ISLAMABAD, May 16: Disillusioned with FIA’s investigations into the whopping loss of Rs26.5 billion in the Pakistan Steel Mills in 2008-09 alone, the Supreme Court entrusted on Wednesday the job of recovering the plundered money to the National Accountability Bureau.
“To secure the interest of public at large, the propriety demands that the investigation so far conducted by the FIA, which appears to us unsatisfactory, shall now be taken over by the NAB authorities,” Justice Tariq Parvez said in a detailed verdict on the PSM mega scam.
NAB Chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari has three months to complete the probe for recovering the money and submit fortnightly progress reports to the SC registrar for judges’ perusal.
The court also ordered its office to issue contempt notice to Interior Minister Rehman Malik for appointing a joint investigation team on Dec 17, 2009, to probe the scandal.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez had heard the case that the court had taken up on the basis of an article published in daily Dawn on Sept 11, 2009, about the firing of former PSM chairman Moeen Aftab Sheikh without issuing a show-cause notice.
Earlier in August 2006, a nine-judge bench headed by the chief justice had reversed the sale of the steel mills and declared its privatisation an act done in indecent haste.
On the menace of corruption, the judgment observed that corruption in a civilised society was like cancer which, if not detected in time, was sure to malign the polity of the country leading to disastrous consequences.
“It is termed a plague which is not only contagious but if not controlled spreads like a jungle fire. Its virus is compared with HIV leading to Aids and not curable. It has also been termed as royal thievery. The socio-political system exposed to such a dreadedcommunicable disease is likely to crumble under its own weight. Corruption is opposed to democracy and social order, being not only anti-people, but aimed and targeted against them. It affects the economy and destroys the cultural heritage, unless nipped in the bud at the earliest.”
It was likely to cause turbulence, the verdict said, and shake the socio-economic-political system in an otherwise healthy, wealthy, effective and vibrating society.
The court ordered FIA Director General Javed Iqbal to hand over record collected by the FIA to the NAB chairman who would supervise and appoint a team of honest and upright officers under his administration to further probe the scandal.
“We may add here that the incumbent chairman NAB has been making public statements of his uprightness and integrity,” the verdict recalled.
The NAB chairman will also determine the accusation against individuals responsible for such losses, misappropriation and negligence, since sufficient material, including forensic audit report, will be before him.
He will also ensure that immediate and stringent steps are taken for the recovery of looted money from the people responsible in addition to completing the inquiry within shortest possible time.
The NAB chief is required to ensure arrest of the accused, get them declared absconder or seek cancellation of bail if obtained by them. The court also ordered him to file references against the accused after proper investigation.
The FIA investigations, the verdict deplored, has failed to establish linkages between the losses caused to the PSM and the involvement of steel tycoon Riaz Lalji, perceived to be a director of Abbas Steel Group and considered a buddy of President Asif Zardari.
Similarly, Sabin Sakina, daughter of Riaz Lalji, who is reportedly in the United Kingdom, was also served with a questionnaire by the FIA regarding her contentions in respect of alleged transaction of the PSM with Abbas Steel Group, but no progress could be made.
It appeared that Riaz Lalji and Nazneen Lalji apparently resigned from the directorship of Abbas Steel Group in 2004-2005.
Sabina Sakina, Khalid Khan and Bashir Ahmed had been the directors for about three years, but strangely enough, the two later named persons were made accused in the case but connection or otherwise of Sabina Sakina did not surface in the FIA report.
“We may reiterate here that the investigation by the FIA so far has failed to pinpoint the real beneficiaries under the garb of Abbas Steel Group,” the verdict lamented.