ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: The Supreme Court reserved on Tuesday its judgment in the multi-billion-rupee National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam case as well as contempt of court proceedings against National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, former establishment division secretary Abdul Rauf Chaudhry and former principal secretary to the prime minister Khushnood Lashari.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry reserved the verdict after hearing Abdul Rauf Chaudhry and Qamar Zaman Chaudhry who had also served as interior secretary during the PPP-led government.

The court had issued the contempt notices to Qamar Zaman and other senior officers on June 16, 2011 for not rescinding the April 18, 2011 notification under which then additional director general of FIA retired Capt Zafar Ahmed Qureshi was transferred to the National Police Foundation (NPF) as its managing director.

Capt Zafar was overseeing the investigation into the politically-explosive NICL scam. He has since retired.

The contempt notices were issued under Section 17 (1) of the Contempt of Court (Ordinance) of 2003 for wilful defiance of its earlier order by withdrawing the officer from the probe and thus hampering the smooth investigation into the case involving huge amounts of public money.

On Tuesday, Qamar Zaman threw himself at the mercy of the court and tendered unconditional apology.

In his written statement, the NAB chairman said he had always taken the orders of the court very seriously and handled them with extreme care and diligence. He said he was the one who had implemented the Dec 12, 2009, Supreme Court judgment in the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case.

“Even then defence minister Ahmed Mukhtar whose name was on the exit control list (ECL) was stopped from going to China on Dec 18, 2009,” he said, adding that as a consequence he was suspended from service.

Referring to the transfer of Capt Zafar, he said the then FIA director general had on April 15, 2011, written a letter to the interior secretary suggesting that interim challans in the NICL case had been submitted to the relevant court on April 11, 2011, a report of which was also submitted to the apex court. The interior ministry forwarded the letter to the establishment division on April 16, 2011.

Mr Zaman claimed that the letter was only of information and there was absolutely no suggestion explicit or implied that Capt Zafar be dissociated form the NICL investigation. Under the Rules of Business 1973, he was required to share the letter with the establishment division, he said, adding that no summary or reference whatsoever, written or verbal, for dissociating Capt Zafar from the NICL inquiry was processed in the interior ministry.

The NAB chairman also cited a letter written to the establishment secretary on Jan 24, 2011, as a result of which Cap Zafar was re-associated with the investigation on the same date. “Therefore, there can be no question of any wilful defiance of the orders of the Supreme Court,” he said, adding that he had no role whatsoever in posting out Capt Zafar.

Mr Zaman requested the court to withdraw the contempt notice against him.