ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: The Supreme Court issued on Friday a show cause notice to National Accountability Bureau Chairman Admiral (retd) Faseeh Bokhari seeking an explanation why he should not be arraigned under contempt charges for not implementing its verdict against the owners of rental power plants (RPPs).

“We may note that the NAB chairman shall be responsible if the officers responsible for delaying the implementation of this court’s judgment go out of country or take any other evasive measures,” said Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who heads a three-judge bench hearing the RPP implementation case.

The NAB chief is required to submit his reply to the notice in a week and the case will be taken up on Sept 25.

On March 30, the court had rescinded the contracts signed between the government and RPPs after declaring these non-transparent and ordered the NAB chairman to proceed with corruption references against those who were at the helm of affairs when the deals were signed between 2006 and 2008 to plug the energy shortfall through RPPs as a stop gap arrangement.

Those against whom the court had ordered the NAB to take action include Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, who was then water and power minister; another former water and power minister Liaquat Ali Khan Jatoi, former finance minister Shaukat Tareen, three former secretaries of water and power ministry, an ex-finance secretary and two ex-Nepra chairmen Khalid Saeed and Lt Gen (retd) Saeeduz Zafar.

A number of serving chief executive offers as well as their predecessors also figure in the list.

On Friday, the court said in its order: “The March 30 verdict speaks itself about the misappropriation made by the concerned authorities, but despite specific directions for implementing the judgment in letter and spirit, the NAB authorities intentionally avoided to implement the same which is a clear violation of directions of this court.

“Thus, prima facie, they have committed contempt of court as envisaged under Article 204 of the Constitution, read with Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.”

The NAB’s Additional Deputy Prosecutor General, Fauzi Kazmi, informed the court that earlier Mohammad Rafi, Amir Shahid and Ashgar Khan were investigating the case. Kamran Faisal at present is investigating officer. Raza Khan and Zahir Shah are supervising the investigation while NAB Director General Col Shahzad Anwar Bhatti heads the investigation team.

The court issued show cause notices to these officers and the NAB chairman under contempt charges for not implementing its judgment.