SJC told: AGP stopped pension of prosecution witness

The council issues show-cause notice to Buland Akhtar Rana over allegation .

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has issued a show cause notice to Auditor General Pakistan (AGP) Buland Akhtar Rana for allegedly exerting influence over the prosecution witnesses. At the same time, the SJC asked the AGP as to why he should not be rendered dysfunctional for this act till the conclusion of the proceedings.

Under the chairmanship of Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, the council will resume the proceedings of the reference filed by the National Assembly against Rana on Wednesday, wherein the respondent will submit his reply over the show cause notice.

A senior official revealed to The Express Tribune that the SJC on March 20 issued a show cause notice to the AGP over the application, filed by one Irfan Jahangir Wattoo.

The applicant states that the AGP is allegedly using his influence over the prosecution witnesses as he stopped the pension of a former Grade-19 officer Dr Fozia Saleem, who recorded her statement as prosecution witness in this matter.

The council will resume the hearing of case on Wednesday, wherein his reply will be examined. Munir Ahmad Paracha is appearing on behalf of the AGP Rana in this case.

It is the first time in the country’s history that a complaint has been filed in the SJC seeking disqualification of the AGP.

Official sources revealed to The Express Tribune that both NA secretary Muhammad Riaz and additional secretary Qamar Lodhi recorded their statements before the council. The two officials were also crossed-examined by defence attorneys.

A senior official said he expects the proceedings of the council to be further prolonged. The SJC usually spends six to eight months on deciding a reference, he told The Express Tribune. The official pointed out that the council has decided only one reference so far, citing the ouster of a judge in 1971.

“In a majority of cases, the respondents themselves prefer to tender their resignations rather than face the SJC proceedings. In the present case, however, the AGP is unwilling to give up the legal fight,” the official said.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in August 2014 had constituted a sub-committee to probe allegations against Rana. The committee discovered that there was truth to the allegations and recommended that a reference be filed for his disqualification under Article 209(5) read with Article 168(5) of the Constitution.

Last year, PAC Chairman Khursheed Shah presented a fact-finding report in the National Assembly, exposing how the AGP had withdrawn Rs4.62 million from the exchequer on account of excess salary and privileges in violation of standard rules and regulations.

The report claimed that Rana was getting 20% additional salary in comparison with a Grade-22 officer, and under the monetisation policy, he availed more than Rs3.1 million between January and March 2014.

It also said that matters of a revised pay slip and provisional payments to the AGP were deliberately kept hidden for attaining particular financial benefits. The committee also recommended recovering an amount of Rs4.62 million from Rana.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2015.