"We have received the reference and now our team is scrutinising the legality of the reference. The reference has been sent to Prosecutor General Accountability KK Agha for legal opinion for initiating an inquiry," NAB Spokesman and Additional Director Zafar Iqbal said while addressing the press conference here at the NAB headquarters on Thursday.
The NAB spokesman said as far as the Sharifs’ old cases were concerned, they remained pending as the Sharifs were out of Pakistan. "At present, the Lahore High Court has directed not to open those cases against them as they took the plea that based on these cases, they can be politically victimised. In the case of Hudabia Paper Mills, the court has ordered to defreeze their assets," he added.
To a question about the multi-billion rupees scam of the National Logistics Cell (NLC), the spokesman said the NAB had received directives from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to probe it. He said the NAB chief, Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari, in a meeting with COAS Gen Kayani agreed to formulate a mechanism to jointly investigate the NLC case where JAG (Judge Advocate General) Branch of the GHQ and PGA (Prosecutor-General Accountability), NAB, will devise a strategy to conduct a joint inquiry into the case. "The inquiry teams of the GHQ and NAB will cooperate with each other inthis case. The Army was holding the inquiry against their officers while the NAB will look into the case against a civilian officer Saeedur Rehman," he added.
When asked whether the NAB had the power to inquire a serving military officer, the spokesman said: "All army officers heading civilian departments come under our purview." Commenting on the Minister for Information Technology Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as an accused, he said: "Yes, Raja Ashraf was an accused in the case and that was the reason he was summoned to record his statement at the NAB".
Asked why the NAB had not arrested the accused persons in the case, he said the inquiry was going on and once the NAB got all the records then, if needed, arrests would also be made. Zafar Iqbal said that statements of one sitting Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and two former ministers Shaukat Tarin and Liaquat Jatoi had also been recorded in the Rental Power Plants case. He said no recoveries had been made from them as the process of inquiry and reconciliation with them was still in progress and would be completed in 10 days time. "Nobody has been given a clean chit in the case; rather, NAB is in the process of recovering more amounts from the RPPs. If the need arises, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Shaukat Tarin and Liaquat Jatoi will be summoned again," he added.
To a question, the NAB spokesman admitted that the Interior Ministry did not place the names of accused in the RPPs scam, including the sitting Federal Minister for Information Technology Raja Pervez Ashraf, on the Exit Control List yet. "We can only send our recommendations but cannot pressurise any agency in this regard," he added.
Regarding the recovery process from the Rental Power Projects, the spokesman said on the directions of the Supreme Court, the NAB had recovered over Rs2 billion from the RPPs.Giving a break-up of the recoveries, he said Rs1,091 million had been recovered from the Pakistan Power House and Walter's International, Rs546 million from Techno Energy, Rs225 million from Gulf Company, Rs100 million from Reshma and Rs50 million from Young Gen.
Rejecting any pressure on the NAB in the RPPs case, the spokesman said the bureau acts as per the law and it is the only body which has convicted high-level officials, including ministers and bureaucrats. To a question, Zafar Iqbal said the arrest warrants for former chief of Ogra Tauqir Saddiq had been issued and raids were being conducted for his arrest.
When asked about the writing of a letter to the Swiss authorities, the spokesman said the NAB had no role in the writing of the letter and there was a clear judgment of the Supreme Court (SC) on it. "When the NRO was nullified by the SC, NAB had written a letter but the SC has rejected it and ordered that it should be written by the Attorney General after getting approval from the prime minister. So there is no role of the NAB in writing a letter," he added.
To another question regarding the inquiry report to the SC on the appointment of MD of the OGDCL, he said the NAB had started an inquiry against Adnan Khawaja in the OGDCL case and submitted its findings to the SC. He said it was interesting to note that there was no provision available in the OGDCL law citing the qualification of the MD. "The fact was that the MD was a convicted person and an NRO beneficiary and this fact was concealed from the competent authority for which then Secretary Establishment is responsible," he added.
When asked about reports that the NAB did not open the cases against Mian Nawaz Sharif on the directives of President Asif Ali Zardari, the NAB spokesman said the president had only given the directives to the chairman that no one should be politically victimised. He said when Nawaz Sharif returned from Saudi Arabia, the NAB wanted to reopen the cases but the Lahore High Court did not allow it.
To another question, the NAB spokesman admitted that Senior Vice President of All Pakistan Muslim League of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf had been inducted into the NAB. "Before joining the NAB, Brig (retd) Haris had resigned from his party office," he added.
Giving details of the performance of NAB since its inception, the spokesman said a total 4,646 inquires were carried out, of which 3,900 inquiries had been completed; the NAB had carried out 2,616 investigations, out of which 1,802 references had been filed in courts while 1,192 were decided and 688 persons were convicted.
The spokesman said the National Accountability Bureau was deficient in terms of workforce and was in the process of recruiting 370 officers to dispose of the pending cases in a timely manner.
Online adds: The NAB on Thursday said it was conducting an inquiry into the cases of money laundering, LED project, Ogra, RPPs, Pakistan Railways, NRO, NLC, OGDCL and others.The spokesman said that the case against the Railways was referred by the SC where the NAB conducted inquiries into the scrap sale, various purchases, sale of railway track, purchase of spares for 69 Chinese locomotives, and the lease agreement of Royal Plam City Golf Club Lahore. The NAB has recovered Rs80 million in the scrap case.
After the impugned judgment by the Supreme Court on 16 December 2009 where the court declaredthe NRO void ab initio, the spokesman said that NAB had opened all the cases closed under this ordinance. At present, the SC is monitoring the implementation process of its judgment and NAB is regularly submitting its report in the court
case against the PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif on a reference filed by Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
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