The high-ups of the Interior Ministry have given a green signal for the promotion of FIA Anti-Corruption Unit Deputy Director Sajjad Haider, who was convicted and dismissed thrice from the department, but was reinstated in defiance of the Supreme Court’s order.
Sources in the FIA told Pakistan Today that the promotion case of Sajjad Haider, who is a close aide of Interior Minister Rehman Malik, would be presented before the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) in its upcoming meeting, likely to be held in the first week of November. The sources said the meeting of the DPC was scheduled be held on October 12, however, it could not take place as the board feared that without getting cross-verification of NRO clearance certificates, the promotion of Haider and other grade 18 officers might put the government in trouble. However, sources said now it had been decided that in the coming meeting, Haider’s case would be put before the DPC.
The sources said Sajjad Haider was earlier reinstated in defiance of Supreme Court directions, which clearly directed the government not to appoint NRO beneficiaries in government departments, but the Interior Ministry would once again challenge the Supreme Court’s direction while giving promotion to Haider. The SC has already sent home two NRO beneficiaries, OGDC managing director Adnan Khawaja and FIA’s additional DG of Economic Crime Wing Ahmed Riaz Shiekh. Haider and Riaz Sheikh were also part of a joint operation team that arrested late Mian Mohammad Sharif, father of Nawaz Sharif, during Benazir Bhutto’s second term. Haider was convicted, along with his boss Rehman Malik (then FIA director), and awarded a three-year sentence by the Lahore High Court, however he was given presidential pardon by Asif Ali Zardari.
