Babar Awan tenders resignation as PM's adviser
Babar Awan says rule of law should begin from him
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Adviser to Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan on Tuesday tendered resignation from his post after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a reference against him in the accountability court over Nandipur Power Project scam.
In his resignation to Prime Minister Imran Khan, the PTI leader said that he has resigned from his post to prove the allegations against him are baseless.
Babar Awan stated that the rule of law should begin from him, adding that he is not one of those who stick to their positions.
— Babar Awan (@BabarAwanPK) September 4, 2018
In his tweet he said: “Just reached PM House to tender my resignation from Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Rule of Law begins with me. Thank you, Insafians for standing by me always. I will never let you down.”
— Babar Awan (@BabarAwanPK) September 4, 2018
The resignation comes after the anti-graft watchdog filed a reference against Babar Awan over Nandipur Power Project scam in accountability court.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had constituted a commission comprising of Justice Rehmat Hussain Jafffri to determine the responsibility for delaying causes in Nandipur Project, which conducted the inquiry by examining the record as well as witnesses and submitted its report on April 9, 2012.
According to the commission’s report the officials and officers of Ministry of Law and Justice were held responsible for the delay. But then Ministry of Water and Power had referred the matter to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the light of the report of Judicial Commission.
The Nandipur Power Project was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) December 2017 at a cost of US$ 329millions. After approval, the contract was signed January 2008, between Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and Dong Fang Electric Corporation (DEC), China and two consortiums i.e. COFACE for Euro 68.967million and SINOSURE for US$150.151million were established for the financing of the project.
The Ministry of Water and Power approached Ministry of Law to issue the legal opinion as per schedule of agreement in July 2009 but accused in connivance with each other and with malafide intentions repeatedly refused to issue on flimsy grounds. Furthermore, the ministry of water and power also failed to take any concrete measures to resolve the issue, and the matter remained pended.
However, after the change in guards at Ministry of Law, when Minister Babar Awan was replaced the same legal opinion was issued in November 2011 i.e. after more than two years, this inordinate and malafide delay caused a huge loss to national exchequer by about Rs27 billion approximately.
During the course of an investigation, it has been established that accused persons in connivance with each other failed to exercise their authority and thus caused a loss of more than Rs27million to the national exchequer. Hence committed the offense (s) of corruption and corrupt practice, as defined u/s 9 (a) (vi) and (xii) read with Sr.5 of Schedule Offences of NAO, 1999 as they failed to exercise their authority to save the National interest.
