The government wanted to give Rs25 billion Neelum-Jhelum transmission line project to a Chinese company. The Wapda member of finance pointed out some serious irregularities in the whole affair, he said.
The government was trying to achieve a political consensus on the talks with Taliban and a breakthrough was achieved when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar went to the house of Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan and took him into confidence over the government’s efforts for restoring peace in the country and getting rid of the scourge of terrorism and finding a talks-based solution to the problem.
Kamran Khan said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was determined to ensure that his government remained clean and did not get involved in any sort of a corruption scandal. The prime minister wanted to ensure that all the projects, whether they pertained to purchases or selling or contracts, remained transparent. The government had so far not been associated with any financial scandal, but there were certain reports causing some anxiety. These reports were about a project linked to the Neelum-Jhelum power project worth $3 billion and it pertaining to the transmission of power to the national grid for which lines were to be laid.
Kamran Khan said that there were reservations expressed by PPRA, which bound the government to comply with the laws pertaining to procurements and disposal while entering into such agreements. Some important officials at the National Transmission and Dispatch Company and Wapda had also expressed their serious reservations, but it had been alleged that the government was insisting that all these reservations were put aside and a particular Chinese company was granted Rs25 billion contract.
The Wapda member of finance while alleging serious irregularities in the whole affair, rejected the plan. Before that the National Transmission Company’s MD, while flouting PPRA laws, had granted the Chinese company a conditional approval, but the board of directors of the National Transmission Company, while expressing its reservations, had rejected the application for a relaxation in PPRA rules. After the refusal, the conditional approval was cancelled, and the National Transmission Company had ordered issuance of the tender again. The National Transmission Company, according to the rules and regulations, could not select a particular company, and so the Ministry of Water and Power ordered Wapda to complete the project, and it appeared that the Ministry of Water and Power wanted Wapda to renew the cancelled project. The lowest bid for the project was Rs13 billion, but the Rs25 billion bid was approved. This is a very serious allegation. Kamran Khan said that the matter had now become a bit murky, and since it was a huge financial project, the act of overlooking transparency and rejecting reservations was not good news.
Kamran Khan said that the rupee had scored a 10 percent increase in its value against dollar, but the people would only be able to enjoy the effects of this development when it filtered down to the people in the form of reduction in prices of the goods that were imported into the country.
Kamran Khan said that the usual practice had been that whenever the rupee lost its value against the dollar, it triggered skyrocketing price rise. “Now we have a rupee that has increased its value against dollar, but it is yet to be seen if its effects filter down to the common man in the form of reduced prices of goods and commodities.
There are several opinions on whether this happens or not. Some experts opine that the people engaged in trade and commerce would like to see that only a minimum of advantage filters down to the common man. For example, it has been stated on behalf of the plants which assemble cars that they do not think that the prices of cars will fall in the foreseeable future.
Commenting on the tragedy in Thar, Kamran Khan said that the Sindh government had once again faltered. He said that it was time for the PPP leaders to ask themselves what their government had, which had been in power in Sindh for the last six years, done or had it come up to the expectations of the people.
On the situation in Lyari, Kamran Khan said that the people in different localities of the area spent a good part of their day on Thursday in burying the innocent people who had died in the disturbances in the area on Wednesday. Lyari is the centre of gang warfare. In spite of the Karachi operation, the situation in Lyari has deteriorated.
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