SC summons Nepra, Pepco, Wapda, Hubco officials

SC issues notices to top bosses of power companies associated with rental power projects.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the top bosses of Nepra, Pepco, Wapda, Hubco and the distribution companies associated with the rental power projects to appear before it at the next hearing.

Faisal Saleh Hayat, the parliamentary leader of PML-Q in the National Assembly, resumed his arguments before the three-member bench headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and described the rental power project as one of “the biggest scams in history”. He submitted that under the scheme 19 powerhouses had to be installed. However, 14 were installed after the so-called bidding process while the remaining five were directly installed without going through the bidding process.

After investing Rs18 billion on the entire scheme, only 62 megawatt of electricity was produced “which is a big joke with the nation”, he deposed before the court. Nepra, according to him, is responsible for this mess, because it did not take notice even after corruption allegations surfaced. He submitted that the Karkey power plant with a capacity of 232 megawatt  was awarded to Raja Ali Babar Zulqernain who, he claimed, is a close relative of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. He said he was given Rs7 billion in advance but to date not a single megawatt of electricity has been produced by the project.

He said that $80 million was given to different companies by November 2008, while $565 million would be given over the next five years. “No due diligence was done and billions of rupees were given to the companies,” Saleh Hayat said.

He pointed out that sponsors were given five years to install the plants whereas it takes only six to eight months to set up the rental power plant.

He said Nepra violated its own rules as it allowed installing of 23-year-old plants that had remained operational for 111,644 hours.

“Rest assured, if one per cent corruption is proved in the deal, the officials responsible for awarding the contract would not go unpunished,” the chief justice remarked.

Upon the court’s inquiry, senior advocate Anwar Kamal revealed that the government of Pakistan did not sign the contract with the rental power plant (sponsors) but reportedly such agreements were signed by RPPs and Genco.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Khwaja Asif informed the court that David Walter, a major shareholder in the Naudero power plants I & II, was the governor of one of the US states, but was impeached on corruption charges.

Shahid Hamid, on behalf of Walter Power International Naudero I & II, confirmed that Walter was a major shareholder in the project and does business in Pakistan but lives in the US.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2010.