ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Monday announced that it will indict former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf and other accused in the rental power project case on February 8.
While hearing a case on the same, Judge Arshad Malik, who had issued the summons for all the accused to appear during the hearing and deemed their attendance mandatory, said that “the immunity application will only be looked into after the indictment”.
The accused appeared before the court in a reference against three rental power projects, which includes Gulf Rental Power Plant, Reshma Power Generation Limited and Young Gen Power Limited.
“Why was there no progress in the case despite it being under trial for so long,” the judge asked and was told that “some legal processes took more time than others and proved to be hindrances in the trial”.
Ashraf is accused of misusing authority during his tenure as the minister for water and power to obtain approval from the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and the cabinet for an increase in the down payment to the rental power companies from seven per cent to 14 per cent, amounting to about Rs22 billion.
