04 March 2005	Friday	22 Muharram 1426

ISLAMABAD, March 3: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition of the wife of federal minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat seeking to restrain the National Accountability Bureau from trying the minister for an alleged bank loan default.

"For reasons to be recorded later, the appeal of Ms Shahida Faisal, the wife of Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, Faisal Saleh Hayat, is dismissed," a bench comprising Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar observed after two days of proceedings.

"The Supreme Court order will not affect the bail granted to the minister four years ago, and it is up to the accountability court, before which the wilful default case worth Rs629 million is pending, to accept the recommendation of the reconciliation committee," NAB Prosecutor General Irfan Qadir told newsmen after the hearing.

Ms Shahida Faisal had moved the Supreme Court against an order of the Lahore High Court dismissing her habeas corpus petition. She had appealed to the court to declare her husband's detention illegal, delete all adverse observations of the high court against him and restrain the NAB from pursuing the corruption reference.

On Thursday, the NAB prosecutor-general argued that the habeas corpus petition of the appellant had become infructuous because of a reconciliation and the subsequent rescheduling of loans drawn in favour of the Shah Jewna Textile Mills.

The reconciliation between the United Bank and the appellant had vindicated NAB's stance of wilful default and, therefore, the reference initiated against him was correct, he stated. He said that the relevant court to decide if the appellant was guilty of wilful default was the accountability court which had already recorded evidence.

Mr Qadir said provisions that allowed reconciliation between a lender bank and a borrower had been incorporated in the NAB Ordinance to encourage genuine investors to continue to play their part in the economic development of the country.

Justice Javed Iqbal observed that the position would be different and there would be less burden on courts had the NAB not pursued a policy of pick and choose while initiating references.

Mr Qadir said the NAB never followed the policy of pick and choose, rather it tried to adhere to and apply uniformly Article 25 (Equality of citizens) of the constitution while filing references.

The chief justice also referred to his 30-year experience as banking court chairman and held that banks were responsible for all such mess because they sanctioned public money as loans against small securities. "The financial institutions were ravaged because huge loans were either written off or never repaid," Justice Iqbal observed.

The NAB counsel argued that the settlement between the bank and the appellant on loan rescheduling had been reached after the 30-day concession extended by the chief executive on Oct 14, 1999, for liquidating liabilities had expired.

Counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, representing Ms Shahida Hayat, said the settlement had been reached within the stipulated period. He asked the court to quash the reference of wilful default, especially when the NAB had also accepted the recommendation of the reconciliation committee about the rescheduling of loans.