The Supreme Court Wednesday granted two weeks to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to arrest Mohsin Habib Warraich, the main accused in National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam. A three-member bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard the case and directed the NAB to submit a report after executing the court orders.
During the proceeding, Justice Gulzar expressed displeasure over NAB's failure to arrest Mohsin. In the last hearing, the court had directed Mohsin to appear before the court. The court had also ordered the NAB prosecutor general to himself apprise the court of the position of the case, about the pendency of the reference, its stage of proceedings and also what justification is available with the NAB for not taking applicant in the custody. Prosecutor General Asghar Haider appeared before the bench and informed about the allegations against Mohsin. He told that the suspects including Mohsin Habib conspired to sell land at inflated prices. "The other accused, Ayyaz Niazi (former NICL chairman), has been sentenced. Rs 4.4 million are left to be recovered from him," he added.
Justice Ahsan said, "Mohsin Habib has already appeared before NAB. NAB served him tea and biscuits, and sent him on his way despite court orders to arrest him. Mohsin Habib fled despite his name being on the Exit Control List."
At this, Justice Gulzar asked "What guarantees are there that the suspect would not flee again? "We will seek the record of Mohsin Habib's departure from the authorities concerned," replied NAB's prosecutor general. "There can be no record for fleeing the country on a launch (motorboat)," Justice Ahsan reminded the NAB official. The case was adjourned for two weeks.
The Supreme Court in its judgement dated November 5, 2013 had held that appointment of Ayaz Khan Niazi was contrary to section 12 of the Insurance Ordinance, 2000 and rules framed thereunder as well as non-transparent, illegal and unwarranted.
The NICL corruption scandal revolves around the alleged misuse of authority for Niazi's appointment, hampering the investigation process regarding his appointment, and corruption committed by the accused along with others, including Warraich. The story of the over Rs 6billion NICL scam broke in 2009-10 when Warraich's company, Messrs Privilege, purchased 803 kanals of land from the NICL at Mauza Toor, Lahore, for a sum of Rs 1.68 billion. The company allegedly sold the land without getting the property mutated in its favour.
The NICL also sold land measuring 20 kanals near the Lahore Airport Road to Warraich for Rs 1.7 billion. It sold the land at a rate of Rs 5.3 million per kanal, although its market value was much higher. Initially the scam was being investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency, but was transferred to NAB in 2014 on the directives of the Supreme Court.
In December 2018, an accountability court in Karachi had sentenced Niazi and five others to seven years in prison for their involvement in the corruption case.
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