AC indicts Pervaiz Ashraf, seven others

LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday indicted eight accused, including former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) illegal appointments case.

Accountability Court-V Judge Syed Najamul Hassan Bukhari conducted the trial proceedings against the former premier and others. At the outset of hearing, Raja Pervaiz Asharf and other accused appeared before the court on being summoned.

Advocate Iftikhar Shahid, on behalf of Pervaiz Ashraf, requested the court to issue directions for provision of clear copies of reference as the copies provided by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were not readable. He questioned how the reference proceedings could be moved ahead in the absence of clear copies.

The NAB's counsel submitted that clear copies of reference were provided to parties in compliance of court orders about one month ago. He requested the court to indict the accused.  However, the court adjourned the matter for a short time and asked the NAB officials to provide clear copies of the reference. 

Later, after a break of two hours, the court took up the case again and indicted all the accused. But, all accused denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. They contended to contest the charges. The court adjourned the matter till October 7 and summoned four prosecution witnesses for recording their statements. 

It is pertinent to mention here that the NAB filed the reference against Pervaiz Ashraf, ex-MD Pepco Tahir Basharat Cheema, ex-CEO Gepco Muhammad Ibrahim Majoka, Ex-HR and Admin Director Gepco Hashmat Ali Kazmi, Muhammad Razi Abbas, Saleem Arif, Wazir Ali and Shahid Rafi in 2016. It was alleged that the accused disregarded, disobeyed and deviated from the recruitment rules and made 437 illegal appointments in Gepco.