IHC reserves verdict in PPP's Rukhsana Bangash petition against NAB inquiry

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a petition of Pakistan People's Party (PPP)'s leader Rukhsana Bangash challenging NAB call up notice in an inquiry pertaining to her assets.

The court observed that the call up notice was false and baseless. The court would pass a detailed judgment into the matter.

The NAB official informed the bench that the department had no intention to arrested Rukhsana Bangash as no arrest warrants had been issued against her.

A division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri heard the interim bail petition of Rukhsana Bangash in an inquiry pertaining to assets beyond known sources of income. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) director appeared before the court in compliance of bench order.

The court expressed displeasure over NAB's call up notice against the PPP's leader and asked the director NAB whether he had seen the investigation officer's first questionnaire served to the petitioner. Irrelevant questions were asked from Bangash in it, Justice Farooq noted.

Director NAB answered that it was just a mistake of IO. Justice Farooq noted that the NAB had included the questions pertaining to her qualification and degrees. Thank God, the NAB had not asked the favorite color of the petitioner, he remarked.

The NAB prosecutor apologized the court and termed it a mistake of IO. Justice Farooq said that Justice Ali Nawaz Chohan had given a judgment about the NAB investigation and pointed out weaknesses in it. The department had deteriorated professionally instead of getting progress in last twenty years, he said.

The court asked the NAB officials to professionally train their officers for conducting investigations.

Deputy Attorney General Sardar Muzafar Abbasi adopted the stance that his department was just investigating the matter if it was a money laundering scam or not.

Justice Farooq remarked that there was a procedure of everything, the country's law didn't stop anybody from purchasing foreign currency account and holding accounts more than one.

He said that arrangement of amount around Rs3 millions was not a big deal for businessman son of Rukhsana Bangash. There was complain about two suspicious transactions, it was simple for NAB to investigate it, the bench remarked.

Justice Farooq further said that what was suspicious in it when Rukhsana Bangash' son submitted answers. The court asked the NAB director that he was responding in the same way of IO, adding that if this was the attitude then court could summon director general or chairman NAB to answer.

The court remarked that the NAB call up notice to Mrs. Bangash was baseless, adding that when the accused were summoned, the NAB used to issue press releases at its own. Everyone was respectable and trial shouldn't be made in media, Justice Farooq added.

After this, the court reserved its judgment and remarked that it would pass a detailed order in this case.