Nandipur petition disposed of by SC

ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, disposed of a petition pertaining to the delay in construction of Nandipur power project on Wednesday.

The case was disposed of after the apex court was informed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference in the case.

The chief justice said that as the accountability watchdog had filed a reference and as such, court proceedings should not affect NAB proceedings. The hearing was then postponed indefinitely.

Earlier, an accountability court decided to indict former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Babar Awan in the Nandipur Power Project corruption reference on October 24.

During the hearing of the corruption reference filed by the national anti-graft body against politicians and government officials, the court ordered to provide a copy of the reference to all accused and directed them to ensure their appearance for the next hearing.

Ashraf, Awan, former secretaries of the ministry of law Muhammad Masood Chishti and Justice (retd) Riaz Kiyani, former research consultant of the law ministry Shamila Mahmood, former senior joint secretary ministry of law Dr Riaz Mahmood and former secretary ministry of water and power Shahid Rafi are accused in the case.

The Nandipur Power Project

The project was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on December 27, 2007, at a cost of US$329 million.

On January 28, 2008, the contract was signed between the Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and the Dong Fang Electric Corporation (DEC), China and two consortiums – COFACE for 68.967 million euros and SINOSURE for $150.151 million – were set up for financing the project.

The water and power ministry sought legal opinion on the project from the law ministry in accordance with the schedule of the agreement in July 2009, but the accused repeatedly refused to do so.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Water and Power also failed to take any concrete steps to resolve these issue, and the matter remained pending.

According to details shared by NAB, after Awan was replaced as the law minister, the legal opinion was issued on November 2011 – after more than two years. This inordinate and malafide delay caused a huge loss of Rs27 billion to the national exchequer.

During the course of the investigation, it was established that the accused committed the offence(s) of corruption and corrupt practice, as defined in u/s 9 (a) (vi) and (xii) read with Sr.5 of Schedule Offences of NAO, 1999.

Source: Express Tribune