ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Monday indicted former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, former law minister Babar Awan and five others in the Nandipur Power Project reference.

The accountability court in Islamabad heard the Nandipur Power Project reference in which Awan, former law secretary Riaz Kiyani, Masood Chisti, former consultant Shamila Mahmood, former joint secretary Riaz Mehmood and former secretary Shahid Rafi are named as co-accused.

The suspects have been accused of causing a loss of Rs27 billion to the national exchequer through delay in the project. The suspects rejected the charges as the court indicted them.

The Nandipur Power Project was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) in December 2007 at a cost of 329 million dollars. After approval, the contract was signed in January 2008, between Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and Dong Fang Electric Corporation (DEC), China and two consortiums — COFACE for 68.967 million euros and SINOSURE for 150.151 million dollars.

In 2008, the Ministry of Water and Power approached the Ministry of Law to issue a legal opinion but accused in connivance with each other and with malafide intentions, the latter repeatedly refused to issue on flimsy grounds.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Water and Power also failed to take any concrete measures to resolve the issue and the matter remained pending.

The legal opinion was issued in November 2011; the delay caused a loss of 27 billion rupees. Agencies