By Engr. Muhammad Sakawat
Over the past four years, Pakistan’s National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) (now NGC) —the backbone of the country’s power transmission network—has faced a deep crisis of performance and credibility. Once regarded as one of the country’s most capable engineering institutions, NTDC now struggles with instability, poor governance, and repeated leadership failures. Even the current Minister for Power has publicly admitted that NTDC has “sunk” due to years of poor planning and mismanagement.
What was once a technically strong and proud organization has become a case study in how weak leadership and politicized decision-making can erode national institutions.
The deterioration of NTDC began with years of inadequate planning. The company’s planning department—led for decades by the same individuals—failed to evolve with Pakistan’s growing energy needs. A key example is how, after the addition of more than 10,000 MW of generation capacity, NTDC never developed a corresponding plan for power transmission. There was no comprehensive Transmission Expansion and Capacity Enhancement Plan (TECEP), leaving the grid unable to handle the increased generation. The result has been a fragile transmission system, frequent outages, and major transmission bottlenecks. Ironically, those responsible for this failure were later elevated to senior executive positions rather than being held accountable. Leadership instability has also plagued NTDC. In recent years, the company has seen a rapid turnover of Managing Directors (MDs)—many appointed through political connections rather than professional merit.
Among these, Dr. Fayaz, who had limited experience in power generation, dispatch, or system management, was appointed MD but was dismissed by the Board within nine months for poor performance. His appointment was reportedly influenced by a former NTDC Chief who is facing numerous corruption cases. Despite serious integrity concerns, he continued to influence major decisions, including subsequent appointments of unqualified individuals to senior positions.
In another controversial move, individuals with little understanding of Pakistan’s complex energy environment were imported from Canada to lead NTDC. Both of these “foreign” MDs failed to deliver results and were dismissed within months.
What makes this situation particularly tragic is that NTDC already possesses a cream of highly qualified professional engineers. These experts—many with over 30 to 35 years of hands-on experience in transmission, grid operations, and system planning—represent the best technical minds in Pakistan’s power sector. Despite their unmatched local expertise, these professionals have been repeatedly overlooked in favor of outsiders. The experiment of importing MDs from Canada has failed time and again. Pakistan’s operational challenges are vastly different from those of developed countries like Canada, where infrastructure, governance, and market conditions are ideal. Expecting a foreign executive to understand and fix NTDC’s complex, politically entangled, and resource-constrained environment within months is unrealistic.
Why is NTDC’s leadership always imported from Canada—and why are Pakistan’s own engineers and professionals deemed unfit to run their own national company? This persistent disregard for local talent has demoralized NTDC’s workforce and further deepened the organizational crisis. Fragmentation and governance failures adding to the instability, NTDC was recently divided into three entities, including the newly formed Independent System and Market Operator (ISMO). However, ISMO’s leadership and staffing decisions have once again been dominated by favoritism and non-professional selections. Many of its appointees lack relevant experience in dispatch, system operations, or power markets. Dr. Fayaz—who continues to serve as a professor at LUMS while simultaneously holding influential roles in NTDC governance—has reportedly filled key ISMO positions with individuals from his academic circle rather than energy professionals. This not only violates merit principles but also sidelines seasoned engineers with decades of dispatch experience.
The Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market (CTBCM) reform, initiated six years ago, was supposed to modernize the electricity market. Yet, six years later, progress remains negligible. Industry experts now estimate that it may take another 10 to 15 years before CTBCM becomes fully operational. The failure to implement this reform underscores the lack of strategic capacity and the absence of visionary leadership within the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) and NTDC.
A call for merit, accountability, and local empowerment NTDC’s decline is not inevitable—it is the result of systemic mismanagement, political interference, and neglect of professional merit. Pakistan’s energy sector cannot be fixed by repeatedly importing short-term solutions or foreign executives unfamiliar with local realities. The company must return to its roots: empowering its own professionals, enforcing accountability, and promoting engineers who understand Pakistan’s unique grid, operational, and transmission challenges.
The Ministry of Energy (Power Division) must also address the fundamental question of why Pakistan’s most capable engineers are being ignored in favor of outsiders, and why the company’s strategic planning remains in the hands of the same failed individuals. If genuine reform is not introduced soon, NTDC’s continued decline will not only jeopardize the power sector but also threaten the country’s economic stability and industrial growth. Ends
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