Steel Mills scandal: Supreme Court calls FIA corrupt

Bench orders investigators to arrest suspects who have fled abroad.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court is dissatisfied with the progress made by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in investigating the Rs50 billion corruption scandal at the state-owned Pakistan Steel Mills, accusing the FIA of being complicit with the accused in impeding the investigation.

Justice Raja Fayyaz said that FIA officials are corrupt and dishonest and spare the wealthier accused while arresting only poorer, less well-connected suspects. Justice Javed Iqbal said “The FIA has made zero progress in the case.”

The judges’ comments come after the FIA, through its legal director Azam Khan, submitted a report outlining the progress in their investigation of corruption at the state-owned company.

Khan said that the FIA had been facing difficulties obtaining information from and about some of the suspects in the case who now live outside the country. The court rejected this line of reasoning with derision.

The three-member bench then ordered the FIA to immediately arrest Riaz Lal, one of the suspects, despite being told that he was abroad. The industries ministry was ordered to submit a report at the next hearing, two weeks later, outlining how many of the ministry’s recommendations regarding restricting of the badly ailing company had been implemented.

The government of Pakistan has spent over Rs70 billion in bailing out the steel mills over the past three years. In 2005, the Musharraf administration had concluded a contract to sell PSM to foreign investors for $362 million but was prevented from completing the transaction when the Supreme Court blocked the deal.

The Supreme Court objected to the valuation of the company for its sale, which had been carried out by JP Morgan and Citigroup, two of the oldest, largest and most respected investment banks in the United States.

NAB chairman case The Supreme Court also directed the National Accountability Bureau to provide details of all cases that NAB dealt with during the tenure of Acting Chairman Qazi Javed.

The three-member bench was hearing a petition filed by the Al-Jihad Trust alleging that Qazi Javed was not qualified to serve as NAB chairman despite having been deputy chairman when the position fell vacant.

Article 6c of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 states that the deputy chairman is to serve as acting chairman in case the position of chairman falls vacant for any reason. The case, however, has yet to be thrown out and the court is hearing both sides’ arguments.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2011.