ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ordered National Accountability Bureau to investigate reports of corruption in Nandipur power project.
Chief Justice Saqib Nisar ordered this while hearing a case in Islamabad today (Thursday) pertaining to irregularities in the multi-billion-rupee project.
The inquiry should be conducted in the light of former Supreme Court judge Rehmat Hussain Jaffery’s report.
According to the report submitted by the one-man commission, the delay in the installation of Nandipur and Chichunki Malian power projects had caused the loss of Rs.113 billion to national exchequer.
NAB must investigate what action was taken on the report, the CJP said. It must be investigated why the project was delayed? For how much time its file remained stuck at the ministry of law, and what are details of the fraud, the CJP observed. Secretary to the Ministry of Energy told the court that the project’s actual cost was Rs.22 billion, but it was completed in Rs.55 billion.
In 2012, the Supreme Court took up a petition filed by Khawaja Asif against delays in the project that increased its cost.
Since then, NAB has been investigating the project’s irregularities. NAB says the scam resulted in Rs.113 billion loss to the national exchequer.
In May 2017, the bureau held the law ministry responsible for the scam when Babar Awan was the federal law minister in the previous PPP government.
NAB has nominated former Federal Minister Babar Awan, former Federal Minister Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, former Secretary Law and Justice Masood Chishti, former Secretary Shahid Rafi and ex-Director Ejaz Bashir into Nandipur Electric Project in the scam.
The Nandipur Hydel Power Station is situated on the Upper Chenab Canal near Nandipur village, a few kilometres from Gujranwala. – NNI