The Accountability Court hearing the multibillion rupees fake bank accounts case was informed on Monday by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that another accused of Roshan Sindh project scam has expressed his desire to become an approver against other accused.

The NAB officials told Accountability Court Judge Azam Khan that another accused Abdul Sattar, former Xen, has expressed desire to become an approver after accused Abdul Shakoor, former director general (DG) Rural Development Department, became an approver in the same case.

The investigation officer (IO) of the case told the court that Abdul Sattar has filed an application to become an approver. The application has been submitted before the chairman NAB for final approval, he further said. The IO requested the court to grant only two days physical of the accused to conduct further investigation from him. The court approved NAB's request and extended the physical remand for another two days. The court ordered the NAB to produce the accused before it on November 13.

Earlier, six accused of Roshan Sindh project have shown willingness to deposit Rs 75 million under plea bargain. The accused including Aslam Pervez, Abdur Rasheed Channa, Zafer Enterprises, Aziz Tehseen, Baleedo and Abid Arai have expressed willing for plea bargain. According to details, the Sindh government on September 22, 2014 approved the first project of Roshan Sindh to install 20,000 solar lights by June 2016 in major municipal and town committees across the province at a cost of Rs 4 billion.

Reportedly, solar streetlights were installed on specific roads of certain cities, while the most of the areas were ignored. Originally, 1,000 solar lights were to be installed in districts Malir and West Karachi, 4,000 in Hyderabad division, 3,500 each in Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad, 4,000 in Sukkur and as many in Larkana. This project also turned out to be the costliest of them all, with each of the installed solar bulb costing Rs 0.2 million.

The second project, estimated at Rs 3 billion, was meant to install solar lights in rural areas. This project was approved on October 26, 2016 and was supposed to be completed by June 2018. The third project, with a price tag of Rs 1.5 billion, was advertised as the second phase of the earlier scheme to install solar lights in rural areas. Around Rs 750 million have been spent on the project from the beginning of the current year that will be completed by 2020.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019