The disappointing performance of Motorway Police to track down the former chairman of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Tauqir Sadiq, has led the Supreme Court on Wednesday to direct the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to get a perpetual warrant issued with Interpol help for the arrest of the accused, who has allegedly fled to Nepal.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain also asked IG Motorway Police Zafar Abbas to submit a comprehensive report on the officers who failed to trace Tauqir Sadiq’s vehicle. The court also ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to cancel Sadiq’s two passports. The courts demanded the reports till Thursday and adjourned the case.
Earlier, the Motorway Police IG submitted a report regarding its efforts to arrest Sadiq. The court also sought a report from the Acting Inspector General Police Punjab within a period of six days. The court demanded details of the police officers responsible of the 18-member police team which had left for Kathmandu to arrest the absconder on December 27.
The bench also took up the implementation issue of its verdict over the appointment of former head of (OGRA), which was declared as illegal. The bench in its order said that the report submitted by the IG Motorway Police was not only perfunctory but also incomplete.
It said that despite telephonic information by a NAB deputy director on October 7, prima facie, no necessary action was taken. The bench was surprised at NAB that the top watchdog was hampered in its prosecution efforts as a reference against the absconder had been pending for a considerable period of time.
During proceedings, Fauzee Ali Zafar, a NAB official, apprised the bench that a reference against the absconder could not be taken up as an administrative judge had yet to be appointed. The bench directed Deputy Attorney General Dil Muhammad Alizai to get information from the Ministry of Law and Justice regarding non appointment of administrative judge of the Accountability Court Rawalpindi; (NAB) maintains that their reference had not even been numbered due to non appointment.
