The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to the finance secretary for not issuing sovereign guarantee for the Nandipur Power Project which caused a delay in the completion of the project.
The notice was issued by a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry and Justice Gulzar Ahmed during the hearing of a petition submitted by PML-N leader Khawaja Muhammad Asif.
The SC noted that the project which commenced in 2008 was due to be completed in April 2011 but even after the passage of two years, the project was still in limbo.
The bench was apprised that already billions of rupees had been spent on the 450MW power project which could not be completed due to the “lethargic behaviour of the Ministry of Finance”.
During the hearing, Asif said the machinery worth millions of rupees had arrived at the Karachi Port Trust about two years ago but due to the cold behavior of certain departments it was still there, getting ruined.
He said he had filed this petition in 2011 and since then no step had been taken on it.
An official of the project told the SC that they had written several times to the ministries of Law and Finance for the issuance of sovereign guarantee by the government to clear the machinery from the port but in vain.
The bench issued a notice to the finance secretary directing him to appear before the court and explain the government’s stance on the issue.
Later, further proceedings were adjourned until May 28.