Leader of the PML-Q parliamentary party in the National Assembly Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has urged the Supreme Court to act against rental power projects

Islamabad, January 21: Leader of the PML-Q parliamentary party in the National Assembly Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has urged the Supreme Court to act against rental power projects which, he said, was just another name for corruption. Reacting to the recent report of the Asian Development Bank’s report on the issue of Rental Power Plants, he said that the whole nation will have to bear the brunt of the corruption of a few individuals.

He said that since June of last year he has raised this issue at every forum including the National Assembly of Pakistan. He wanted to discuss the issue of rental power corruption in the National Assembly after the Prime Minister stated on the floor of the house on 7th August 2009 to bring all matters to the Parliament for discussion as per rules and procedure. It is ironic to note that as per the same rules and procedure his adjournment motions on corruption was turned down by the honourable Speaker of the National Assembly vide National Assembly Secretariat letter no. A.M. no.59/2009 (15th Session) dated 31st August 2009 and hence no discussion could be initiated. This in itself was a negation of the Prime Minister’s own policy statement.

He said that he had been persistently saying that rental power projects had been initiated only for kickbacks, otherwise there was no need for subjecting the masses to untold misery of loadshedding. The demand and supply gap of electricity has only been created and manufactured by the top guns of the regime to justify the monster of corruption also known as RPP’s. He had presented the true picture in which he had shown on National TV that almost 2000 MW of un-utilized capacity is lying idle which can easily be brought into the system to end the load shedding.

In televised debates too the Minister for Water & Power had consistently stated that RPP tariff is only one or two cents more than the IPP’s. This lie has been demolished in the ADB report which says that the tariff can go up to US$0.22 (22 cents) as against 13 cents claimed by the Minister. The ADB Report is also said to contain serious apprehensions of the ADB over the manner in which these contracts were awarded to a select few. It mentions that the RPP agreements were struck in favour of sellers and the interests of buyers were compromised. These agreements had been ‘signed in haste’ and without examining in detail the fiscal and contractual obligations of the government. The ADB also found that the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) changed certain agreements of the RPPs at post-approval stage in favour of the RPPs. The bank also pointed out that 14 per cent mobilisation charges did not take into account the tariff calculations.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has made startling revelations that the PPP-led regime will have to hike the electricity tariff by an additional 45 per cent if it allows installation of 14 RPPs to generate 2,250 megawatts of electricity in addition to its agreement with the IMF, the WB and the ADB to increase the electricity prices by six per cent in coming April. So, the actual power tariff by installing 14 RPPs will increase by 51 per cent. So if we take into account the 18% tariff already raised till Jan 2010, the total tariff increase will be a whopping 69%.

Moreover, the project efficiency committed by the sponsors of RPPs was for only 32-35 per cent but the government would be legally bound to make payments for 90 per cent capacity utilisation. Also, the ADB pointed out, the contracts lacked sound clauses in case of non-performance by the RPPs. Even if the contractor ran away after signing the agreement, the government would still have to pay for the capacity charges.

The Prime Minister has told the National Assembly that the government will halt the RPP’s if so recommended by the ADB. But what will happen to the millions of dollars already doled out in the name of advance payments. How is the government going to recover US$ 80 million of its tax payers money that has been given in clear violation of rules and procedures to just one RPP namely, Karkay Rental Power. How will the government respond to the recent statement of Mr. Iqbal Z Ahmad, the chief architect of the RPP’s, that he does not owe a single penny to the National Bank of Pakistan. The ugly fact of the case is that he has given an LPG allocation to Mr. Ali Raza, President of the National Bank of Pakistan in return for a Letter of Credit issued to Iqbal Z Ahmad’s company Pakistan Power Resource LLC for US$ 67 million on behalf of the Government of Pakistan. All these wheeling’s and dealings have taken place at the expense of the people of Pakistan who have been deprived of Ata, Sugar, Electricity, Water, Gas and Security for their life and property. The people of Pakistan want to ask from the Prime Minister and the Minster that what will be the fate of the so called performance guarantees that have been secured from the sponsors of the RPP who had pledged that they will start production in December 2009.

He also said that the government has US$ 6 billion to pay to the RPP’s but was not paying the already installed IPP’s and was deliberately discouraging new IPP’s to make a killing from the obsolete and redundant RPP plants. He asked the Government the reasons why such a huge amount of un-utilized IPP’s are not being made functional by clearing their debt.

The people of Pakistan are fed up with the deceit and lies of the Water & Power Minister and now of the Prime Minister as well. Deadlines after deadlines have passed for the commissioning of the new IPP’s but the government only interest it seems is to inflict misery on its people so that they can somehow justify the corruption ridden RPP’s. All the 19 IPP’s which were sanctioned since 2007 are deliberately put on a slow track.

Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat also challenged the PM to an open debate on this mother of all scams as he has been the main protector of his notorious minister, for reasons only known to him. This government has excelled in only one sphere and that is gross mismanagement and unprecedented corruption. What more proof does the PM require on this scam than the ADB report which is self incriminatory and a direct charge sheet on the massive bunglings by top functionaries of today.

If the PM is clean then he should welcome an open televised live debate with him in true parliamentary traditions.

In view of all the facts that have now been raised by the ADB also, it is important that the Supreme Court of Pakistan should initiate and institute suo-moto proceedings against all those involved in this massive scam of US$ 5 billion which has been and will be skimmed from the pockets of innocent people of this country.