ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf — who ruled the country for nine months in his capacity as chief executive of the last PPP-led government — appeared before an accountability court here on Tuesday as a principal accused in the Rs22 billion Rental Power Projects (RPPs) reference.

Accountability Judge Mohammad Bashir provided copies of a supplementary reference to the ex-prime minister and adjourned the case till Dec 2.

The former prime minister was accompanied by his son and a younger brother, but no other PPP leader was seen on the occasion.

Clad in a dark suit, Mr Ashraf appeared disturbed when he came out of the courtroom and refrained from talking to reporters.

However, PPP leader Senator Farhatullah Babar said Mr Ashraf was ready to face the case and hopeful that he would be acquitted in an honourable manner.

“We are not afraid of courts and we have faced them in the past as well,” he was quoted as saying.

He said the PPP believed that cases made against its leaders were all politically motivated.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed the supplementary reference about the Naudero-II RPP on Nov 7 and Mr Ashraf is likely to face eight more similar references. Four RPP references have been prepared and the bureau is working on four more.

The NAB executive management board had approved on Nov 1 the filing of references against Mr Ashraf, Iqbal Z. Ahmed (owner of the plant) and M.N. Baig.

Mr Ahmed and Mr Baig obtained a stay order on Nov 4 and did not appear before the court on Tuesday.

The former prime minister has already been barred from travelling abroad.

A NAB official told Dawn that the former prime minister had been accused of obtaining kickbacks from nine rental power firms for awarding contracts to set up their plants in 2008 to overcome the electricity crisis.

Citing the 263-page reference, he said the former prime minister had also been accused of preparing and submitting a misleading summary before the federal cabinet, pleading for increase of mobilisation advance for nine rental power companies from seven to 14 per cent. It was approved for submission to the cabinet committee concerned on Aug 17, 2009.

NAB had field the preliminary reference on Naudero-II on May 27 but Mr Ashraf’s name was not included in it because he was serving as prime minister at the time.

The official said the draft preliminary reference had the name of Mr Ashraf but the NAB headquarters had filed it without his name.

The NAB executive board recently gave approval to filing of the supplementary reference.

The official said Rawalpindi NAB had completed investigation into five of 12 RPP cases and sent them to the bureau’s headquarters.

“All the five references prepared include Mr Ashraf’s name. They pertain to the Naudero-II, Piraghaib, Sahuwal and Karkey projects.”

NAB is investigating the cases of nine firms reportedly having received over Rs22bn as mobilisation advance but mostly failing to set up the plants in time. The bureau has recovered Rs13bn in the case.

The Supreme Court instructed NAB on Jan 11 to arrest the people involved in the scam, but then chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari did not take action against the then prime minister.

Other accused in the Naudero-II reference include former secretary for water and power Shahid Rafi, ex-additional secretary Sheikh Zarrar Aslam, ex-managing director of Pakistan Electric Power Company Tahir Basharat Cheema, former Pepco directors Malik Muhammad Razi Abbas and Wazir Ali Bhayo, Tariq Nazir, Abdul Malik Memon and Rasool Khan Mehsud. There names have also been placed on the Exit Control List.