ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to submit a day-to-day progress report on the alleged corruption and mismanagement in Haj affairs with the registrar for perusal of Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and asked it to interrogate Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son, Abdul Qadir Gilani for his alleged involvement in the scam.
An eight-member special bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, also held that former religious affairs minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi apparently committed corruption in the Haj arrangements, therefore he was liable to be proceeded in accordance with the law.
The court was informed that 152 senior officials were working on a contractual basis after their retirement and of the 152, 15 including FIA Director General Waseem Ahmed and Sindh Inspector General Police Babar Khattak, reappointed on contract basis by the federal government, were being removed and a summary for their removal had been forwarded to the prime minister. The court expressed satisfaction over the progress in the process of paying back 750 Saudi Riyals to each affected pilgrims.
Religious Affairs Secretary Shaukat Hayat Durrani told the court that 95 percent of pilgrims had been paid the amount. The court directed Durrani to submit before it a comprehensive report in this regard. FIA Director Hussain Asghar, who is investigating the case, told the court that evidence had been found indicating Kazmi’s involvement in the corruption and warrants were being obtained for his arrest. He said a team went to Saudi Arabia to arrest Ahmad Faiz, the main accused in the Haj scam, but could not as he was not at home.
However, he said the Saudi government had assured them that it would arrest Faiz and hand him over to Pakistan. During the hearing, FIA Additional Director General Javed Bukhari told the court that Zain Sukhaira, a close friend of the PM’s son did not have an LLM degree, as he had claimed. The chief justice then asked how was he appointed as consultant? He said Sukhaira should be proceeded against on charges of misconduct.
To a court query about former religious affairs secretary Najeebullah, who is accused of amending rules to favour Sukhaira, Bukhari said Najeebullah had retired and was now serving as member Public Service Commission.Meanwhile, the court was informed that all the 13 contractual employees had been removed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Punjab and 43 from Sindh. The court adjourned hearing until February 15.
