Illegal maneuvering: FIA all set to produce evidence against TI chief

Former NICL chief accuses Adil Gilani of commiting perjury and giving wrong facts before the apex court.

ISLAMABAD: Incriminating evidence implicating the chief of the Pakistan chapter of Transparency International will be produced before the Supreme Court on January 9, the next date of hearing of the multi-billion-rupee NICL scam.

Transparency International Pakistan Chairman Syed Adil Gilani is facing serious charges of harassing government institutions and their heads, compelling them to sign memorandums of understanding (MoUs) and maneuvering to become head of departmental committees tasked with awarding lucrative contracts.

The evidence was said to have been gathered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The Supreme Court would also be handed over a handwritten statement of Ayaz Khan Niazi, former chairman of the NICL in which he has alleged that Adil Gilani committed perjury and gave wrong facts to teach the corporation “a lesson”.

FIA’s initial report revealed that government institutions which signed memoranda with Adil Gilani in the recent past had done so out of fear of being dragged to court.

In NICL case, its chairman and directors landed in jail after Adil Jilani wrote a letter to the chief justice of the apex court, urging him to take action against the organisation for alleged misdeeds.

FIA is also said to have gotten hold of a new memorandum which the TI signed with the Pakistan State Life Insurance after the NIC fiasco.

According to Niazi’s statement, officials of the NICL felt that they were being blackmailed and had to pay the price for refusing to sign an MoU with Transparency International, Pakistan chapter.

On Thursday, Adil Gilani told The Express Tribune that the corruption watchdog’s board of trustees had directed its lawyer to ask the FIA to provide them copies of the Niazi’s statement.

The statement is co-signed by all directors on the NICL board, including Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.

Adil Gilani said the TI would only then be in a position to comment if it is also provided minutes of the board’s meetings in which land or property acquisition is mentioned.

Referring to an 803-kanal land deal, Niazi said that when it was being approved, Adil Gilani sent Amin Dada to his house with a message that he (Ayaz Niazi) should sign an MoU with the TI for the award of tenders so that the TI could help NICL decide who and how to award such contracts.

Gilani, he said, also urged him to cancel the land deal and retender it. Niazi said that Gilani promised him that he would award it to the “same party if NICL board wished so, and that too at the same price, but “the entire process should be carried out all over again” under his (Gilani’s) supervision.

Niazi said he was astonished at Adil Gilani’s audacity. The offer, he said, also included that once NICL would engage TI officially by signing an MoU with the approval of board of directors, Gilani would withdraw previous allegations on all other property purchases and would give them a clean bill of health.

Niazi wrote that later Amin Dada shared this offer with NICL board members. NICL secretary Athar Naqvi was also present in that board meeting.

However, board members refused to accept the offer.

Niazi wrote that TI had signed similar contracts with PSO and PIA and he (Niazi) believed that these firms’ managing directors had cancelled the MoUs with Gilani after a few months “after realising Mr Gilani’s (real) motives”.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2010.