MULTAN City News

FIA reluctant to probe missing Turkish necklace
From Nadeem Shah
MULTAN: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has taken not any action into the misappropriation of the Turkish first lady’s diamond necklace, as the agency seems reluctant in taking an action against former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani or initiating an inquiry into the missing item, it is learnt.
The FIA officials in Multan told The News on Wednesday that they had neither received court directives nor any orders into registering FIR or conducting an inquiry against Gilani.
Two days earlier, the additional district and sessions judge had ordered the FIA deputy director (Multan) to register a case and conduct an inquiry into him. The court also gave a seven-day deadline till June 28 for submitting detailed report into the matter. However, the FIA officials were reluctant in taking any action and providing details into the court orders, showing indifference to receiving any directives.
Senior counsel Fahim Gill, who had filed the petition, told The News that the court orders and judgment had been dropped at the FIA Multan Circle desk for compliance. “I cannot take any action against the former prime minister in my own capacity until I receive any orders from my bosses or any court,” said a senior official of FIA.
It was revealed two weeks ago that a necklace had been found missing from the government stores. Turkish First Lady Emine Tayyip Erdogan had donated the diamond-studded choker with coral and amethyst-tipped sprays for the flood victims in 2010. Gilani has also admitted a few days back that the expensive necklace was in his possession.
Sources confided to The News that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had ordered the FIA to investigate into the matter. The Interior Ministry sources said the necklace had gone missing from the warehouse of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).
The insiders say the FIA Multan Circle has been received the court orders as they also shared the procedure of registering an FIR. As per details, when the FIA receives a complaint, it allots a “CT” (complaint) No for registration.
A regular inquiry is conducted and finally a case an FIR is registered. When a court issues orders of conducting inquiry and registration of case, the complaint is exempted from CT allotment. However, the FIA Multan Circle has allotted CT No 410/15 to the court orders in Gilani’ affair, which is a contempt of court, the FIA insiders say.
According to the insiders, the FIA forwarded the court orders to the agency’s Anti Corruption Cell instead of direct registration of complaint.
Gill said he had lodged his complaint with the FIA Director (Punjab) and the FIA Multan Circle deputy director, seeking registration of FIR against Gilani. “I learnt from the FIA officials that the interior secretary and the FIA DG were not interested in lodging FIR against Gilani. Then I moved the court to get orders for case registration,” Gill added.
Reportedly, Gilani said he had close ties with the Erdogan family and Emine was like a sister to him. He added that the market price was Rs 200,000. He had planned a visit to a flood-relief camp in Sindh where a couple was getting married with an intention to gift the necklace to the bride but to his surprise he was greeted by eight girls who were to be married that day, he added.
The former PM then decided to keep the necklace with himself and instead present Rs 200,000 each to the eight couples.