Islamabad (Staff Report/Agencies): An accountability court on Monday indicted former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Babar Awan and others in Nandipur corruption reference.
Accountability judge Mohammad Arshad Malik framed the charges of causing delay in according approval to the project, which caused losses worth Rs 27 billion to the national kitty.
All the seven accused including former secretary law Masood Chishti, Riaz Kiyani, Dr Riaz Mehmood and former research consultant Shumaila Mehmood also pleaded not guilty to the charges following which the court decided to initiate a trial.
Babar Awan withdrew a petition seeking his acquittal in the Nandipur reference on Friday, citing the suggestion by his mother.
“I went to meet my mother in the morning. She said the law is supreme and we should follow it. I am listening to her because it’s Women’s Day,” he said.
The accountability court on Tuesday announced that former prime minister Raja
On September 4, The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed corruption reference against former minister for law and justice Babar Awan and former minister for water and power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf regarding a delay in Nandipur Project.
The corruption references were filed after a commission, constituted at the behest of the Supreme Court, held officers of the Ministry of Law and Justice responsible for the delay.
In 2008, the Ministry of Water and Power approached the Ministry of Law to issue a legal opinion but accused in connivance with each other and with malafide intentions, the latter repeatedly refused to issue on flimsy grounds.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Water and Power also failed to take any concrete measures to resolve the issue and the matter remained pending.
The legal opinion was issued in November 2011; the delay caused a loss of 27 billion rupees.
The Nandipur Power Project was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) in December 2007 at a cost of 329 million dollars. After approval, the contract was signed in January 2008, between Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and Dong Fang Electric Corporation (DEC), China and two consortiums — COFACE for 68.967 million euros and SINOSURE for 150.151 million dollars.