LAHORE: An accountability court on Wednesday withdrew the bailable arrest warrants against former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf after he appeared in a case of illegal appointments in the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco).

The court had issued the warrants after Mr Ashraf failed to turn up on three consecutive hearings.

Mr Ashraf appeared before the court on Wednesday along with his counsel and submitted bail bonds. He requested the court to withdraw the warrants and undertook to attend all future hearings.

Judge Jawadul Hassan withdrew the warrants and adjourned hearing till Sept 18.

Mr Ashraf had not appeared on previous hearings due to poor health. He also skipped two hearings on the pretext of the National Assembly’s sessions.

The National Accountability Bureau had accused Mr Ashraf of making illegal appointments in Gepco during his stint as the federal minister for water and power. It said he misused his powers and appointed 437 people in Gepco from his electoral constituency without any merit.

Former water and power secretary Shahid Rafi, former directors of Gepco’s boards of governors, including Saleem Arif, Malik Muhammad Razi Abbas and Wazir Ali, were also involved in the same reference filed in 2016.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2019