Monday, May 25, 2009
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: The government and the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) are all set to cover up the Chak Shahzad farmhouses power theft controversy which, if probed by an independent body, could become a major scandal, exposing not only the mighty power thieves but also their key facilitators in the energy sector.
In its reaction to The News story, though the Iesco gave an all well report, insiders disclosed the Iesco office at Tarlai on Saturday morning was ready to issue notices to influential violators but was barred from doing so by the higher authorities, perhaps not to flare up the controversy.
Following unearthing of the scam, the Iesco chief announced the constitution of a team to scrutinise all connections provided to farmhouses at Chak Shahzad but the person assigned to head the team was the man who should be probed for allowing all this in the first place.
The superintendent engineer concerned, according to Iesco, will head the team. Experts insist misuse of the agriculture tariff by domestic consumers and power theft at Chak Shahzad had been going on for years under the same Superintendent Engineer Saifullah Jan, Xen Rashid Khattak and SDO Mian Jamil.
An insider alleged these three officials were in the knowledge of how the tariffs were wrongly used by powerful and mighty residents of Chak Shahzad. Instead of appointing an independent body to probe the matter, those required to be questioned for allowing all this have been assigned to scrutinise their own actions. They have been made the investigators, the judge and the jury of their own crimes.
Sources said Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, too, owns a farmhouse, which has been under active commercial use, i.e., a wedding hall rented out for wedding receptions. The source said if the record of billing and connection of all farmhouses is scrutinised after conduction a survey of each and every farmhouse, it may prove a far bigger scandal.
The authorities, however, were trying to hush up the matter, as any independent probe would mean penalising the most influential of not only the past but also the present regime. During Nawaz Sharifs second tenure, a military-led campaign launched by Wapda to check power theft had made headlines when seasoned politician Syeda Abida Hussain was accused of power theft.
Former president Musharraf, while talking to a private television channel on Saturday evening, was reported to have said he was not involved in any irregularity regarding misuse of power tariff at his palatial Chak Shahzad residence. The ousted dictator may claim innocence but the fact remains that the power tariff he was paying at his farmhouse is D-2(1), which is meant for agriculture purposes, whereas he was supposed to get a domestic connection.
Because of this wrong connection and misuse of tariff, he was enjoying the cheapest available tariff connection, which was not available to ordinary citizens of the country. In a message conveyed to this newspaper through a friend, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz said as against the claim made in The News story, he owns a plot at Chak Shahzad with no home. He added a chowkidar who lives in a hut of the farm plants crops and fruits only uses a tube-well, justifying the agriculture power tariff.
A two-member team of The News visited Shaukat Azizs farmhouse on Sunday and found that there existed a two-room katcha house, which was in the use of the caretaker and his family. The house has got a power connection from the same agriculture D-2(1) meter installed there. The News team had also found the 25-kanal Aziz farmhouse in bad shape, not suitable for agriculture purposes.
An Iesco official when contacted said even for one room, a separate domestic connection was required. Using the agriculture connection for caretakers hut as claimed by Shaukat Aziz, according to the official, was also illegal.
While the superintendent engineer concerned was inaccessible, his XEN Rashid Khattak and SDO Mian Jamil when contacted on Saturday were shy of talking on the subject. While Jamil advised this correspondent to talk to his XEN, the latter said he was busy.
In its clarification issued on Saturday, the Iesco said the contents of The News story were investigated and scrutinised and no irregularity was found in the provision of new connections to these farmhouses. However, it conveniently ignored the fundamental question: whether or not any connection new or old was being misused by farmhouse dwellers.
Source:
Iesco trying to push power theft scam under the rug
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