SC orders action against Gilani’s principal secy

The Supreme Court directed Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Additional Director General Chaudhry Sajjad Ahmad on Tuesday to record the statement of the petitioner if he had evidence, and in the light of the statement take action against Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Khushnood Akhtar Lashari, who aborted the arrest of Khurram Rasool, former media adviser to the premier and an accused in a Rs 630 million fraud case, by making phone calls to former FIA directors general Malik Iqbal and Waseem Ahmad and telling them not to arrest him.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Pervaiz Hussain and others against Khurram Rasool, who allegedly embezzled over Rs 630 million from a Karachi-based business on the pretext of managing a petroleum export licence for it to NATO troops in Afghanistan and awarding a contract of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). The court also told the FIA to take action against Malik Iqbal and Waseem Ahmad after recording the evidence of the petitioner if he had evidence of his claims. The court directed Chaudhry Sajjad Ahmad to submit a report on the recording of the statement by Wednesday (today).
The court expressed severe dismay over the absence of FIA Director General Tehsin Anwar Shah despite the court’s notice. FIA Director (Legal) Azam Khan told the court that Shah was participating in an important meeting in London. The court, however, directed Azam Khan to produce details of the meeting on the next hearing. Rasheed A Rizvi, counsel for the petitioner, told the court that Lashari had ordered the Iqbal and Ahmad not to arrest Rasool, despite the fact that a fraud case had been registered against him. “Then action should be taken against the high officials,” the chief justice said.
Rizvi said his client had submitted affidavits against Lashari, Iqbal and Ahmad but the FIA’s incumbent chief was reluctant to arrest them. He said a dishonored cheque from Rasool was also on record. Rizvi stated that Rasool had received the sum of Rs 630 million on the pretext of managing LPG quota and oil export licence to NATO forces in Afghanistan for two companies of the petitioners, Sahara Gas (Pvt) Limited and Pak Delta Enterprises (Pvt) Limited. He said the accused had not been arrested for almost a year. He said the forgery of signatures on the agreements came to the knowledge of the petitioners when they presented the documents for implementation to the relevant government departments. He said the Petroleum Ministry and Pak Arab Refinery Company (PARCO) informed the petitioners that all the agreements presented by them were forged documents, while no sum was received by them for or on behalf of the petitioners. He also alleged that Rasool had the support of officials of a bank in Islamabad where accounts were opened in the name of fake partnership without observing the State Bank of Pakistan’s instructions for opening of a new account. He said the matter was brought to the notice of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who directed Nargis Sethi, his principal secretary at the time, to write to the interior secretary for initiation of an enquiry into the matter. He said the enquiry found Rasool guilty and a case was registered against him, his brother Shahid Mehmood and other accomplices and officials of the bank in question. He said the FIA neither arrested any of the accused mentioned in the first information report (FIR) nor conducted an investigation, upon which the petitioners filed their writ petitions in the Islamabad High Court against the FIA chief.