ISLAMABAD: FIA’s newly-appointed Director General Tehseen Anwar Shah found himself in trouble when the Supreme Court asked the establishment secretary on Thursday to initiate departmental proceedings against him for violating a judicial order.

Instead of straightaway arraigning the FIA chief on a contempt charge for not complying with its order, the court referred the matter to the establishment secretary who will place it before the competent authority under the Government Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 1973, before initiating departmental proceedings against the officer.

The order was issued by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Amir Hani Muslim hearing a multi-billion-rupee financial corruption in the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) which also involves Moonis Elahi, son of former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

The secretary is required to keep the court abreast of the disciplinary proceedings, through its registrar.

“The FIA DG had a constitutional and legal duty to comply with the orders of this court as envisaged under Article 190 of the Constitution (all executive and judicial authorities shall act in aid of the Supreme Court),” the order dictated by the chief justice said.

It said: “The FIA DG has no authority to avoid or defy the orders which were issued as back as July 7 under which the disciplinary action against Zafar Qureshi, supervising the NICL probe, was suspended. “The same was also communicated to the FIA DG on July 8, but instead of complying with the orders he left for the UK on an official assignment. Thus the FIA DG not only violated the judicial order of this court but, ex facie, rendered himself liable for disciplinary proceedings.”

Mr Qureshi is facing government’s wrath for acting against Moonis Elahi and recovering Rs1.78 billion from different individuals involved in the NICL scam. He was taken off the case and also suspended.

Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq informed the court that FIA’s Acting Director General Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, who also appeared before the court, had cancelled the transfer orders of Javed Hussain Shah, Muhammad Ahmed, Khalid Anees and Muhammad Sarwar -- the four officers who were shunted out to frustrate the NICL probe.

Through a notification issued by the acting DG but corrected later on the advice of the court, the officers who were part of Mr Qureshi’s investigating have been posted back to their previous positions.

The court observed that the officers had in fact been penalised for conducting an honest and thorough probe into the NICL scam. “As per record made available to this court, they made remarkable progress in unearthing the crime,” the chief justice said, adding that instead of valuing the officers for their sincere efforts, they had been posted out of Punjab in disregard of the court orders.

The court said that the transfer orders were issued to frustrate the investigation. The action (by FIA DG) was taken to make the offices suffer for working honestly and standing by the rule of law.

The order said: “By transferring the officers and now by replacing them back to their original places, the national exchequer was burdened through TA/DA payments to the transferring officers to join different places and then coming back to their original places.

“Therefore, notice be issued to the FIA DG to appear and explain why instead of burdening the national exchequer he should not be burdened to make payment towards TA/DA of these officers from his own pocket. On receipt of the reply and after hearing him, appropriate orders will be issued.”

The order also referred to newspaper reports that Zafar Qureshi had been given four options by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and then suspended on political intervention.

The court observed that the matter required a thorough probe by a judicial officer because if the reports that also foundsupport from the prevailing circumstances were established in the enquiry that actions of the authorities were the outcome of political intervention and attempts were made to make the orders passed by this court ineffective and inoperative, it would have its own repercussions.

“Efforts should be rendered to support a precedent being established that ill-gotten money can be brought back to the country; after all this is our country,” the chief justice observed.

“We want to give our children a better Pakistan,” Justice Khilji said.

The court gave its mind to the attorney general of appointing a judicial officer (either from Islamabad or Lahore) to conduct a thorough probe into the matter, the chief justice said, adding that the court had made the AG to realise about the repercussions because “we believe that institutions should function within their own parameters”.

He said: “The proceedings of the commission will be open. It was our fundamental right to protect the prestige of this institution. But instead of availing the remedies available in the Constitution, attempts are being made to defy court orders and or to make it ineffective. This act, ex facie, amounts to interference in the independence of judiciary.”

The attorney general sought more time to get instructions and assured the court that he would try to convey feelings of the court in a forceful manner. But the bench reminded him that he was taking the same position he had taken on Wednesday and even on Thursday morning when the case was taken up.

“Constitutional provisions permit the court to appoint Zafar Qureshi, along with his team, to continue to probe the corruption scandal,” the chief justice observed, citing a similar corruption case of the Bank of Punjab.

In the larger interest of the institutions, the court said, it was giving the AG another opportunity to seek fresh instructions by Friday and inform the court.