RPPs scam: Accountability Court to indict Pervaiz Ashraf on Feb 8

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court will indict former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and other accused in the rental power plants (RPPs) scam on February 8.

The accountability court judge Arshad Malik resumed the hearing on Monday and subsequently ordered all accused to appear before the court on the next hearing. The court will approve charge sheet against the accused including Pervaiz Ashraf on three RPPs including Reshma Power Generation (Pvt) Limited, Gulf Rental Power Pvt Ltd and Young Gen Power Ltd.

During the hearing, Judge Arshad Malik expressed annoyance over delay in proceedings of the case and inquired about its reasons from the prosecution. The prosecution replied the delay has been caused due to some legal reasons.

Pervaiz Ashraf’s defence pleaded with the court for permanent exemption of his client’s appearance in the case. To this, Justice Arshad Malik remarked that the matter would be considered after charge sheet was produced by the NAB.

The RPPs case is about private power companies that faced allegations of having received more than Rs22 billion 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.

Pervaiz Ashraf has also been accused for 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.

On April 13, 2009, Pervaiz Ashraf sent a summary to the ECC, contained allegedly misleading facts about not meeting the terms and conditions of the 7 percent advance and advised them to double it.