Accusing Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General (DG) Tehseen Anwar Shah and Interior Secretary Khawaja Siddique Akbar of creating hurdles in the investigation of the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam, recently-retired FIA additional DG Zafar Qureshi – who was heading the team investigating the Rs 9 billion scam – told a three-member Supreme Court bench on Tuesday that Moonis Elahi, a key accused of the scam, was not acquitted in regular trial and instead his case was separated and his acquittal was secured from another court.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, took up the case after a two-month interval during which Qureshi retired and Elahi was acquitted. The chief justice said the case should be referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). He said the FIA chief and interior secretary’s failure to cooperate with Qureshi was a serious matter, thus the court would examine it. The court issued notices to the attorney general, interior secretary, FIA DG, the FIA director currently heading the investigation and the FIA’s director (Legal), ordering them to appear before the bench on November 2 and explain why the court orders in the NICL scam case were not being implemented. During the hearing, Qureshi, who appeared on notice, told the court that he tried his best to finalise a closing challan before his retirement on September 30 but failed, as the interior secretary and the FIA chief did not let him complete the final challan by creating obstacles and adopting delay tactics. He said a frozen sum of Rs 22.5 million belonging to Elahi had been released in Lahore.
He said the sum was released by FIA Director Waqar Haider and Additional Director (Legal) Zulfiqar Ali, however no action had been taken against them. FIA Director (Legal) Azam Khan told the court that Rs 420 million had yet to be recovered. To a court query, he said Qureshi’s investigation team was investigating the scam under Haider. The chief justice, however, noted that there were serious allegations of failure to cooperate against Haider. Qureshi also told the court that the UK investigation agency’s report about Moonis’s accounts in Britain had disappeared from the FIA’s Islamabad office.
He said Elahi maintained foreign currency accounts in the EFG Private Bank in the UK, having a balance of £1.2 million and another account in Barclays Bank in the name of Beenish Khan (wife of Mohsin Habib Warraich) having a balance of £102,307 (transferred from the account in EFG Private Bank). To a query, Qureshi said despite nomination in the NICL case, accused Habibullah Warraich allowed to go abroad from Karachi airport. To a question, Azam Khan told the court that other absconders of the case were in the UK and expressed ignorance of the episode.
"Perverting the course of justice the course of justice is a criminal offence in which someone acts in a manner that in some way prevents justice being served on either themselves or on a third party. Perverting the course of justice is an offence in common law. It carries a theoretical maximum sentence of life imprisonment, although no sentence of more than 10 years has been handed down in the past one hundred years in the UK.
Perversion of the course of justice takes the form of one of three acts; fabrication or disposal of evidence, intimidating a witness or juror and threatening a witness or juror."
Quoted from the law pages.
"Perverting the course of justice is a criminal offence in which someone acts in a manner that in some way prevents justice being served on either themselves or on a third party. Perverting the course of justice is an offence in common law. It carries a theoretical maximum sentence of life imprisonment, although no sentence of more than 10 years has been handed down in the past one hundred years in the UK.
Perversion of the course of justice takes the form of one of three acts; fabrication or disposal of evidence, intimidating a witness or juror and threatening a witness or juror."
Quoted from the law pages.
After all true to his family background, this man has the cheeks to walk out with a smiling face in front of masses.
No wonder, likes of him and his sires have failed the people of Pakistan and must be taken to task. If the judiciary and gov machinery can't, eventually people of Pakistan themselves will do this job at some stage.
My word! Moonis has proven to be a brave and strong willed politician. I admire the way he returned to fight his case. Not many would do this. Good example for others to follow. Face the law and fight for your right is the message that I read in Moonis Elahi’s quest for justice.
Moonis Just give a Slap to our system and flew Away .
Moonis has proven that he has inherited the family traits of plundering the country, helpless tax payers, co-operative widows, orphans and than buying his freedom with the looted money. Remember the fate that has befallen other such tyrants when the masses have their turn.
Govt involve with this case so thats why he release
Can we still claim that our judiciary is independent??? Shame on all of us that one political party's chief supported the present corrupt government to save the skin of his son Moonis. This case will prove to be last nail in the coffin of Pakistan's judicial system. 🙁
M. R@fique Zakaria
Karachi
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