Court issues arrest warrants for ex-Wapda chief in rental power case

LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday issued arrest warrants for former chairman Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), Tariq Hameed, in a rental power reference, ARY News reported.

Accountability judge Muhammad Arshad Malik issued the arrest warrants. The court has ordered the ex-Wapda chief to appear before the court on April 3 along with surety bonds.

The court issued warrants for Tariq Hameed after he skipped a few court hearings and didn’t respond to court summons.

Read: Wapda moves ahead during year 2018 to regain its past glory

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in March 2018 had filed reference against ex-chairman Wapda, Tariq Hammed, and others in the Accountability Court, Islamabad.

Tariq Hammed, ex-member Power Wapda M Anwar Khalid, and others were involved in corrupt practices regarding illegal award of Rental Services Contract (RSC) to M/s GEE without open competitive bidding upon favorable terms and conditions in violation of PPRA Rules, Nepra Act and directions of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet which caused huge loss to national exchequer.

The NAB Rawalpindi in total investigated 12 rental power mega scandal cases and filed references in all 12 cases in accountability court Islamabad.

The main accused in these references are Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, ex-Minister, Shaukat Tareen, ex-Minister Finance, Ismail Qureshi, ex-Secretary/ Chairman PEPCO, Shahid Rafi ex-Secretary/Chairman PEPCO and others.