Moonis Elahi, the main accused in the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam filed a review petition on Thursday against the Supreme Court order of reassigning investigation into the scam to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Additional Director General Zafar Qureshi.
In a related development in Lahore, District and Sessions Judge Mujahid Mustaqeem accepted an application by Zafar Qureshi and adjourned proceedings of Moonis’ acquittal application until September 6. The review petition in the SC filed through Babar Awan contended that the court’s decision of reassigning the investigation to Qureshi was made without hearing his contentions, reservations and point of view, which was against the norms of justice and should be reviewed. He requested the court to hear the case again, provide him an opportunity to present his contentions and then decide the case in light of his contentions.
He also requested the court to stay the implementation of its August 17 verdict, in which investigation of the NICL scam was reassigned to Qureshi, until the final decision on his review petition. The petitioner said he had no confidence in Qureshi and requested the court to assign the investigation to some other officer.
He said during a hearing of the NICL scam, Qureshi had made a statement before the court that the Chaudhrys of Gujrat had threatened to kill him. Questioning Qureshi’s neutrality, the petitioner stated that having a personal grudge against Moonis, Qureshi could not remain neutral in the investigation. He said he had faith in all team members investigating the scam except Qureshi.In the application filed in Lahore on Qureshi’s behalf, the court was requested not to decide Moonis’ acquittal application until the FIA official completed his investigation and submitted a challan in the case. In the application, Qureshi contended that the government had suspended him and he had failed to complete the investigation into the NICL scam. He said he had now been reinstated by the SC and had resumed investigation.
Moonis’ lawyer Rai Bashir opposed the application, arguing that the FIA had submitted the challan in the case and there was no provision of a second challan in the law. He said by filing the application, Qureshi had tried to interfere in court proceedings and committed contempt of court. Bashir added that the language of the application implied that the officer was issuing directions to the court. Judge Mujahid Mustaqeem Ahmad, however, accepted the application and adjourned hearing until September 6. Bashir said he would challenge the acceptance of Qureshi’s application in the Lahore High Court.
