ISLAMABAD - National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed another corruption reference against former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf here on Thursday charging him with causing a massive loss to national exchequer in one of the rental power producer deals, sources disclosed to The Nation on Thursday.
Giving further details about the alleged dubious deal with a Turkish company Karkey, the sources informed a new reference was filed with the court wherein the principal accused is Babar Zulqarnain, a director of Turkish company Karkey while Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, two former federal secretaries and a number of other people related to power distribution and generation network are co-accused.
The others who were implicated in the case included two former federal secretaries Ismail Qureshi and Shahid Rafi, former Managing Directors Pepco Fazal Ahmed and Tahir Basharat Cheema, former MD Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), Fayyaz Elahi, incumbent PPIB MD NA Zuberi, three Chief Executive Officers of Lakhra Power Generation Company Limited, and others in the Kareky corruption reference.
It was charged in the reference that M/s Karkey (through its directors), government officials and public office-holders acting in collusion with each other committed a series of illegal and unlawful acts.
It alleged that the accused persons flouted the decisions of the federal cabinet, misled the cabinet and the ECC by misrepresenting and concealing facts, changing the bid evaluation criteria, post-bid changes in violation of procurement rules, extending illegal mobilisation advance resulting in undue and illegal benefits to the sponsors Karkey.
In this case an amount of $128 million with mark-up (due from Karkey as determined by the Supreme Court of Pakistan) and Rs792.7 million (on account of miscellaneous infrastructure cost) are to be recovered from the sponsors and various government functionaries.
On October 30, 2012, NAB and the Turkish firm reached an agreement, which allowed the company to leave Pakistan after paying Rs1.62 billion. But the apex court rejected the agreement and directed the bureau to recover $120m from the Turkish company.
According to the reference filed in the Accountability Court, the NAB investigated into the ‘corrupt practices’ regarding award of contract to Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim for installation of RPP at Karachi. An agreement was signed between M/s Karkey and Lakhra Power Generation Company Limited (LPGCL) in 2009.