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Hubco-Wapda case regular hearing from 15th

MEHMUD AHMED

ISLAMABAD: The special five-member bench of the Supreme Court has ordered the clubbing of the all the pending petitions filed by Hubco and the Wapda against each other and a regular daily hearing by it from Feb 15.

The bench issued the order after hearing Fakhruddin G Ebrahim and Abdul Hafeez Pirzada appearing for the two parties before the special bench here on Tuesday.

The judges had expressed their surprise that the counsel had raised miscellaneous matters instead of seeking an adjudication of the main issue of tariff and validity of the move for an international arbitration.

After Fakhruddin G Ebrahim had raised his plea that the Entergy (Pak) Limited, which was a 4.4 percent share holder of Hubco, be impleaded as a party to the litigation and asked to desist from seeking international arbitration proceedings before a tribunal in London.

Abdul Hafeez Pirzada reiterated his requests for directions to the Wapda for payment of arrears which run into billions of rupees.

Justice Munir A Sheikh, who had been on some earlier benches that heard various petitions relating to the current dispute, expressed his surprise that parties were raising all other questions that were not directly connected with the appeal against the Sindh High Court (SHC) orders of restraint against Hubco from moving the International Chambers of Commerce for arbitration.

The current hearing which has now attracted a number of miscellaneous requests from the parties seeking different reliefs had come up before the Supreme Court in the form of an appeal for vacation of the same SHC order restraining HUBCO from encashing the sovereign guarantee and also moving for arbitration by an international tribunal.

Fakhruddin G Ebrahim insisted that his request for including the Entergy Ltd in the proceedings was reasonable and in conformity with the decision of the Sindh High Court.

Hubco counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, whose latest several volume thick petition seeking directions to Wapda for payment of pending invoices on sale of electricity had topped the list and caused the constitution of the bench, said his client was suffering losses of billions of rupees which were not being paid by the authority.

The bench decided against taking up these petitions separately and with the consent of the parties decided to club the case and hold regular hearings on day-to-day basis from middle of this month.

The judges said they would take up the original petition first which was an appeal against the restraint order against Hubco issued by the Sindh High Court.

Meanwhile, the the International Tribunal was reported to have issued terms of reference for the arbitration at the request of the Entergy and forwarded those to Wapda for starting the arbitration proceedings.

Wapda was represented by Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, Umar Atta Bandial and Uzair Karamat Bhandari, while Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Makhdoom Ali Khan, Afzal Siddiqui and Rashid Haneef appeared for the independent power company.