ISLAMABAD: The prosecution has levelled no allegations against accused former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Asharf and others to have received any pecuniary advantage from any sponsor of the project or contractor in the Sahiwal Rental Power (RPP) case.
The Accountability Court judge, Muhammad Bashir, in his detailed judgment said that the witnesses, so for, produced by the prosecution, did not make out any case against the petitioner falling within the provision of NAO 1999.
Now the NAO 1999 has been amended.
The provision of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) ordinance through the NAO (second amendment) Ordinance 2019, and under the provisions of substituted Section 4 of the NAB Ordinance, the provisions of this ordinance are not applicable to such persons against whom the allegation is with regards to procedural lapses as well as the rendition of any advice, opinion or report, unless it is shown the accused has materially benefited by gaining any asset or monetary benefit.
It says that in view of the entire scenario of the case particularly that prosecution should have first realised allegation means rea of the offence and harm caused to the national exchequer. Means rea to be effect that the accused were in conscious knowledge of the act to be done without lawful authority and gaining monetary benefit or favour, no allegations is raised in the reference regarding accumulation of monetary benefit or asset, no corroborative piece of evidence of accumulation of monetary benefits or asset is available on record. Payment of advance from 7% to 14 is not made to the company. The amount already paid along with mark up etc had been recovered, no loss is caused to the national exchequer.
The judgement said that the amendment made through NAO (Second amendment) Ordinance. 2019 has changed the criterion of satisfaction of the court required before shifting burden of proof on accused as contemplated in Section 14d of the NAO 1999.
Corroborative piece of evidence of accumulation of any monetary benefits of asset is essential to be brought on record, which is missing, there is no likelihood of conviction of the accused in this reference.
All the applications filed under Section 265-K Cr.P.C accepted, and the accused including Ashraf, former finance minister Shaukat Tareen, former secretary water and power Shahid Rafi, former managing directors of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) Ismail Qureshi, former PECO Managing Director (MD)Tahir Bashir Cheema, former members, PEPCO Saleem Arif, Chaudhry Abdul Qadeer , Iqbal Ali Shah, Wazir Ali, and Malik Riaz Abbas are hereby acquitted of the charges levelled against them, according to the judgement.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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