Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan State Oil (PSO) suffered losses worth Rs1 billion in supplying fuel to a private power producing company, Daily Times has learnt.

According to documents available with Daily Times, the company continued to receive furnace oil from PSO on credit even when its plant was non-operational.

Saba power producing company, located in Sheikhupura, Punjab, bought finance oil amounting to Rs1,006 million on credit from PSO for producing electricity to overcome load shedding in the country.

The document shows that the company was given the facility to buy furnace oil from PSO on credit in order to accelerate power production in 2013 by the then government.

A well-placed source told Daily Times that the furnace oil bought on credit from PSO for power production was disposed off in the open market, as the company’s power plant remained closed due to technical reasons.

The source said that power plant remained closed for more than two years. “They have only started functioning this year,” the source said.

The source said that Nadeem Babar, the incumbent chief executive of the company, was a very close relative of former railways minister Shamim Haider.

“Haider was railways minister from 2004 to 2006. Some of his very close relatives are involved with the power production company, which has deprived PSO more than one billion rupees,” he said.

The document shows that the PSO administration only learnt that the plant had been non-operational when it had approached the company’s administration to recover the amount.

The source said that the furnace oil was not used in power production and was instead sold in the open market.

“The matter was brought to the notice of the senior PSO administration, but no action was taken due to political reasons,” the source said.

The source said that the Ministry of Petroleum was also reluctant to take punitive action against the company or any PSO official involved in providing furnace oil.

“Some PSO officials are also involved. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to get a huge quantity of furnace oil and then sell it in the open market,” the source said. The source said that the issue had been brought to the notice of Petroleum Ministry bosses and they had been requested to take punitive action against officials involved.

“The petroleum minister has not initiated a departmental inquiry against PSO officials so far. The case has also not been forwarded to other state institutions for recovery of the amount,” the source said. Daily Time repeatedly tried to contact Baber to get his stance. However, he and his subordinates did not respond.