ISLAMABAD – Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Friday directed Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Naveed Ahsan, to ask the Federation to implement the Supreme Court’s verdict on National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and ensure reopening of Swiss cases.
The Chief Justice also ordered Chairman NAB to implement the apex courtÂ’s 16th December order within 48 hours, otherwise his salary would be withheld. He expressed annoyance over Chairman NAB for not reopening of Swiss cases and held him responsible for non-implementation of court orders, which said 8,041 cases would be reopened soon from where they were being withdrawn.
During the course of proceedings of Banker City case, the CJ urgently summoned Chairman NAB on his poor performance in implementing the court order for clarification. “Why are some people being exempted from trial when all cases were reopened?” the CJ said adding, “You (Chairman NAB) even didn’t write a letter to Swiss government regarding the withdrawn cases.”
The CJ also asked why the Prosecutor General and the Additional Prosecutor NAB were still working despite the orders given by the apex court to replace them. He further said the NAB officials would not be allowed to appear before the court unless the court orders were implemented, adding that the condition would be applied in the whole country.
The Chairman NAB said that he didnÂ’t have the authority to remove the prosecutors from their offices. However, Swiss cases will be preceded soon as he was taking instructions from Secretary Law in this connection, he added.
On this point, the CJ said the apex court knew very well how to implement its decisions and ordered to freeze of salary of Chairman NAB if Swiss cases were not reopened.
The CJ, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz and Justice Ghulam Rabbani got furious when the learned counsels in the case of Banker City spoke against the NAB officials and said they were not cooperating with authorities concerned regarding Banker City Housing SocietyÂ’s fraud.
The CJ also told the Chairman NAB that a special cell of apex court under the head of Justice Ghulam Rabbani was monitoring the NABÂ’s business regarding cases being reopened on the direction of the apex court.
Besides, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz remarked that Government itself should write a letter to Swiss government for reopening of cases. The decision of the larger bench was not an ordinary decision, he added.
Chairman NAB said that he was under the impression that the Attorney General of Pakistan and the Ministry of Law would write the letter to authorities concerned in Switzerland regarding the cases, which were withdrawn on the request of the then attorney general Malik Qayyum.
The CJ said, “You (Chairman NAB) should have to work for the implementation of court’s order with Law Ministry and submit his written reply in the court till March 12.”
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ch Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Ghulam Rabbani in its order on pleas filed by Syed Rahat Mehmood, Muhammad Akhtar, Muhammad Farooq Ansari against NAB, gave last opportunity to Chairman NAB to submit progress report by March 12.
NAB also submitted a report over recovery of money in BankersÂ’ City case which was not endorsed by the bench.
In the report, Tariq Mehmood Bhatti, Investigation Officer NAB, admitted that he had registered claims of about 11,000 people from whom amount was taken by Syed Rahat Mehmood, one of the accused.
Malik Bashir Awan, counsel for RDA, apprised the bench that the claim made by Syed Rahat Mehmood about Rawalpindi Development AuthorityÂ’s interest in purchasing his property, was not correct. He elaborated that in Adiala village, where RDA intended to acquire land for building a city, the accused had only a small portion of 2-kanal land.
The bench, however, accepted Syed Rahat MehmoodÂ’s request and assurance that he would come up with positive result after two-weeks. Deputy Attorney General Shah Khawar and NAB officials were present during the proceedings.
On the last hearing, the bench had observed that interim bails to Farooq Leghari, Syed Rahat Mehmoood and Muhammad Akhtar, accused in Bankers City scam, were granted on the condition that they would pay back to affectees and resolve their issues.