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ISLAMABAD: Zafar Qureshi, a senior FIA officer who earned a name for exposing big names in the multi-billion National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam, retired on Friday, regretting that 'stumbling blocks' in the bureaucracy did not let him finish his job.
Capt (retd) Zafar Qureshi, who submitted his last report before the Supreme Court in compliance with the court order as the Additional Director General of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), said he had tried his best to finalise a closing challan but failed.“I stood retired at 12:30pm after filing the 100-page report in the apex court,” said Mr Qureshi who reached superannuation on Friday after a turbulent career spread over 38 years.
Mr Qureshi is not new to controversy since his name first came to limelight when former prime minister Shaukat Aziz went out of his way to include his name in a list of promoted officers even though it was missed by central selection board for promotion from BS-19 to BS-20.
The development led to a protest by Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshed Gulzar Kiani, the then chairman of the Federal Public Services Commission (FPSC), and eventually he was shown the door.
“I mentioned in the report that Secretary of Interior Khwaja Siddiq Akbar and Director General of FIA Tehseen Anwar Shah did not let me complete the final challan by creating obstacles and adopting delaying tactics,” Mr Qureshi alleged while talking to Dawn, adding that for the last one and a half months he had been repeatedly writing to both the officers, but none had ever cared to respond.
“Both of them have been openly defying and flouting orders of the Supreme Court,” he lamented.
The NICL scandal became a hot potato for the government because it ensnared Chaudhry Moonis Elahi, the son of former Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and whose party is now in a partner the coalition government led by PPP.
Later, the government suspended Zafar Qureshi to appease the Chaudhrys because it was Mr Qureshi who unearthed the involvement of Chaudhry Moonis Elahi in the NICL scam.
In one of his previous reports, Mr Qureshi had mentioned that Moonis Elahi maintained foreign currency accounts in the EFG Private Bank, UK, having a balance of pounds sterling over 1.2 million and another account in Barclays Bank in the name of Beenish Khan (wife of Mohsin Habib Warraich) having a balance of pounds sterling 102,307 (transferred from the account in EFG Private Bank Ltd). In response, Moonis Elahi approached the Supreme Court with a request to review its August 8 verdict of quashing the suspension order of Zafar Qureshi. However with the retirement of Mr Qureshi the petition now seems to be infructuous.
In compliance with the August 8 order of the Supreme Court, the government had to reinstate Mr Qureshi.
Mr Qureshi had told the Supreme Court on Feb 17 that he was being threatened with dire consequences and that if he met with an unnatural death, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, his son Moonis Elahi, Chaudhry Wajahat Ali, Maj (retd) Habibullah Warraich and Mohsin Habib Warraich should be responsible because he had arrested a number of accused including Moonis Ellahi.
“I have no regrets in my life except that I could not complete the job I was assigned,” he reiterated, saying that whatever he did was in the best interest of the country.
When asked who will substitute him, he said neither he would comment nor he had any idea but before leaving the Supreme Court he bade farewell to his seven-member team of investigators for whom he also fought.
“I advised them to work hard honestly and diligently and that the case must move forward to a logical end,” he said.
