Floating Power Houses
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Westridge, Rawalpindi
Quoting the Minister for Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, daily ‘Pakistan’ on October 28 2008 carried a bold headline on its front page to announce that floating power houses aboard naval ships had arrived and load shedding would come to an end. It was a welcome news, though an unexpected one.
When were tenders for the floating power houses solicited and who submitted them? Have these power house ships been purchased or leased? If purchased, the ships must have cost billions to the exchequer at a time when the foreign exchange reserves are critically low.
There is a perception (or misperception) that a nationwide crisis is cleverly engineered by interested parties to create acute shortage of a commodity – wheat, sugar, fertilizer, gasoline, power, onion, potatoes, or tomatoes - which is imported from abroad post haste setting aside all transparent and proper procurement procedures. Thus comes the opportunity of minting millions overnight. After all, it would take anything from six months to a year to plan and execute a transaction involving the purchase/leasing of the power house ships.
Could someone more knowledgeable please enlighten us on the exceptionally expeditious performance of the ministry concerned?
