The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday failed to submit its reply before the Accountability Court regarding acquittal pleas filed by former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and others in Karkey Rental Power Plant (RPP) case under the NAB Amendment Ordinance, 2019.
The Accountability Court judge, Azam Khan, while hearing the case against former prime minister Pervaiz Ashraf and others directed the NAB to submit its reply on acquittal applications filed by various accused under the NAB Amendment Ordinance, 2019, before it till the next hearing to be held on March 12.
To get the benefit from the amendments in the NAB law, Ashraf and others have filed their acquittal plea in the Accountability Court in the RPP reference.
The court during the pervious hearing had sought reply from the NAB regarding the acquittal pleas of the accused but the bureau failed to submit its reply.
The NAB prosecutor, Usman Masood, and the defence counsel, Arshad Tabraiz, appeared before the court.
The defence counsel for Karkey rental power project employees adopted a stance that an agreement had been reached with the government that no action would be taken against the employees of the rental power project. At this, the court directed the defense counsel to file plea in writing.
The PPP leader, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, is accused of misusing his authority during his tenure as federal minister for water and power to get approval from the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for an increase in the down payment to the rental power companies from seven to 14 percent, amounting to about Rs 22 billion.
The bureau is investigating all 12 RPPs and has filed references in cases including Turkish ship-mounted power plant (Karkey), Piran Ghaib Power Plant (Multan), Sahiwal Power Plant, Guddu Power Plant, Naudero-I Power Plant, Naudero-II Power Plant, Reshma Power Generation (Raiwind), Young Gen Power (Ltd) Bhikki, Gulf Rental Power (Pvt) Ltd, and 150MW Sharaqpur RPP.
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