ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: Much to the relief of the federal government, the Supreme Court authorised on Friday the newly appointed Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, to allow temporary dry docking of a Turkish ship, Kaya Bey, in the UAE.

The 232MW ship-mounted rental power plant --- Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretin AS Turkey --- has been held up off Pakistani shores since April last year.

“Let the NAB chairman take necessary steps for himself, keeping in view the national interest,” said an order dictated by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry while heading a three-judge bench.

The directive was issued on an application moved by Attorney General Muneer A. Malik who drew the court’s attention towards an Oct 16 order of the World Bank-affiliated International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) which had allowed temporary release of the Turkish vessel to Dubai. He explained that flag registration and insurance of the vessel would expire if it did not reach the UAE by Nov 1.

An informed source told Dawn that Pakistan might also have to pay a heavy penalty if the ship was not allowed to sail for the UAE for inspection.

While settling a repayment dispute for recovery of $120 million from the Turkish firm, the Supreme Court had on Nov 26 last year said that if the ship left the Pakistani territory without paying the outstanding amount the NAB chairman would be held responsible.

Anchored at the Port Qasim, the Karkey power plant was part of an initiative approved by the government to generate 1,206MW electricity through rental power projects as a stopgap arrangement to cope with the crippling loadshedding.

But on March 30 last year, the Supreme Court had held the power policy as well as RPP contracts non-transparent and ordered the NAB chairman to proceed with corruption references against those who were at the helm of affairs when the contracts were signed between 2006 and 2008.

On Friday, the attorney general informed the court that NAB Prosecutor General K.K. Agha had written a letter to the water and power ministry and said the bureau would not release the power ship unless the ministry provided a bank guarantee of $120 million to it.

“In all respect the application for provisional measures has been rejected by the NAB and unless the Supreme Court removes the restraining order, the bureau will not remove the caution it issued against the Turkish ship,” the AG explained. He emphasised that under the ICSID decision the ship had to reach Dubai by Nov 1 because there was no such facility of inspection available in Pakistan.

The bank accounts of the Turkish firm worth $128 million already stood frozen for which it had gone for international arbitration against Pakistan by invoking the jurisdiction of the ICSID, he added.

The court specifically mentioned that there was no restraining order against the ship and, therefore, the application filed by the AG was disposed of. “Let the NAB chairman take necessary steps keeping in view the national interest,” it said.