LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says that unlike Imran Khan they (the ruling PML-N) will accept the Supreme Court verdict on Panama case.

“…the Panama case is in the Supreme Court and we respect the apex court and its decisions. We aren’t like [Imran Khan] Niazi Sahib, who termed ex-chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry the best judge if he gave a favourable ruling and the worst if the decision came against Niazi’s wishes.”

He was responding to a question at the Balloki gas-fired power station on Wednesday about future of the under-construction power plants and other development projects if the apex court disqualified the PML-N government.

“This behaviour of Niazi Sahib is like destroying the justice (system),” he said, adding the PTI sit-ins and protest politics had already damaged the nation and the country much.

Responding to a query about preferring thermal to hydel power projects, he said hydel schemes are important for the progress and prosperity of the country but recalled that Pervez Musharraf did not build Dasu and Bhasha dams though the former army ruler had been raising the slogan of “Pakistan First.”

Shahbaz credited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with starting work on Dasu dam and acquiring land for Bhasha dam.

Answering a question about Kalabagh dam, the chief minister said as all the four federating units did not agree on the project executing it would go against solidarity of the country. “The controversy on Kalabagh is also a gift of the dictatorship.”

Earlier, he narrated during a briefing on the Balloki project how they managed to bring the cost down to half of a same project at Guddu work on which had been started in 2009 by involving all the three world companies in the bidding process that manufacture the plants.

Quoting the figures, he said the Balloki cost was even lower than the benchmark set by Nepra (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority.

Shahbaz also took credit for completing the power project in record 27 months against the world standard of 60 months and that the plant would be the most efficient (61.63 per cent) against Guddu (55pc) and other state and private-run thermal projects.

Another unique feature of the project is that the heat generated during the power production (772MW) would be used to run a steam turbine for generating 451MW more power resulting in lowering the per megawatt cost of electricity.

Published in Dawn January 5th, 2017