Saaf Pani Company ex-chief, CEO granted bail

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday released former chairman and chief executive officer of Punjab Saaf Pani Company Raja Qamarul Islam and Waseem Ajmal, respectively, besides four other accused on bail in Punjab Saaf Pani Company scam.A two-judge bench headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan allowed the bail to the accused, subject to furnishing surety bonds.The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) alleged that Islam, also ex-MPA, was involved in awarding contracts of installation of 84 water filtration plants at higher prices. It said the accused got the contracts of 102 plants approved from the company’s board of directors and committed forgery in the documents.The bureau accused Ajmal of violating procurement rules and permitting installation of the water plants in Dunyapur tehsil beyond the scope of the project.On the other side, the defence counsel argued that the case against Islam and others was politically motivated and amounted to political victimisation. He said the NAB arrested Islam one day after he was awarded ticket by PML-N for general election 2018 against Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, a disgruntled leader of the party, from NA-59, Rawalpindi. He said the arrest of a candidate also put a question mark on the fairness of the election.The counsel said Islam being chairman of the Saaf Pani Company had no powers to examine its record. He said Islam being a politician was not aware of the procurement rules. About Mr Ajmal, the counsel said the company had 26 surplus water filtration plants which were to be installed somewhere. He said the NAB neither had complete information about the project nor it received any complaint against it.The counsel said all the suspects had no powers or role in decision making of the company. All the decisions were made independently by the company’s board of directors, he added.He said keeping the petitioners behind bars would serve no purpose as the NAB had already completed its investigation and there was no case of recovery.

from The News International - Peshawar http://bit.ly/2DKnwfC