A five-member special bench of the apex court headed by Asif Saeed Khan Khosa heard a suo motu action on the appointment of a convicted person namely Ahmed Riaz Sheikh, as Additional Director General, Federal Investigation Agency and Adnan A Khawaja, former head of OGDCL.
The court also directed Prosecutor General NAB to submit a reply explaining why references were not filed against Ahmed Riaz Sheikh and Adnan A. Khawaja, beneficiaries of NRO. During the course of proceedings, K K Agha, Prosecutor-General NAB, informed the bench that separate references had already been filed before the Registrar of the Accountability Court, Rawalpindi/Islamabad in matters pertaining to Ahmed Riaz Sheikh and Adnan A. Khawaja.
He further told the court that in the matter of Malik Qayyum the circumstances of the case showed that only an offence under section 9(a)(vi) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 could be said to have been attracted. However, in his opinion, no such case was made out.
The bench, however, recalled that it had concluded in the NRO judgement that the letters written by Malik Muhammad Qayyum to the Swiss and other authorities were "unauthorised and illegal" and yet NAB decided to take no action against him for such unauthorised and illegal acts. The court directed the Prosecutor-General NAB to produce before the next date of hearing a copy of his opinion as well as a copy of the decision taken by the Executive Board Meeting on September 17, 2012 in the matter of Malik Muhammad Qayyum.
In the matters pertaining to Ahmed Riaz Sheikh and Adnan A. Khawaja, the court noted that the beneficiaries of the illegal appointment/promotion as well as the persons directing such illegal appointment/promotion had prima facie been screened and no reference had been filed against them whereas references had been filed only against those who had implemented the directions so issued.
"We would like to know the reasons which prevailed with the National Accountability Bureau for not filing any reference against the beneficiaries and the persons directing the illegal appointment/promotion and for singling out merely those who had acted upon the said directions," the court said in its order.
The court directed the Prosecutor-General NAB to submit separate reports in the matters of Ahmed Riaz Sheikh and Adnan A. Khawaja. The court further directed that the requisite reports should be filed with the Court before the next date of hearing and copies of the same may be supplied to the counsel representing the concerned persons. During the hearing, Shaiq Usmani, the counsel for the Chairman NAB, submitted that his job had been accomplished and he had no further assistance to render in this regard and, therefore, he could be relieved of his duties of representing the Chairman NAB henceforth. The court observed that the NAB was already being represented in the present proceedings through various officials of the said Bureau including the Prosecutor-General Accountability and his team. The bench accepted his request and relieved him of his duties as the counsel for the Chairman NAB. Later, the court adjourned the hearing till September 25.