The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Monday recommended legal action against officials in the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI), the Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab and engineering firms in a report submitted to the Supreme Court.

A two-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar was hearing a suo motu case against irregularities and misappropriation of funds at the PKLI. The chief justice had in August last year taken notice of the appointment of former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif and others in the PKLI board of governors.

The court's commission had then told the court that misappropriation of funds and misuse of power had been found at the institute. The project, which was to be completed by December 2017, was still in progress. The originally approved cost of the project, Rs12.7bn, had risen to over Rs53bn with the passage of time, he had said.

The chief justice had also questioned the former CM's legal authority to give funds to private companies, and the appointment of a junior officer as IDAP CEO with an exponential increase in his salary.

The ACE's preliminary report today stated that any project valued at over Rs10 billion needs the approval of Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), but this was not done in the case of PKLI. It added that a total of Rs22bn had been spent on the construction of PKLI so far.

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"The project was given more funds than regular projects and it was intended to end by 2017. However, the project is still under construction because of the [negligence of] relevant authorities authorities," the report explained, pointing out that the delay in the completion of the project is causing losses of millions of rupees everyday.

The report said that the hospital was to house 1,050 beds. However, the current building only holds 448 beds. Additionally, there have been discrepancies in the the purchase of IT equipment, the report detailed.

It also identified Dr Saeed Akhtar as the man behind the hiring of substandard staff for the hospital, as well as the hiring of foreign nurses. It claimed that PKLI management was involved in the issuance of fake medical reports as well.

The report suggested a case be registered against the PKLI contractor, and that appropriate legal action be taken against IDAP officials and consultant companies National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) and Moyang.

In a previous hearing of the case, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, who is representing the previous management of the institute, objected to the fairness of this report. He contended the ACE report was mainly based on a forensic audit report that itself carried grave factual mistakes.

He also requested the bench to stop the ACE from registration of an FIR till the submission of a reply to the report. “The FIR carries a big stigma,” he had said.

At the time, the bench did not pass any restraining order to this effect, but had directed the ACE not to cause any illegal arrest in the case.