NAB told to detail steps for implementing 2013 verdict

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit a ‘concise statement’ about steps taken for implementing the 2013 judgment in the NICL case.

Almost after five years, the two-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, started hearing the case of non-implementation of the apex court verdict in the NICL scam.

The court wondered why Ayyaz Khan Niazi and Mohsin Habibullah Warraich had not been arrested yet.

The court served notices on Niazi and directed NAB to provide the record of his bail. The bureau was also asked to provide a comprehensive report detailing why the reference against Ayyaz and Mohsin Habibullah Warraich had not been decided even after the lapse of three years. NAB was also asked to inform the court who was responsible for the delay. “Provide us details of everything,” the chief justice asked the NAB’s additional prosecutor-general.



During the hearing, Additional Prosecutor-General Akbar Tarar informed the court that references against Ayyaz Khan Niazi and Mohsin Habibullah Warraich were still pending in the Accountability Court, Lahore. He said that Niazi had been granted bail by the Special Judge Central. The hearing was adjourned till May 13.

According to the Supreme Court’s 2013 judgment, authored by former CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, £38 million in an account of a PML-Q leader, Moonis Elahi, in London could not be recovered because of Zafar Qureshi’s transfer. But subsequently, FIA officers appointed as investigation officers had given a clean chit to Moonis Elahi.

The SC’s verdict had ordered registration of a case against incumbent NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Federal Tax Ombudsman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry and others under NAB Ordinance for impeding the investigation in the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam.



Moreover, the court also found former commerce minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim, ex-secretary Suleman Ghani, ex-secretary Establishment Ismail Qureshi and Nargis Sethi to be involved in Ayyaz Khan Niazi’s illegal appointment as NICL chairman and asked the NAB to investigate the matter.

The 52-page judgment stated, “They are liable to be dealt with under section 9(a)(vi) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 [as amended by National Accountability Bureau (Amendment) Ordinance, 2002] on account of NICL scam pertaining to Lahore and Karachi where allegedly offences of corruption and corrupt practices have been committed.”

Justice Chaudhry noted that Ayyaz Khan Niazi had been appointed as NICL chairman contrary to Section 12 of the Insurance Ordinance, 2000 and rules framed thereunder in non-transparent, illegal and unwarranted manner.



The judgment also noted that the notification dated April 18, 2012 for transferring FIA’s former additional director Zafar Ahmed Qureshi, prima facie, also involved former FIA DG Malik Muhammad Iqbal; former Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, former Establishment Secretary Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, ex-PS to PM Khushood Akhtar Lashari and the then FIA Lahore Director Waqar Haider and they hampered the investigation entrusted to Zafar Qureshi in NICL scam.

The judgment said that prima facie they are also required to be dealt with under section 9(a)(vi) of NAO, 1999 as they wrongly exercised their authority to benefit Ayyaz Khan Niazi and others from public money, which was looted through a non-transparent transaction from NICL.