PPIB denies reports

Published August 21, 2004

ISLAMABAD, Aug 20: Apropos of the report 'Pakistan loses $12 million to power firm', in Dawn's Aug 13 issue, the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) has clarified that the government has not lost any arbitral claim of $12 million to any independent power producer.

Sabah Shipyard's arbitral claim against the government was abandoned by the company and the government had initiated and was pursuing a fresh arbitration to recover costs thereof, it said.

Commenting on the report 'New gas-run power plants banned" in the Aug 2 issue, the PPIB said the government had not imposed any moratorium on accepting raw-site proposals based on pipeline quality gas, and there was no policy shift regarding investment proposals for gas-fired power plants.

It said the government was contemplating all possible measures to make available gas for power generation and other industries, besides the domestic sector. In this regard, many meetings of stakeholders had been held to discuss different options and their pros and cons and the reported information was not correct, it said.