SC tells IGPs to ensure ex-OGRA chief’s arrest

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Monday summoned the inspectors general of police (IGPs) for Islamabad and Punjab to appear before the court on November 19 upon their failure to arrest the former chairperson of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), Tauqir Sadiq.

The directives were made upon the complaint of Fozi Zafar, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) deputy prosecutor general, who informed a three-judge bench that Sadiq had not been arrested so far, and that the police seemed to be least interested in cooperating with NAB to arrest him.

Zafar said that although several raids had been conducted in order to arrest him, he managed to escape every time. “It appears that he was being informed of the raid in advance,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry remarked.

The chief justice noted that if NAB was actually willing to arrest someone, then they would even go to the length of bringing in a culprit,such examples exist.

The court directed the Punjab and Islamabad IGPs to forge cooperation for bringing the accused before the court. The chief justice issued directives to both police chiefs to ensure the arrest of the former Ogra chairperson and adjourned the hearing till November 19.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2012.