ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of increasing prices of electricity, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday initiated verification of complaint against the alleged sale of electricity on exorbitant rates by the Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

“NAB chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal has ordered director general [of] NAB Rawalpindi to conduct complaint verification against alleged sale of electricity on exorbitant rates to the Central Power Purchasing Agency [CPPA] by the IPPs allegedly in connivance with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority [Nepra],” said an official press release.

Interestingly, the NAB chairman took the step on the same day when Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar warned the authorities concerned of dire consequences if the people of Karachi were not rid soon of unannounced power loadshedding.

According to a NAB official, a complainant has claimed that IPPs are selling electricity to the CPPA on higher rates and ultimately the masses have to bear the burden as the average prices increase as a result.

However, electricity rates are determined by Nepra under the government’s policy which was approved by the cabinet in consultation with the provinces. Nepra cannot fix its own rates.

Housing societies

At a meeting presided over by the NAB chairman, the anti-graft watchdog decided to take stern action against illegal and fake housing societies in the country, particularly in the federal capital.

The priority of NAB was to recover the people’s savings from private cooperative housing societies, said retired Justice Iqbal. “NAB has recovered looted money from 10 different housing societies and handed over Rs2.2 billion to the affected people in the last seven months. This proves that NAB takes action against culprits without caring about their position or status,” the press release said.

It quoted the NAB chief as directing the managements of the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to provide details of the illegal housing societies working in their jurisdictions and to inform people of the legal position of the societies through newspapers and their own websites.

“The civic authorities should also take legal action against the illegal housing societies,” the chairman said.

He also took notice of the construction of a 100-foot-wide road and approval of design and layout of Aleem Khan’s Park View Enclave housing society in just three days. The society had earlier been declared illegal by the CDA.

The NAB chief wondered if the layout plan was approved by the CDA board against its rules. “[We want to know] whether formalities were completed in this case as NAB only wants to save people from the looting of societies,” he added.

Former minister

Retired Justice Iqbal ordered the director general of NAB Karachi to conduct complaint verification against Sharjeel Memon, a former minister of Sindh, for allegedly “owning assets beyond known sources of income”.

The former minister has already been facing a corruption reference in which he was arrested in October 2017 upon rejection of his bail. In that case he was accused of awarding advertisements at “exorbitant rates” through abuse of power.

Four other people who were indicted in the case were Asim Sikandar, Riaz Muneer, Inam Akbar and Muhammad Hanif.

NAB’s investigations revealed that the accused persons had awarded advertisements against the law and at exorbitant rates to TV channels and FM radio stations for various awareness campaigns between July 2013 and June 2015. The accused acted with the connivance of each other, resulting in considerable losses to the national exchequer.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2018