Accountability court summons CM Murad in fake accounts case on March 31

The Islamabad Accountability Court has summoned Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and all co-accused in the fake accounts case on March 31.

The provincial chief minister had been accused of approving illegal contracts for the Nooriabad power project and money laundering in a reference filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) earlier in January.

The reference, filed by NAB Rawalpindi in an accountability court in Islamabad, stated that the funds Shah had issued for power projects in Sindh were in violation of rules and that billions of rupees were embezzled in the Nooriabad Power Company and Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company projects.

Earlier, NAB had removed the objections of the accountability court on the reference. The anti-graft body filed a 66-volume record against Murad in court.

Read more: NAB files reference against CM Sindh in fake accounts case

The statements and evidence of witnesses against Murad are also part of the record.

The Nooriabad Power Project was originally envisaged by the Sindh government in 2012 but could not materialise then due to “red-tapism and delays in regulatory approvals”.

The project was finally launched in August 2014 under a public-private partnership at a cost of Rs13 billion in which the Sindh government held 49% shares and a private company owned 51%.

A 95-km-long, 132kV double-circuit transmission line was laid from Nooriabad to Karachi at a cost of Rs1.95 billion.

Shah was adviser to the Sindh chief minister of finance and energy at the time.

It was alleged that the procedure had caused a loss of $16 million to the national exchequer.