ISLAMABAD, May 11: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry noted on Friday that the power crisis had worsened to an extent that President Asif Zardari had to intervene to resolve it.

“The power crisis has deteriorated so much that even the president has to call the meeting,” the chief justice observed while heading a two-judge Supreme Court bench. He said the fact the president had to call the meeting reflected an administrative breakdown.

The chief justice was referring to Thursday’s high-level meeting which decided to release Rs70 billion to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and fuel suppliers to ease the power crisis.

The bench has taken up a petition of PML-N lawmaker Khawaja Asif against delay in the installation of Rs29 billion 425MW combined cycle power plant in Nandipur (Gujranwala) and 595MW Chichunki Malian power project.

Nandipur, potentially the country’s cheapest power production plant, has remained stalled for almost two years.

The Supreme Court had earlier formed a one-man commission (Justice (retd) Rehmat Hussain Jafri) to look into factors behind delay in fulfilment of contracts for the two power projects.

The commission had reported that the national exchequer suffered a loss of Rs113 billion because of delay in the fulfilment of contracts relating to Nandipur and Chichunki Malian power projects.

The Supreme Court directed the government to determine ‘responsibility’ for the delay because the contracts were meant to tide over the rising electricity shortfall. They delay affected the national exchequer adversely.

The bench stressed the need for finding out who were the people holding charge during the period when the delay was caused in finalising the two power projects so that notices could be issued to responsible people.

The court observed that the negligent persons should be exposed.

Dr Khalid Ranjah representing the law ministry sought time to file objections on the commission’s report which had highlighted the loss of Rs113 billion.

Advocate Khawaja Tariq Rahim appeared as the counsel of water and power ministry.