ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau has recommended to the Ministry of Water and Power to sever electricity connections of more than 150,000 chronic defaulters who failed to pay their bills by the April 4 deadline it had set for the purpose, a NAB official told Dawn on Sunday.

NAB Chairman retired Admiral Fasih Bokhari has made the recommendation in a letter written to the ministry, according to the official.

NAB was assigned by the government on March 6 to recover the electricity dues of Rs110 billion from about 300,000 defaulters. On March 29, the bureau issued final notices to the defaulters. However, 50 per cent of them failed to meet the deadline.

On Friday, NAB issued a list [available with Dawn] of 596 defaulters who did not pay their dues of Rs230 million. Among them, 256 were from Balochistan with Rs190m dues against them, 242 from Sindh with Rs167m dues and 98 from the Rawalpindi-Islamabad region with Rs21.8m dues.

NAB is still receiving data of defaulters from Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and their exact number and dues against them will be ascertained by Monday, says its spokesman Ramzan Sajid.

NAB and the power ministry would start taking action against the defaulters on Monday and initially their connections would be cut. In the second phase, criminal proceedings would be started against those who failed to clear their dues by April 19.

A notice appearing in newspapers on March 21 had asked the defaulters to clear their dues by April 4 and obtain clearance from NAB.