Informant still awaits reward: ‘Justice must be dispensed for Schon whistleblower’

Human rights groups, former FIA officials, ministers and others call for compensation for Aamir Ahsan.

LAHORE:

Despite an immense response from Pakistan and abroad on a story published by The Express Tribune on February 13 titled “Exposing graft: 14 years on, informant awaits just reward”, Pakistani authorities and the Supreme Court have not initiated any action till the filing of this report.

Various parties including the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development in South Africa, the Human Rights USA Board of Directors, the International Human Rights Commission, the Council of Europe, the Council of India and concerned investigation officers of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have called for informant Aamir Ahsan Khan to be compensated as he had been promised years ago.

After the report was published, moral, legal and financial assistance has been offered to Khan by several human rights organisations as well as his former colleagues. The FIA investigation officer in Khan’s case has offered to become a witness for Khan, while various media outlets and lawyers have approached him, Khan said.

Chairman of the Human Rights USA Board of Directors Rick Wilson, while commenting on the story stated that “This lack of injustice in Pakistan and other countries should be taken seriously, when justice is delayed it become sore for the developing nations”.

Rafiq Mughal, a retired FIA inspector who served during the operation against Schon group in 1997 said that all the credit was taken by the then Joint Secretary of the Ehtasab Cell and former Ehtesab supremo Saifur Rehman. I really feel sorry for Khan, who was also promised the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, but it was given to Afzal. I am ready to testify for Khan’s effort”.

A number of the concerned international bodies and former FIA officials called for the Supreme Court to take notice of the matter.

What Khan revealed

Khan was the main source of information for many years for the former Ehtasab Bureau, forerunner of the current National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and still awaits the national accolade announced for him 14 years back.

Khan played an instrumental role in assisting the bureau to recover Rs3 billion from the Schon Group.

The former chairman wanted Khan to accept nominal prize money but sign a declaration saying he had received the full amount he had been promised.

Khan was working as a senior maintenance manager with the Schon Group in 1997 when he was pressurised to sign bogus bills of Rs640 million.

According to the intensive ‘transparency’ policy of the time, as well as the Ehtasab/NAB ordinance 1999, the informant was to be paid the (widely publicised) reward money of 10% of the recovered amount.

Sources in NAB say that Khan has a strong case. If taken up by the court, NAB and the government will be left with no option but to pay the due reward, they added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2012.