ISLAMABAD - Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf yesterday appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Rs140 billion scam pertaining to the Ministry of Information and Technology and recorded his statement, The Nation has learnt.
Sources in NAB told The Nation that the Ministry of Information and Technology had referred this case to the NAB and requested for probe into the mega scam.
NAB Rawalpindi Bureau issued summons of former PM on November 6, 2015 and instructed that if he ignored the orders then he can be arrested.
According to documents available with The Nation, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf gave the approval to “International Clearing Policy“ during his tenure. Under the policy, the rates of external call increased from three per cent minute from eight cent per minute.
Due to approval of this policy, the foreign calls minutes reduced fifty per cent total of 1 billion foreign call minutes and national exchequer suffered a loss of Rs140 billion during November 2012 to February 2015. After the approval of this policy the gray trafficking, illegal exchanges increased in Pakistan. Sources said that Raja Pervaiz Ashraf denied the allegations, saying he was not involved in this business.

Supreme Court of Pakistan had also rejected this policy earlier this year. The Competition Commission had also declared this policy illegal.
The documents further say the ex-secretary of Ministry of Information and Technology Yousuf Awan and other former officials were also facing the inquiry in this case.
On the other side, Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilwal Bhutto is also in Islamabad and chaired the high-level meeting and discussed the ongoing case of former petroleum minister Dr. Asim Hussain. Raja Pervaiz Ashraf met him after appearing before the NAB and briefed him on the ongoing inquiry of the case.
When the Nation contacted the spokesman of NAB confirmed that former PM appeared before NAB Rawalpindi and recorded his statement in this case. He said he was not aware about the Pervaiz Ashraf’s statement.