ISLAMABAD: It appears that the opinion of the prosecution wing of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has rescued former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in an Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) reference, according to insiders.

The prosecution wing of the bureau is said to comprise those legal hawks who were appointed by Mr Gilani when he served as prime minister from 2008 to 2012.

Two separate references have been filed in the Rs82 billion Ogra scam — one related to the appointment of former Ogra chairman Tauqeer Sadiq in 2009 and the other regarding alleged irregularities and corruption in the oil and gas departments during the tenure of Mr Sadiq as chairman.

In the draft corruption reference, Mr Gilani’s name has been removed and it is expected he will be declared innocent in the second one as well.

A senior NAB official told Dawn the draft reference of NAB, Rawalpindi region, carried the name of Mr Gilani, but the bureau headquarters took a long time to review the document and even defied court orders by not filing the reference by the deadline. And ultimately it cleared the former prime minister.

“Finally, it was decided that Mr Gilani’s name should be removed from the reference because of ‘inadequate’ evidence,” the official said.

Several attempts were made to contact NAB Prosecutor General K.K. Agha, but he was not available.

Hafiz Mohammad Irfan, NAB’s Public Relations Officer, said he was not aware about developments in the case. However, he added: “We have finalised the reference and hopefully it will be filed in an accountability [court] next week after the chairman’s approval.”

Defying summons: It is astonishing how Mr Gilani, who defied five NAB summons, suddenly became innocent in the eyes of the country’s premier anti-white collar crime agency.

At one stage when Mr Gilani refused to reply to NAB’s notices, the bureau’s spokesman Ramzan Sajid told Dawn that the ex-prime minister could be arrested as someone who defied three notices of the bureau could be sent behind bars under Section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance.

Section 31-A says: “Whoever absconds in order to avoid being served with any process issued by any court or any other authority or officer under this ordinance or in any manner prevents, avoids or evades the service on himself of such process or conceals himself to screen himself from the proceedings or punishment under this ordinance shall be guilty of an offence [under this ordinance] punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three years notwithstanding the provisions of Section 87 and 88 of [the code], or any other law for the time being in force.”

Inside sources said although the former premier’s name had been removed from the draft reference, top NAB officials wonder how to justify the action.

Yousuf Raza Gilani who was also charged by the NAB with illegally appointing former Ogra chairman Tauqeer Sadiq in 2009.

However, Mr Gilani was of the view that since he took this decision as prime minister, it could not be challenged while he was in office.

NAB has already missed three deadlines given by the Supreme Court and an accountability court for filing the reference. The accountability court in Islamabad has again warned the bureau to submit the reference by Jan 17.

Earlier NAB had informed the Supreme Court that the Ogra scam involved a staggering amount of Rs82 billion. However, it has now become quite difficult for the bureau to prove this.

“That is one of the reasons behind the delay in filing the reference,” a source said.

NAB started probing the Ogra scam on the directives of the apex court in Nov 2011.