LAHORE: Accountability Court on Monday returned a reference for placing it before a court of competent jurisdiction that was filed against employees of the Nandipur Power Plant, Gujranwala, for alleged corruption in sale of furnace oil.

The court returned the reference to chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following amendments in the law, and observed that the value of the offence in the reference was less than Rs500 million.

The accused persons involved in the reference include Muhammad Irfan, Umar Din, Usman Anwar, Muhammad Azam, Imran Aslam and Umar Farooq caused a loss of Rs220 million to the national exchequer. The majority of the accused persons were employees of lower cadre including drivers and clerks.

They filed applications challenging the jurisdiction of the Accountability Court invoking the amendment in section 5 of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

The NAB alleged that the accused persons were instrumental in reaching deals between the owners of oil tankers and some office bearers of the Wapda Employees Union. It said the furnace oil had been stolen from as many as 145 tankers during 2013.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022