ISLAMABAD, July 26: Former law secretary Yasmin Abbasey has requested Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to order a ‘de novo’ (fresh) inquiry into the missing record and documents relating to revival of $60 million graft cases by Swiss authorities against President Asif Ali Zardari.

On Thursday, an inquiry report by a two-man committee had squarely blamed Yasmin Abbasey for the missing record.

An informed source told Dawn that Yasmin Abbasey in a letter written to the prime minister on July 25 had described the conclusion reached by the probe committee (holding her responsible for the missing files) as illegal, mala fide and devoid of any cogent reason.

The committee comprising Establishment Secretary Sami Saeed and Intelligence Bureau Director General Aftab Sultan had submitted its findings before the Supreme Court. The committee was appointed by the prime minister when the Supreme Court was informed on June 26 that the previous PPP government had sent a secret letter to a law firm it had engaged and sought an official confirmation about Swiss authority’s inability to revive the graft cases against President Zardari.

The committee expanded its investigation to look into the delay in communication to the government of Pakistan of decisions of the “order of the non-entry into the subject”, issued by the judicial authorities in Geneva on Feb 4 this year. The committee also looked into any subsequent delay in the offices of the ambassador of Pakistan in Switzerland and the law ministry in communicating these facts to the prime minister.

The secret letter was written to Dr Nicholas Jeandin of the law firm Fontanetassocies Geneva by the former law secretary, Yasmin Abbasey, on Nov 22 last year. Dr Jeandin was instructed in the letter to explain to the Attorney General of Geneva about the position of the Pakistan government that the order of closing of cases against President Zardari by the former Attorney General on Aug 25, 2008, had attained finality and could not be reopened under the Swiss law.

The secret letter came to light when Pakistan’s Ambassador in Berne Mohammad Saleem sent a fax message on June 18, 2013, to the law secretary forwarding a letter of June 13, 2013, along with enclosures received from Dr Jeandin relating to the SGS/Cotecna money-laundering case.

The inquiry report held that the entire matter pertaining to correspondence from and to the ministry of law had been handled in the office of the then secretary law.

According to the report, Ms Abbasey never interacted with the probe committee despite repeated requests although she questioned the legality of proceedings in a note sent to the committee.

In her letter Ms Abbasey clarified that on July 4 and 8 this year she had received letters from the inquiry committee seeking some clarifications on the issue. In her replies to the letters, she asked members of the inquiry committee through her letters of July 10 and 12 that no details of missing documents or relevant contents of which the clarification was required had been furnished to her.

She had also expressed the desire, the former secretary explained in the letter, to know with certainty the specific documents regarding which the reply was to be given.

She said that the record of the subject case was in volumes but that both the times the inquiry committee never specified what information/clarification they wanted from her.

Under these circumstances, she said, it was not possible for her to make any statement before the committee. In the absence of information sought by the inquiry committee and replies she sent, she regretted, it was not legally appropriate for the committee to hold her responsible for the uncertain missing record and documents of the law division regarding the Swiss cases.