Dispirited probe by top watchdogs of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) into NICL scandal helped accused, allegedly involved in corruption worth Rs3 billion, is to be acquitted from the courts.
This was revealed by Commerce Secretary Younis Dhaga in a meeting of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which was held on Tuesday under the chair of Khursheed Shah.
The meeting was scheduled to discuss performances of WAPDA and NICL. It was attended by parliamentarians Shireen Rehman, Shafqat Mehnood, Sheikh Rasheed, Naveed Qamar, Aashiq Gopang, Mushahid Hussain, Sheikh Rohail Asghar, Javed Akhlas and Junaid Anwar Chaudhry.
Commerce Secretary told the PAC meeting that ministry of Commerce has been requesting NAB and FIA to issue red warrants for culprits involved in NICL mega corruption scam but these top watchdogs were not cooperating in this respect.
He said that the main culprit of the scandal was Mudasir Habib Waraich, son of ex-Defence Minister Habib Waraich, who had given fake cheques worth Rs500 million to the ministry but these cheques bounced.
Younis Dhaga said that the culprits must be arrested and should be brought to justice.
Earlier in first week of this month, National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) decided to carry out a special three-year audit inclusive of the scandals associated with properties purchased during the PPP-led coalition government aimed at re-evaluating their actual prices at the time of sale which generated a loss of Rs3 billion to the national coffers. Another special there year audit under the directives of the Supreme Court has already been carried out and a special audit of 300 illegal appointments was conducted in 2014.
This was disclosed in a meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Commerce headed by Senator Shibli Faraz on May 4 who termed NICL as a ‘disgraced’ company and asked the ministry and NICL to rebrand the company with the objective of jettisoning its notorious past.
