Hajj case hearing: Supreme Court orders removal of ANF deputy chief

Asks establishment division to institute inquiry against Javed Bukhari.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court directed the Establishment Division to suspend deputy chief of Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Javed Bukhari from his new post within one month and initiate an inquiry against him and repatriate Hussain Asgher to the Federal Investigation Agency.

During the course of hearing of the Hajj scam, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, presiding over a five-member bench, issued Bukhari a show-cause notice. He said his statement contradicted Hussain Asgher’s.

Asgher and Bukhari had submitted their replies to the notices served on them. Javed Bukhari and Hussain Asgher were formerly spearheading investigations into the Hajj scam on the apex court’s orders and had made considerable progress in tracing the channels through which the embezzled amount was transferred in the accounts of political heavyweights including former religious affairs minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi.

Officials had embezzled millions of rupees by arranging inferior accommodation for pilgrims and cheating on Hajj quotas and had given politicians their share. Bukhari had requested the government to separate him from the investigation. Director-General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Malik Iqbal initiated their transfer orders. Bukhari was transferred to the ANF while Asgher was promoted as Inspector-General Gilgit-Baltistan.

DG FIA presented the progress report to the bench along with the proposal to entrust the investigation to Inam Ghani which has been accepted. The court reprimanded the DG for removing Hussain Asgher and cautioned him that he may be served another contempt of court notice for delaying the reappointment of former investigation officers.

The bench also asked secretary establishment and secretary interior to answer why they should not be served contempt of court notices for transferring officers of the FIA without intimating the court. The chief justice remarked that the secretary establishment was not serious in carrying out the court’s orders and directed him to remove former deputy DG FIA Javed Bukhari from his current post and submit a departmental inquiry report in four weeks. The hearing was adjourned for two weeks.  His surrender proves his inefficiency and misconduct, observed the chief justice. He was asked to justify his promotion given his admission that the apex court was not satisfied with his performance. Bukhari submitted that he had indeed written to DG FIA, but with the caveat that his letter should not be used as the basis for his transfer.

NICL case hearing

Meanwhile, a three-member bench also headed by the chief justice took up the case of the National Insurance Company Ltd (NICL). The court adjourned the case since Makhdum Ali Khan, counsel for DG FIA, is on leave.

Abdul Hafeez Pirzada requested the court to adjourn the case till his return. The next date of hearing is June 2. On Wednesday, the apex court had given the FIA chief a 48-hour deadline to reappoint Zafar Qureshi as the lead investigation officer for the NICL scam and had asked the agency to present the report it submitted to the parliamentary committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2011.