LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file its supplementary reference in the Punjab Saaf Pani Company corruption case on the next hearing.

As Presiding Judge Amjad Nazir Chaudhry resumed hearing, a NAB prosecutor stated that the supplementary reference was in its final stage and would be filed soon.

The judge directed the prosecutor to ensure that the supplementary reference was filed by the next hearing to be held on Oct 10.

PML-N’s former MPA Raja Qamarul Islam and a Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) senior officer, Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry, are the prime suspects in the reference.

Waseem Ajmal is former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Punjab Saaf Pani Company, while Mr Islam was its chairman.

The NAB alleged that Mr Islam was involved in awarding contracts for installation of84 water filtration plants at higher prices. It said the suspect got the contracts of 102 plants approved from the company’s board of directors (BoD) and committed forgery in the documents.

Mr Ajmalis accused of violating the procurement rules and permitting the installation of the water filtration plants in Dunyapur tehsil beyond the scope of the project.

The suspects denied the charges,saying the reference was“politically motivated”and amounted to “victimisation”.

They said that they had no power or decision-making role in the company, claiming that all the decisions had been made independently by the company’s BoD.

Both Islam and Ajmal were arrested by the NAB in June 2018 and were later released on bail granted by the Lahore High Court on Jan 30, 2019.

Islam said the NAB had arrested him a day after he was awarded ticket by the PML-N to contest2018 general election against former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the disgruntled leader of the party, from NA-59, Rawalpindi.

ELEVATOR: It took the staff at the Lahore Judicial Complex at least one hour to safely evacuate four litigants from an elevator that suddenly stopped working.

There are two elevators installed in the Judicial Complex building, that houses different courts,including accountability courts, drug courts and consumer courts, besides a number of sessions courts.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2020