ISLAMABAD: All indications are that the government will implement the Supreme Court’s order issued on Monday to restore Mr Zafar Qureshi to his previous post of Additional Director General in the Federal Investigation Agency in Lahore.
“We will implement the Supreme Court’s decision as we had implemented all its verdicts in the past,” the President’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, told Dawn.
Sources in the PPP said the government was not in a mood to confront the Supreme Court as it was already facing political parties’ pressure over restoration of the local government system in Sindh.
A source close to the Director General of FIA said the agency’s chief was ready to send Mr Qureshi to his previous post.
He said after the court’s verdict there was no need to issue any notification by the government about appointment of additional DG of FIA in Lahore.
Mr Zafar Qureshi said he was proceeding to Lahore after handing over the charge of his office in the National Police Foundation.
He is expected to assume the charge of his previous office on Tuesday. However, Mr Qureshi said no-one from the ministry of interior and the FIA had contacted him so far.
The sources said that although Mr Qureshi had been restored by the Supreme Court and he would soon assume the charge of his office in the FIA, he would not be included in the investigation of the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam.
The government removed Mr Qureshi on April 18, apparently on the demand of PML-Q whose leaders were being investigated by Mr Qureshi in the scam.
He was tasked with investigating the NICL scandal on the Supreme Court’s directives.
The Supreme Court had admitted three applications moved by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Moonis Elahi requesting it to remove FIA Additional Director General Zafar Qureshi from the NICL scam investigation and start an investigation against him.
In the applications, the petitioners had prayed that the main accused in the NICL scam, Habibullah Waraich and his family, had deposited the entire required amount with the FIA, but Mr Moonis Elahi, his wife and other family members were being harassed by Mr Qureshi.
The government had transferred Mr Qureshi and posted Chaudhry Manzoor as the additional director general in the FIA. The agency has declared Mr Moonis Elahi an accused in the scam.
