An Reuters file photo.
A director level official of the NAB made the statement during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which met here to discuss audit objections against the Ministry of Privatisation for fiscal year 2012-13.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Rana Tanveer Hussain chaired the PAC meeting amid occasional spats between the chairman and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Noor Alam Khan. Noor Khan at multiple occasions interrupted the committee’s proceedings without seeking chair’s permission, which led to exchange of heated arguments between both of them.
“No one is allowed to speak without the permission of the chairman,” warned Tanveer. “You are not my father and like me are just another member of the committee,” replied Noor Khan.
However, during the 2009 to 2012 period the PML-N’s Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was the PAC chairman and Noor Khan was PAC member elected on PPP ticket. At that time Noor Khan would religiously follow the committee’s discipline without questioning the authority of the PAC chairman.
While discussing seven-year old audit objections, the PAC members criticised both the bureaucracy and the NAB for slow progress in cases involving billions of rupees public funds.
The PAC was informed that in a seven-year old case of undue favour and irregular investments of Rs5.7 billion in different financial institutions, the privatisation ministry has ordered an inquiry just a few days ago.
The inquiry will be completed within six weeks and the responsibility will be fixed against the concerned people, said Privatisation Secretary Rizwan Malik.
The privatisation ministry had placed these funds in violation of the Ministry of Finance instructions. Some of the funds had been placed in financial institutions that were directly related to three board members of the Privatisation Commission, which was a clear case of conflict of interest.
The Auditor General of Pakistan informed the PAC that Asif Kamal, the chairman of Trust Investment Bank Limited and Khurshid Zafar of Arif Habib Bank Limited received investments in their financial institutions despite being member of the privatisation board.
The case of the Trust Investment Bank – a BBB minus rating institution, was unique. On directions of former privatisation minster Senator Waqar Ahamd, the Privatisation Commission had invested Rs500 million in 2010 in Trust Investment Bank Limited, which was not a scheduled bank.
The privatisation ministry placed Rs500 million funds in the bank in violation of the Ministry of Finance instructions. The privatisation ministry had referred the case to the NAB in July 2013, according to the AGP.
It was only last year when the NAB decided to convert the inquiry into an investigation, the privatisation secretary told the committee.
NAB keeps lingering non-political cases for years and where some big political name is involved the investigations are completed within weeks, remarked the PAC chairman.
The investigation was at the last stage and the NAB would file corruption reference in one month, said NAB Director Operations Ghazi Rehman. He claimed that out of total Rs634 million recoveries from the Trust Investment Bank, Rs404.8 million have been recovered by NAB.
The privatisation secretary disclosed that NAB was asking for Rs67 million in recovery charges, which his ministry was not willing to pay. There were still Rs137 million outstanding against the company, he added.
NAB direction operations did not explain the reason for not filing the reference. In September 2016, the then NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry had handed over a cheque of Rs170.6 million to the then privatisation secretary Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera.
NAB director operations told the PAC that former privatisation minister Senator Waqar Ahmad was involved in this case.
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