ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to reinvestigate all high-profile cases, including those against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari, even if some of them have been partly decided by courts.
The bureau took the decision at a meeting held here on Wednesday to analyse whether investigations conducted into such cases had been fair or affected by pressure or favouritism.
Two corruption cases against the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah will also be reinvestigated under the directives of the Lahore High Court.
Bureau spokesman Ramzan Sajid said that NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry had decided to constitute a combined investigation team for cases which might have been partly decided by the accountability courts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. “The team will look afresh into different aspects of the cases to ensure that they are vigorously prosecuted.”
He quoted the NAB chief as having said that the bureau could afford no favouritism and would handle each case on merit, irrespective of present or previous position of an accused. Cases against Mr Zardari and Prime Minister Sharif are also being tried in the courts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Earlier, NAB had formed a special committee to review cases pending for more than three years.
Asked about the members of the team, the spokesman said it comprised officials of different wings of the NAB. Sources in the bureau told Dawn that most of the team members had not been previously involved in investigations into high-profile cases.
They said some of the cases against Mr Zardari had been partly decided and the main accused in them had been acquitted. PPP leaders hope Mr Zardari will also be acquitted because he is only co-accused in these cases.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Tuesday challenged the appointment of NAB chairman in the Supreme Court on the ground that the leader of opposition in the National Assembly had not taken the PTI into confidence during the process of selection of Mr Chaudhry for the post.
Some circles in opposition parties see the NAB chairman as a ‘loyalist’ to Prime Minister Sharif and believe that he has been appointed under a ‘shifty deal’ between the ruling PML-N and the main opposition PPP which expects that cases against the PPP leaders will not be touched.
The under-trial cases against the prime minister and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif include the Hudaibya Paper Mills case, the Ittefaq Foundry (wilful loan default) case and a case related to assets beyond the known sources of income.
The proceedings in the cases were adjourned sine die by the accountability court in 2001 when the Sharif brothers were in exile. After their return, NAB filed an application to seek reopening of the cases in 2007 and a court allowed it to do so. But, the trials were adjourned sine die in 2010 by the court which observed that these could be commenced if an application signed by the NAB chairman was submitted.
On Friday, a court in Islamabad reopened six cases against Mr Zardari which had remained dormant because of immunity enjoyed by him as the president. His five-year term as the president ended on Sept 8.
The cases are related to kickbacks and commission allegedly received from SGS PSI Company for pre-shipment inspection, grant of licence to ARY Gold causing huge a loss to the exchequer, illegal gratification and commission in purchase of Russian tractors under the Awami Tractor Scheme, illegal award of a contract to Cotecna for pre-shipment inspection, assets beyond known means and kickbacks from Sajjad Ahmad, a former chairman of the Pakistan Steel Mills.
KHURSEED SHAH CASE: The two corruption cases against Khursheed Shah to be reinvestigated were filed on the order of former president Pervez Musharraf in 2002 but closed by NAB during the PPP government.
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