ISLAMABAD: Former law minister Babar Awan’s name echoed during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that discussed the Nandipur Power Project scam that resulted in a Rs113 billion loss to the national exchequer.

During a briefing to the committee, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Director Mohammad Rizwan said the cost of the project increased by billions of rupees because of a two-year delay in the project’s commencement.

Mr Rizwan said the law ministry did not give a post facto legal opinion on the agreement related to financing for the power project, and the file was stuck with the ministry from April 7, 2009, to Aug 24, 2011. Subsequently, the cost of the project escalated.

In 2012, the Supreme Court took up a petition filed by Khawaja Asif against the delays in the project that increased its cost. The court then constituted a commission to determine the delays and subsequent loss to the national exchequer.

PAC members ‘remind’ NAB that Babar Awan was law minister when project was delayed

The NAB director told the PAC that the commission had estimated a loss of Rs113 billion, while calculations in the audit report found the loss to be Rs36 billion.

When the committee asked the NAB director to name the officials who cased such a significant loss, Mr Rizwan said he did not remember their names but could inform the committee after reconciling the record.

In response, Senator Azam Swati remarked that NAB was in the habit of protecting offenders and corrupt individuals.

He said the bureau is also defending the culprits in this case, which is why it has not completed its inquiry for over four years.

PAC member Sheikh Rohale Asghar asked Mr Rizwan if he knew who the law

minister was when the file remained with the ministry, and PAC member Arif Alvi also asked the NAB director to disclose the minister’s name, which the NAB director said he could not remember.

His response invited the ire of the committee, and Mian Abdul Manan said Babar Awan was the law minister at the time.

Mushahid Hussain Syed then reminded Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers that Mr Awan is currently counsel for the party’s chairman, to which Mr Manan said: “This was the reason the bureau did not want to disclose the name.”

PTI’s Shafqat Mehmood then tried to shift the responsibility to other ministries, such as the ministries of finance and water and power. “Why did the relevant ministries not point out this delay to the then prime minister,” he asked.

Syed Naveed Qamar, a senior member of the committee who held the portfolio of finance minister during the previous government, said the matter was reported to the then prime minister from time to time but to no avail.

The NAB director said the matter was resolved with the president of Axiom Bank, one of the financers, met with then president Asif Ali Zardari and, after a directive from the president, the law ministry furnished the legal opinion.

When Mr Hussain asked about the reason for the delay in the inquiry’s completion, the NAB official said the matter has lingered for years because the bureau was interrogating the former prime minister, former ministers and judicial officers posted as senior officers in the law minister and joint secretaries, and could not get their responses in time.

However, he assured the committee the inquiry would be completed in the next eight weeks, after which a formal investigation would begin.

The committee directed the water and power secretary to arrange a detailed presentation on the power sector after two weeks.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2017