Almost all the accused in Rental Power Projects (RPPs) scam have decided to approach the Supreme Court individually against National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) decision of issuing arrest warrants on the directive of the apex court without hearing them.
On Thursday, in compliance of the apex court orders, the NAB had issued arrest warrants of 33 people for their alleged involvement in the scandal including Raja Pervez Ashraf, Shaukat Tareen, Liaquat Jatoi, former WAPDA chief Tariq Hameed, former federal secretaries Salman Siddique and Ismail Qureshi, Saeed Zafar Mahmood, Ashfaq Siddiqui, Khalid Sheikh, Anwar Munawwar Baseer, Tahir Basharat, Khalid Irfan Fazal Khan, and Salim Arif.
Reliable sources familiar with the development told Online that all the accused, who had been served arrest warrant notices by the NAB, have decided to approach the apex court individually against the NAB as what they said ‘unilateral’ decision.
“It is the violation of basic human rights that the NAB has severed arrest notices without hearing the accused; therefore we have decided to file petition in the Supreme Court individually,” the sources quoted one of the accused as saying.
The sources maintained that the NAB had acted beyond its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) while issuing arrest warrants against the all 33 people without framing charge sheet against them.
“As per NAB laws and procedures drawn under it, making arrest is our last option while moving against violators. The NAB goes by its SOP that is investigations, formulation of charge sheet, recovery and arrest as a last resort,” the sources added.
The sources elicited that all the accused are of the view that the apex court had violated the basic human rights as it had directed the NAB to initiate action against all those named in the scandal without providing them a chance to prove themselves innocent.