ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad will indict former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on March 26 in the rental power projects (RPPs) scam case.
During the hearing, the court expressed annoyance on the absence of Pervaiz Ashraf before the bench and ordered him to ensure his presence.
The court will frame charges against him on three RPPs: Reshma Power Generation (Pvt) Limited, Gulf Rental Power Pvt Ltd and Young Gen Power Ltd.
Earlier, the judge had expressed annoyance over the delay in proceedings of the case and inquired about its reasons from the prosecution.
“The delay has been caused due to some legal reasons,” the prosecution had responded.
Meanwhile, Raja’s defence counsel pleaded with the court for permanent exemption of his client’s appearance in the case.
However, Justice Arshad Malik had replied that the matter would be considered after charge-sheet was produced by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The RPPs case is about private power companies that faced allegations of having received more than Rs22 billion mobilisation advance from the government to commission the projects but failed to set up the plants. A few of them had set up the plants, but only after an inordinate delay.
Former PM Ashraf has also been accused of misusing his authority during his tenure as the minister for water and power to get approval from the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet for an increase in the down payment to the rental power companies from 7 to 14 per cent, amounting to about Rs22bn.