Farogh, Akbar reject ex-cop’s ‘baseless’ claims

PM’s adviser serves a legal notice on Bashir Memon ‘for lies and slanderous accusations’

ISLAMABAD:

Minister for Law Dr Farogh Naseem and Adviser to the PM on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar have vehemently rejected the claims recently made by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) former director general Bashir Memon – with Akbar also serving Memon a legal notice.

Both the federal minister and the adviser took to micro-blogging site Twitter on Wednesday to refute the allegations leveled by the FIA former official in a television interview a day earlier.

Talking to the host of a private news channel on Tuesday, Bashir Memon whipped up a political storm by claiming that Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as Dr Naseem and Akbar had asked him to start an investigation against the Supreme Court judge Qazi Faez Isa – a request that he squarely rejected.

“I completely refute baseless allegations leveled by Bashir Memon,” Dr Naseem said in a series of posts. “I have never discussed any issue regarding Justice Qazi Faez Isa with Bashir Memon.

The minister said Akbar, Memon and Azam Khan, the PM’s secretary, never came to his office together. He claimed that Azam Khan had only come to his office only once to discuss legal reforms.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan, Azam Khan or Shahzad Akbar have never ever stated to me that they have discussed anything with Bashir Memon about Justice Isa,” the law minister said.

The PM’s aide on accountability was also quick in responding to the interview.

“Just seen absolute rubbish uttered by Bashir Memon... He was never called for any meeting with the PM or myself on the QFI [Qazi Faez Isa] issue, and there was no meeting with the law minister and him as he claims. Similarly he was never told to start any case against any specific individual,” Akbar said.

He said the only case that the federal cabinet had referred to the FIA was that of sedition.

Mirza Shahzad Akbar later also posted the copy of the legal notice of Rs50, 00,00,000 that he has served on the FIA former DG “for his lies and slanderous accusations with mala fide and without any evidence”.

“I firmly believe in the rule of law and he [Memon] shall be answerable before a court of law for his slander,” he added.

According to Memon, he was called to the Prime Minister's Office for a meeting where the premier told him that he was "a very good officer" who has been registering “good cases” in the past and that he should “take courage” and register a good case this time as well.

He said, "At that time, I was not aware of the nature of the case and whom I was supposed to proceed against". Memon claimed that it was at Shahzad Akbar's office that it was revealed to him that he is to proceed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

The FIA former chief also claimed that he later visited Dr Naseem's office as well. "Naseem was also convinced that a case should be made against Justice Isa and asked me to play a role," he stated.

Memon said he tried to convince them that what he was being asked to do was not possible as Justice Isa is a Supreme Court judge.  The former FIA officer alleged that Dr Naseem wanted to proceed against Justice Isa on the grounds of money laundering.

"They said it was my mandate. My opinion was that the SJC [Supreme Judicial Council] could do this, or it could ask us to proceed, but the FIA could not do this at the government's request," he added.

The federal government in May 2019 moved a presidential reference in the SJC, claiming that Justice Isa had committed misconduct by not disclosing his family member’s foreign assets in his wealth statement.

Justice Isa challenged the SJC proceedings and the apex court on June 19, 2020 quashed the reference but referred the matter to the Federal Board of Revenue for an inquiry. The judge filed a review petition against the order and the apex court in a rare development set aside its June 19 order on Monday.