ISLAMABAD: The National Accounta­bility Bureau (NAB) found its reputation under a dark cloud again when on Wednesday the Supreme Court questioned why the corruption watchdog was letting loose the bigwigs but chasing the small fry.

The court had learned that NAB had done nothing to arrest Mohsin Habib Warriach, allegedly involved in a Rs1.68 billion scam with the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL). During Wednesday’s proceedings, a three-judge SC bench comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan asked why Mr Warriach had not been arrested, since he was facing allegations of selling plots in Lahore to the NICL at exorbitant rates.

Special Prosecutor Imran-ul-Haq argued that Mr Warriach had not been arrested given prior court orders.

This said, Justice Ahsan reminded the prosecutor that NAB had been exempted from arresting the accused person for a mere two days so that he could approach the proper forum to seek bail.

Asks why small fry are being chased but corruption bigwigs seem to be exempted

Authored by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a Nov 22, 2013 judgement had regretted the failure to recover Rs420 million from Mr Warriach, (his share of the sale of plots to NICL), with directives to recover the sum and arrest the accused person.

In 2012, a case was registered against M. H. Warriach and Akram Warriach after 10 post-dated cheques to the FIA, the first being of Rs42m as a guarantee for depositing the liable amount of Rs420m, bounced on April 4, 2012 – although a five-year agreement to return the money had been made. The cheques were presented by A. Warriach. That judgement had also ordered prosecution under the accountability law of the then chairman of NAB, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, for allegedly abusing his authority as a civil servant.

On Wednesday Justice Ahmed noted that the accused was at liberty. Asking whether he had ever appeared before NAB, he commented that NAB must have called Mr Warriach in but let him go after serving him with tea and cake.

In response, the prosecutor explained that NAB had not arrested the accused person given that the case was pending before the SC, but Justice Arab asked whether institutions would cease to continue with their work on the ‘mere fact’ that a person had put in an application before the court.

In its order on Wednesday, the court stated that NAB had failed to justify its failure to arrest Mr Warriach and ordered the prosecutor-general NAB as well as Mr Warriach to appear before the court on the next date of hearing.

Justice Ahmed observed that people who, in his learned opinion, plundered the wealth of the motherland were at liberty, but NAB was chasing people allegedly involved in petty corruption, while Justice Ahsan noted that Mr Warriach had not been arrested despite having absconded and never appearing before the courts. Justice Ahmed however expressed the worry that Mr Warriach might again flee from the country and asked which body would look into the affairs of NAB.

The court also asked why NAB was embarrassing its chairman – a retired SC judge — and directed that the report the bureau chose to furnish before the court should bear the signature of the NAB chairman.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2019