FIA to ‘investigate NAB’ in Broadsheet scandal

PM aide says law ministry gave go ahead to investigate anti-graft watchdog

ISLAMABAD:

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shehzad Akbar on Friday announced that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) could investigate the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in connection with the Broadsheet scandal.

The PM’s adviser said that NAB had reservations on being investigated by the FIA in the Broadsheet scandal but the law ministry has given its opinion that the bureau could be investigated. NAB’s reservations had come after the FIA sought record from it, the adviser said, action was being taken on the Broadsheet issue.

The details emerged during Akbar’s meeting with journalists of the Islamabad High Court Journalists Association on Friday evening. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry was also present in the meeting.

In April this year, the federal cabinet had ordered to initiate “criminal investigations” against some prominent people on the recommendations of the one-man inquiry commission constituted to investigate the Broadsheet scandal.

The cabinet had allowed criminal proceedings against former law minister Ahmer Bilal Soofi, the then legal consultant NAB; Hassan Saqib Sheikh, the then deputy director and desk officer of Broadsheet LLC for NAB; Ghulam Rasool, the then joint secretary of law ministry; Abdul Basit, the then deputy high commissioner at the Pakistan High Commission, UK; Shahid Ali Baig, the then director audit and accounts at the Pakistan High Commission, UK; and Tariq Fawad Malik, the person who had introduced Broadsheet to NAB/Ehtesab Bureau.

Headed by Justice (retd) Sheikh Azmat Saeed, the Broadsheet Commission was constituted to investigate corruption and examine contracts signed by NAB with the Broadsheet and other international asset recovery firms to unearth foreign assets made by Pakistanis through ill-gotten money.

Those who attended the meeting said that it was specifically called to discuss the cases of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, being heard at IHC, adding that the IHC had pointed out numerous flaws in the prosecution’s case at the last hearing.

Expressing that the IHC’s last hearing sent alarm bells ringing in the power corridors as the judges raised over half-a-dozen questions on the prosecution’s case while hearing the appeals of Maryam and her husband Capt (retd) Mohammad Safdar against their conviction in the Avenfield apartments reference.

Surprisingly, the participants were told that the government can’t immediately extradite former PM Sharif and even if it tried, it could take a decade to complete the legal process. Earlier, the government had asked the UK authorities to deport the convicted the former PM from their country and did not renew his passport as well after it expired in February.

Akbar told the journalists that three letters have already been written to the UK authorities for the extradition of Sharif, saying: “The extradition of Nawaz is like chasing the tail-light of a truck for 10 years.”

Among other things, the PM’s adviser said that the bill related to grant of right to appeal to convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, which was passed by the joint sitting of parliament earlier this week, was meant to implement the punishment awarded to him and not to pave the way for his release.

Once, he said, Pakistan accepted the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), it was bound to implement the ruling. He was of the view that India would have gone to the ICJ again on the grounds that Jadhav was not given the right to appeal if the bill regarding the Indian spy was not passed in the joint sitting.

When asked about the report of an affidavit of the former Gilgit-Baltistan chief justice, Rana Shamim, Akbar said that the facts in the affidavit were not true. As far as former finance minister Ishaq Dar is concerned, he said, there was no point in opening Hudabiya case yet.