ISLAMABAD, May 21: Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has tendered an unconditional apology for writing a letter to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

On March 28, the Supreme Court had issued a contempt notice to Mr Ashraf under article 204 of the constitution, read with section 3 and 17 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003, for writing the letter in which he had requested the chief justice to transfer investigation into the Rs22 billion rental power projects (RPP) scam from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to a commission headed by Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Shoaib Suddle.

The court had held that the former premier had attempted to “interfere and influence” the Supreme Court seized with the RPP implementation case involving elements of corruption and corrupt practices.

“Raja Ashraf has tendered unconditional apology and thrown himself at the mercy of the Supreme Court,” Advocate Wasim Sajjad, representing the former prime minister, said while talking to Dawn on Tuesday. “My client has also sought the court’s permission to withdraw the letter he had written in the first week of March.”

Stating the reason for writing the letter, Mr Ashraf recalled that both the press and the public had expressed mistrust in NAB investigations and expressed apprehensions that the prime minister would influence the probe — an allegation that could adversely affect him during the coming elections.

Therefore, it was necessary to transfer the investigation from NAB to a one-man commission under Dr Suddle, the letter said.

AUDIT OF PWP PROJECTS: In another case concerning the former prime minister, a three-judge SC bench headed by the chief justice ordered the Auditor General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) to conduct a special audit of all development schemes initiated by former premier Raja Ashraf in 2012-13 under the People’s Welfare Programme (PWP-II).

The bench had taken notice of doling out of billions of rupees by Raja Ashraf for development schemes in different constituencies under the PWP-II. A total of Rs42.486 billion was released for the purpose on the instructions of the former prime minister — Rs25bn more than his annual discretionary fund.

On Tuesday, the court issued a notice to former finance secretary Abdul Khaliq after Deputy Accountant General Tahir Mehmood alleged that the finance secretary and a deputy secretary finance had pressurised AGPR officials in March for the release of the funds when the five-year tenure of the PPP government was about to expire and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had imposed a ban on transfer of development funds.

“We clearly wrote to the finance ministry that it is a pre-poll rigging and clear violation of relevant rules after the ECP ban and my predecessor went on a 40-day leave after he received the PM’s special directives to release the funds,” Mr Mehmood said, adding that he had also been pressurised to release funds for the PWP-II. He requested the court to order a special audit to gauge transparency in utilisation of development funds.

The chief justice observed that there had been a credibility issue in the country because it was difficult to find out any agency which could be assigned the task of investigating the procedure adopted to release development funds and to determine how the money was spent.

Mr Mehmood said his office had requested Pak PWD, SNGPL, SSGC, Pepco, Mepco and Wapda to provide details of the money released to them and to what extent it had been spent, but so far there had been no response from them.