Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed on Tuesday that taking back the unjustified huge advanced payments to rental power companies would not be enough, so the court would determine who made these advanced payments and why.
He said all those responsible for the failure of Rental Power Projects (RPPs) should be pointed out, rather than grilling only former water and power minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. He hinted that the hearing of the suo motu RPPs’ case would be completed by Friday, which he is conducting as the head of a two-member Supreme Court bench also comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain. Counsel for the Water and Power Ministry Khawaja Tariq Rahim told the court that 14 percent, against the already agreed seven percent, mobilisation advance and other payments were given to the rental power companies just to save the investment.
He said the approval of RPPs was given by the federal cabinet at the time and the Finance Ministry had said in May 2008 that it would pay for the RPPs, however in December it declined. Justice Hussain observed that the matter of RPPs was not negligence, but criminal negligence.
“Don’t think that you will be given a clean chit after you have taken back the money given to the rental power companies in the head of mobilisation and other advances,” Chief Justice Chaudhry noted, adding that it would also be determined who paid this huge sum and why.
Rahim stated that the price of furnace oil per tonne was Rs 24,000 which went up to Rs 65,000 per tonne in a year after the contracts were awarded to the RPPs. The chief justice observed that because of the absence of result-oriented policies of the government and its irresponsible approach, the matter of RPPs had become complicated. He said payments were made without any justification to the government’s favourites.
The chief justice remarked further that after spending billions of rupees, the national grid was receiving less than 100 megawatts of electricity, and at present there were only eight RPPs instead of 18. He said the court would not tolerate financial loss to the national exchequer at any cost. Rahim then said if the money of poor people was being wasted in the RPPs, the projects should be shut down.
“This is the hard-earned money of the poor people, people who barely earn enough to have two meals a day. We have to see how much benefit the poor people reaped and how much they suffered [because of these projects]. There is a difference between running a government and running a shop. What you are talking about is running a retail shop,” Justice Hussain remarked.
Citing Para 22 of the Asian Development Report relating to the RPPs, the chief justice said the contents of the report had recommended fact finding in the RPPs’ case. Federal Housing and Works Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, one of the two petitioners against the RPPs, informed the court that the contract of Reshma RPP did not come into existence. Rahim said he would defend the allegation. The court later adjourned further hearing until Wednesday (today).
