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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Non-cooperation with NICL case investigator

Supreme Court summons interior secretary, FIA chief

* Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry says non-cooperation of officials with Zafar
Qureshi is a serious matter and court will examine it

By Hasnaat Malik

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday summoned the interior secretary, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials, including its director general, and the attorney general of Pakistan over their alleged non-cooperation in investigation of the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scandal.
The court directed the FIA director general to explain why had he not complied with the court order and countersigned the investigation documents.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez took up the NICL case after more then two-month interval, during which Zafar Qureshi retired and main accused Moonis Elahi was acquitted.
The CJP remarked that why not the NICL cases should be assigned to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as the FIA director general’s behaviour is very non-cooperative.
He also said non-cooperation of the FIA director general and interior secretary as well as other officials concerned with Zafar Qureshi is a serious matter, thus the court will examine it.
Appearing on the court’s notice, Zafar Qureshi said that he had submitted three reports on September 4, 22 and 29 regarding the NICL scandal.
The former FIA ADG stated when he sought the original report carrying details of foreign accounts of Moonis Elahi from the director general; he said the report had been lost.
Azam Khan, FIA director (legal), said that in the letter written to Interpol, the agency was asked to them to freeze the accounts of Beenish Khan, wife of Mohsin Habibullah Warraich, Mohsin Warraich and Moonis Elahi. But the UK Interpol replied that they could not restrain any funds on just one letter and will have to contact central authority. He said: “We could not establish that the money in Moonis account was transferred from the banks in Pakistan.”
Zafar Qureshi said that he had written to Interpol to inquire when the account of Mohsin, Beenish and Moonis were opened in the UK and when the money was transferred to their accounts. He said that Lahore FIA Director Waqar Haidar and Additional Director (Legal) Zulfiqar Ali gave benefit to Moonis Elahi by de-freezing his two accounts having an amount of Rs 20 million on fake letters. He said the legal team of FIA pleaded the cases in the court half-heartedly.
The court adjourned the hearing till November 2.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

 

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