The Supreme Court on Wednesday summoned Federal Minister for Power Omar Ayub Khan to explain his position over excessive payments made to the independent power producers (IPPs).
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard a suo motu case pertaining to excessive amount paid to the IPPs by the government.
At the outset of the hearing, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, a member of the bench, quoted a report as saying that IPPs were paid Rs159 million each and questioned if the power producers were paid as per their power generation capacity. Power Division secretary, who was present in the court, explained that the IPPs were paid as per their capacity and fuel consumption. “They are paid as per their capacity irrespective of the fact they generate electricity or not,” he said.
“Millions of rupees were paid to IPPs irrespective of the fact they produced electricity or not,” the chief justice remarked. “Such agreements are being revoked the world over,” he said. “People didn’t get electricity but private companies were made full payments. Nothing was obtained by paying billions of rupees to private companies,” he continued. “The agreement with private power companies has turned out to be a noose,” he observed.
The chief justice came down hard on Power Secretary Irfan Ali. “We can forward the case to National Accountability Bureau for investigation,” he warned, adding that the circular debt has risen to billions of rupees.
Published in Daily Times, January 10th 2019.
