ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court appeared upset when FIA’s former additional director general Zafar Ahmed Qureshi informed it on Tuesday that a communication from Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) containing details of bank accounts of the accused in the NICL scam, including Chaudhry Moonis Elahi, had gone missing.
“When I was investigating the scam, I was informed in writing that the original report of SOCA against Moonis Elahi had been lost,” he told a three-judge bench which had taken up the matter after a break of two months.
Moonis Elahi has been acquitted by a banking court which said he could not be convicted on presumed charges.
The documents had gone missing and no case was registered, Mr Qureshi said, adding that a request for initiating a proper inquiry into the disappearance of the documents went unheeded.
FIA’s Director Legal Azam Khan conceded before the bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez that although the documents had gone missing, their facsimile was there in the FIA record.
According to the SOCA report, Moonis Elahi maintained foreign currency accounts in the EFG Private Bank, UK, with a balance of 1.2 million pounds sterling and an account in Barclays Bank in the name of Beenish Khan (wife of Mohsin Habib Warraich) had 102,307 pounds sterling (transferred from the EFG Bank account).
Mr Qureshi, who has retired, said he could not complete the investigation because Interior Secretary Khwaja Siddiq Akbar, FIA Director General Tehseen Anwar Shah, Director FIA Lahore Waqar Haider, Regional Director Legal Zulfikar Ali had not cooperated with him despite repeated requests.
Azam Khan said the FIA had no evidence to establish that the money parked in foreign banks were proceeds of a crime.
The court decided to issue notices to Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, the interior secretary, FIA DG, director Lahore and regional director legal to answer by Nov 2 the allegations levelled against them by Mr Qureshi. The FIA DG is required to explain why he did not countersign a report earlier submitted by Mr Qureshi when he had been specifically asked by the court in an earlier order to personally monitor the progress in investigations.
“The FIA DG is non-cooperative; we will deal with him separately,” the chief justice said, adding that perhaps the DG thought he would stay forever, but courts were not weak.
The chief justice also wanted to know why the trial of those in detention had not yet commenced. He was informed that Habibullah Warriach, one of the accused in the NICL scandal, was on bail.
Despite the fact that the Lahore High Court is seized with a request to put Warriach on a watch-list, he and his family were quietly allowed to flee to the UK from Karachi on Sept 6.
“Is it not shocking?” Justice Khilji Arif asked.
Mr Qureshi said Rs630 million had been recovered from the accused, while Rs420 million was yet to be recovered.
The chief justice said he wondered why the matter should not be referred to the National Accountability Bureau from the FIA.
About the contempt of court case against former interior secretary Qamar Zaman, former establishment secretary Abdul Rauf Chaudhry and incumbent establishment secretary Khusnood Lashari, the court asked the attorney general to seek replies from them so that the matter could be disposed of.
The court has already reserved its decision against FIA’s former director general Malik Mohammad Iqbal.
The bench allowed Advocate Wasim Sajjad, the counsel for PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, to seek instruction from his clients over a pending application regarding allegations levelled by the former FIA investigation officer against the Chaudhry family.
They moved the application against Mr Qureshi who had claimed before the apex court on Feb 17 that he was being threatened with dire consequences and that if he met an unnatural death, Chaudhry Shujaat, Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, Moonis Elahi, Chaudhry Wajahat, Maj (retd) Habibullah Warraich and Mohsin Habib Warraich would be responsible for that.
Dr Babar Awan, representing Moonis Elahi, informed the court that his client had been acquitted by the special judge central of the allegations and, therefore, for the time being he was not pressing his application.
Dr Awan had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking review of its August 8 verdict which had quashed suspension of Zafar Qureshi and ordered him to resume the NICL probe.
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