ISLAMABAD: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Chairman Tauseef H Farooqi has said that the regulator is working on an inclusive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) development model.
He was addressing a webinar cum seminar at Nepra Headquarters envisioning developing a CSR culture with its CSR drive of “Power with Prosperity”.
The event was attended by a number of senior representatives from power industry, public and private sector entities as well as members of the Authority, Rehmatullah Baloch and Engr Bahadur Shah.
Tauseef H Farooqi in his keynote address said the authority is proactively working on an inclusive development model in consultation with the industry stakeholders and to learn from the already executed successful models.
Unpacking the vision behind the initiative, Farooqi further elaborated that with the proactive CSR approach, Nepra envisioned to transform the socio-economic landscape of Pakistan by bringing about the most efficient and fair business practices to ensure affordable, reliable, and sustainable power services with the active engagement and development of local communities.
He expressed the intend to create buy-in and broad-based acceptance of Nepra’s CSR strategy by providing a platform to the licensees to execute inclusive and participatory development models so that the power becomes means to bring prosperity. He further said that Engro Energy Limited (EEL) is the CSR champion and a trendsetter in the power sector of Pakistan and now is the right time to learn from its experience and share further with the CSR intenders of the power industry.
Detailing upon the philosophy behind Engro’s inclusive development model, EEL Chief Executive Officer, Ahsan Zafar Syed said that the recipe for a successful CSR model is a combination of partnering with stakeholders and bringing on board the social sector experts and not mere arrangements of funds.
NEPRA CSR Consultant, Huma Zafar shared CSR strategy that provides a roadmap for all licencees on how to ensure that electric power brings prosperity in Pakistan at the community level. Chief Executive Officer of the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC), Syed Abul Fazal Rizvi who is also heading the Thar Foundation said, CSR has now evolved to engender stakeholder capitalism and not shareholder capitalism.
“The real stakeholders of the development of our project are people of Thar who must achieve the economic gains of the development taking place in the area,” he said.
