No appeal in Hudabiya case, NAB chief tells SC

Court warns Qamar Zaman Chaudhry to get ready for consequences; counsel for PM and children ask court to reject PTI’s application for filing additional documents; FBR chief grilled

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Tuesday warned Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudhry to get ready for the consequences when he told the court that the bureau won’t file an appeal against the Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict in the Hudabiya Papers Mills case.

Incumbent Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had admitted to laundering money for the Sharif family in the case. A five-member larger bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa resumed hearing of the petitions, seeking probe into the PanamaLeaks and disqualification of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.

Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh and Justice Ijazul Ahsen are the bench members. In pursuance of the court’s last orders, Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Zaman Chaudhry and Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Dr Muhammad Irshad appeared before the court.

Chaudhry said the then prosecutor general had advised the anti-graft body against filing an appeal with the apex court against the LHC verdict. Asked if the NAB didn’t want to file a reference against the four-year-old LHC verdict for quashment of Rs1.2 billion Hudabiya Paper Mills case against the Sharifs, Chaudhry replied that he will not file an appeal with the apex court. 

Chaudhry contended that they were waiting for signals from the regulator. “What do you mean by the regulator,” the court asked. “Regulator means, the court and the people of Pakistan,” he explained.

However, Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan told the NAB chairman that he could take action whenever he deemed fit. The court observed that as per the anti-graft law, the bureau could take action anyone on its own information and on information by someone. 

“Do you mean you have to wait for a signal from the regulator? We also found the word regulator in the Qatari letter”, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa remarked. The court asked the FBR chairman about his role in the offshore companies. 

Chairman FBR Dr Muhammad Irshad told the court that he had contacted the Foreign Office over offshore companies named in the Panama Papers and sent notices to 343 people in September 2016, of which 52 people refused ownership, while 39 were not Pakistani citizens. 

He said 92 individuals had agreed that they owned owning offshore companies while 12 individuals had passed away. The court however observed that the Foreign Office was situated at a distance of only 200 yards from the FBR office.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed noted that it took the FBR six months to cover a distance of 200 yards. The acting FBR head submitted that Panama was a haven for those wanting to save tax, adding that Pakistan had no treaty with Panama for exchange of tax information.

Asked if notices had also been issued to the children of Prime Minister including Hussain Nawaz, Hassan Nawaz and Maryam Safdar, he replied in the affirmative adding that they had also replied to the notices.

The court observed that state institutions which were ought to probe the offshore companies had failed to do their jobs. The court observed that neither the FBR nor the NAB performed their jobs.

Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan noted that the NAB had not initiated any investigation during the past one year.

“The NAB should have at least interrogated those who names had surfaced in the Panama Papers”, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed observed. It is pertinent to mention that the chairman NAB the other day submitted references related to the Sharif family in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills and Raiwind Estate cases to the apex court. 

The two references were filed 17 years ago during the tenure of military dictator General (R) Pervez Musharraf. Meanwhile, the counsel for the prime minister and his children have requested the Supreme Court to reject the application filed by the PTI for filing some additional documents.

The court was informed that the petitioner had filed some documents and counter affidavit on February 17 without any explanation for such delayed filing. Makhdoom Ali Khan, Shahid Hamid and Salman Akram Raja, counsel for the prime minister and his children, filed an application with the court praying for excluding the documents and counter affidavit from consideration.

Meanwhile, the federal government told the apex court that in the past pleas like the current one seeking disqualification of prime minister in the Panama case were not considered for not being maintainable.

Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf told the court that the petitioners had prayed before the apex court to disqualify the prime minister; however, the apex court had not encouraged such petitions in the past and rejected for not being maintainable.

Ausaf said decisions pertaining to disqualification were available adding that he would assist the court on its jurisdiction in hearing such cases. “My job is to assist the apex court and I will do it,” the AG said.

He contended that a relevant forum for examining the disqualification of a lawmaker and election matters was available adding that the court in past used to reject such petitions for not being maintainable.

“Now the court will have to look into the matter as to what fundamental rights of the complainant have been violated.”

Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan observed that the court had the jurisdiction to hear these applications under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. The attorney general said while exercising its jurisdiction the court had also to look into facts of the case.

He said the court will also have to look into fair trial. At this Justice Ijaz Afzal asked the attorney general whether the court had not given any opportunity to the defending counsel.

The AG submitted that Hanif Abbasi had filed two petitions, seeking disqualification of PTI Chief Imran Khan and it Secretary General Jehangir Tareen; however, these petitions were not clubbed with the instant case. Later, the court adjourned the hearing until today (Wednesday).