ISLAMABAD - Expressing disappointment over the negligence of the government for unexpected delay in completion of Nandipur Power Project, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Monday held the incumbent as well as previous governments responsible for escalating cost of projects.
“Vested interests in this government, like in its predecessors, were bent on undermining cost effective power projects and determined to make a quick buck at the expense of the nation,” Dr Shireen M Mazari, PTI Secretary Information said on Monday. She was commenting on PM’s directive for a probe into the Rs 15 billion Nandipur power project scam.
It is important to mention here that PTI has been raising voice against the delay in Nandipur Power project and stated on Monday that PM’s directives for a thorough probe in the project only reaffirmed the suspicions that vested interests in this government are bent on undermining cost effective power projects.
Dr Mazari commended the ex-MD Pepco for highlighting the attempt at fraud by writing to the CJ as well as appreciating the role of the media in exposing the same. She expressed her belief that had these two factors not come into play, those seeking to rob the nation would have got their way.
“The ex-MD PEPCO has done a praiseworthy job. Ministry of Water and Power had sought to rob the public by coming up with the new PC-1 for Nandipur showing a totally unjustified raise in the cost of this vital but delayed project. At a time when loadshedding was reaching unbearable levels, the mafias that exist to loot and plunder this country got active again, eying the Nandipur project,” Mazari said.
While power loadshedding has emerged as a biggest challenge for incumbent government of PML-N, the loot mafia including the private sector IPP sponsors, any efficient and low cost project is obstructed because no commissions were involved in it.
Experts believe that revised PC-1 was a scam prepared by Pepco/Ministry of Water and Power to cheat the public exchequer of millions of rupee with the benefits accruing to a “select private sector company”.
The sad part, Dr Mazari stated, is that all the equipment, machinery etc is paid for and is either at the site already or at port. Even with some increase in costs because of the delay, the maximum addition according to Baseer, ex-MD Pepco, in his letter to the CJ, which contains cost details, could not be the figure shown in the revised PC-1.
Dr Mazari stated that Nandipur saga is just one more incident where vested interests in the previous government and in this government are trying to fleece the nation and also destroy state institutions so that privatisation and unbridled profiteering can take place.
It seems this government was looking to privatise Nandipur just as it seems to be moving towards a clandestine blueprint for the privatization of PIA by appointing interested parties on the Board as well as aviation adviser.  
Dr Mazari demanded the government order not just a probe into the attempted fraud over Nandipur but also the putting on the ECL those suspected of this fraud so that they can be arrested and punished before they manage to escape the country.
Dr Mazari also called for a full revelation of how the circular debt payment was acquired and to whom the bulk of it went in the form of payment. She stated that the government has barely been in power but already mega scams are surfacing.