NICL scam: Apex court suspends transfer of investigation officer
By Nasir Iqbal
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court suspended on Friday the notification transferring Capt (retd) Zafar Ahmed Qureshi as director general of the National Police Foundation and ordered him to resume ‘forthwith’ investigations into the politically explosive multi-billion rupee NICL scam.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Amir Hani Muslim overturned the Establishment Division’s April 18 transfer notification despite having been informed that the chief executive (prime minister) had rejected a summary seeking reappointment of Mr Qureshi as FIA’s additional director general.
The court had taken up a contempt of court case against Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Khushnood Lashari, Establishment Secretary Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman and former director general of Federal Investigation Agency Malik Mohammad Iqbal.
Malik Iqbal had written a letter to the Ministry of Interior on April 16 this year, about investigation into the National Insurance Company Limited scam. It suggested that the interim challans had already been submitted before the relevant courts and recoveries had also been made.
On April 18, two days after the letter had been sent to the ministry, the cabinet division issued the notification transferring Mr Qureshi to the National Police Foundation although the investigation was still in progress.
On Friday the chief justice observed that the government was undermining the dignity of the Supreme Court and said the court would go to any extent if its orders were flouted.
“We are exercising restraint but our orders are flouted,” the chief justice observed.
Mr Qureshi, who is required to submit fortnightly progress report before Justice Tariq Parvez in his chamber on the NICL investigation, will be free to seek assistance from the FIA director general.
In its order the bench noted that Mr Qureshi had been accepted as an honest officer who carried out investigation properly, protected national interest and made remarkable progress by retrieving a huge amount of Rs1.74 billion.
Advocate Babar Awan, representing the three secretaries facing contempt charges, told the court that the summary moved for sending Mr Qureshi back to the FIA had been rejected by the chief executive under the powers conferred upon him by the law.
The counsel assured the court that the government respected the judiciary and it had no interest in the transfer or investigation of the case.
But he said the officers had acted as representatives of the government, which would defend them, and not in their personal capacity.
When Justice Tariq Parvez reminded the counsel that he was representing the high officials and not the government, Mr Awan replied the government was an entity that ran its affairs under a set procedure and did not comprise merely a group of people.
They acted on the instructions of the chief executive, the counsel said.
But the chief justice observed that the prime minister was not before the court and, therefore, should not be involved.
In its order the court observed: “We may observe that the stand taken by the counsel for the respondents was very fair and candid while making statement that government has no interest in the investigation of these cases and whatever has been done, was unintentional and none of the respondents had any intention to undermine the authority of the court or disrupt the investigation of the cases.”
Describing the progress made by Mr Qureshi when he was supervising the investigations as remarkable, the court said the officer who had been discharging duties honestly and uprightly and had shown professionalism by bringing back the looted money should not have been condemned by issuing the April 18 notification to take him off the investigation by withdrawing the additional charge of the post of FIA ADG.
An officer honestly conducting an investigation should have been allowed to continue with it.
The court noted that no-one including contemnors had objected to the reassigning of Mr Qureshi to continue with the investigation since he had not accomplished the job earlier assigned to him.
Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq admitted that Mr Qureshi was an honest officer and had carried out the investigation properly and successfully.
Suspending the notification, the court ordered the Director General of FIA to extend all necessary assistance to Zafar Qureshi investigating the cases registered in Lahore about the NICL scam.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/2/2011
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