RPPs case: CJ admonishes premier over inquiry panel request

Asks Saleh Hayat, Khwaja Asif and NAB chief to appear at March 18 hearing.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court admonished Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Monday for attempting to initiate an inquiry commission probe into the rental power plants (RPP) scam late last week.

“How can the Supreme Court review its earlier order directing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate the RPPs scandal, especially since the prime minister has withdrawn his review petition?” asked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who is heading a three-member bench hearing the RPPs case. The move [to withdraw the petition] has given finality to the apex court order, he said.

Citing the example of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, the SC bench reminded the counsel that court directives could be challenged through review petitions but these must come within a stipulated time frame.

Counsel for Prime Minister Ashraf, Wasim Sajjad, informed the court that the March 2012 decision of the apex court was accepted but the subsequent death of Kamran Faisal forced the premier to approach the apex court.

“An impression was being created in the media that Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, as prime minister, had been pressurising the NAB to influence investigations into the RPPs case. In order to dispel this impression, he has requested the appointment of Dr Shoaib Suddle at the head of an independent inquiry commission,” added Sajjad.



Earlier, Prime Minister Ashraf had written a letter urging the apex court to constitute an inquiry commission comprising Dr Shoaib Suddle to probe into the multi-billion RPPs scandal independent of the ongoing investigations being conducted by the NAB.

“If the premier of the country is expressing no-confidence in NAB as an investigating body, what is the future of the common man?” asked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Justice Gulzar Ahmed said that a number of other issues have also been highlighted in the media, yet the government was not concerned about those issues.

The three-member bench also comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed adjourned the hearing till March 18 and issued notices to Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat and Khawaja Asif, the two complainants in the case, along with NAB Chairman Fasih Bukhari to appear before the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2013.