Former water and power minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf told the Supreme Court on Thursday that Federal Housing and Works Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat had a personal grudge against him, therefore he was pursuing the matter of Rental Power Projects (RPPs) everywhere.
Appearing in court in a case against alleged corruption in the RPPs, Ashraf said Hayat was maligning him because he had strongly criticised Hayat when he had joined the government in 2002 after winning elections on a Pakistan People’s Party ticket. He said he needed the court’s protection and justice in the matter because he had been ridiculed everywhere.
Raja also said there was no corruption in the installment of the RPPs and he had simply continued the policy of the previous government. He agreed that RPPs were producing electricity at a higher tariff but there was no alternative available to overcome the power shortage in the short term. He said he had also started various hydroelectric, solar and coal energy projects to overcome the crisis.
He said previous regimes had not worked on the power sector and independent power producers – introduced by the PPP in 1994 – were criticised by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and it tried to discourage the policy. Rejecting allegations that he had bought an apartment in London, he said he had no property or accounts in any foreign country. Ashraf said no bidder had objected over the award of RPP contracts, which showed that there was no question of transparency in these projects. “I just approved the RPPs to produce energy according to the agreement and if they would fail, we would fine them heavily,” he added.
He also said former president Pervez Musharraf had inaugurated Bhasha Dam falsely, as his regime had done nothing regarding the construction of the dam. He said the incumbent government had initiated work on the Bhasha Dam.
Waseem Sajjad, counsel for Ashraf, also said his client had tried to overcome the power shortage in the country but had failed. He said although the former minister had initiated the summary regarding the RPPs, it was the decision of the prime minister, Planning Division, Petroleum Ministry and Finance Ministry.
Earlier, the chief justice said the court would also involve the Federal Board of Revenue in the issue of customs duty on the import of RPPs, which caused losses to the national exchequer.
