When contract was signed with Broadsheet: Justice Azmat Saeed was NAB’s deputy prosecutor general, says Ahsan

ISLAMABAD: Retired Supreme Court judge Sheikh Azmat Saeed, who has been made head by the federal government of the inquiry committee to probe the Broadsheet affair, was the deputy prosecutor general of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) at the time when the anti-graft watchdog signed the highly controversial agreement with the assets recovery firm.

PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal Thursday tweeted: “Panama case JIT fame & Shaukat Khanum Hospital Board of Governors member Jus[tice] (Retd) Azmat Saeed, who was also on NAB panel when Braodsheet deal was done under Mush[arraf], appointed by Imran Khan to investigate Broadsheet scam. This proves that Imran Khan wants to protect NAB & himself.”

Azmat Saeed’s then immediate boss, NAB Prosecutor General Farooq Adam, had put his signatures to the agreement inked with Broadsheet on June 20, 2000. Now, the retired justice will be looking into the very same contract the breach of which has ultimately cost Pakistan US$29 million.

The main job of the inquiry committee will be based on this very document. A cursory reading of the agreement shows that it was absolutely one-sided and tilted toward Broadsheet and against NAB and the State of Pakistan.

According to his profile, Justice (retd) Azmat Saeed was employed as the deputy prosecutor general of NAB in the year 2000 for a period of one year. He was appointed special prosecutor of NAB in 2001 to pursue cases before the accountability courts at Attock Fort and Rawalpindi.

Later as a judge of the Supreme Court, Azmat Saeed was a member of the larger bench that handed down the judgment in the Panama Papers case against Nawaz Sharif which disqualified him.

After working in various law chambers, Azmat Saeed had started his independent practice in Lahore in 1980 and was enrolled as an advocate of the Lahore High Court (LHC). Later, he became an advocate of the Supreme Court. He was appointed legal advisor to the Lahore Development Authority in 1996. He was also nominated as the special prosecutor by the Saifur Rehman-led Ehtesab Bureau in 1997 and was a member of the legal team prosecuting high profile cases before the LHC.

During the course of his legal professional career, he conducted a large number of cases before the civil and banking courts and provincial high courts. He also appeared as an advocate before the inquiry into the cricket match fixing scandal held at Melbourne (Australia) in 1999.