SC fixes 16th for NICL scam verdict after Qureshi submits charge assumption report

Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday fixed the NICL scam for August 16 after Zafar Qureshi submitted a copy of his charge assumption report to the Supreme Court’s registrar, stating that in compliance with the court’s August 8 order he had assumed the additional charge of the post of FIA additional director general in addition to the charge of the National Police Foundation managing director.
He also issued notices to the attorney general, the FIA director general, FIA Additional Director General Zafar Qureshi and the interior secretary to appear before the court on August 16.
On August 8, a three-member SC bench headed by the CJP had quashed Qureshi’s suspension orders and directed him to resume his task of bringing back the country’s looted money.
“The order of July 4, 2011 or any other order, suspending Zafar Qureshi, the FIA additional director general, from service have been passed to render the SC judgement of July 1, 2011 ineffective and non-operative,” a 32-page judgement, authored by the CJP, said.
“Thus, the order of July 4, 2011 or any other order suspending Zafar Qureshi, is quashed and he will be deemed to have been on duty as FIA additional DG pursuant to the SC order of July 1, 2011”, the judgement had held.
The court had also formed a commission headed by Justice Ghulam Rabbani, to investigate into political interference in the NICL case and anti-judiciary campaign in the media. It had directed the interior, establishment and information secretaries to provide assistance, whatsoever was required to complete the probe.
“In pursuance of SC’s July 13, 2011 order, no action will be taken against Zafar Qureshi without prior approval of the Supreme court,” the verdict said, adding that the investigation team, which had already been assisting him, would join him as team mates, unless he wanted otherwise.
The court had ruled that prima facie suspension order of July 4, 2011 of Qureshi was the result of political intervention in the affairs of the court and it required to be determined accordingly in view of facts and circumstances, which also included pressurising Qureshi by the seniors to dissociate him from the proceedings of the cases, as a follow up political expediency, which had been widely reported by the print media, coupled with propaganda on electronic media against judiciary by issuing advertisements.