Raja Pervez Ashraf acquitted in another rental power plant case

NAB to challenge acquittal after receiving Accountability Court's final order

ISLAMABAD:

An Accountability Court (AC) in Islamabad acquitted former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the Piranghaib rental power reference on Tuesday.

The hearing was presided over by AC-I Judge Muhammad Bashir. Seven other accused, including former finance minister Shaukat Tareen, were also acquitted in the case. The six others acquitted were Ismail Qureshi, Shahid Rafi, Basharat Cheema, Muhammad Saleem Arif, Chaudhry Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Ali Shah.

However, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to appeal against the acquittal, the spokesperson for the anti-graft body stated.

The reference against the 192-megawatt rental power plant, set up in Piranghaib area of ​​Multan, was filed by NAB Rawalpindi in 2014.

The former PM and PPP leader was also acquitted in the Sahiwal rental power case last week by Judge Mohammad Bashir. The verdict was announced on June 25 but was reserved at a previous hearing.

Nine other accused - also including former finance minister Shaukat Tareen and Pakistan Electric Supply Company (Pesco) former chief Basharat Cheema - were also acquitted in the case.

In its short order, the court had noted that NAB could not prove any corruption charges against Ashraf and the other accused and as the country did not suffer any loss, the acquittal pleas were accepted.

In 2009, the last PPP government had awarded contracts to nine RPPs to provide electricity to the country as a stopgap arrangement. These RPPs comprised both local and international firms, including the Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretin of Turkey.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was the federal minister for water and power at the time of the signing of the agreement. Ashraf was later elected as the prime minister in June 2012 after disqualification of his predecessor Yousaf Raza Gillani.

In March 2012, however, the Supreme Court described the RPP contracts as non-transparent and declared them null and void after Faisal Saleh Hayat, who then belonged to the PML-Q and Khawaja Asif of the PML-N moved the court.

In January 2013, the court ordered NAB to proceed with corruption references against those who were at the helm of affairs when the contracts were signed.

The first NAB reference filed in May 2013 did not include Ashraf’s name. NAB filed a reference against the former PM in 2019 after Sahiwal-Multan project manager Rana Amjad became an approver.