Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan has ordered to revere the transfer of four assistant officers of DG FIA Zafar Qureshi to continue probing the NICL scam on Wednesday.
Three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain
and Justice Ameer Hani Muslim heard the suo moto notice against massive
corruption in NICL.
The court directed the acting DG FIA and Interior Secretary to issue
the reinstatement notifications immediately and suspended the all show
cause notices against Zafar Qureshi.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in his remarks asked if the
FIA had breached laws by not following the SC orders of stopping the
transfer of the four officers.
He further said that when the court had ordered that the
departmental inquiry against Zafar Qureshi be stopped, then why the
Interior Secretary issued a show case notice to him.
SC suspended all actions against former NICL probe chief Zafar
Qureshi and directed acting DG FIA to appear before the court with the
suspension orders of the FIA officials.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked the attorney general
(AG) why the notice for Qureshi’s reinstatement has not been issued.
AG informed the court that he had communicated the Court order to
Director General FIA on 8th of July but he has departed to UK on July
11, adding that FIA officials had not informed him about reversal of
those four officials.
The CJP summoned the Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry to
appear before the court and explain why the apex court’s orders were
flouted with in an hour but after break the AG informed the court that
Acting DG, FIA and Secretary Interior were present at Quetta because of
the cabinet meeting, so they cannot appear before the court.
The Chief Justice said that the FIA chief should give authority and
protection to Qureshi to lead the investigation into the NICL scam.
The FIA chief was expected to submit a compliance report to the
court on its orders regarding the cancellation of transfers of a
four-member investigation team probing the multi-billion-rupee National
Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam and stopping action against
former lead investigator Zafar Qureshi.
The apex court ordered that all show-cause notices against Qureshi
be cancelled meanwhile, court taking notice of advertisement in print
and electronic media against the courts directed Attorney General
Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq (AG) to approach secretary information for taking
the notice of advertisement and necessary action against elements
involved in advertisement campaign against Judiciary if necessary.
Later on the hearing of the case was adjourned till today (Thursday). SANA
