ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party on Thursday accused the National Accountability Bureau of misleading the Supreme Court by claiming that Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah officiated as the labour and manpower minister from September 2011 to May 2012 when 238 employees had been appointed in defiance of a court ban on hiring in the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI).

The same plea was taken by former secretary of labour and manpower Arif Azeem when his counsel, Tariq Mehmood Jehangir, explained that the secretary had not been serving the department when the appointments had been made. NAB was misleading the court, the counsel claimed.

Consequently, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, sought an explanation from NAB over the allegations.

PPP leader Syed Khurshid Shah and former secretary of labour Arif Azeem are facing contempt charges for allegedly violating the court’s order of Jan 21, 2011, in which it had decreed not to make any appointment in the EOBI.

At the last hearing on June 16, the top court had summoned Mr Shah to justify why 238 employees had been appointed in the EOBI despite the court’s ban on employment.

Likewise, the court had also issued bailable warrants of arrest with a surety bond of Rs100,000 against Arif Azeem.

On Thursday, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, representing Mr Shah, submitted notifications suggesting that Mr Shah had not been serving as the minister during the period mentioned by NAB.

At this the chief justice observed that if the law officer of NAB was misguiding the court then it would definitely take action by issuing notice and imposing a fine because the reputation of a government officer had been tarnished because of the wrong information.

In its order the court also observed that prime facie NAB had misinformed the court and directed deletion of the name of Mr Azeem from the ECL.

Earlier, the name was placed on the ECL under the court directions.

The secretary has also been exempted from personal appearance in court but other respondents like Zafar Gondal will continue to face contempt charges.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had decided to initiate contempt proceedings under Article 204 of the Constitution on March 13, 2014, with a direction to the court office to maintain a separate file against those found guilty of violating its earlier order.

Then the court was hearing a case relating to the appointments in EOBI in Grade 16 to Grade 20 in an illegal manner on the basis of political influence, nepotism and cronyism under the chairmanship of then chairman Zafar Iqbal Gondal as well as large-scale financial corruption and mismanagement of funds of the EOBI.

The petitioners were also pleading before the court to order that EOBI funds were not utilised or invested in contravention and violation of the EOBI Act, 1976, and EOBI (Investment) Rules, 1979.

The petitioners then had also sought a direction from the apex court that any amount utilised in corrupt practices by the EOBI management was without lawful authority and the same be recovered.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2016