PML-Q leader Faisal Saleh Hayat, who is one of the petitioners, told the court that as soon as the Supreme Court started hearing of the RPPs case, the shortfall between power generation and demand in the country have reached up to 5000MW and at the same time the government has dissolved the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) which was responsible for power distribution across the country.
He said RPPs was the mother of all scams. He said he was appearing before the court as opposition leader of PML-Q. The chief justice asked Faisal to provide some documents to substantiate his claim. Faisal said he would file the documents in the court on Tuesday (today).
Pepco's senior counsel Khawaja Tariq Raheem told the court that the policy of RPPs was not new. He said a penalty of Rs 190 million had been imposed on three RPPs for failing to complete power houses by the deadlines and two ventures of 110MW- Pakistan Power Resources projects in Guddu and Multan had been signed off. He said those levelling allegations should prove them in the court. Later the court adjourned further hearing till October 6 with an observation that the matter will be adjudicated on next hearing.
The government had approved last year plans to set up rental power projects to generate 1,206 megawatts to end load shedding. The court had summoned for October 4 Faisal Saleh Hayat to substantiate his allegations of corruption against the government levelled in the house. Pepco's counsel told reporters that penalties had been imposed on the 201MW Reshma Rental Generation, 232MW ship-mounted Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretin of Turkey in Korangi and 150MW Techno Energy in Sialkot.
Citing a report prepared by the Asian Development Bank, he said the Premier Energy and the Independent Power firms had been asked not to proceed with the projects because agreements had not been signed with them. He said the 62MW Gulf Rental Power project had been commissioned and the 152Techno E-Power plant in Faisalabad had been partially commissioned.
The Walter Power International's Naudero-I plant is on a test run. The 200MW Young General Power plant in Faisalabad and 50MW Walters Power International Naudero-II are in advanced stages and the Kamoki Energy has received advance payment from the government for mobilisation. The counsel said a majority of the units were refurbished Chinese plants because the RPPs had to install them within two years.