ISLAMABAD: An inquiry committee has held former law secretary Yasmin Abbasey responsible for the missing record relating to revival of $60 million graft cases by Swiss authorities against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The committee, comprising Establishment Secretary Sami Saeed and Intelligence Bureau Director General Aftab Sultan, was appointed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when a bewildered Supreme Court was told on June 26 that the previous government had sent a letter to a law firm requesting an official confirmation about the Swiss authorities’ inability to revive the cases.

The court had decided to proceed further after the inquiry and the committee submitted a 35-page report to the court.

The committee had to expand its investigation to look into a delay in communication to the government of Pakistan of the “order of the non-entry into the subject” issued by the judicial authorities in Geneva on Feb 4. It was also asked to look into the subsequent delay, if any, in the offices of the ambassador of Pakistan in Switzerland and the law ministry in communication of these facts to the prime minister.

The ‘secret’ letter was written to Dr Nicholas Jeandin Avocat of the law firm Fontanetassocies Geneva by the former law secretary on Nov 22 last year. Dr Jeandin was instructed to explain to the attorney general of Geneva the position of the Pakistan government that the order of closing the cases against President Zardari by the former attorney general on Aug 25, 2008, had attained finality and they could not be opened under the Swiss law.

The letter came to light when Pakistan’s Ambassador in Switzerland Mohammad Saleem sent a fax message on June 18 to the law secretary, forwarding a letter of June 13 along with enclosures received from Dr Jeandin, relating to the SGS/Cotecna money laundering case.

The committee said that apart from other senior officers of the law ministry, it also interviewed Ghulam Rasool, who had served former law minister Farooq Naek as senior private secretary.

He stated that the ‘NRO file’, being sensitive, was kept with the offices of the law secretary and the minister, and was never routed through him (Mr Rasool).

The report said the entire matter pertaining to correspondence from and to the ministry was handled by the office of Ms Abbasey.

According to the report, Ms Abbasey never interacted with the committee despite repeated requests.

However, she questioned the legality of the proceedings of the committee in a note sent to it.

The committee could not find any direct evidence that the Feb 4 “order of non-entry into the subject” decision of the Swiss authorities had been conveyed to the government before June 16.

The observation made by Mr Jeandin in his June 13 letter to the ambassador that “I would be grateful if they could transmit to the government of Pakistan as I have not received an acknowledgment of receipt concerning my last correspondence” and the fact that he had not specifically clarified in his response to the committee’s questionnaire as to what correspondence he was referring to required further investigation, the report said.

The Feb 4 order for non-entry into the subject was sent by Pakistan’s ambassador to Switzerland on Feb 13 and received on Feb 14 in the law ministry. It remained under process till June 19 when a note for the prime minister was sent by the ministry.