NAB, FIA given two days to arrest OGRA chief

Legal experts of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday requested the Supreme Court to grant two days time for the arrest of former chairman of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Tauqeer Sadiq and a few others who were allegedly involved in embezzlement of Rs 82 billion.
The two-judge bench comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain started hearing on a pending case of the arrest of Tauqeer Sadiq.
NAB Legal Director Azam Khan informed the court that NAB had written two letters to Interpol for the arrest of Tauqeer Sadiq.
He apprised the court that the bureau also wrote a letter to the UAE foreign office and requested the deportation of Tauqeer’s arrest.
He stated that the former OGRA chief had been spotted in UAE and now it was the duty of Foreign Office to exert pressure on the UAE government for his arrest.
On this, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja remarked that it was not the duty of the courts to put pressure and added that this should be done by the NAB.
Justice Khawaja said the case was of huge importance, so the court would dispose it within days and would not take months on it.
He said a person was roaming freely after fleeing away with Rs 82 billion from the national exchequer.
He added that there were many things which the court does not want to highlight because it would malign many people.
Justice Khawaja asked the NAB official that how would he like to be treated as the court would not let the absconder escape.
Samina Marri, the wife of an official of OGRA, submitted in the court that her husband, who had flown away to Switzerland, wanted to return to his country and surrender before the law.
She said that her family was affected due to NAB’s policy of `pick and choose’ which only targeted small officers and did not tighten its grip on the “big wigs”.
“My entire family is going through mental torture and we want to get rid of this situation,” she said.
The court remarked that as both NAB and FIA had requested for some more time to comply with the orders of the arrest of Tauqeer Sadiq, the case should be adjourned till January 24.