ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on a petition seeking acquittal of Masood Chishti, the former law secretary of the ministry of law and justice, one of the accused in the Nandipur power project corruption case.

Mr Chishti, Babar Awan, retired Justice Riaz Kayani, PPP leader Raja Pervez Ashraf, Shahid Rafi and some other government officials were facing corruption charges in the case filed by NAB in an accountability court of Islamabad in 2018.

Last year, the accountability court acquitted Mr Awan and Mr Kayani but rejected appeal for acquittal of other accused in the case.

Mr Chishti moved the acquittal plea in the IHC through Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri. He served as the federal secretary with the then law minister Babar Awan during the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government.

An accountability court acquitted Babar Awan, ex-justice Kayani in the same case last year, but rejected pleas of others

In a recent reshuffle in the federal cabinet by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government, Mr Awan was made prime minister’s special assistant on parliamentary affairs.

Arguing in the court, Advocate Jahangiri said that Mr Awan and retired Justice Kayani, the other accused, had already been acquitted by the accountability court.

He informed the high court that the accountability court dismissed the application of Mr Chishti without even considering the presidential ordinance promulgated recently which had redefined the offence of misuse of authority.

Advocate Jahangiri argued that being the secretary of law, Mr Chishti did not misuse his authority in any manner whatsoever.

The IHC division bench, comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamer Farooq, after preliminary hearing of arguments of the petitioner, sent the notice to NAB, seeking its reply on the petition and adjourned the hearing of the case till April 22.

The National Accountability Bureau, Rawalpindi, had on Sept 5, 2018, filed a corruption case against seven politicians and government officials, accusing them of delaying the Nandipur project for two years, one month and 15 days and causing a Rs27.3 billion loss to the exchequer.

The project, situated in Gujranwala district, could not be completed and run on time as the accused failed to issue a legal opinion on the matter.

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

The water and power ministry had sought a legal opinion on the project from the law ministry in accordance with the schedule of agreement in July 2009, but the accused repeatedly refused to provide that.

The ministry also failed to take any concrete step in time to resolve the issue and the matter remained pending and its delay caused Rs27.3bn loss to the exchequer.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2020