LAHORE – Investigation into the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL) scam took a new turn when the newly-appointed Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Malik Iqbal appointed another investigator to the same case and reduced the scope of investigations handled by Additional Director General (ADG) Zafar Qureshi, the investigator already appointed to the case.
Well-placed sources in the FIA told Pakistan Today that Iqbal had taken the step on special orders from the interior minister. They said that Iqbal had appointed ADG Chaudhry Manzoor as the other investigator to probe the involvement of those FIA officials who had tried to impede progress in investigations the NICL scam, especially former FIA DG Waseem Ahmed and Lahore Region Director Inam Ghani.
Sources said that investigations against Ahmed began after a former National Central Bureau (NCB) official Mirza Sultan Saleem testified that he had been reprimanded and transferred out of the NCB by him, allegedly for sharing financial information about Moonis Elahi, one of the principal accused in the case, with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) in Britain.
Sources said that Saleem was removed from his position at the NCB and later transferred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). FIA officials had also accused the former DG of withholding letters that the FIA had written to British authorities seeking information and cooperation, with the aim of slowing down the investigation into the NICL scam.
Sources said that the letters were to be sent by the FIA, through the NCB, to SOCA in Britain but Ahmed had withheld them for more than 20 days. Sources said that Ghani was found to be involved in helping Moonis Elahi secure some relaxations, such as Elahi’s stay at a guest house instead of prison, which Ghani had ensured by writing to the government that there would be threats to Elahi’s life if he were kept in jail.
Authorities subsequently moved Elahi to a NADRA guesthouse after declaring it a “sub-jail”, on Ghani’s recommendation, said the sources. They added that ADG Qureshi had also included the names of Ahmed and Ghani in his investigations, and alleged that the FIA DG had stopped Qureshi from investigating the involvement of these FIA officials by dividing the investigation of the scam into two parts in order to “save the skin of FIA officials.”
Qureshi refused to comment on the issue.
