Expressing dismay over the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for not completing investigation into the Haj scam despite a lapse of almost two years, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the FIA to complete the investigation within two weeks and submit a comprehensive report with the court’s registrar office.
A two-member bench of Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Jawwad S Khawaja expressed dissatisfaction over the ongoing pace of progress in the investigation of Haj scam 2010, however, it allowed FIA to conclude the investigation within a fortnight and furnish a detailed report enabling it (court) to ascertain the progress so far made in the probe.
At the onset of hearing, FIA Director Inam Ghani submitted a report and told the court that challans of former establishment secretary Ismail Qureshi, former Haj director Rao Shakeel Ahmed and former joint secretary Haj SM Tahir, involved in the case, had been submitted before the trial court on April 25.
He said Qureshi was declared innocent in the challan, whereas the Islamabad High Court had quashed the case against SM Tahir. Besides, he said the agency was in the process of verifying the educational degree of Zain Sukhaira, one of the accused in the Haj scam, but the process was delayed as the Multan Bench of the Lahore High Court had granted stay on April 14 into the matter.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja inquired why had the name of former establishment secretary Ismail Qureshi been written in column number 2 of the submitted challan intentionally, to which, Deputy Attorney General Shafi Muhammad Chandio sought time to submit a reply.
Justice Khawaja noted that it was astonishing that Sukhaira’s documents could not be verified despite a lapse of over a year. The court also directed the FIA to take action against those who were protecting Zain Sukhaira. Ghani told the bench that he was assigned the task of Haj corruption scam’s probe on April 20, 2012. He requested the court to allow him some more time to complete investigation of the scam.
Sukhaira had been working as consultant to the Ministry of Information Technology whereas he had also been reported a close friend of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son Abdul Qadir Gilani.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja remarked that the verification of Sukhaira’s degree was possible within ten minutes, adding that it was beyond understanding that why had the court’s order about verification of Sukhaira’s LLb degree not been adhered to in even 13 months.
