Islamabad: Aside the hefty $700m penalty slapped by ICSID last month in connection with Karkey Karadeniz case, Pakistan will also be paying a monthly interest payment of $5.6m for not having met its contractual obligations in its rental power plants deal.
A local newspaper report claimed Pakistan will have to pay one month’s interest on 22nd September to Karkey, because the penalty by ICSID was announced on August 22nd.
And the Istanbul-based company gave a seven-day notice to the Pakistani authorities to disclose the relevant details of this penalty imposed by ICSID.
Experts feel the amount would exceed $800m instead of the original $700m announced as put forth by government officials.
During Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Turkey last week, he met top Turkish officials and sought their intervention in this regard, but nothing came of it.
It was learnt, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had also tried to help in this matter, but no settlement could be reached due to interference by then Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry of Supreme Court.
According to sources, while the court proceedings were going on, Karkey had shown willingness to settle the dispute for $70m, which was rejected outright by the Ministry of Water and Power then led by Khawaja Asif.
Profit had reported on Wednesday that Turkish company Karkey Karandeniz , had been awarded damages worth $700m over the rental power plants (RPPs) in a lawsuit filed against Pakistan in International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
