The Nandipur Power Project is emerging as one of the biggest scandals in the history of the country amid media reports that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered a complete audit of the project after millions and millions of rupees public money has been wasted away. A big advertisement campaign had been launched to give false hopes to the nation that the load shedding will end in the near future but scandals are begin to appear on the national scene.
The National Accountability Bureau has already held a session of questions with Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Asif as the project has been closed down after spending $800 million hard earned money and without fixing responsibility on anyone. The government should voluntarily start accountability process from its own house as NAB has no power to grill the minister of the ruling party who had approached the Supreme Court on the subject during the Pakistan People’s Party government. The duo, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, is calling for the audit of the project and action against the officials responsible for the loss of national exchequer, but it is evident from the current state of affairs that nothing will happen and inquiry into the matter will also be a wastage of money and wastage of time. The project had been awarded to Dongfang Electric Corporation of China in violation of relevant rules and regulations. According to newspaper reports, the original cost of the project was $223 million in 2008 which was increased to $584 million in 2013 and now the cost has reached $800 million though the official circles question this figure, saying only $490 million have been spent and another $94 million are yet to be spent.
The country has been facing acute and chronic shortage of electricity for the last many years and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership had promised during the election campaign that ending energy crisis will be their first priority after coming to power. But after spending more than half of their tenure in the office, the party leadership is now finding a scapegoat to absolve itself of any responsibility. No doubt the government has tried its best to stay away from financial scandals and irregularities, but billions of rupees have been syphoned off and they remained unaware of the massive corruption going on right under their nose. The government has spent more than three times of the original estimates on the Nandipur project and it is still incomplete. Another mega scandal is also like to surface in the shape of Quaid-e-Azam Solar Energy project. One can only pray that God bless this nation in this situation.