The government on Wednesday filed a review petition against the Supreme Court’s March 30 judgment that declared all rental power projects (RPPs) – involving agreements between wealthy private parties and the federal government to produce electricity – null and void for involving corruption of billions of rupees and causing loss to the public exchequer.
Justifying the RPPs, the government stated in its petition that the induction of rental power plants as a short term measure was a proper exercise as their induction would have helped not only bridging the deficit but also enabling the public sector companies to close down their plants for purpose of rehabilitation and modernization. The federation filed the review petition through Ministry of Water and Power secretary and the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), praying the court to review its judgment against RPPs.
Federal Minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, MNA Khawaja Muhammad Asif and National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) have been made respondents in the petition.
In the review petition, the federation stated that the court had not referred to the elaborate facts and figures placed on record and the conclusion arrived at by the court was not on basis of facts but on presumptions and a reading of the factual position would show that there had been an error which was apparent on the face of the record and the court had passed the decision on erroneous assumptions of material of facts and the same had a material bearing on the fate of the case.
The federation contended that the findings of the court that functionaries were prima facie involved in corruption and corrupt practice was not supported by any evidence or material submitted either by the petitioner, or by any other person and such observations undermine the fundamental rights of the functionaries in particular and under Article 10-A.
