Former law minister Babar Awan, on Friday, took back his acquittal plea petitioned in Nandipur Power Project case. An accountability court was expected to give its verdict on Friday after reserving it on February 11 but before it could, Awan withdrew his petition. As the hearing went underway, the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) prosecutor opposed Awan’s request while the judge granted the plea and announced to indict the former law minister in the case. The accountability court decided to frame charges in the reference against Awan on Monday. In an earlier hearing in a reference of about Rs. 27 billion loss to the national exchequer due to delay in the completion of the Nandipur power project, Judge Arshad Malik had said that he would not announce the verdict over the acquittal plea before reviewing the record. While he had called the delay in the Nandipur project an established truth, he still needed to deliberate upon whether this delay was caused because of the former law minister. He had also asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as to what would happen to the rest of the accused if Babar Awan will be acquitted.
Published in Daily Times, March 9th 2019.
