NAB chief Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani have agreed to formulate a mechanism to jointly investigate the National Logistics Cell case and the JAG Branch of GHQ, PGA and NAB would devise a strategy to conduct the joint inquiry into the case.
This was said by NAB spokesman Zafar Iqbal Khan at a media briefing held at NAB headquarters on Thursday.
He claimed that a fresh reference had also been filed against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif and the bureau would take cognizance of the matter under the laws of the land and would solve the case on merit.
He said the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had referred the NLC case to Minsitry of Defence to look into the affair, where it was alleged that the authorities in NLC had made huge investments in stocks even after getting loans from banks over the period of time.
He said the GHQ was investigating against three former army generals while the NAB was conducting inquiry against NLC’s member finance and the investigation was at an initial stage.
“NAB’s investigation team is in liaison with the team in the GHQ and recently the NAB team met JAG (judge advocate general) branch team. This impression that the GHQ has refused to share any information with NAB is incorrect,” he added. Responding to a question about the action against army personnel, the spokesman said National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) did not allow NAB to take action against any army official except for those who were or had been performing their duties in civil departments. He said in a fresh reference against the Sharif brothers, NAB would take cognizance under the laws of the land and would solve the case on merit. As far as their old cases were concerned, they remained pending as the Sharifs were out of Pakistan, he added.
“At present, the Lahore High Court has directed not to open those cases against them as they took the plea that based on these cases they could be politically victimized. In case of Hudabia paper mills, the court has ordered to defreeze those assets which they have got back,” he asserted.
The NAB spokesman also rejected CDA’s claim that NAB had accorded approval in LED project.
He maintained that the bureau had at no time given any approval whatsoever to the said project.
“So, the (media) report is not factual and doesn’t present correct perspective. The fact of the matter is that NAB had asked CDA for a presentation a few months ago, when media highlighted the issue, on the said project from the perspective of the preventive regime, but it never gave any sort of clearance. NAB had issued a letter to the CDA after presentation highlighting the areas where the agency needed to work more before taking any further step.”
He said NAB had started inquiry against OGRA’s chief in November 2011 under the direction of Supreme Court where a private person filed the case leveling 17 allegations. He said the SC directed NAB to conduct an inquiry against Tauqeer Sadiq based on his appointment and other actions taken by him during his period in office.
“After completing the inquiry, NAB submitted a detailed report to the court in January 2012 covering various allegations leveled against the accused including misuse of authority for appointing his favourites on lucrative posts with higher salary packages, relocating CNG stations even out of province etc,” he added.
He said the accused made dysfunctional two of the OGRA members and even didn’t pay attention to government instructions. Meanwhile, NAB converted the inquiry into an investigation, which was under process.
The spokesperson clarified that as reported in the media, NAB’s prosecutor-general accountability (PGA) was not working for or against the interest of any person in his personal capacity but under the provisions of NAO 1999. “Whatever legal opinion is framed in NAB’s Prosecution Division is in black and white.”
He said billions of rupees were involved in the case and one of the accused in OGRA case (Mansoor Muzaffar, Member Gas) was in NAB custody since May 16, 2012 and an Accountability Court of Rawalpindi had granted 10-day remand of Mansoor Muzaffar in the said case.
He said arrest warrants for other officials in the case had been issued and they would be arrested shortly.
In the RPPs case, he added, the SC took a human rights case filed by Faisal Saleh Hayat/Khawaja Asif on September 26, 2009.
The NAB took cognizance of RPPs under the direction of SC on March 30 and was in the process of conducting inquiry for recovery of looted money.
“In the beginning, NAB sent names of all the accused persons involved in the RPPs case to the Interior Ministry to place them on the ECL, marked the caution on their bank accounts and other assets including the equipment installed for generating power.”
Zafar Khan said NAB also directed CAA for not allowing a plane belonging to one of the RPPs to fly out of country. So far, the NAB has recovered Rs 2.012 billion from RPPs and was still in the process of reconciliation so that the remaining amount could be deposited to the government exchequer.
Moreover, he added, NAB also sent its teams to inspect the sites of RPPs and teams were busy finalizing their reports.
“Types of embezzlement committed by the RPPs include illegal advance money payment, different rates for different companies, gas projects were signed when Pakistan is already facing shortage in gas, no tax was levied on import of equipment from these companies. No company has ever produced electricity in full capacity as per agreement except M/s Gulf,” he added.
He said NAB was proceeding against nine companies and so far recovered more.
About cases of Pakistan Railways, the NAB spokesman said NAB recovered 80 million rupees in the scrap case. In NRO case, under the reconciliation agreement between various parties, an ordinance was promulgated by the then president in October 2007 where many people got benefit, including persons involved in 155 corruption cases. He said NAB has opened all the cases closed under this ordinance. He said NAB had also started inquiry against Adnan Khawaja in the OGDCL case and submitted its findings with the SC.
