Inquiry into rental power projects corruption soon: Faisal

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD (October 04 2009): PML-Q parliamentary leader in National Assembly Faisal Salah Hayat on Saturday claimed that influential circles had taken notice of the corruption in rental power projects, for which an inquiry would be conducted soon. He added that Shaukat Tarin had rejected the concept of rental power projects and the Cabinet "is divided" on the issue.

Talking to media here, he said that the Minister for Water and Power Pervez Ashraf on Saturday held a meeting with the members of Private Power Infrastructure Board and, after the meeting he came to know that the ongoing load shedding could not be eliminated by the end of 2009. He said that according to government claims, 17,500 megawatts of electricity are required during peak hours of June-July, and Pepco is in a position to produce 19,000 megawatts if all plants are fully utilised.

Criticising the Minister's stance Faisal said that the minister was creating totally a wrong impression, and all his tall claims were baseless. He said: "Today how the minister came to know that the rental power projects will not be completed by the end of this December. Instead these projects would be completed in June 2010".

Giving reference of a fresh statement of the Minister, he said that today the minister was claiming that "The countrywide criticism on rental power projects put investors into uncertainty". While rejecting Pervez Ashraf's claim he said that PML-Q had strict reservations over the said plan of producing electricity through rental power projects and pointed out flaws and financial losses through RPPs.

He said that the government was just issuing statements and in reality no sincere effort was being made to overcome the longstanding problem of load shedding. He said that on the one hand the minister for water and power was complaining about the sharp criticism on rental power plants and on the other he was not taking appropriate steps to overcome load shedding.

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