LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday returned a reference about alleged corruption in the sale of furnace oil from Nandipur Power Plant, Gujranwala, to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman for placing it before a court of competent jurisdiction following new amendments in the law.

The accused persons in the reference filed applications challenging the jurisdiction of the accountability court, invoking the amendment in section 5 of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

The counsel on behalf of the accused persons argued before the court that the NAB, after the new amendment, lost jurisdiction to prosecute an alleged offence involving an amount less than Rs500 million.

They said as the NAB reference against 34 accused carried an allegation of corruption to the tune of Rs220 million, the case did not fall in the bureau’s jurisdiction.

Admitting the arguments of the defence counsel, Judge Ali Zulqarnain Awan observed that the amount involved in the alleged offence in the reference was less than Rs500 million.

The judge returned the reference to the NAB chairman for placing it before a court of competent jurisdiction without any delay.

The NAB had alleged that the accused persons, including Muhammad Irfan, Umar Din, Usman Anwar, Muhammad Azam, Imran Aslam and Umar Farooq caused a loss of Rs220 million to the national exchequer. A majority of the accused persons were employees of lower cadre, including drivers and clerks.

It had alleged the accused persons were instrumental in striking deals between the owners of oil tankers and some office bearers of the Wapda Employees Union. It said the furnace oil had been stolen from as many as 145 tankers during 2013.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2022