Ex-PM Ashraf indicted in power plant case
islamabad — An accountability court on Monday indicted seven people, including former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and former law minister Babar Awan, in the Nandipur Power Project reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Judge Arshad Malik announced the decision at a hearing that was attended by both senior politicians. Along with five other accused, Ashraf of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Awan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) pleaded not guilty.
The court conveyed its decision to commence a trial and issued summons to witnesses for March 19.
The reference against seven politicians and government officials was filed in September last year. The accused are former premier Ashraf, Awan, former law secretaries Muhammad Masood Chishti and Justice (Retd) Riaz Kiyani, former research consultant for the law ministry Shamila Mahmood, exsenior joint secretary of the law Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. — ministry Dr Riaz Mahmood and former secretary of the water and power ministry Shahid Rafi.
In the reference, NAB contended that the project located in Gujranwala had been delayed by two years, one month and 15 days, causing a loss of Rs27.3 billion to the national exchequer. The antigraft body maintained that the project was not completed on time
because the accused failed to issue their legal opinions. It said the Supreme Court had earlier decided constitutional petition which pertained to delays in the Nandipur project and formed a commission under Justice (Retd) Rehmat Hussain Jafri to ascertain reasons for the persistent delay.
The report submitted on April 9, 2012 held the accused responsible and the SC then referred the matter to NAB. The Nandipur Power Project was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on December 27, 2007, at an estimated cost of $329 million.
A contract was then signed on January 28, 2008, between the Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and the Dong Fang Electric Corporation (DEC) from China. Two consortiums were set up to finance the project.
The water and power ministry then sought legal opinion on the project from the law ministry, but the accused repeatedly ignored the request.
The ministry of water and power also failed to take any concrete steps to resolve these issue, and the matter remained pending.
According to NAB, after Awan was replaced as the law minister, the legal opinion was issued on November 2011. The inordinate and malafide delay caused a huge losses of over Rs27 billion to the national exchequer. —