The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi on Monday filed a reference against PPP Senator Rubina Khalid, who was the senior/ex-chief executive of M/s Cosmos Production Pvt Ltd, according to a press release issued by the bureau.

Investigation officer Afshan Basharat filed the reference before an accountability court judge in Islamabad today.

The reference was also filed against Mazhur-u-Islam the former executive director of Lok Virsa, Islamabad and Dr Tabinda Zafar, who is the current chief executive director of Cosmos Production Prvt Ltd in Self Generated (SGF) of Lok Virsa.

According to the bureau, the evidence that was collected during the investigation had established that the accused had committed the "offence of corruption and corrupt practices as defined under Section 9 (a), (VI) and (XII) punishable u/s 10 of [National Accountability Ordinance (NAO)] 1999."

NAB said that during the investigation, it was established that Mazhar-u-Islam had misused his authority and illegally extended the contracts in favour of Cosmos Production "in connivance with" Senator Khalid and Dr Zafar.

Additionally, NAB said that Senator Khalid and Dr Zafar had "gained illegal benefits by getting the extension of [the] agreement without calling the fresh tenders/without any competition and also failed to deposit the 50 per cent profit earned by them."

They added that this had resulted in a loss of Rs30.13 million to the national exchequer.

In a meeting of the NAB’s executive board that was presided over by NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal in November 2018 had approved investigations against various persons including Senator Khalid.