NAB yet to file reference against former PM’s secretary

ISLAMABAD: Suspended Senior bureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad, arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over three months back, is in jail despite facing no formal charges in a court of law after the expiry of his 90-day physical remand.

NAB sources told The News, on condition of anonymity, that under the standard operating procedures (SOPs), the anti-corruption agency was required to submit a reference against arrested suspects within the 90-day period of physical remand.

“If a case can’t be filed within this timeline, the NAB can inform the accountability court that the process of preparing the reference and taking some necessary approvals according to the laid down procedure is in progress, and, therefore, can request that the court send the accused into judicial custody,” a NAB source said.

They said that when an accused is sent on judicial remand, he is considered to be in the custody of the court. “In eighty percent of cases, the NAB files references within 90 days,” he added.

Former principal secretary to prime minister, Fawad Hassan Fawad was apprehended by the NAB in July as part of its investigation of the Ashiana Housing Scheme. On October 2, the accountability judge refused to further grant his custody to the NAB in another case relating to alleged assets beyond means, as the anti-graft outfit failed to formally arraign him in the earlier case.

The accused, who is seriously ill according to his family members, has moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) for the grant of bail, arguing that the NAB has found nothing illegal against him. A two-judge LHC bench will resume hearing his plea on October 18.

“The accused can approach the high court for bail on the grounds that there is nothing solid that the NAB has traced against him during investigation,” former NAB deputy prosecutor Raja Aamir Abbas explained to The News.

He was asked how an accused could be kept on judicial or physical remand beyond the maximum period of 90 days permitted by the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), when no reference has been filed. The lawyer said the law allows this recourse. The NAB can also either release the accused on the expiry of the remand period, saying that it has not been able to get any incriminating proof against him. It can seek further remand or the judge can send him to jail.

After that, Aamir Abbas stated, the accused can go to the high court to seek bail. “It will be up to the high court after reviewing the record to grant or decline bail.”

In normal circumstances, the NAB essentially files a reference against the accused after a thorough 90-day investigation. The non-submission of charges to the accountability court by the NAB indicates that it is not in a position to back up its allegations against the accused.

Aamir Abbas said that, according to his information, Fawad Hassan will also be questioned by the NAB in the Saaf Pani Company and some other cases. He said that the NAB can approach the accountability court for physical remand of the accused in other investigations. He said the accused can be kept in jail, unless bailed out by the high court, until a reference is filed.

Section 9 says that all offences under the NAO shall be non-bailable and, notwithstanding anything contained in sections 426, 491, 497, 498 and 561A or any other provision of the Criminal Procedure Code, or any other law for the time being in force, no court shall have jurisdiction to grant bail to any person accused of any offence under the NAO.

The matter of refusal of bail to the accused under this provision will emerge only after the “offenses” have been listed in a reference. Before that, mere allegations cannot be treated as the offenses. In the light of this view, Fawad Hassan has not so far been formally charged with any formal offenses.

The accountability judge remarked at the last hearing that more physical remand was not necessary as the NAB already had Fawad Hassan in custody for 90 days to question him about the Ashiana case. He denied remand in the assets-beyond-means case. The defence lawyer contested that the NAB could not hold the accused when it intends to conduct an audit of a family business. The judge agreed and sent the accused on judicial remand.

According to the record of the case, during Fawad Hassan’s tenure as the implementation secretary to the then Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, the Ashiana file was on his table for only 13 days, during which neither the contract was awarded nor canceled. He was posted to the federal government in April 2013 and the contract was cancelled much later. Shahbaz Sharif has since accepted that it was his order under which the matter of irregularities in the bidding of the contract was sent to the Anti-Corruption Establishment.

The former chief minister has also been arrested by the NAB in the Ashiana case for investigation and is currently on 10 days' physical remand with it.