Rental power plants: Supreme Court seeks documents pertaining to verdict implementation

Supreme Court on Tuesday sought from National Accountability Bureau (NAB) all documents relating to the implementation of Rental Power Plants (RPPs) verdict. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justices Jawwad S Khawaja and Khilji Arif Hussain heard the sixth and seventh progress reports of the case.
Chief Justice Chaudhry remarked the court had rescinded all RPP contracts by declaring them illegal and non-transparent on March 30 and directed the NAB to proceed against all those who caused losses of billions of rupees to the national kitty. "Why has not the NAB taken any action against the then Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf who,during the proceedings, had admitted that four RPPs were unsolicited?" the Chief Justice asked. Prosecutor General NAB K K Agha informed the bench that under the provisions of National Accountability Ordinance if anyone who voluntarily returned money he would not be prosecuted.
The Chief Justice Iftikhar observed that the objective of criminal action was to prevent crime, adding that "law will take its course because nobody is above the law." Justice Jawwad S Khawaja said that the recovery of $10 million in the instant matter was possible due to court orders and added that the court was not an investigating agency but an assessor of the progress of the case.
Addressing the Prosecutor General, the Chief Justice said: "You are under notice now - the court will start hearing the matter on a case to case basis after receiving inquiry files from you - we will recover money from Karkey and Walter, so bring the files tomorrow". Prosecutor General sought time to provide those files to the court and prayed to grant exemption to the Chairman NAB from appearing before the court. The Chief Justice responded that the head of the anti-graft body would appear in the court when required. Later, the hearing of case was adjourned till October 1.