LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday released former chairman and former chief executive officer of Punjab Saaf Pani Company - Raja Qamarul Islam and Waseem Ajmal - besides four others on bail in the Saaf Pani scam.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan allowed the bail to the suspects subject to furnishing of surety bonds.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) alleged that Qamarul Islam, also ex-MPA, was involved in awarding contracts of 84 water filtration plants at higher prices. It said the suspect got the contracts of 102 plants approved from the company’s board of directors and committed forgery in the documents.

The bureau accused Ajmal of violating procurement rules and permitting installation of the water plants in Dunyapur tehsil beyond the scope of the project.

On the other side, the defence counsel argued that the case against Islam and others was politically motivated and amounted to political victimisation.

He said the NAB arrested Islam one day after he was awarded ticket by PML-N for the general election 2018 against Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, disgruntled leader of the party, from NA-59, Rawalpindi. He said the arrest of a candidate also put a question mark on the fairness of the election.

The counsel said Mr Islam being chairman of the Saaf Pani Company had no powers to examine its record. He said Islam being a politician was not aware of the procurement rules.

About Mr Ajmal, the counsel said the company had 26 surplus water filtration plants which were to be installed somewhere. He said the NAB neither had complete information about the project nor it received any complaint against it.

The counsel said all the suspects had no power or role in decision making of the company. All the decisions had been made independently by the company’s board of directors, he added.

He said keeping the petitioners behind the bars would serve no purpose as the NAB had already completed its investigation and there was no case of recovery.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2019