Sunday, 18 September, 2022 I 21 Safar, 1444 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XIII No 80 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
PM, son Major beneficiary as accountability courts return 50 graft cases to nab Making army chief appointment controversial will ’embolden’ India: Asif ISLAMABAD
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Mian abrar
N a major development, accountability courts have withdrawn 50 major corruption cases against suspects, including cases against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The relief has been provided in line with the amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws. Legal experts believe that technically these cases had ceased to hold ground as the federal and provincial government were no more interested in prosecuting the accused under the NAB law. And biggest beneficiary among the accused have been Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Hamza Shehbaz. Accordingly, cases against PM Shehbaz, former chief minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf, and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani have also been returned to NAB by the accountability courts. The Ramzan Sugar Mill reference against PM Shehbaz and son Hamza is also among the cases sent back. NAB had filed this reference in 2019, alleging that the two suspects “fraudulently and dishonestly” caused a
Rs213 million loss to the national exchequer. Similarly, an accountability court returned six rental power plant (RPP) references against the NA speaker back to NAB. The bureau had alleged that Ashraf misused his powers in rental power projects being the minister for Water and Power during the PPP government. The Universal Services Fund (USF) reference against PPP Senator Yousuf Raza Gillani in which he was accused of misusing authority in an illegal publicity campaign, was also returned. NAB references against Senator Saleem Mandviwala, former chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, and PPP Senator Rubina Khalid have also been returned. Following the amendments of NAB rules, the references in Modaraba scams and company frauds have also been withdrawn from the accountability courts. Talking to daily Pakistan Today, Shah Khawar Advocate said that following the amendments in the NAB law, the jurisdiction of accountability courts over these references had ended and the courts could no more try the accused under the NAB law. Asked whether these cases would hold no ground now, Shah Khawar Advocate said that every case had its distinctive nature and
would be dealt with accordingly. “The accountability courts are sending back the references to the NAB Chairman and these cases would now could be sent to the concerned departments. If the accused is a government official serving in the federal government, the cases may be sent to the FIA for further probe. In case of a provincial government official, the matter could be sent to the provincial anticorruption department,” he said and added that the accused were no more accused of the NAB. In August, the National Assembly passed the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022, which sought to exclude private transactions from the scope of NAB. Under the amended bill, the pecuniary jurisdiction of NAB had been fixed to only take action against mega scandals. Furthermore, it had been proposed that supplementary references can only be filed with the permission of the court to expedite the proceedings of the court within one year. As per the bill, the investigation officers shall not harass any person during the investigation or inquiry and they will confine their questions relevant to the investigation or inquiry or for extracting evidence.
ISLAMABAD staff report
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has warned former prime minister Imran Khan against trying to make the appointment of the new army chief controversial as it “emboldened India”. Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif shall install Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa’s successor in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Constitution. Shelving Khan’s demand of deferring the appointment of the new army chief till the general elections, the defence minister said he will not let Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chair put the country at stake and appease New Delhi. “The appointment will be made in November as per schedule,” he said. He also remarked that Khan is rewarding India by promoting political uncertainty in the country. Earlier in the press conference, Asif termed the prime minister’s visit to Samarkand “extremely successful”. He said Sharif met with the heads of 10 countries during the two-day visit who promised to extend support to the floodstricken people of Pakistan. The premier represented Pakistan during the two-day annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan on September 15-16. Asif said the meetings with Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and Turkish heads of state were the highlight of the prime minister’s visit. “All these countries promised assistance to Pakistan,” he maintained. Besides gas, Russia had also offered to provide wheat to Pakistan in the wake of catastrophic floods and keeping in view the possibility of food shortages that may occur in the aftermath of the deluge, he revealed. “Russia has said that it can provide us wheat because in the coming days as we may have shortages […],” he said. Putin has also said that pipeline gas supplies to Pakistan were possible and part of the infrastructure was already in place, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported. The long-delayed gas pipeline vital to the country’s economy — the Pakistan Stream gas project, also known as the North-South gas pipeline — is to be built in collaboration with Russian companies. The two countries agreed in 2015 to build a 1,100 km (683 mile)-long pipeline to deliver imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Karachi on the Arabian Sea coast to power plants in Punjab.
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Let change take place through ballot or get ready for worse, warns Imran CHARSADDA staff report
Former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan Saturday warned the ‘imported government and its backers’ to hold early and transparent elections to let the change come through the power of vote, warning lest the situation would get out of control. “If you stop this ‘peaceful revolution’ then as World Bank has predicted the game [situation] would get out of everyone’s hand. Let the change come through vote,” he said while addressing his party’s power show in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda district on Saturday. Imran while addressing the coalition government and its ‘backers’ said, “No matter what you do you cannot win this match you have already lost this match… economy is sinking fast and the world is not willing to give them [government] financial aid for flood victims.” The PTI chairman said there is still time to steer the country out of quag-
mire by holding free and fair elections, adding that “the time is not far when he gives call to the nation to achieve real freedom”. Quoting IMF and World Bank reports, Imran claimed that the country was going down under the incumbent rulers. “Pakistan is going to become Sri Lanka. Those responsible for toppling my government will not be forgiven,” he added. “Sindh is worst-hit from floods but because of Zardari, the international community is not ready to help,” said the former premier. While comparing his tenure with the incumbent government, Imran said prices of everything including fuel and electricity have gone through the roof. “During our time, petrol was Rs150 a litre at that time crude prices were between $95 to 110 per barrel but today despite drop in global prices petrol is expensive in the country,” he added. Speaking about the rise in terrorist attacks, Imran urged the federal government to fulfil its duty and restore law and order in Malakand district of
the province. “They came to power to shut down their corruption cases and I just got to know that Ramzan Sugar Mills case is also being closed down,” he said in his opening remarks while coming down hard against the PDM government. The former PM claimed that witnesses in the money laundering case died of heart attacks, “but they were killed… it will come to fore when transparent investigation is held”. Imran said rupee has lost 30 per cent of its values since the PML-N-led coalition government came to power. Calling upon the nation not to vote for those leader who have offshore assets, Imran said if he came to power again he will not spare anyone, adding that those whose wealth is stashed abroad will not be made minister in his government. Imran said his party-governed K-P province suffered the most by joining the US war on terror and added that Pakistan should not participate in any conflict under the “servitude of any
superpower”. He claimed that the incumbent rulers were imposed upon the country through a ‘conspiracy’ because “Amer-
ica wanted our rulers to roam around the world like beggars, but we will not compromise on our country’s foreign policy for any country”.