Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani said on Tuesday that a parliamentary committee, having representation of both Houses, should be constituted to oversee arbitration issues and agreements/contracts being signed with foreign companies.

The law committees of both Houses of the Parliament should have the representation in the proposed parliamentary oversight committee. In this regard, the Senate chairman said that he would write a letter to the National Assembly speaker for constituting the committee. Feelings of the Upper House will be conveyed to the speaker regarding anomalies on arbitration issues with various international companies.

He said that an amendment had already been made in the relevant law, asking the government to get ratification of every agreement from the Parliament.

Earlier, the senators expressed serious reservations over the agreements reached with foreign companies. They were of the view that personal interests were involved in such agreements and the state had to face the consequences later on. “Dishonesty always dominated these agreements with foreign companies,” they said.

The senators regretted that such agreements were never discussed in parliament and urged the government to ensure parliamentary oversight over such agreements in futures. They said that there were experts in both Houses of parliament who could make better decisions as compared to those made outside the parliament.

Minister for Power Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari informed the Senate that the government was making efforts to meet the energy requirements keeping in view the interests of the consumers.

He was winding up a discussion on an adjournment motion moved by Sherry Rehman regarding the interim award issued by London Court of International Arbitration on June 8 this year in favour of nine IPPs directing Pakistan to immediately pay Rs10.977 billion and to further discuss the need of the parliamentary oversight in key international arbitration cases.

The minister said that Pakistan had appealed against the decision in the court and a hearing would be held in London this month. He said all out efforts would be made to safeguard the public money.

The minister also informed the Senate that the Cabinet Committee on Energy had decided to introduce suitable amendments to the existing policy framework to address various issues relating to power tariff. It reviewed various power sector development projects, being set up to diversify existing energy mix of the country including wind, solar and hydel power projects.

The meeting discussed threadbare various policies including power co-generation by sugar industry and the renewable energy policy 2006.

Published in Daily Times, December 13^th 2017.