Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The three-member fact finding committee of the Senate will visit Gujranwala today (Friday) to detect the factors behind corruption worth billions of rupees in Nandipur Power Project and burning of official documents regarding the project by Khawaja Saad Rafiq.

The committee will present its reports in the Upper House of parliament on the mega corruption scam and the financial and administrative irregularities in the 425-megawatts Nandipur Power Project.

The standing committee had made a subcommittee for finding facts regarding the project. The chairman of the committee is PTI’s Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak, while PML-N’s Muhammad Nisar Khan and ANP’s Daud Khan are its members. The committee will fix responsibility of taking the cost of the project to Rs 59 billion from its original cost of Rs 42 billion.

Nandipur Power Project was commenced in 2008 but even after a lapse of nine years the project is still incomplete. The agreement of Nandipur Power Project was signed between Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and Chinese company Zong Fong Electric Corporation in January 2008, under which Pakistan had paid 10 percent of the project’s cost as down payment to the Chinese firm. The project was to be completed in 2011.

Before commencing the work on the project, the Chinese firm had sought a legal opinion of Ministry of Water and Power and a summary was forwarded to the ministry in 2010 during the government of the PPP. But the summary was rested pending on the table of former federal minister for water and power Dr Babar Awan till 2012, when president of the Chinese company made a strong protest with the government of Pakistan for delaying the project deliberately.

Heavy machinery and equipments for Nandipur project arrived at Karachi port in 2010, but the government dumped it there in the open for almost two years, which turned into scrape due to rusting.

On this, the Chinese company demanded $85 million as compensation for the machinery because it was deteriorated due to negligence of the Pakistani authorities, but the government refused to pay the amount to the firm as the rusted equipments and machinery were of no use.

However, in 2013, negotiation was held between the big bosses of Ministry of Water and Power and executives of the company and as a result of these talks Zong Fong Corporation started the work on the project.

In 2014, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the project but in 2015, the machinery of the project became out of order due to use of substandard oil. However, it was made useable again.