Raja Pervaiz Ashraf's acquittal plea dismissed
Raja Pervaiz Ashraf's acquittal plea dismissed
ISLAMABAD - An Accountability Court (AC) on Tuesday dismissed a petition of former prime minister Raja Perviaz Ashraf seeking their acquittal in case pertaining to illegal appointment of Tauqir Sadiq as former Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) chairman.
After rejected acquittal plea of the former premier, an accountability court ordered to continue trial against all the accused in the case.
It is noteworthy here that Tauqir Sadiq was suspected of causing a loss of Rs 82 billion to the national exchequer when he was head of Pakistan’s oil and gas regulatory authority between 2009 and 2011, at around the same time that Raja Pervez Ashraf was water and power minister.
Earlier in the last year, the accountability court had acquitted former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, former finance minister Shaukat Tareen and others accused in the Pir Ghaib Rental Power reference.
It is to be mentioned here that three RPPs (Reshma Power Generation Private Limited, Gulf Rental Power Private Limited and Young Gen Power Limited) case was about private power companies that faced allegations of receiving more than Rs22 billion mobilisation in advance from the government to commission the projects, but failed to set up the plants.
A few of them had set up the plants, but only after an inordinate delay.
Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was accused of misusing his authority during his tenure as power minister for approval of increasing down payment to the rental power companies from 7 to 14 per cent, amounting to about Rs22 billion.
