LAHORE: Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf along with eight others was indicted by an accountability court on Tuesday in a National Accountability Bureau reference in a case related to illegal recruitment in the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO).
According to the NAB reference, the former prime minister allegedly employed as many as 437 people without taking merit into consideration. The case was filed in the accountability court by NAB in 2016.
The other eight people indicted in the case are Muhammad Ibrahim, Hashmat Ali Kazmi, Tahir Basharat Cheema, Malik Muhammad Razi Abbas, Saleem Arif, Wazir Ali and Shahid Rafi.
The court has also ordered witnesses to appear before it to record their statements.
Addressing reporters after the hearing, Ashraf rejected all charges filed by NAB.
He also questioned the decision of placing his name on the Exit Control List (ECL) when Nawaz Sharif’s name was not in it.
Along with the GEPCO scam, Ashraf has already been indicted by another accountability court in Islamabad in the rental power case.
Ashraf was implicated in the case when he was serving in the government as minister of water and power. At the time, he oversaw the import of short-term power stations that cost the government millions of dollars but produced little energy. A ship-mounted power unit to produce at least 232 MW was imported from Turkey.
Ashraf has denied all the corruption charges against him.
