Nisar, Deedar put on notice

PAC had directed the government to place the name of Abbas on the ECL and had an FIR registered against him.

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court has issued notice to the chairmen of Public Accounts Committee and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for putting the name of a former banker on the Exit Control List.

Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman and Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi of the IHC division bench issued notice to PAC Chairperson Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairperson Justice (Retired) Didar Hussain Shah and sought reply from them on a petition filed by a former banker for putting his name on the ECL for allegedly committing irregularities in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) bank’s accounts in 2005, which was then known as the Rural Development Finance Corporation (RDFC).

Tahir Abbas, former Managing Director of the SME Bank filed a petition with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against making chairpersons of PAC and NAB.

The petitioner’s counsel maintained that during the investigation NAB did not find any irregularities in bank’s accounts and directed the bank to resolve this issue with the petitioner. The counsel said that there were no corruption charges against Abbas, who had made some financial losses in 2005 and accepted his due responsibility. He told the court that due to constant pressure and harassment, the petitioner decided to enter into a plea bargain with NAB and paid Rs140 million in damages.

“NAB did not accuse nor charge Abbas of corruption and entered into a plea bargain with him. Despite that, he is still being harassed by the respondents,” the counsel maintained.

He prayed the court to direct PAC not to harass the petitioner and order the ministry of interior to remove his name from the ECL.

PAC on January 18 had directed the government to place the name of Abbas on the ECL and had an FIR registered against him. The committee also directed the secretary ministry of finance to restrict him from getting any lucrative job in any government department.

A formal complaint was lodged with NAB by the former president of SME Bank Qaiser Naseem against Tahir Abbas and his son Unib Abbas for allegedly committing irregularities in the bank’s accounts worth millions of rupees.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2011.