Wasted power, stolen progress and the scavengers of Pakistan

In February of this year, a new PEPCO power plant was due to become operational at Nandipur which would have supplied 450 MW of much needed electricity to industry, agriculture and households. Unfortunately, inaction by the federal government has delayed its completion by more than two years. In January 2008, PEPCO signed a $329 million contract (approx Rs. 29 billion) with Dong Fang Electric of China and paid it a 10% down-payment.
The Ministry of Finance issued a Sovereign Guarantee for this project, on the basis of which Dong Fang put together a consortium of lenders who established a Letter of Credit for the import of the equipment. By mid-2010 much of the work at this plant was complete, the turbines were in place and it looked like the project would be finished on schedule in early 2011.
This activity took place in anticipation of the Ministry of Law & Justice approving the financial agreements and the Sovereign Guarantee issued by the Ministry of Finance – a routine process in such projects, normally taken as a matter of course. Bizarrely, this was not the case here. Instead, the Ministry of Law & Justice chose to sit on the matter for over a year, despite the urgency of Pakistan’s power requirements. As a result, the lenders stopped their funding, the equipment was not cleared at the port, and the project came to a grinding halt when the contractor eventually demobilized from the site – after exhausting all possible options and numerous appeals to the government to have the project resumed. The remaining equipment, which consists of more than 4,500 packages of plant and machinery have since been lying in the open at Karachi for over a year, creating an astronomic demurrage cost of Rs. 700 million and potentially serious damage to sensitive equipment. These packages are still there for anyone who wishes to see them; a standing testament to inefficiency, negligence and corruption.
In the same year, a second, identical, 450MW power plant had been agreed for Chicon ki Mallian, with the same contractor, Dong Fang, and the same consortium of lenders for a contract price of $352 million (approx Rs. 31 billion). Here also, PEPCO made a 10% down payment, and the project was scheduled to be completed in February of 2012. However, after the incomprehensible behavior of the Ministry of Law & Justice in the Nandipur project, the financing consortium refused to establish the Letter of Credit until all outstanding clearances were issued. As a result, Dong Fang could not mobiize at the site and this project has also been delayed by at least two years. Resuming both the projects today at current prices and exchange rates, settling claims by the contractor as well as additional financial charges will all now entail an additional cost of about $200 million (approx Rs. 18 billion) for these two power plants, aside from the two year delay. The real tragedy, though, is that the addition of 900 MW – almost one fifth of Pakistan’s present shortage – generated by these two plants would have resulted in a quantum leap for our economy, which is losing approximately 2.5% of GDP on account of lack of power, as per estimates by International Financial Institutions. After the repeated requests of the Punjab Government (although this was a project that would have benefited not just Punjab but the whole country), the Prime Minister has finally instructed the Ministry of Law & Justice to approve the financial arrangements and the Sovereign Guarantee issued by his own Ministry of Finance. The ECC has had to waive the customs duties and demurrage for the equipment lying at the port, and it is hoped that these two projects undertaken by the Federal government may finally continue. But these delays have already resulted in the additional bill of Rs 18 billion to the poor people of Pakistan, as well as a devastating loss of potential industrial and agricultural output, and the loss of potential exports valued at tens of billions of rupees. Above all, the ongoing damage to our economy means the loss of jobs to thousands of people, and countless hours of unnecessary, avoidable and painful load-shedding for millions of households over the next few years.
The Ministry of Law & Justice will surely have some bureaucratic explanation for its behaviour. It might suggest that the relevant documents were not appropriately referred or suitably cleared ahead of time – in effect punishing the contractor and the lenders for putting their faith in Pakistan’s government. Corruption always shelters behind weak excuses. But which of the Ministry’s spokespersons can justify this criminal delay in a matter so vital to the well-being of our economy! Which of their spokespersons can honestly say that they have acted with a degree of sincerity and integrity befitting their high office? It is up to the Pakistani public to decide whether there are any words strong enough or whether there is any officious red tape thick enough to hold weight against the most urgent national interest of Pakistan. I accuse all those responsible of a gross breach of duty; for while they slept, our people lay awake in their beds in the midst of heat and sweat – as they will now lie awake in the shivering cold of winter – cursing those who cruelly abused their trust; I demand that they at least attempt to acquit themselves of this sickening misconduct in the eyes of their electorate.
Alas, what has been lost can never be recovered. Who can right these wrongs? Who can make good the scarce billions – earned through our hard toil – wasted? In short, who can turn back the clock? The bones of our founders will continue to rattle in their graves, filled with loathing at what has been done with their hard-won legacy. The spirits of those who laid down their lives for Pakistan will bitterly await their chance to stand witness against those who have demeaned their sacrifices. But those of us that are here today, in whose custody lies the wellbeing of our nation and the protection of her future, we must not tolerate the enemies of our prosperity and must not stand silent and allow the plunder and pillage of Pakistan under our watch. We must accuse the wrongdoers of wrongdoing, and demand of them our recompense; let the law of the land make examples of these scavengers.
Let them stand accountable for their criminal negligence in the eyes of their countrymen. And if they will not show themselves before their people; if they will not abandon their self-serving agenda – then there is no recourse but for the betrayed masses to take to the streets. The people must rid our country once and for all of parasites; the people must seize these looters by the collar and demand answers in the name of the generations whose futures have been so deceitfully squandered by the Scavengers of Pakistan. If this is the only path left to us, and if it is the path our people choose, then they will find me and my leadership marching alongside them. By the pen or by the long hard road, we will save this country.