A three-member bench of the apex court, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, heard the petition, filed by Pervaiz Hussain and others against Mian Khurram Rasool, who allegedly defrauded over Rs530 million from a Karachi-based business concern on the pretext of managing a petroleum export licence for Nato supply to it and awarding of a contract of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The court directed the FIA to C ensure the arrest of Mian Khurram Rasool and produce him before it on January 24. The court warned the FIA Director General Tehsin Anwar Shah of criminal action if he failed to apprehend Mian Khurram Rasool and produce him before the court on January 24.
Rasheed A Rizvi, counsel for the petitioners, apprised the court that Khurram Rasool, his brother Shahid Mehmood and one Ghulam Ghous also managed to forge the signature of secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources on various agreements.
FIA’s Director (Legal) Azam Khan told the court that the FIA was clueless about the whereabouts of the accused so far. He, however, sought more time to comply with the court orders to apprehend the accused.
During the hearing, the chief justice observed that nobody had dared to arrest the accused earlier because he was residing in the Prime Minister’s House. Justice Khilji Arif Hussain said how it was possible that the FIA was clueless about the whereabouts of the accused.
Rizvi submitted that Khurram Rasool had received the money on the pretext of managing the LPG quota and oil export licence to Nato forces in Afghanistan for two companies of the petitioners, including Sahara Gas (pvt) Limited and Pak Delta Enterprises (pvt) Limited.
He said the accused was not being arrested for the last 11 months. He said an accused was arrested on the orders of President Asif Ali Zardari from Malaysia within three days as he was accused by the president.
The chief justice then noted that “We know the FIA head does not obey the court orders, but even then we have granted him so many times to obey the court orders”. Rizvi contended that forgery of signatures on the agreements came to the knowledge of the petitioners when they presented the documents for implementation to the relevant government departments.
He submitted that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and Pak-Arab Refinery Company (Parco) informed the petitioners that all the agreements presented by them were forged documents while no amount was received by them for or on behalf of the petitioners.
He said Khurram Rasool also allegedly got the support of officials of a bank in Islamabad where, he said, accounts were opened in the name of fake partnership without observing the State Bank of Pakistan’s instructions for opening of a new account. He said the matter was brought to the notice of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who directed his principal secretary to write to the Interior secretary for initiation of an inquiry into the matter.
He further informed the court that the inquiry found Khurram Rasool guilty, and an FIR was registered against him, his brother Shahid Mehmood and other accomplices and officials of that bank.
He said the FIA neither arrested any of the accused mentioned in the FIR nor conducted an investigation. Upon which, he said the petitioners filed their writ petitions before the Islamabad High Court against the FIA chief.
He said the High Court issued directives to the FIA in July 2011 to proceed with the matter strictly in accordance with law, sans any fear or favour and to arrest the accused, but no action was taken by the FIA in the case so far; thus, he had to move the apex court. He said Mian Khurram Rasool, in the capacity of media coordinator to the prime minister, deceitfully and fraudulently extorted over Rs530 million last year.
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