ISAF containers scam: Top court flays NAB, FBR over progress reports

Three-judge bench directs both to submit a compliance report on its earlier directives by today.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed its displeasure at the progress reports by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on legal action and recovery of taxpayers’ money in the multi-billion International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) containers scam.

A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry directed NAB and FBR to submit a compliance report on its earlier directives by Tuesday (today).

The court was told on Monday that NAB had not filed any reference against any of the accused, while FBR had not initiated the process of recovering money from tax evaders. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja observed that that the government, it seemed, was not interested in eliminating corruption from the country.

“We cannot shut our eyes in a matter [where] our orders are being violated,” the chief justice said.

Meanwhile, NAB Additional Prosecutor General Fouzi Ahmad confessed that even though NAB had received the court’s judgment on November 22, 2011, no reference had been filed as yet.

Ahmad added that if the court passed orders again, the bureau would comply.  However, Justice Khawaja rubbished the idea, saying the additional prosecutor should not wait for any such order since the bureau had already been given a clear judgment in the court’s earlier orders.

The additional prosecutor informed the court that NAB would file seven references against accused persons. Later on, another 271 references will be filed, of which 61 references would be filed against clearing agents for Isaf cargo. He added that eight people were arrested in this case, but they had secured bail from a court in Karachi. The court also turned down Ahmad’s request to grant NAB an extension of over two months to implement the court’s judgment, saying that it would not allow the expiry of the statutory period of trial of the accused.

The bench also expressed its discontent over FBR’s progress report, asking FBR counsel, Rana Shamim, why taxpayers’ money had been recovered as per the recommendations of a report prepared by Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Dr Shoaib Suddle.

Shamim said that FBR had begun the process of recovering money, but the accused had initiated the appeals process. However, when asked why the recovery process had been halted if no stay order had been issued, Shamim was ill-prepared to address the court’s concern and instead promised to brief the court about pending cases on Tuesday.

Shamim also informed the court that 11,589 show-cause notices had been served in the Isaf containers scam case, adding that the total number of containers ran over 31,000 while the total tax evasion was estimated at Rs5.4 billion.

The court observed that the NAB and FBR were providing relief to tax evaders and subsequently adjourned the hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2012.