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       PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has requested the federal government to keep its two hydroelectric projects in Madyan and Gabral Kamal areas in the draft Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP 2025-35), calling the exclusion of these projects “unfair” and “discriminatory.”

       Special assistant to the chief minister on energy and power Tariq Saddozai highlighted the matter in a letter to federal minister for energy Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari.

       The IGCEP is a 10-year roadmap for Pakistan’s power sector, which is updated annually to take into account changing trends in generation technologies, government plans and project priorities.

       In the letter, Mr Saddozai noted that both Madyan and Kalam Gabral projects were “committed” ones in the IGCEP 2020-30 and 2022-31, meeting the criteria laid by the Council of Common Interest, including the PC-I’s approval from the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) and secured financing from the World Bank.

       Complains in letter that criteria for ‘committed projects in draft IGCEP unilaterally altered’

       He, however, added that to the surprise of the provincial government, the criteria for the committed projects in the draft IGCEP 2025-35 had been unilaterally altered by the federal government, resulting in exclusion of province’s projects.

       “As per the National Electricity Plan, all projects declared committed under the approval of the IGCEP 2021 shall be included as committed projects in subsequent iterations of IGCEP and therefore, the exclusion of said projects is in contravention of the National Electricity Plan approved by the federal government pursuant to the Nepra Act, 1997,” he said.

       The aide to the CM pointed out that the revised criteria introduced by the system operator were contrary to the previous prescribed approval criteria.

       “The system operator cannot revise the criteria for committed projects during the currency of the current National Electricity Plan and also retrospective application of such revised criteria is also contrary to the law as it amounts to changing the goalpost during the game,” he said in the letter.

       Mr Saddozai said that once the project was recognised and declared a committed project, it could not be re-evaluated afresh through subsequent iterations, and the revised criteria would be applicable to new projects.

       He added that even delays in committed projects didn’t justify exclusion, and timelines for the commercial operations dates were to be adjusted.

       The CM’s special assistant said that those projects had considerable physical and financial progress, while the provincial government had secured generation licences from Nepra, creating a vested right.

       “KP projects, despite achieving the status of the ‘committed projects,’ have been subjected to the least-cost evaluation under the draft IGCEP 2025-35, which is contrary to the constitutional, statutory and regulatory framework,” he noted.

       Mr Saddozai pointed out that federal public sector projects, including Mohmand Dam, Dasu, Tarbela Extension-5, continued to remain as committed in the draft IGCEP.

       “In stark contrast, KP committed projects, Madyan and Gabral Kalam, have been excluded. This demonstrated discriminatory approach of the system operator, which should accord equal treatment to the federal and provincial projects developed through public funds,” he said.

       In the letter, the aide to the CM said that the provincial government had secured concessional lending from the World Bank through the Economic Affairs Division through multilateral lending framework, which was signed and guaranteed by the federal government in respect of loans extended by the WB to the province.

       He said that the exclusion of KP projects would undermine the window of multilateral lending and expose the government of Pakistan to cancellation of loans, recovery of financing charges, winding up costs, breakage costs and commitment fees.

       It also prevents future lending to development projects — power projects in particular — in KP. “This will give a highly negative signal to current potential investors in KP and Pakistan, according to him.

       Mr Saddozai demanded of the federal government to retain both projects in the draft IGCEP and disallow the system operator from altering criteria for project inclusion in the IGCEP in violation of the National Electricity Plan.

       He also argued that altering and modifying of the criteria for project inclusion in IGCEP should not be allowed unless expression permission of the CCI and should also not be allowed to undermine approvals, accorded by the federal government through ECNEC as well as the EAD to uphold the integrity of the national planning process.

       When contacted, the CM’s special assistant insisted that after both projects had seen significant progress, their removal from IGCEP was very detrimental for the province.

       “We took up the issue with the federal government and other relevant agencies but didn’t receive a sympathetic audience,” he said.

       Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2025