The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to accept a written statement from National Accountability Bureau regarding settlement with the management of Shah Jewna Textile Mills, and adjourned the case to March 2 for "appropriate order". The Court order came after NAB counsel was asked to be specific if he was requesting for withdrawal of the reference against the Shah Jewna family. NAB counsel Abdul Basir Qureshi said that he had limitations of law on him and he could not make such a request after the case had been initiated.

However, he said, Section 25-A of National Accountability Ordinance empowerd the courts to make an appropriate order in this connection.

Along with others, the debtor Mills is owned by Saleh Faisal Hayat, currently Minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas, who was prosecuted for "a wilful default in repayment of a loan of Rs 406 million".

Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, presiding over the Bench, said that the statement by NAB lawyer was not specific about withdrawal request and hence was not acceptable to the Court, and adjourned the hearing to first week of March when the Court will announce its determination. With this observation, the Chief Justice returned the written statement to Abdul Basir Qureshi.

Other two members of the Bench were Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.

A joint statement signed by Abdul Basir Qureshi, for NAB, and Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, for Mrs Shahida Faisal Saleh Hayat, on Monday had been returned, in original, to NAB representative, observing that it did not seek the withdrawal of the reference to Accountability Court.

A statement signed by Qureshi made available to the press here on Tuesday morning simply stated that the case against Faisal S Hayat was initiated "in good faith, without any mala fide according to the followed procedure.

It was referred to a Conciliation Committee that contained a representative of the lender bank and the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan accepted its "recommendations" as well as the lender bank.

Without explaining the terms of settlement, the NAB said it had no objection to "finishing the references against Faisal Saleh Hayat, requesting the Court to "pass an appropriate order in the interest of justice".

The statement contained a hand-written note from Abdul Hafeez Pirzada that "in view of the categoric statement made by the NAB counsel", he had no objection for allowing time to the NAB to place the "matter before the Accountability Court" for "termination of the reference and the proceedings therein".

Khawaja Haris and Mohammad Nawaz Kharal, along with juniors of Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, appeared for Shahida Faisal Hayat and her husband.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005