Power scam report to be made public, cabinet decides

–Govt forms commission of inquiry to conduct forensic audits of IPPs, other investigations within 90 days

–Cabinet divided over defending members, including Razak Dawood and Nadeem Babar, named in report

–PM Imran says members should be defended till they are found guilty by investigators 

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet stood divided on Tuesday after Prime Minister Imran Khan implied that the ministers, special assistants accused of minting money through the Independent Power Plants (IPPs) were “innocent” and that they should be defended till they were found “guilty”.

During the last 13 years the national kitty faced loss of over Rs4 trillion due to circular debt and subsidies being given to power producers, according to the power sector inquiry report.

It said that 16 independent power-producing companies (IPPs) invested around Rs60 billion and earned over Rs400 billion in profits in a period ranging from two to four years.

As the cabinet took up the report, the PM told his ministers to wait for forensic analysis of the report and then take a stance. The cabinet approved to make the inquiry report on the power scandal public.

According to sources, the report mentioned PM’s advisers Abdul Razzaq Dawood and Nadeem Babar, Minister for Energy Omar Ayyub Khan and Minister for Economic Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar among others.

The sources said that the report identified Dawood and Babar as direct beneficiaries of the payments made to the IPPs, while the immediate relatives of Khusro and in-laws of Omar Ayyub had been named as beneficiaries. The aforementioned individuals were not part of the meeting due to a “conflict of interest”.

The sources said that the prime minister assured the cabinet members that stern action would be taken against those found involved in corrupt practices but till the time responsibility is fixed, their names should not be shared in public.

However, about 14 members of the federal cabinet differed from the PM’s view, arguing that they should not defend the accused ministers. Sheikh Rasheed, Tariq Bashir Cheema, allies of the ruling PTI, were also among those who opposed the idea of putting up a defence of the ones named in the report.

Ali Mohammad Khan even went ahead and tweeted to express his displeasure.

“Those who are facing allegations of corruption or illegal profits, whether they are in the government or in the opposition, national assembly or in the Senate, a part of the (federal) cabinet or not, enjoyed power are enjoying it, should go to any forum and get them cleared (from allegations), answer media questions and then talk,” he tweeted, referring to the PM’s decision.

Addressing a televised media briefing after the cabinet meeting, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said the cabinet had approved to formally make the power sector inquiry report public with an official ownership.

He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and prime minister believed in transparency across the board and by embarking upon this policy, the prime minister had decided to present all the inquiries and investigations before the nation to root out corruption from the country.

Asad Umar, who is also chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Energy, made it clear that the power projects and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) upon which the inquiries were conducted were initiated in the previous governments.

“No contract on these projects was made by the current government,” he added.

The minister said the government was committed to take these inquiries to a logical conclusion by bringing all the culprits to justice.

A number of such irregularities had been found in an inquiry where many government departments were also involved, he said adding no one would be spared this time whosoever the culprit might be, and the government was strict in its stance to deal with them according to the law.

He further informed that the cabinet also decided to form a commission of inquiry to propose further recommendations based on the inquiry report. Terms of reference of the commission were being complied and the person who lead the commission would be selected by the prime minister and he or she would not be from the government side.

He said the commission would be authorized to do forensic audit and other investigations of the report. He said the government provide all support to the commission including budget and all other facilities.

The commission would submit its recommendations within 90 days, he added.

Asad Umar said the committee also recommended some amendments or reforms in policies and for this another committee under Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Minerals Shahzad Qasim was already working and the policy recommendations would be prepared by the committee.

After the completion of recommendations on the irregularities in the power sector would be submitted by the commission, he added.