Qureshi removed from SC-mandated post

Govt says NICL investigations complete, no need for him to continue.

According to a notification, Qureshi will continue as the managing director (MD) of the National Police Foundation. Qureshi had been appointed Additional Director-General (ADG) FIA only to investigate the NICL scam on the directions of the Supreme Court through a special notification.

The government said that Qureshi had accomplished his assignment of submitting an investigation report before the Supreme Court, so there was no need for him to continue as ADG FIA any longer.

However, Qureshi has not submitted a complete charge-sheet before the court and investigations into the NICL scam are still underway. When contacted, Qureshi told The Express Tribune that he had been unable to complete the probe and added that investigations regarding the alleged involvement of Moonis Elahi, the scion of PML-Q leaders, in the land scam were also pending.

Qureshi has already been removed from investigations into the matter twice before. On the first instance, he was sent to the FIA Headquarters in Islamabad after being promoted. On the second, he was appointed MD of the National Police Foundation.

However, on both occasions, the SC intervened and had him put back on the NICL case.

The new DG FIA on Saturday had already removed Qureshi from investigations against former DG Waseem Ahmed and Director FIA Lahore Inam Ghani for withholding information about Moonis Elahi’s foreign bank accounts.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th,  2011.