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NAB to stand its ground

Posted on: Mon January 18, 2010

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutors will oppose Interior Minister Rehman Malik s plea for acquittal filed in an accountability court of Rawalpindi.Two senior prosecutors, who appear in Rawalpindi s accountability courts to pursue the NAB references against different persons closely associated with the government, told The News that there should be no doubt about the strong defence they would offer to the corruption cases against the interior minister.They said on condition of anonymity that NAB would stand nowhere legally and morally if they conceded on the charges against Malik. By showing no opposition to the acquittal plea, we will be admitting that NAB committed blunders by framing the charges against Rehman Malik, they said. If the NAB or we decide to support this plea, there will be no end to such process as everyone would be filing such requests with the accountability courts, one of these prosecutors said. On Wednesday, the minister filed the acquittal plea under 265-K of the Code of Criminal Procedure that says nothing . . . shall be deemed to prevent a court from acquitting an accused at any stage of the case, if, after hearing the prosecutor and the accused and for reasons to be recorded, it considers that there is no probability of the accused being convicted of any offence . NAB prosecutors will speak on Malik s request on the next date of hearing of the case, Feb 2.The accountability court, headed by Tariq Abbasi, issued notices to the NAB authorities, asking them to respond to Malik s acquittal application that he filed through his legal counsel, saying that the two corruption references are just waste of time as allegations are frivolous and baseless. There is no evidence in their support, he claimed.In one reference, it is alleged that a team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had raided the premises of someone and taken away Rs 700,000 and gold ornaments. Malik at that time was the additional director general of the FIA. Two other FIA personnel had been tried under the NAB law by an accountability court when Malik had been staying in London, and acquitted.In the second reference, the allegation is that as FIA chief Malik took two vehicles as commission while purchasing many from a company for the FIA. According to his lawyer, it came to surface later that only two vehicles were purchased for the FIA. NAB Prosecutor General Danishwar Malik is ill and on leave as he has just undergone heart surgery. NAB s Additional Prosecutor General Baseer Qureshi is also on sick leave these days. NAB s acting Prosecutor General Chaudhry Sultan Mansoor told The News that he was not dealing with the corruption references being heard in Rawalpindi against the interior minister. Therefore, he said, he has no idea about the stand the NAB prosecutors would take on Malik s acquittal plea. He said these were being dealt with by NAB pros-ecutors, including Baseer Qureshi and Tariq Mehmood Jehangiri.

Courtesy : The News