Pervaiz Ashraf, others acquitted in another rental power case

ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court-I (AC-I) Tuesday acquitted eight accused, including the PPP leader and former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, in Pira Ghaib rental power. The court has already acquitted Pervaiz Ashraf and other suspects in Sahiwal rental power reference last week. Judge Muhammad Bashir announced the judgment, which was reserved on the last hearing after conclusion of arguments from both sides.

The reference was filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi in 2014.

The other accused who were acquitted included Ismail Qureshi, Shahid Rafi, Shaukat Tareen, Tahir Basharat Cheema, Muhammad Saleem Arif, Chaudhry Abdul Qadeer and Iqbal Ali Shah.

The court said the NAB could not prove any corruption charges against the suspects.

Ashraf was accused of misusing authority during his tenure as the minister for water and power to obtain approval from the Economic Coordination Committee and the federal cabinet for an increase in the down payment to rental power companies from 7% to 14%, amounting to about Rs22 billion.