Scandals of Pakistani Politicians
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Supreme Court, Three rental projects fined for delay
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was informed here on Thursday that a penalty of Rs190 million had been imposed on three rental power projects (RPPs) for failing to complete power houses by the deadlines and two ventures had been shut down.Pakistan Electric Power Company’s senior counsel Khwaja Tariq Raheem told a bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Ghulam Rabbani that the 110MW Pakistan Power Resources projects in Guddu and Multan had been signed off because of his personal persuasion during a meeting.
The court was hearing a suo motu case regarding allegations of corruption in rental power projects and the government’s decision to increase electricity tariff, especially when the supply was irregular.
The government had approved last year plans to set up rental power projects to generate 1,206 megawatts to end loadshedding.
The court summoned on Oct 4 PML-Q’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat to substantiate his allegations of corruption against the government levelled in the house.
Khwaja Tariq said those levelling allegations should prove them in the court.
The court asked the chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority and Pepco’s managing director to appear on the next date of hearing and also issued notices to RPPs.
Pepco’s counsel told reporters that penalties had been imposed on the 201MW Reshma Rental Generation, 232MW ship-mounted Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretin of Turkey in Korangi and 150MW Techno Energy in Sialkot.
Citing a report prepared by the Asian Development Bank, he said the Premier Energy and the Independent Power firms had been asked not to proceed with the projects because agreements had not been signed with them.
The counsel said the 62MW Gulf Rental Power project had been commissioned and the 152Techno E-Power plant in Faisalabad had been partially commissioned.
The Walter Power International’s Naudero-I plant is on a test run.
The 200MW Young Gen Power plant in Faisalabad and 50MW Walters Power International Naudero-II are in advanced stages and the Kamoki Energy has received advance payment from the government for mobilisation.
The counsel said a majority of the units were refurbished Chinese plants because the RPPs had to install them within two years.
However, Advocate Anwar Kamal said he had learnt during a visit to the office of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority that some projects were not generating electricity despite having taken huge loans from banks on which they were paying interest.
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