Islamabad:
The Senate’s Standing Committee on Water Resources on Wednesday expressed serious concern over decades old pending legal disputes, land cases worth the trillion of rupees and the closure of the Neelum-Jhelum Hydroelectric project.
The committee, chairman of the Senator Shahadat Awan, reviewed compliance reports on audit paras in WAPDA and noted that some legal cases had been pending as long as 21 years.
“Wapda has not been aware of these cases in the last sixteen years,” noted Senator Awan, pointing out that land worth RS10 billion was under Wapda’s occupation, while cases that exceeded RS298 billion – mainly linked to Mealth Dam – remained unresolved in the courts.
The committee chairman also raised alarms over the controversial RS30 billion Nai Gaj Dam contract under investigation by NAB. Senator Awan instructed the WAPDA chairman to convene an urgent meeting and present a status report on all audit-related cases.
Senator Faisal Rahman criticized Wapda’s legal team for his “lack of step” on long -term disputes.
In response, Wapda President LT Gen (Retd) said Muhammad Saeed, who only took office ten days ago that he had already called three meetings to tackle the problems. “Wapda has many cases where there is no record for, but we are trying to reduce the backlog.”
Saeed admitted that Wapda’s records were not digitized, but assured that effort was underway. He added that compensation had already been paid out to the short impact, though they still pursued cases in court.
Officials informed the committee that six cases were currently under NAB -control, including two, each related to the Kachhi channel and Nai Gaj Dam projects. However, the Ministry of Water Resource Secretary clarified that these were references to individuals, not WAPDA.
Committee Chairman called Nab and FIA officials to his next meeting and instructed the Wapda and Water Ministry to present extensive details of all ongoing cases. “It’s our job to ask,” Senator Awan said.
The closure of the Neelum-Jhelum Vandkraft project also came under discussion after the collapse of its main rice tunnel. Officials said the project had previously been subjected to a collapse of tail noise that was repaired, allowing operations for nine months before the latest collapse.
However, Senator Awan postponed the detailed discussion and noted that a committee formed by the Prime Minister already investigated the matter. “We should wait for the investigation report before further discussion.”
The Committee recommended that WAPDA’s legal team immediately coordinate with the auditor and the Ministry of Law to resolve audit-related cases from 2015-16 and submit a detailed report on all criminals and PAC-related cases at the next meeting.
