ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and other accused have been summoned by an accountability court on April 29 to indict them in a corruption reference pertaining to three rental power projects (RPPs).
During the course of hearing, AC Judge Arshad Malik expressed displeasure over absence of the accused, including Pervaiz Ashraf, Abdul Majid and Shaid Rafi. The accused’s counsel submitted a request with the court seeking one-day exemption from hearing which was accepted by the judge. The court directed the accused to ensure their presence on the next date of hearing and adjourned the case.
It may be mentioned here that the two accused including NA Zubairi and Ghulam Mustafa remained present during the proceeding.
The court will frame charges against accused in three RPPs – Reshma Power Generation (Pvt) Limited, Gulf Rental Power Pvt Ltd and Young Gen Power Ltd.
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 prime minister 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 Rs22 billion.