Ministry told to send new summary to PM

The SC directed the law ministry to send a summary to Gilani afresh for reopening Swiss cases against Zardari.

ISLAMABAD: Issuing a one-week deadline to the government, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the law ministry to send a summary to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani afresh for reopening Swiss cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. The court said that if the deadline was missed, the law secretary would have to appear himself before the court on July 12.

Resuming the hearing of the NRO non-implementation case, additional attorney general K K Agha submitted a report of the appointment/promotion of Ahmad Riaz Sheikh in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) before the five-member larger bench headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk.

The bench, however, rejected the report on account of its incompleteness. The report said that no clues had been found of involvement of Joint Secretary Tahir Sarfraz in the appointment/promotion of Ahmad Riaz Sheikh.

“Then upon whom has the responsibility been fixed in this report,” Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk asked K K Agha. The judges further questioned Agha about the letter of appointment/promotion of Ahmad Riaz Shiekh.

Justice Jawad S Khawaja then remarked that though seven months had passed, no one knew where the missing letter was. “Should we summon the Central Selection Board and conduct an inquiry ourselves?” he asked.

Agha was instructed to inform the court in the light of the report he had submitted about who was responsible. In his opinion, he said, it was the Central Selection Board that was responsible.

Later Iftikhar Gillani, the counsel for Tahir Serfraz, appeared before the bench and presented a letter of the registrar’s office sent to the interior secretary about the implementation of the NRO verdict.

Gilani submitted that the ministry had received a  letter on December 21 last year and the next day the Central Selection Board approved the promotion of Ahmad Riaz Sheikh. Justice Jawad S Khawaja observed that the court orders were not being implemented.

Later the Court summoned Attorney General Anwarul Haq and reminded him that though the court had issued directives three weeks ago about the reopening of the Swiss cases no action had been taken so far.

Justice Tariq Pervez observed, “It seems we are simply giving orders over orders”. The court asked the attorney general, “Where is the law secretary at present?”  The judges were told that the attorney general was in Lahore and needed some more time regarding summary. But the court turned down his request and instead directed the law ministry to prepare a summary afresh and send it to the prime minister regarding the reopening of the Swiss cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2010.