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Friday March 29, 2024

NAB assures PAC of completion of probe by March 31

By Asim Yasin
January 08, 2016

Sale of embassy buildings

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) finally woke up following its grilling from the Public Accounts Committee the other day on the issue of inactive investigation into the sale of two Pakistan embassy buildings in Jakarta and Tokyo.

The investigation had been going for the last four years against a retired major general and a retired diplomat. 

On Thursday, the bureau made a commitment to the committee that investigations would be completed by March 31 this year and a report would be presented to the committee.

DG NAB Rawalpindi Zahir Shah, who was summoned by the PAC, told the committee that investigations were going on against the retired major general and retired diplomat and hopefully these would be completed by March 31 and it was also likely that these may be completed before March 31.

The PAC met here with Syed Khursheed Shah in the chair in which audit paras related to the Foreign Office for the year 2010-11 and the special audit of sale of two embassy buildings in Jakarta and Tokyo came under discussion.

On Wednesday, the PAC grilled the NAB for failing to complete probe into the sale of two Pakistan embassy buildings despite passing of four years and to date only two letters had been written to the governments of Indonesia and Japan for seeking details.

Briefing the PAC, DG NAB Rawalpindi Zahir Shah said investigation was started on court orders and under the mutual assistance the bureau had sent letters to the Japanese government through the Foreign Office but their response was weak. 

“We conducted the probe on the basis of record available with the Foreign Office that only establishes violations of rules and procedures for the sale of two embassy buildings in Jakarta and Tokyo,” he said.

He told the committee that now the NAB was probing the link of any kickbacks in the sale of two buildings and for this letters had been written to the governments of Japan and Indonesia through the Foreign office under the mutual assistance. 

“We have not received anything yet from diplomatic channels,” he told the committee.

PAC members Syed Naveed Qamar and Shafqat Mehmood asked as to why the NAB was moving in wrong directions as they only had to evaluate the price of land or property when it was sold and for it there was no need to write letters to the governments of two countries. 

Mian Abdul Manan asked if the NAB had also probed General (R) Pervez Musharraf who was chief executive at that time and condoned the violation of rules and procedures in the sale of embassy building in Jakarta.

The NAB director general replied that the chief executive was the competent authority to condone violation of rules and procedures.

When it was also pointed out that ex-ambassador Mustafa Anwar Hussain and third secretary had not rebutted allegations of receiving $48,000 from the company M/s Palma Citra Peramia, Zahir Shah told the committee that it was a new aspect and the investigators had made a call to the major general (R) to seek his position on the issue.

It is to be mentioned here that the case of Pakistani embassy in Jakarta was taken up by the PAC in 2010 during the tenure of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan as chairman when the committee was told that Major General (R) Mustafa Anwar Hussain, who was ambassador in Jakarta in 2002, had sold the Chancery’s building at a cost of $1.320 million in spite of repeated warnings by the Foreign office not to do so without approval of the competent authority.

While the same case with the Pakistan embassy in Tokyo also came to the notice of PAC during the tenure of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in 2010 when the committee was told that the then Pakistani ambassador Kamran Niaz had sold it under swap arrangements to get a new embassy complex.

When the PAC asked the NAB to give details of the case that was referred to them four years ago, the officials of the NAB told the committee that they were probing the case and had written letters to the governments of Indonesia and Japan through the Foreign Office seeking details of accounts of accused persons but so far no response had been received from these governments.

The PAC in 2010 constituted a committee under the convener-ship of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and during investigation, the committee observed that the Jakarta Embassy was sold by the ambassador in spite of repeated warnings by the Foreign Office not to do so without approval of the competent authority.

The irregularity was pointed out by the deputy head of Chancery Syed Mushtaq Haider Rizvi, who was recalled from his post and made OSD from 2002 to 2008 till his retirement.