Walters Power International Limited (WPIL) served a defamation notice on Adil Gilani of Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) for $100 million on Friday. The notice, issued by Ebrahim Hosain Advocates & Corporate Counsel, has been copied to the U.S. Department of Justice and to Transparency International’s headquarters in Brussels. The defamation notice is in response to TIP’s letter of April 9, which was published in local newspapers the following day and levels allegations of wrongdoing against the power company. U.S.-owned WPIL has taken strong exception to TIP’s mischaracterization of the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s judgment of March 30, 2012, regarding rental power plants (RPPs), one of which WPIL set up at Naudero, Sindh. “Your latest transgression is in keeping with your remorseless, habitual, willful, and chronic misrepresentation of facts that have brought disrepute in Pakistan to you as an individual as well as to Transparency International, whose Pakistan chapter you seemingly represent,” reads the notice to Gilani. “Your intellectual and financial integrity has been called into question repeatedly and you have also been the subject of federal investigations.” WPIL’s lawyers have called Gilani’s defamatory allegations unfounded, incorrect, and mala fide. “In your unholy haste to obtain newspaper space and personal mileage from the judgment, you have overlooked several key aspects of the same,” reads the strongly-worded notice. “For purposes of your edification, it is emphasized that the court’s observations are prima facie, i.e. of a tentative nature. The court has, in fact, ordered an inquiry to determine the facts. Your contention, therefore, that WPIL has been ‘convicted on corruption charges’ is patently false.” WPIL adds that all RPP contracts, including its own, were approved by Pakistan’s federal cabinet and that the contracts came with representations from public sector companies that these had been duly authorized by all requisite corporate and governmental action and did not violate the provisions of any law, rule or regulation. WPIL also informs Gilani that the court order is “final subject to the Constitutional right of review as per Article 188 of the Constitution of Pakistan read with Order XXVI of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980.” The notice concludes by demanding an unreserved public apology from Gilani for his slander campaign against WPIL and its associated companies failing which WPIL has threatened to file suit against him, his organization and his parent organization for damages in the applicable jurisdictions to the extent of $10 million.
