ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad adjourned on Monday the indictment of the former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf till Dec 10 in the Rental Power Project case, DawnNews reported.
Raja Pervez Ashraf was present in the court for the hearing of the RPP case during which former federal law minister Farooq H Naek submitted a power of attorney on behalf of the former prime minister.
During the hearing, Naek said the RPP case was also being tried in the high court and that the accountability court’s indictment could not take place.
Naek informed to the court that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) did not provide on reference a copy of the contract and documents pertaining to the reference.
He added that the allegation against Raja Ashraf regarding abuse of power were wrong.
The bench then directed NAB to provide the specified documents to Ashraf’s attorney.
The court adjourned Raja Pervez Ashraf’s indictment and sought all relevant records until the next hearing which would take place on Dec 14.
Ashraf, a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) politician who served as premier between June 22, 2012 and March 25, 2013, is accused of receiving kickbacks and commissions from nine rental power project firms for awarding contracts for setting up their projects in 2008 to overcome electricity crisis in the country.
NAB has been investigating 12 RPPs cases in which nine firms reportedly received more than Rs22 billion as mobilisation advance from the government to commission the projects, but most of them were accused of failing to set up plants.
The bureau had already recovered Rs13 billion in the case.