The tenure of the newly-elected prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf will remain under a cloud from day one not just because of the letter to be written to the Swiss authorities for reopening investigations against President Asif Ali Zardari, but also due to the Supreme Court’s judgement ordering the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to proceed with corruption references against all those who were at the helm of affairs when the contracts were signed between 2006 and 2008 to overcome the energy shortfall through rental power projects (RPPs).
The opposition, mainly the PML-N, will be clamouring for speedy investigations against the newly-sworn in premier against whom the SC, in its judgement of March 30, ordered the NAB chairman to submit fortnightly reports on progress on the matter to the court registrar, to be seen by judges in their chambers.
The verdict held all RPP contracts – solicited and unsolicited, signed off or operational, right from 220MW Bhikki Sheikhupura and 136MW Sharaqpur to Piranghaib and Naudero-I and II – were entered into in contravention of the PPRA rules.
Besides suffering from other irregularities, the contracts also violated the principle of transparency and fair and open competition. Therefore, they were declared non-transparent, illegal and void ab initio.
Consequently, the RPP contracts were ordered to be rescinded forthwith and all persons responsible for the same were liable to be dealt with for civil and criminal action in accordance with the law.
Accepting an earlier report of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the court regretted that nine of the 19 RPPs were allowed to operate. Subsequently, six of the nine RPPs were discontinued either having been signed off or having failed to achieve the commercial operation date target. The verdict said the Finance Ministry, WAPDA and GENCOs were responsible for causing huge losses to the public exchequer which ran into billions of rupees by making upto 14 percent down payment and purchasing electricity at higher rates from RPPs.
The other ones who face criminal charges include former minister for water and power Liaquat Ali Jatoi as well as Finance Minister Naveed Qamar and the then finance secretary. During their tenures, down payment to different RPPs was increased from 7 to 14 percent.
The court issued the order on the applications moved by PML-Q legislator and Housing Minister Fasial Saleh Hayat and PML-N leader Khawaja Asif alleging corruption and mismanagement in RPP deals. It is unclear whether Hayat will come back as a federal minister in the Ashraf cabinet even though he continued under the Gilani cabinet.
The PPP government was forced to replace Ashraf as minister for water and power after he failed to address the power crisis. His repeated promises to end power shortages by December 2009 remained unfulfilled, and were made the butt of all jokes in the public and media. The lingering power crisis still remains the major issue for the continuation of the government as the street protests against long power outages have intensified during the last few days.
PPP parliamentarians had questioned Ashraf’s failure to stop construction of hydel power projects in the India occupied Kashmir, which resulted in sharp decline in irrigation water in the agriculture heartlands of Punjab and Sindh. They demanded bringing a minister for water and power from irrigated areas, as they complained that a minister from rain-fed areas was not aware of the importance of the canal water for irrigation and rural population. They termed his continuation a bad omen for the party, which clinched majority of its parliament seats from the irrigated areas.