Wapda – two prime ministers (namely Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Yousaf Raza Gilani) called it “White Elephant”. There was a gap of 35 years between the two statements – a time period that was sufficient enough to judge the performance of any government-owned organisation.
Recently, an Audit Report of Wapda has been submitted in the National Assembly for the year 2009-2010 by the Auditor General that shows high level financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 90 billion. As per reports, Wapda has spent USD 60 crores by committing irregularities whereas an additional amount of Rs 32 and half billion rupees were spent by committing further irregularities.
Sometime back, the KP Assembly had passed unanimous resolution to shift Wapda’s Head Office from Lahore to Peshawar. There were repeated strong voices in Sindh Assembly against the hostile attitude of Wapda towards Sindh, particularly its failure in exploiting the gigantic deposits of Thar Coal project in order to find justification for construction of the controversial Kalabagh dam.
This corrupt government organisation is anti-Pakistan in the sense that it is widening the gap between the three provinces and Punjab for the last many years. I suggest in the national interest. The performance of Wapda must be reviewed and its functioning corrected.
If it is beyond redemption, then it must be replaced by another government organisation with equal representation of all four provinces on its Board of Directors to run the organisation smoothly without siding with one province to the detriment of the entire nation.
MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL
Karachi
