ISLAMABAD: The accountability court of Islamabad on Monday indicted former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) senior vice president Dr Babar Awan and others in the Nandipur corruption reference.

The court decided to ask first prosecution witness Mohammad Naeem to testify on March 19 when it would resume proceeding in the reference.

Accountability judge Mohammad Arshad Malik framed charges against the accused. The charges include “causing delay in according approval to the project”, which caused losses worth billions of rupees to the exchequer.

All the accused in the case have pleaded ‘not guilty’.

Accountability court asks first prosecution witness to testify on March 19

Subsequently, the judge asked the prosecution to produce evidence to substantiate the charges.

On the request of the prosecution, the court summoned the first prosecution witness on March 19. The formal trial of the accused will start with effect from the said date.

Dr Awan, addressing the judge, said that he was facing “hostile media trial” for the last seven years in connection with the Nandipur project. He requested the court to summon the witness from very next day to timely conclude this case.

The prosecution was of the view that it required some time to produce witnesses and for preparation of the case.

The judge remarked that he would try to conclude the trial as soon as possible.

On Sept 5 last year, the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Rawalpindi office had filed a reference against seven politicians and officials contending that the Nandipur project had faced a delay of two years, one month and 15 days due to their actions.

The Nandipur project was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee on Dec 27, 2007, at an estimated cost of $329 million. Following the approval, a contract was signed on Jan 28, 2008, between the Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and Dong Fang Electric Corporation, China, and two consortiums — Coface for 68.967 million euros and Sinosure for $150.151m — were set up for financing the project.

The water and power ministry sought legal opinion on the project from the law ministry in accordance with the schedule of the agreement in July 2009, but the accused repeatedly refused to provide it. The ministry of water and power also failed to take any concrete steps to resolve the issue and the matter remained pending.

According to NAB, the legal opinion was issued in November 2011 after Dr Awan was replaced as the law minister. During the course of investigation, NAB says it has established that the accused committed the offence(s) of corruption and corrupt practice.

Recently, the Auditor General of Pakistan detected over Rs80 billion irregularities in the Nandipur project, which included over Rs17bn in losses incurred due to the alleged delay caused by the law ministry.

Dr Awan had filed an application seeking acquittal in this case in October, but withdrew the same on March 8 when the court was scheduled to announce a decision on his application.

Former law secretaries retired Justice Riaz Kiani and Masood Chishti, former secretary of water and power Shahid Rafi and some officials of the ministries of law and water and power are among the accused.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2019