TERENCE J SIGAMONY
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed National Accountability Bureau to submit on Friday (today) details of NICL cases pending in various accountability courts.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, heading a three-member bench, inquired from the additional prosecutor general NAB where the cases of National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) are pending.
He replied that these are pending in the Accountability Court, Karachi. The APG sought some time to provide the details of these cases. However, the Chief Justice asked him to file the details on Friday (today). The Chief Justice also directed the APG to provide a report about the bail of NICL Chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi and Mohsin Warriach.
The Supreme Court in its judgment dated November 5, 2013 had held that appointment of Ayaz Khan Niazi was contrary to section 12 of the Insurance Ordinance, 2000 and rules framed thereunder as well as non-transparent, illegal and unwarranted. Thus, except one of the officers (Tariq Zubair Khan, Section Officer), all others i.e. then Additional Secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, then Secretary Commerce Suleman Ghani, then Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim, then Secretary Establishment Ismail Qureshi, and then Acting Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Nargis Sethi are involved in his appointment and, prima facie, are liable to be dealt with under section 9(a)(vi) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 [as amended by National Accountability Bureau (Amendment) Ordinance, 2002] on account of NICL scam pertaining to Punjab (Lahore) and Sindh (Karachi) where allegedly offences of corruption and corrupt practices have been committed.
On account of transfer of Zafar Ahmed Qureshi, director FIA, an amount of Rs420 million due against Mohsin Habib Warraich and others could not be recovered. Likewise, another huge amount had been deposited by the accused persons in bank account of Moonis Elahi with EFG Private Bank Ltd, London, having a balance of £1.138 million, in the name of a company owned by him and another account in the name of Beenish Khan (wife of Mohsin Habib Warraich) in Barclays Bank London with a balance of £0.102 million, had not been recovered
The FIA after transfer of Zafar Ahmed Qureshi failed to retrieve the outstanding amounts which were frozen, but were illegally activated without following the procedure, during the period he remained disassociated from the investigation of the case w.e.f. 19.04.2011 to 13.08.2011. Therefore, the chairman NAB is directed to have all these cases transferred on his file and proceed in accordance with law, take necessary steps to recover outstanding amount noted above and also arrest Mohsin Habib Warraich, Amin Qasim Dada, Khalid Anwar, etc, as early as possible.
