IO given 10 more days to submit Durrani inquiry report

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has completed its investigation with regard to the Sindh Assembly speaker and a report is pending with the watchdog’s top brass, seeking their nod to proceed with a reference or not, an accountability court was told on Friday.

A NAB investigation officer (IO) told the administrative judge of the accountability courts that the inquiry report pertaining to the allegations on Agha Siraj Durrani was sent to the headquarters and the court would be duly notified upon receiving a response from there.

Pakistan Peoples Party leader Durrani faces three inquires for allegedly making assets beyond recognizable income, making illegal appointments at government projects and institutions, and embezzlement of public funds.

Meanwhile, the judge expressed his displeasure over the NAB’s performance in the case, saying they had already spent more than two months on the investigation, yet the court was not provided with the relevant documents. He ordered the IO to submit the copies of the inquiry to the court.

The IO said that the bureau had to follow the procedure under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 which required approval from the chairman to a director general and then further down the command.

Durrani’s attorney argued that apparently NAB was victimising his client and by playing delay tactics the bureau seemed to prolong the reach of a conclusive end in the case. He said that the IO should have all the reports as it was a due procedure to record everything in the investigation.

The judge, after listening to the IO and the defence counsel, gave NAB 10 more days to file the findings of the inquiry report with the court. The hearing of the case was adjourned on May 21.

In talk with journalists outside the courtroom, Durrani spoke of the Sindh governor’s comments about dividing the province into administrative units. He said that Sindh could not be divided until each Sindhi was alive. On the recent appointments at top financial institutions at federal level, he said that it seemed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was dealing with IMF instead of Pakistan dealing with the IMF.