Supreme Court of Pakistan. – File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday put off till July 25 hearing of a suo motu notice taken on suspension of Additional Director General, Federal Investigation Agency, Zafar Ahmed Qureshi, after seeking reactions from concerned authorities.

A two-Judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Ghulam Rabbani accepted a request of Attorney General for Pakistan Molvi Anwarul Haq for grant of time, after he apprised that the competent authority (the Prime Minister) had to proceed abroad and he could not contact him.

The Chief Justice asked him to get reactions of concerned authorities including Minister for Interior through Secretary, former and present Secretaries of the Establishment Division and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister in the meanwhile and submit with the Court.

He told AG that he had to file their reactions in order to avoid issuance of notice.

He observed that they were neither mentioning it as 'replies' (the Court usually ask parties to submit their written comments) intentionally nor adding it in its order.

He also directed him to get details of four main FIRs registered in the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam, progress report over and the exact amount of embezzled money which had to be recovered from abroad.

On last date of hearing, the Court had taken into possession the relevant record over suspension of ADG FIA which was presented by Attorney General for Pakistan Molvi Anwarul Haq, accompanied by Secretary Establishment Division Suhail Ahmed and Secretary Interior Khawaja Siddique Akbar.

The bench had also sent the issue of non-compliance of its order by the FIA Director General Syed Tahseen Ali Shah, regarding reversal of transfer orders of four FIA officials working under Qureshi, to the Secretary Establishment to further place it before the competent authority for initiation of immediate proceedings against him.

The Bench is seized with hearing of a suo motu notice it had taken on July 2 suspension order of Zafar Ahmed Qureshi, after he was re-assigned the task to investigate the multi-billion NICL scam with a judicial order of July 1 by suspending his earlier transfer to National Police Foundation as managing director.