Daily Times

An accountability court in Islamabad will indict Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah in the Nooriabad Power Plant case on June 30, it emerged on Tuesday. Accountability Court Judge Asghar Ali Tuesday heard the reference filed against Murad Ali pertaining to fake bank accounts. The judge approved the request of the accused to exempt him from appearing in the hearing for a day. Justice Ali, however, fixed June 30 as the day for indicting the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader in the Nooriabad Power Plant reference. During the course of hearing, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor apprised the court that the co-accused, Muhammad Ali, had taken refuge abroad.

To which, the court declared the co-accused an absconder, ordered permanent arrest warrants for him, put his name in the Exit Control List and blocked his Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC). After issuing directives to all the accused persons to appear before the court during the next date of hearing the judge adjourned the matter till June 30.\ It is pertinent to mention that the NAB Rawalpindi filed the reference in an accountability court in Islamabad claiming that Murad Shad had issued funds for power projects in Sindh in violation of rules and regulations that billions of rupees were embezzled in the Nooriabad Power Company and Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company projects. The Nooriabad Power Project was originally envisaged by the Sindh government in 2012 but could not materialise then due to “red-tapism and delays in regulatory approvals”. The project was finally launched in August 2014 under a public-private partnership at a cost of Rs13 billion in which the Sindh government held 49% shares and a private company owned 51%. A 95-km-long, 132kV double-circuit transmission line was laid from Nooriabad to Karachi at a cost of Rs1.95 billion. Shah was an adviser to then Sindh chief minister of finance and energy at the time. It was alleged that the procedure had caused a loss of $16 million to the national exchequer.