ISLAMABAD: The government is contemplating approaching the Supreme Court for indictment of four officials in a case pertaining to the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam.
A senior official told Dawn on Friday that the legal course had been firmed up on the basis of a ‘considered view’ of the law secretary and the attorney general in the light of the Nov 22 judgment of the apex court that incriminated a number of top bureaucrats and a federal minister belonging to the PPP in the case.
The four bureaucrats, who are still in service, are: Nargis Sethi, then acting principal secretary to the prime minister; Ismail Qureshi, a former establishment secretary and presently working as rector at the National School of Public Policy; NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry and Federal Tax Ombudsman Rauf Chaudhry.
The two top legal minds of the government reached a conclusion that Nargis Sethi could be proceeded against under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) of 1999, along with efficiency and disciplinary rules of 1973, for “misconduct”.
Under para 59 of the SC judgment, Ms Sethi was found involved in the appointment of Ayaz Khan Niazi as NICL chief in violation of section 12 of the 2002 Insurance Act and the relevant rules in a non-transparent, illegal and unwanted manner.
The government now believes that she can be tried under section 9 (a) (iv) of the NAO under which a person is considered involved in corruption or corrupt practices if he/she “misuses his/her authority so as to gain any benefit or favour for himself/herself or any other person, or renders or attempts to render or wilfully fails to exercise his/her authority to prevent the grant, or rendition of any undue benefit or favour which he/she could have prevented by exercising his/her authority”.
Her actions have allegedly been described as misconduct as defined under Government Servants (E&D) Rules of 1973 and Government Servants (conduct) Rules of 1964 for bringing political or other outside influence directly or indirectly to bear on the government or any officer in respect of appointment, promotion, transfer, punishment, retirement, etc.
About Ismail Qureshi, the government’s legal team is of the view that he could also be removed on charges of “misconduct” under section 6 (2) of the ordinance under which the National School of Public Policy was established in 2002. For that to achieve, the president in consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan is required to appoint a Supreme Court judge to hold an inquiry into the matter.
If the judge finds Mr Qureshi guilty of misconduct (as held by the apex court) or is incapable of properly performing his duty, the president will remove him from office.
Regarding NAB chief Qamar Zaman and FTO Rauf Chaudhry, the law officers felt that both could be proceeded against by NAB as an independent body. However, the government should ask the Federal Investigation Agency to transfer certain cases to NAB and comply with the court’s judgment.
As far as the government is concerned, it cannot take action against them because both enjoyed protection under Article 209 of the Constitution, except for filing a reference in the Supreme Judicial Council.
The Supreme Court verdict held that these four and a number of other former officials had abused authority as civil servants.