ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court on Thursday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to give its rebuttal with respect to the acquittal application filed by an accused of M/S Karkey Power Project rental power project (RPP) case against former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and others during the next hearing.
The Accountability Court-III judge, Syed Asghar Ali, while hearing the case, directed the NAB to give its rebuttal with respect to the acquittal application filed by co-accused Fazal Ahmad Khan under the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, and adjourned the hearing of the case till June 1.
Advocate Abid Zakir, prosecutor NAB and Idrees Hashmat, counsel for the accused for Fazal Ahmad Khan appeared before the court.
During the hearing, the defence counsel, Hashmat, adopted the arguments of the other counsels.
The NAB on June 28, 2022 had filed a supplementary reference in the Accountability Court in the Karkey Power Project case.
The bureau nominated former managing director (MD) Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) Rasul Khan Mehsud as the main accused in the supplementary reference.
According to the NAB’s supplementary reference, the investigation revealed that accused Mehsud being MD Pepco, vide meeting dated December 2, 2009, illegally stopped the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lakhra Power Generation Company Limited (LPGCL) Anwer Brohi from encashment of the performance guarantee, who initiated the process for encashment of the same.
The evidence collected during the investigation has proved that the Karkey Karadeniz Elektric Uretim A.S could not qualify the basic requirement of Reliability of Run Test, which was a mandatory clause to achieve the Commercial Operation Date (COD) and accused Mehsud being MD Pepco was involved in issuing the fake certificate for successful achievement of COD, despite the fake that the Reliability Run Test of equipment had been failed, it says.
It says that the act of accused Mehsud, in connivance with the then CEO Larkhra Power Generation company, laid the foundation of the claim of Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim AS.
Co-accused, Muhammad Anwer Brohi, stated that he even informed the accused Mehsud that two power generators of Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim AS were not working and tripped but he insisted to issue COD certificate to Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim AS.
It says that the documentary and verbal evidence also established that the accused Mehsud has committed the offence under Section 9(a) of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999.The evidence established that the accused granted illegal and undue favour to Karkey and knowingly, failed to exercise his authority by not imposing penalties, whereas, he in connivance with Karkey, illegally granted successful Reliability Run Test, which paved way to future illegal gain by Karkey and caused loss to state exchequer by putting illegal pressure on his sub-ordinate and received an amount of $10,000 as bribe and committed the offence as defined under Section 9(a)(iv), and (xii) punishable under Section 10 of the NAO, 1999.
The bureau had filed 12 RPP references including the Turkish ship-mounted power plant (Karkey), Piranghaib Power Plant, Multan, Sahiwal Power Plant, Guddu Power Plant in Sindh, Naudero-I Power Plant in Sindh, Naudero-II Power Plant in Sindh, Reshma Power Generation in Raiwind, Young Gen Power Ltd, Bhikki, Gulf Rental Power (Pvt) Ltd, 150MW Sharaqpur RPP, and Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco).
Out of the 12 cases, the Accountability Court, Islamabad, has acquitted Ashraf and others in two cases, Multan, Sahiwal power plant and Piranghaib power plant, while the Accountability Court, Lahore, acquitted Ashraf and others in the Gepco case.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022