PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Friday alleged that certain Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders had illegally invested millions of rupees from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s Rs25 billion hydel power funds in stock market to benefit some rich businesspeople from outside the province.

They, however, didn’t name names and asked the media to dig out them.

The allegation was part of the charge sheet issued by PML-N MNA Daniyal Aziz during a news conference here, where party parliamentarians Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Maiza Hameed were also in attendance.

Daniyal said the PTI had raised the slogan of creating ‘Naya Pakistan’ but had miserably failed to improve socioeconomic conditions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and even in Peshawar.

He said Rs25 billion was allocated for completion of several hydel power projects in the province but millions of rupees from it were squandered by investing in the stock market to benefit rich businesspeople, including some PTI leaders interfering in the affairs of the provincial government.

The MNA claimed such PTI leaders were involved in the illegal activity but refused to disclose their names saying journalists should discover them themselves.

MNA Daniyal Aziz insists move meant to benefit some businessmen, including PTI leaders

About the loadshedding crisis, he said hydel power was the best possible solution to power outages in the country and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the province with the most potential for hydel power but the provincial government failed to execute its plans for the purpose.

Sharing some documents with journalists, he said 3260.4 megawatts hydel power projects were planned but the provincial government didn’t execute them due to corruption and mismanagement.

Daniyal said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had planned to generate 3260.4 megawatt power but only 687.4 of it had been mentioned in documents, while the rest had disappeared.

He said of the 687.4MW still mentioned in papers, 426MW was ‘under consideration’ leaving only 261.4MW behind actually being generated.

“After spending two and a half years in office, the PTI government is tendering projects for 52.8MW,” he said, adding that completion of 2.6MW Machai and 17MW Ranolai projects faced long delays.

The PML-N MNA said the money of such hydel power projects had fallen victim to corruption and mismanagement.

He said the projects, which didn’t exist in official documents anymore, included those for 1648MW in Chitral, 207MW in Dir, 14MW in Shangla, 10MW in Batagram, 595MW in Mansehra, 81MW in Malakand and 18MW in Swabi.

Daniyal said the provincial government should make public the ‘complete information’ about power generation plans and the details of funds withdrawn for Matiltanadn Lawai power projects.

He claimed the provincial government had illegally used billions of rupees meant for power generation for other purposes.

The PML-N MNA said the average cost of one megawatt electricity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was $2.6 million in 2013-14 though the international price for it was $1.4-$1.59.

He said use of hydel funds should be investigated and audited so that the people could know the ‘reality of the honesty’ of the provincial government.

Daniyal Aziz claimed details of audited accounts from 1992 to 2014 were unavailable.

He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa people could not be fooled by the hollow slogans of ‘change’ and ‘Naya Pakistan’ as they had seen dilapidated roads and streets and poor performance of the government in the province.

The PML-N MNA, however, failed to answer the queries about the federal government’s proposed mega projects for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, change in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and payment of the net hydel power profit arrears to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was trying to show its performance through large-size advertisements in the media but the decision of judicial commission on the 2013 elections had caused an irreparable damage to its position.

On the occasion, MNA Tariq Fazal Chaudhry alleged that the PTI government was favouring its own people in violation of merit.

He said massive corruption had been reported in forest harvesting, land allotment and other affairs in the province.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2015

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