ISLAMABAD: Chief Jus­tice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Friday summoned National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal in his chambers over difficulties in taking possession of over 200 acres of land for construction of a Rs10 billion health facility in the federal capital.

“What business has NAB started by defaming and humiliating people on a single or frivolous complaint?” wondered Chief Justice Nisar earlier in the open court and questioned the criteria used by the bureau for entertaining complaints.

The chief justice — heading a three-member bench that had taken up a case about lack of hospitals in the federal capital — exp­ress­ed dismay when he was infor­med that the Capital Deve­lop­­ment Authority (CDA) could not take possession of the land because an inquiry was pending before NAB.

Chief Justice Nisar also dropped hints about withdrawing a special exemption granted to the NAB chairman from appearing in court which it had extended to him because he was a former judge of the Supreme Court.

He summoned the NAB chairman and his prosecutor general Syed Asghar Haider as well as CDA chairman Afzal Latif in his chambers.

In 2014, King Hammad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain announced funding for a nursing university and a hospital and it was decided that his country would pay for the construction while Pakistan would provide the land. The facility is to be built on 237 kanals on the Park Road, in Chak Shahzad.

Last year the Bahrain government asked the Pakistan government to state in clear terms whether it was interested in getting the grant for the construction of a 200-bed hospital or not.

At the last hearing the Supreme Court had ordered the CDA to furnish a report in 15 days after taking possession of the disputed piece of land the authority had allotted to the health department for the construction of the facility.

When the case was taken up by the Supreme Court on Friday, Chaudhry Riasat Ali Gondal, who was representing the CDA, told the court that the land’s possession could not be taken because NAB had initiated a case about the allotment of the land on a complaint and was investigating the matter.

When the bench asked him about construction of the hospital, National Health Services secretary Zahid Saeed also informed the court that no progress could be made on the issue.

“Bahrain wanted to gift something to the people of Pakistan but you were creating complications only to defame Pakistan,” the chief justice observed. “NAB has started interfering even in noble causes.”

Justice Ijazul Ahsan wondered whether the financial watchdog was aware of earlier directives of the apex court and asked what the bureau was doing before March 2018, when it initiated its inquiry.

“Is everyone except NAB impure and a thief,” Chief Justice Nisar wondered and recalled how a person from NAB Lahore was blackmailing Bahria Town for personal gains.

“Are the orders of NAB more important than the Supreme Court?” he asked but regretted that the bureau had frustrated the directives of the court about the construction of the facility.

The court, however, asked the CDA to get ready to take possession of the land so that the hospital could be built in the federal capital.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2019