ISLAMABAD: The judicial activism of former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was discussed at a meeting of a subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during which lawmakers criticised his decisions that led to a huge fine by international arbitrators.

The committee was examining audit paras of the Ministry of Water and Power.

During the scrutiny of a supplementary grant of Rs24 billion, the subcommittee was told that this grant was released in connection with the $800 million penalty imposed by the International Centre for Settlement of International Disputes (ICSID) in a suit filed by Turkishpower company Karkey.

The committee was told that Pakistan has so far paid Karkey approximately $100m.

On March 30, 2012, Mr Chaudhry held that the PPP’s power policy and rental power projects (RPP) contracts were ‘non-transparent’ and ordered the National Accountability Bureau to proceed with corruption references against those at the helm of affairs when the contracts were signed, between 2006 and 2008.

The 232 MW barge-mounted Karkey power plant was part of an initiative approved by the previous PPP regime to generate approximately 1,206 MW of electricity to address crippling power cuts in the country by installing RPPs as a stop-gap.

After the deal was unilaterally scrapped, Karkey approached the ICSID seeking compensation.

Senator Sherry Rehman, the convenor, expressed displeasure over the grant and said the PAC would not clear it. She said the grant was equal to half of the ministry’s annual budget.

She said it was the former chief justice’s judicial activism that caused billions of rupees in losses to the national exchequer. However, she said, those who caused such a huge loss are not answerable to any forum.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2019