November 10, 2001	Saturday	Shaba’an 23, 1422

ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: Saudi Arabia is considering to waive a penalty it had imposed on a Pakistani public sector power construction firm for delaying a multi-million dollar project in that country.

“Hopefully, they (Saudis) will waive the penalty. We have made a request (for waiver) and they have promised to consider it favourably,” federal secretary water and power Mirza Hamid Hassan told Dawn on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia had imposed around Rs10 million penalty on National Power Construction Company (NPCC), owned by the government of Pakistan, when it failed to complete a mega power project Wadi Jalil in time.

The government had sent Mr Mirza to Riyadh late last month to convey a request for the withdrawal of penalty and give an assurance on behalf of the government that there would be no further delay in the project completion, said official sources.

Under the agreement, a penalty, as a percentage of contract price, was payable by the Pakistani company, and managing director of NPCC had asked the federal government to use its good offices for the waiver.

The company has a large power sector business operations in Arab states, but mainly in the Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The government now wanted to privatize it through sale of shares.