On Wednesday, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry issued notices to former law minister Babar Awan, former law secretary Masood Chishti and others in a case pertaining to delay in installation of power plants. During the hearing, the CJ said that according to a report submitted by Justice (r) Rehmat Hussain Jafri’s one-man commission, the delay in installations of 425MW combined cycle power plant in Nandipur and 595MW Chichunki Malian power project worth a total of Rs 29 billion had caused the national exchequer to suffer a loss of Rs 113 billion. The petitioner, MNA Khawaja Asif of the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N), told the court that the estimate of losses included in the report encompassed the past three years only. If the two years prior to that period were accounted for, said Khwaja, the losses would amount to approximately Rs 150 billion. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja inquired as to why these matters were not resolved in the parliament, to which the PML-N lawmaker said the matter was brought to the court because of the parliament’s failure to resolve it. The session was adjourned till November 7.
