Spotlight K-Electric again.

With the change of government, a group of influential and leading Saudi and Kuwaiti investors who had originally purchased Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) in 2005 has swung back in action again to lead the transfer of renamed K-Electric (KE) to Shanghai Electric Limited (SEL) of China.

The transaction between KE and SEL has been hanging in balance for more than six years for a series of legal and financial complications but the group of foreign investors became more active after the downfall of Abraaj Capital chief Arif Naqvi, who despite his close links with Imran Khan and Sharif family could not conclude an exit deal.

The non-settlement of financial claims by the government-owned electricity and fuel suppliers and vice versa has been hampering the transfer of troubled private power utility to Shanghai Electric of China which reached a deal with KE's majority shareholders in 2016 to buy over 66 per cent shares at $1.77 billion.

The transaction was twice stalled, first in the PML-N government, when then secretary privatisation Irfan Ali declined to proceed with national security clearance for SEL takeover after Abraaj did not show him the share purchase agreement. The PML-N leaders, including former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, did not find such a reason justified to forestall KE's transfer from Abraaj to SEL.

The victims of the power company's checkered history are the Karachiites

Mr Ali, however, believed it was very important in the national interest to know under what conditions the company could be transferred to a foreign government entity.

But many other government officials including secretaries of petroleum and managements of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited and the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA)were not ready to burn their hands signing files involving legal and financial implications.

Interestingly, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has again given the responsibility to Mr Abbasi, who now heads a task force on energy, to find a solution to the KE issue within three months.

The deal was held up, for the second time during the PTI government, which originally moved swiftly to ring-fence old disputes for arbitration and set future relationship with KE on additional power supply with timely bill payments. While CPPA's power supply to KE increased from 650MW to about 1,400MW during this period, ex-prime minister Imran Khan's special assistant on power (SAPM) Mr Tabish Gauhar raised fresh objections.

Saudi investor...