ISLAMABAD: The apex court on Thursday finally ordered the closure of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand Dams Fund, which was opened in 2018 amid much fanfare for generating funds to develop mega dams in the country.

As of Oct 4, there were Rs23.6 billion in the account, most of which was the mark-up paid by the federal government. In its order, the Supreme Court said before closing the account, the amount in the account maintained by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will be transferred to the Public Account of the Federation in terms of Article 78(2)(b) of the Constitution.

The directions were issued by a three-judge Supreme Court bench consisting of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan.

Before disposing of the applications and all other connected requests, the Supreme Court also directed that a sub-account in the public account of the federation be created or other appropriate measures be taken to enable the amount to be lent to the “best-rated private scheduled bank or banks” so that mark-up could be earned.

The directions included that when any amount would be required for the construction of these dams, the amount and the mark-up accrued would be utilised.

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The Supreme Court had taken up an application jointly moved by the federal government and the Water and Power Develop­ment Authority (Wapda), which pleaded that the funds be transferred to the official Wapda account with the NBP.

About the actual amount in the account, the SBP in its report informed the court that the total amount (principal and mark-up) was Rs23.67bn as of Oct 4, 2024, of which the total collected amount was Rs11.47bn but the mark-up earned was Rs12.19bn.

Thus the accrued mark-up has exceeded the amount collected, the report said. When the court inquired who had paid the mark-up, the court was told that it was the federal government.

The Wapda counsel contended that the present projected cost of these dams was Rs740bn i.e. Rs Rs480bn for Diamer-Bhasha Dam and Rs260 billion for Mohmand Dam.

In its order, the court said the amount in the account constituted only 3.2 per cent of the money required to build these dams and the government itself has paid a large portion of this amount in the form of mark-up.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2024