ISLAMABAD: A three-member Supreme Court bench on Thursday declined to halt investigations into corruption of over Rs 22 billion in the state-owned Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to submit a progress report into the case within a month.
The bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Tariq Parvaiz and Justice Ghulam Rabbani was conducting suo motu hearing on reports of alleged corruption of Rs 22 billion in PSM. The court rejected a request by Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, PSM’s lawyer, that sought a halt to the probe being conducted by FIA into the scam.
Expressing dismay over Ebrahim’s request, the chief justice said, “Huge embezzlements of over Rs 26 billion have been committed in a state-owned entity and you are asking us to halt the investigation?” Ebrahim pleaded that the ongoing probe into the embezzlements was causing a loss of Rs 1 billion each month to PSM, while its production remained at 40 percent of the maximum.
The chief justice, however, said the court could not allow the corrupt elements to continue looting and plundering the national exchequer, adding that the mills were facing losses due to the presence of ineligible people running its affairs. The chief justice asked FIA DG Waseem Ahmed to arrest the people involved in the corruption and submit a report in the court.
