The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a contempt of court notice to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Malik Iqbal for removing FIA Additional Director Zafar Qureshi from carrying out investigations into the NICL scam against Moonis Elahi and other influential people.
Hearing the case, a three-member SC bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, called Qureshi’s removal “interference in court matters” and observed that the (FIA) director deneral did try to hamper the case’s proceedings.
“How dare you interfere in the court’s matter? By doing this, you tried to hamper justice which is intolerable and you will have to face the consequences,” the chief justice told the (FIA) director general. He was asked to submit his reply to why the contempt of court proceeding should not be initiated against him by May 16. The chief justice observed that Iqbal had been trying to disobey court orders since he became FIA DG, adding that the same had happened in the Haj scam case too.
The FIA additional DG also appeared in the court. Qureshi told the court that he had informed the new FIA DG through a letter that this particular case was sub-judice and the court had adjourned it for three weeks. He said that he had told the DG about the investigations of this case and informed him that only interim challan had been submitted while the investigations were still underway. He submitted that immediately afterwards he received a notification of his transfer issued by the establishment secretary.
The chief justice asked the FIA DG why was Qureshi asked to leave even though he had recovered Rs 1.74 billion. Iqbal said he had transferred Qureshi on the request of the establishment secretary. Justice Muhammad Sair Ali asked him to submit an affidavit in this regard.