Accountability court returns Rs220m corruption reference

Directs NAB to take up matter with relevant forum for further action

LAHORE:

An accountability court on Monday returned a Rs220 million reference about stolen furnace oil from Nandipur Power Project to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over lack of jurisdiction.

The court directed the bureau to take up the matter with the relevant forum for further action. The court also granted bail to the accused and ordered them for submitting surety bonds for the purpose.

The court ruled that the matter did not fall under its jurisdiction as per the amended National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 2022.

Accountability Court Judge Ali Zulqarnain passed the orders while deciding applications, filed by several accused challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter.

The accused, Muhammad Irfan, Umar Din, Usman Nawaz, Muhammad Azam, Mehboob, Muhammad Shafi, Sanaullah, Muhammad Irshad, Muhammad Ashraf, Aurangzaib and Imran Aslam had filed applications under the amended NAO.

The accused, through their applications, had submitted that the accountability court was not empowered to hear any reference involving an amount below Rs 500 million, under the amended law. They submitted that the reference amount was below Rs 500 million and it did not fall under the jurisdiction of the court.

The NAB had filed the reference against 34 accused, including Umar Farooq, Rana Mehtab, Muhammad Shabbir and others. The bureau alleged that the accused had stolen the furnace oil of 145 tankers from Nandipur Power Project and caused loss to the exchequer.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2022.