LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday acquitted 16 suspects including Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) ex-MPA Raja Qamar-ul-Islam and Wasim Ajmal in Saaf Pani reference.
The Presiding Officer (PO) Sajid Ali Awan delivered the verdict on the applications of Islam, Ajmal, Masroor Ahmed, Adnan Aftab, Muhammad Yusuf, and Masood Al-Hassan Kazmi seeking acquittal in the light of amendments made in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance.
Read more: Delayed accountability trials
The NAB had filed a reference against 20 officials, including Punjab Saaf Pani Company (PSPC) former director Engineer Qamar-ul-Islam and former chief executive officer (CEO) Waseem Ajmal, in which it accused them of awarding contracts at exorbitant rates and inflicting a loss of Rs345.282 million to the national treasury.
PSPC Chief Technical Officer Dr Zaheer-ud-Din, Chief Procurement Officer Nasir Qadir Badhal, Consultant Engineer Saleem Akhtar, Managing Director of KSB Pumps Muhammad Masud Akhter, Deputy Secretary of Housing, Khalid Nadeem Bukhari, Raja Qamar-ul-Islam, former deputy secretary Zahoor Ahmed Dogar, ex-chief resident engineer Maj (retd) Adnan Aftab Khan and Resident Engineers including Syed Masoud-ul-Hassan Kazmi, Moeen-ud-Din and Younas were also nominated in the reference.
Read more: PPDC reference: Accountability Court declares Shehbaz’s daughter, son-in-law proclaimed offenders
In the Saaf Pani case, the court had declared ex-chief minister Shehbaz Sharif’s daughter, Rabia, and son-in-law, Ali Imran, as fugitives and issued orders for property confiscation.
