ISLAMABAD: Between 2010 and 2012, the Haj corruption scandal rocked the national political scene and led to the departure of both Hamid Saeed Kazmi and Azam Swati from the federal cabinet.

The former also spent nearly two years in prison over charges of irregularities in the 2009 Haj operation.

But the much hyped matter is rarely mentioned anymore and its proceedings have become very routine, like most other court cases.

When it first erupted, the case caused quite a storm, souring ties between the PPP and JUI-F. The sudden removal of Azam Swati from the cabinet annoyed Maulana Fazalur Rehman, who expressed his displeasure publicly.

The scandal surfaced in 2010 after Swati, then-minister for science and technology, accused the religious affairs minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi of corruption. The Supreme Court then took suo moto notice and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was assigned to probe the allegations.

According to the charge sheet issued to Kazmi, DG Haj Rao Shakeel and Raja Aftabul Islam, a former joint secretary ministry of religious affairs, the men were indicted for fraud, cheating, misuse of authority, and causing losses to the national exchequer and the public at large.

They were charged under sections 109, 409, 420, 468, 471 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and 5(2) 1947 of Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

Specifically, they were accused of hiring a substandard building on exorbitant rent (for housing the pilgrims in Mecca) and receiving kickbacks in the process.

Prosecutors blame weak evidence; Kazmi continues to maintain his innocence

The scandal even threatened to taint then-prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani as FIA implicated his son Abdul Qadir, who was also an MNA, in the Haj corruption case. The FIA alleged, based on testimony by former PML-N lawmaker Syed Imran Ahmed Shah that Abdul Qadir had received a luxury bullet-proof Land Cruiser from Rao Shakeel Ahmed.

However, a year and a half later, in 2012, the PML-N man backtracked and Gilani was acquitted.

Originally, the MNA had alleged that Zain Iftikhar Sukhera, a close friend of Abdul Qadir, went to Saudi Arabia on Jul 18, 2010 and met Rao Shakeel to receive the vehicle.

The vehicle was “reportedly smuggled through the Karachi port and was secretly offloaded from a truck at Sahiwal”.

In return, Mr Sukhera was awarded toll plaza and road construction contracts by the National Highways Authority, Mr Shah had alleged in his statement

In a supplementary statement, recorded on Dec 29, 2010, Mr Shah claimed that Rao Shakeel was a classmate of Yousaf Raza Gillani. Abdul Qadir denied these allegations, chalking them up to political rivalries.

After Gillani was absolved of charges in 2012, Kazmi was released on bail as well.

The Supreme Court’s suo moto was then disposed in December 2013 with directions to the FIA to thoroughly investigate the case and root out corruption from the pilgrimage in the future.

Four years on, the case has reached its conclusion in an FIA special court. In background conversations, officials admit that politicians might not be convicted.

One official, who cannot speak on the record, claims that the “allegations against Abdul Qadir were not correct and this is why he was not nominated in the challan”.

According to the official, “The evidence against Hamid Saeed Kazmi is also weak, which is why he was able to secure bail in 2012.”

So far, all the accused, including Rao Shakeel, Aftabul Islam and Ahmed Faiz (Kazmi’s alleged front-man who is accused of taking kickbacks during the process of hiring the ‘substandard’ buildings for pilgrims) have been released on bail.

Kazmi, though, continues to profess his innocence. He told Dawn that the then-ambassador to Saudi Arabia wanted to hire out the buildings for the pilgrims, a responsibility that usually rests with the Haj ministry.

He told Dawn that in 2009, months before the Haj, Pakistan’s embassy in Saudi Arabia wrote to the cabinet division and suggested that instead of the directorate general Haj, the embassy hire the buildings. “But the suggestion was rejected,” claimed Kazmi.

He also claimed that Swati wanted a JUI-F man to replace him.

“The case damaged my political career,” he said.

The FIA had produced 53 witnesses, including officials working in the directorate of Haj in Jeddah, officials from the ministry of Religious Affairs and employees of the Pakistani embassy in Jeddah.

Most of the evidence produced in court is related to transactions Rao Shakeel made through his subordinates.

For example, Mohammad Mushtaq, a prosecution witness, had testified that he had worked with Rao Shakeel as a stenographer and transferred 25,000 riyals to his accounts. Mohammad Aslam, a cashier at Pakistan’s mission in Jeddah, also told the court that he transferred 10,000 riyals to the accounts of Shakeel’s relative.

The evidence also includes different orders and the observations of the Supreme Court, which it passed from time to time during the hearing of suo moto case and statement of Mr Swati as well as other government officials.

FIA Special Prosecutor Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry, however, maintained that as the minister of Religious Affairs, Kazmi was supposed to implement the Haj policy in letter and spirit.

He said Kazmi visited the buildings before the Haj began and was aware that they were under construction and were not inhabitable.

According to Chaudhry, the government policy mandated that the buildings be no further than 200 metres from the places of worship, but that Rao Shakeel, in connivance with the minister and other ministry officials hired far-flung buildings that lacked the required facilities.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2016