An Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Sajid Ali here on Saturday ruled that no violation or any illegality was proved in the Saaf Pani Project of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif declaring it as absolutely “clean and transparent”.
A few days ago the court had acquitted 16 persons, including Punjab Saaf Pani Company’s former chairperson and PML-N leader Raja Qamarul Islam, in the corruption reference pertaining to irregularities in the public sector company.
Issuing a detailed 23-page written judgement, t+he judge now remarked that all rules and laws were followed in executing the project right from the survey to the project’s completion. Whatever changes were made to the project had through approval from the relevant committees, the judge declared.
All the changes made to the project were aimed at improvement in the project and for the benefit of the public, the judge said, adding the committees also had ensured to avoid any cost escalation.
The verdict also set aside the prosecution’s argument that the Saaf Company got on rent third floor of Ali Trade Centre belonging to Shehbaz Sharif’s daughter Rabia and son-in-law Ali Imran but never used it while paying the rest in advance.
The court said the Saaf Company did use the third floor and the company administration retained the agreement with some changes.
Raja Qamarul Islam, also a former MPA, was the prime suspect in the reference, which the National Accountability Bureau had filed in December 2018 against 20 persons.
Among the 20, two were foreigners and had not joined the trial and another suspect named Muhammad Tehseen, who was a former chief design engineer at Associated Consultant Engineers, died of Covid-19 during the course of the trial. During the last hearing on January 31, the judge had acquitted Islam and 15 others of the remaining 17 suspects.
