ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Thursday acquitted former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the Rental Power Plant reference case.
The accountability court hearing the reference against Ashraf and other suspects had reserved its judgment in the case during the last hearing. The court announced that it had accepted the former prime minister’s acquittal plea in the case.
Ashraf was charged by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on three counts in the multi-billion scam. The PPP leader has maintained that he did not cause any loss to the national exchequer and was not involved in any corruption.
The former prime minister was indicted in July last year in the Reshma Rental Power Plant and Gulf Power Generation Company Ltd cases.
He was accused of misusing his authority during his tenure as the minister for water and power to get approval from the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for an increase in the down payment to the rental power companies from 7 to 14 percent resulting in loss of Rs22 billion.
In June last year, an accountability court last week dismissed an acquittal plea of Ashraf in the Nandipur power plant corruption reference which had been filed by the NAB
He was accused of delaying the approval of the Nandipur project, which resulted in losses worth billions of rupees to the national exchequer.
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