Dam project: SC wants early WB decision on Dasu

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court urged on Friday the federal government to request the World Bank (WB) for an early decision in a pending petition filed by a Chinese firm to expedite development work on the 4,320-megawatt Dasu hydropower project.

The three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, is hearing the petition of Messers Power Construction Corporation of China Limited (PCCCL), seeking a court order barring WAPDA from making the outcome of the pre-qualification of the bidding for the construction of the Dasu Hydro project public.

The counsel for Wapda informed the court that the Chinese company had approached the WB.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa suggested to wait for the outcome of the petition.

But Justice Dost Muhammad Khan was of the view that any further delay in the construction of the dam would aggravate problems, adding the development of Dasu dam involved greater national interest. The delay in completion of the project had already escalated its total cost which will definitely burden WAPDA as well as all taxpayers, the judge regretted.

In its petition PCCCL argued that non interference on part of the high court in the face of manifest illegality and denial of the petitioner’s fundamental rights to the equal protection of the law and due process enshrined under the constitution, merely on the ground that it had no power over IDA/World Bank or jurisdiction to look into the legality of the WB guidelines, cannot be sustained.

The disqualification of the company on account of dictated exercise of powers qualified as an arbitrary exercise of executive authority and, therefore, liable to be set aside on this ground alone, the petition argued.

The company stated that it was a state-owned enterprise with almost 30 subsidiaries and was active in the industry since 1950s.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2016.