ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed displeasure over the absence of Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood from the NICL case hearing, DawnNews reported.

A three-judge bench of the apex court heard the politically explosive multi-billion National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) corruption case.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Iftikhar said that Ayaz Niazi was illegally appointed as the chairman of the NICL and that Amin Faheem was alleged to have been behind the decision.

The chief justice moreover said that Mahmood should have registered a case over the illegal appointment.

He said Mahmood should appear in court at the next hearing regardless of his current location. The chief justice said that if Mahmood fails to appear in court, his arrest orders would be issued.

During the hearing, Justice Khwaja remarked that the scandal amounted to six to seven billion rupees and that suspects ended up getting acquitted because the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) started backing out.

Also, the chief justice reprimanded FIA authorities and said that said that the investigation agency had seen a change of director generals six times over different probes.

He further said that as soon as the results of an investigation start surfacing, the FIA starts panicking.

The chief justice also inquired as to why an appeal was not filed against the acquittal of Moonis Elahi, the main accused in the NICL scam.

He moreover questioned why an investigation was not being conducted over the money kept in foreign banks and why that money had not been brought back into the country. The chief justice said that corruption could not be eliminated unless transparent investigations were conducted into such cases.

Chief Justice Iftikhar moreover said that the cash transferred to Amin Faheem’s accounts should also be investigated.

Later on, the case’s hearing was adjourned to June 11.