A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez has been hearing a suo-motu case regarding violation of public procurement Rules, 2004, resulting in billion of rupees loss to the national exchequer. Attorney General for Pakistan, Director Legal FIA Azim, NICL lead investigator Zafar Qureshi and Babar Awan appeared before the court in the case.
During the course of hearing, the CJP said that NICL investigation could be transferred to National Accountability Bureau in case FIA failed to carry out a fair and transparent investigation into the matter. Former additional director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Zafar Qureshi apprised the bench that an accused of the NICL multi-billion scam, Moonis Elahi, was acquitted by a banking court of Lahore recently before going through regular hearing.
However, Qureshi added that he was not able to finalise the investigation of the case for two reasons: non-co-operation of FIA authorities as well as his retirement on September 30, 2011. Qureshi told the court that Waqar Haider and Zulfiqar, Director and Assistant Director FIA Lahore, respectively wrote fictitious letters to banks which released money.
That money, according to him, was recovered from Moonis Elahi during investigation. He added that he informed Director General FIA and Interior Secretary on the "illegal" conduct of Waqar Haider and Zulifiqar but both of them did not pay heed to resolve the matter.
The CJP inquired about the whereabouts of rest of the accused of NICL scam. Director Legal FIA informed the bench that they were out of the country, adding that the team investigating the case was the same team that Qureshi had constituted in NICL case. On this occasion, Qureshi informed the bench that UK investigation Agency SOUK original report disappeared from the record, which had disclosed Moonis Elahi foreign bank account in UK. Dr Babar Awan said he did not want to press the court on the issue because Moonis Elahi had been acquitted by the court of law that followed rules of administration of justice. The court adjourned the hearing of the case till November 2.