ISLAMABAD, April 6: The National Accountability Bureau on Friday informed the Supreme Court that delay in the disposal of a corruption reference also involving Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao was due to his petitions pending before the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court.

NAB’s deputy prosecutor general Zulfikar Bhutta told Dawn after the Supreme Court hearing that the bureau had submitted details of the corruption reference relating to Islamabad New City Housing Project in the court and had informed it that on a request of the NAB, the high court had fixed the petitions of the interior minister for April 19.

A three-member bench comprising Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmad and Justice Hamid Ali Mirza has taken up an appeal of the National Highway Authority against Mohammad Yaqub and others.

At the last hearing in the NHA case, it transpired that the respondents were people affected by the New City project scam because the authority had not given them full payments for their land.

Allegedly, Rs209 million collected from the general public and the State Life Insurance Corporation on the pretext of developing a housing scheme in Zone-V, Islamabad New City Housing Project, was misappropriated.

The court directed the NAB to submit details of the reference and its status against the interior minister and others with an observation that a number of people had been affected because of financial irregularities in the New City project.

The apex court had also accused the NAB of saving big fish but prosecuting little criminals.

The federal minister, against whom a NAB reference has been pending before the Rawalpindi Accountability Court since long for his alleged involvement in New City scam, had obtained an exemption from appearing before the accountability court to face the reference, besides challenging the NAB proceedings.

Though the high court had granted an interim stay, the proceedings of the application of Aftab Sherpao regarding quashing the case had been pending for many years.