Pak court to indict former PM Ashraf on Feb 8 in power project corruption case

An accountability court in Pakistan will indict former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf and other accused in a power project corruption case on February 8, according to a media report.

The accused were appearing in a case against three rental power projects, which includes Gulf Rental Power Plant, Reshma Power Generation Limited and Young Gen Power Limited.

The case was heard by Judge Arshad Malik, who issued the summons for all the accused during the next date of hearing and deemed their attendance mandatory, the Express Tribune reported.

He further said that the immunity application will only be looked into after the indictment.

Judge Arshad also wondered why there was no progress in the case despite it being under trial for so long. He was told that some legal processes took more time than others and proved to be hindrances in the trial.

Ashraf was Pakistan's prime minister from June 22, 2012 to March 16, 2013.

In 2014, Ashraf was accused of misusing his authority as the minister for water and power to push the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and the cabinet to increase the down payment to rental power companies from seven per cent to 14 per cent.

According to details, on April 13, 2009, he sent a summary to the ECC, contained allegedly misleading facts about not meeting the terms and conditions of the seven per cent advance and advised them to double it.