Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf along with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr. Babar Awan and five others have been indicted in the Nandipur corruption case, a reference filed by the accountability court in Islamabad on Monday.
Accountability judge Mohammad Arshad Malik announced that the hearing was attended by both the senior politicians Ashraf and Awan along with five others who are accused in the same case. The charges framed against them include “causing delay in according approval to the project”, which caused losses worth billions of rupees to the national exchequer. However, all those accused in the case have pleaded ‘not guilty’. The judge further commented that he will try to conclude the trial as soon as possible.
In the year 2018, September the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)’s Rawalpindi office had filed a reference against seven politicians urging that the Nandipur project had faced a delay of two years, one month and 15 days due to their actions.
The Nandipur project was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee on Dec 27, 2007, at a cost of $329 million. Following the approval, a contract was signed on Jan 28, 2008 between the Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and the Dong Fang Electric Corporation, China and two consortiums — Coface for 68.967 million euros and Sinosure for $150.151m — were set up for financing the project.