with KE since I left that organization in October 2015.”
Gauhar had said it was his responsibility to address public interest issues as a member of the inter-ministerial committee set up by the government to resolve the K-Electric deal — already delayed due to pending payment issues related to payables and receivables among K-Electric, Sui Southern Gas Company, National Transmission and Dispatch Company, and the Ministry of Finance.
But in his letter to the PM, Aljomiah said he was “shocked to learn that well before Mr. Gauhar wrote a letter, he also solicited an invite to join on March 10, 2021 an investor briefing call organized and attended by international investors of KE.”
Gauhar denied that he had solicited the invitation, saying he was invited to speak.
“I was requested to speak to them and, in fact, Shan Ashary, chairman of KE and Aljomaih’s chief representative were not only present at the call but spoke after me and confirmed that whatever I’d stated as matters of fact were in line with his understanding too,” Gauhar told Arab News.
The Saudi businessman has also accused Ghaur of running anti-KE campaigns through TV appearances but Gauhar said if talk show hosts asked him a question about KE, he was “obliged to answer as plainly as possible.”
Aljomaih has also said Gauhar’s actions were tantamount to mala fide intent for both KE and Pakistan.
“For foreign investors ... receiving such a message from a Pakistan government functionary while efforts were being made to finalize the conflict resolution documents is most unbecoming and tantamount to mala-fide intent not just for KE but for Pakistan’s reputation as an international investment destination,” Aljomaih said.
But Gauhar said that the fact that the SEP deal was stalled since October 2016 “clearly implies that something fundamental is wrong with the proposed terms & conditions that two successive governments and several bureaucracies have struggled to accept.”
“I’m actually in favor of the proposed change of control at KE [and had earlier suggested to make Shanghai come under the CPEC [China Pakistan Economic Corridor] umbrella to accelerate the proposed transaction and give them more air cover from the state, etc.],” Ghaur said.
“We all want Shanghai’s transaction but at what cost?” he told Arab News. “If it means writing off tens of billions of overdue amounts and penalties, signing a non-commercial based power purchase agreement (against federal cabinet decision), agreeing to further surcharges and tariff increase for the consumers and federal subsidy budget, etc, it’s important for everyone to at least know about the implications.”

Saudi business tycoon writes letter to Pakistani PM against adviser ‘interfering’ in K-Electric deal