Senate panel meeting: ANP senator, state minister trade barbs

Senator Zahid Khan blames Abid Sher Ali for using abusive language against Pashtuns.

ISLAMABAD:

Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Zahid Khan hit out at the minister of state for water and power, Abid Sher Ali, accusing him of using abusive language against ‘Pashtuns’, calling them ‘power thieves’.

“You disregarded the people who give you cheap electricity,” said Senator Zahid during a meeting of the Senate standing committee on water and power on Friday. He was referring to the Tarbela Dam, the biggest hydroelectric power plant of the country which is in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The most outspoken minister shot back: “I will say whatever the reality is”. However, Zahid rebuffed him: “Don’t come to the committee’s meetings if you don’t have manners.” There are power theft cases in the entire country, but you only pinpoint the Pashtuns, a visibly angry Zahid said.



The ANP senator also grilled the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) for not constructing four grid stations in K-P.

“We have been sending recommendations for constructing these grid stations but they [Wapda] are continuously ignoring it,” said the chairman committee.

Meanwhile, the National Transmission and Dispatch Corporation (NTDC) failed to satisfy the Senate committee over charges of irregularities in the tendering of transmission lines of the Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project.

The panel had objected to the award of contract of the project to a Chinese company without following the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.

NTDC’s managing director gave a briefing over the project, but failed to satisfy the committee over the award of the contract. The committee stated that there was question mark on the transparency in awarding the contract, which never followed the PRRA rules.

Senator Khalida Perveen said that despite the payment of Rs480 billion circular debt, consumers were still being subjected to long-hour power outages.

Abid Sher Ali said the government was planning to introduce legislation aimed at strengthening the electricity theft-related laws. The committee members appreciated the government’s crackdown against power thieves, saying that the entire nation was with the government in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2013.