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Case hearing begins

Hubco willing to renegotiate with Wapda

MEHMUD AHMED

ISLAMABAD: A special bench of the Supreme Court comprising of all senior judges opened hearings here on Tuesday into various petitions of the Hubco-Wapda against each other with independent power producer's chief counsel saying the company was willing to negotiate a settlement with the Authority.

Abdul Hafeez Pirzada told five judges led by Justice Mohammad Bashir Jehangiri that Hubco would be happy to settle the disputes on tariff and other matters through negotiations because "we know Wapda is our sole client and we have deal with them for the next 30 years".

But he said the authority had made it impossible to continue with discussions as it wanted to reopen settled issues and also was not willing to withdraw some criminal cases lodged against Hubco.

Other four members of the bench are Justice Ijaz Nisar, Justice Abdur Rahman Khan, Justice Riaz A sheikh and Justice Munir A Sheikh. They canceled all other cases listed in the order of the day and made it known that the hearing will run through Friday.

Abdul Hafeez Pirzada is leading a team of several prominent lawyers from his chambers as well as those of the Hubco's own in Pakistan and from abroad while Wapda is represented by Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, Umar Atta Bandial and Uzair Karamat Bhandari.

Pirzada said his clients were still willing to negotiate but they don't let the cases go and also they do not proceed with those as they do not have witnesses. " Their main witnesses, Shahid Hassan Khan and Salman Farouki are not available here as they left the country with the permission of Nawaz Sharif government," he said.

The counsel recited a chronology of the events from the formation of Hubco to the commencement of power production and then the intervention of Ehtesab Cell of Saifur Rahman Khan seeking revision of tariff agreement. He said the authority was withholding payments for the electricity purchased by it with the result the IPP had been able to disburse dividends to the share-holders.

Pirzada said Hubco was willing to sit with WAPDA and be flexible to reach a settlement when Justice Munir A Sheikh asked him to what extent they could accommodate the latter. Pirzada said: "We will bend backwards to accommodate them".

At this juncture, Wapda's counsel, Umar Atta Bandial rose to explain that his clients had been negotiating with the company until they started putting pre-conditions. They wanted that the case instituted by the Ehtesab Cell should be withdrawn which was not acceptable to the Authority.

At this stage Justice Jehangiri asked Fakhruddin G Ebrahim at what stage the negotiations between the IPP and the Authority were to which he said he had no personal knowledge of the discussions but he had been told by the Wapda chairman that there was no scope for further talks, hence he was appearing before "my lords in compliance with those instructions".

Justice Jehangiri, however, advised the parties to re-open their contacts and if need be seek the assistant of the Attorney General.

Hafeez Pirzada is arguing Hubco's appeal against the injunction issued by the Sindh High Court restraining from seeking international arbitration on its dispute with Wapda and maintained that his client had moved within the laws of Pakistan. He said that when a sizable element on a body is foreign, it is desirable to have arbitration by an independent structure. He said after the Hubco had moved the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to set up an arbitration council, the Wapda did not raise any objection. On the contrary it nominated Dr Kamal Hussain, former Foreign Minister of Bangla Desh on the international Tribunal while Hubco had nominated a jurist from Australia and the ICC had appointed an eminent Irish lawyer as its Chairman.

Pirzada was still arguing the case when the Court rose for the day.