LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Sunday referred the mater of excessive salaries of public sector companies’ heads to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with direction to complete an inquiry into it within 10 days.

The chief executive officers (CEOs) of almost all public companies were present in the court when a two-judge bench headed by the chief justice resumed hearing into the market-based salaries of government servants working in these companies.

The companies’ heads pleaded that their appointments were made purely on merit and lawfully. However, Chief Justice Nisar rejected their claim and directed all those drawing salary over Rs300,000 to join the NAB investigation.

The chief justice took notice of Rs1100,000 monthly salary being received by an officer, Mujahid Sherdil, as CEO of the Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab (IDAP). “What is your experience and qualification to justify such a huge salary,” the chief justice asked Mr Sherdil and pointed out that the authority engaged the same contractor for multiple mega projects, including the Orange Line Metro Train.

The CJP lamented that no one cared about the taxpayers’ money and rather looted it with both hands. He observed that the court would recover on its own if any of the officers failed to return all the salaries received over and above the regular pay drawn by them as government servants.

He directed the NAB to also look into the legal possibility of filing a reference against the officers for getting unjustifiable salaries.

As per a list of 62 government officers submitted before the court, Ahad Khan Cheema was the highest paid officer of any public sector company. He had been receiving Rs1.9 million per month as CEO of the Quaid-i-Azam Thermal Power Company from July 2015 to Feb 2018. At present, Mr Cheema is behind the bars after being arrested in connection with the Ashian-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam.

Punjab Saaf Pani Company (North) CEO retired Capt Muhammad Usman received Rs1.4 million monthly salary from Sept 2017 to June 2018. The company’s ex-CEO Khalid Sherdil received Rs1.3m per month from April 2017 to Aug 2017, its former south head Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry had been getting Rs1.03m monthly pay from Feb 15, 2015 to Dec 2016, while Mr Nabeel Javed got Rs1.4m against the same post from Jan 2017 to Jan 2018.

The Lahore Knowledge Park Company’s CEO Abdul Razzaq had been receiving Rs0.8m per month from Sept 2017 till date.

Previously, Punjab chief secretary had told the court that the government servants were ready to return the market-based salaries they had received for working at the public sector companies.

Earlier this year, Chief Justice Nisar had taken suo motu notice questioning the legitimacy of public sector companies in Punjab and also of the huge salaries of government servants working in these entities. The chief justice had already referred the matter of alleged embezzlement in the companies to the NAB for a detailed probe.

During one of the hearings, former chief minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif had also appeared before the court to explain performance of the Saaf Pani Company in particular.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2018