The court also set aside Lahore High Court verdict. The 68-page verdict authored by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa was reserved by a three-member bench on January 21, 2015. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa remarked that in his capacity as a Federal Minister Anwar Saif Ullah Khan respondent forced his will upon a reluctant Chairman of a public sector Corporation and after relaxing the relevant rules he got 145 persons appointed to various jobs against the requirements of the Corporation only to please his political friends in the Parliament. The Lahore High Court, Lahore held that what the respondent did was in accord with the prevalent practice. Such implied acceptance of a culture of political patronage cannot be approved by us.
The High Court had concluded that the respondent had no criminal intent in the matter. With respect to the High Court, we do not agree, the order stated.
The judgment stated that that the requirement vis-?-vis appointments was that of the parliamentarians and not of the Oil & Gas Development Corporation, the respondent had been resisting the pressure in that regard for some time in the past because the Oil & Gas Development Corporation did not need any such appointment and a list of candidates had already been approved by the respondent before it was to be sent to the Chairman, Oil & Gas Development Corporation for issuing the letters of appointment.
It is, therefore, quite evident that in the matter of such appointments the respondent was motivated to please the parliamentarians rather than looking after the interests of the Oil & Gas Development Corporation, the initiative for the appointments had come from the respondent and not from the Chairman, Oil & Gas Development Corporation and also that in order to release the pressure upon him from the parliamentarians the respondent had decided to force his will upon the Competent Authority, i.e. Chairman, Oil & Gas Development Corporation in the matter of such appointments.
In the matter of getting 145 persons appointed to various jobs in the Oil & Gas Development Corporation the respondent had ignored the mandate of Articles 18 and 25 of the Constitution, he had defied the law declared in the above mentioned judgments rendered by this Court and by some other Courts and Tribunals, he had utilized his authority under the relevant law for extraneous considerations and purposes, he had used his position and power against the interests of the relevant Corporation of which he was incharge and he had done all that to dish out undue favours to others by imposing his will upon a hesitant or unwilling competent authority.
We have, thus, felt convinced that the charge under section 9(a)(vi) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 stood fully established against the respondent.
This appeal is, therefore, allowed, the impugned judgment passed by the Lahore High Court, Lahore on 13.06.2002 is set aside, the judgment passed by the Accountability Court, Lahore on 30.11.2000 and the conviction and sentence of the respondent recorded through that judgment are restored with the modification that the sentence of fine passed against the respondent is remitted as the criminal case in hand is about two decades old, the respondent has already undergone his entire sentence of imprisonment and the period of his disqualifications under section 15 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 has also expired by now.
We feel that insisting upon payment of fine by the respondent or sending him behind the bars for non-payment of fine at such a late stage would amount to, in the words of Shakespeare, insisting upon a pound of flesh. This appeal is disposed of in these terms, the judgment stated.
The order further stated that the office of this Court is directed to send a copy of this judgment to the Chairman, National Accountability Bureau who is directed to bring this judgment to the notice of all the Federal and Provincial Ministers and the Secretaries of all the Federal and Provincial ministries, divisions and departments in the country who may stand warned that through this judgment and the previous judgments of this Court and of the other Courts and Tribunals mentioned in this judgment the legal position on the subject stands sufficiently explained and clarified and if they or their subordinates, in terms of the provisions of section 9(a)(vi) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, misuse their authority so as to gain any benefit or favour for themselves or any other person, or render or attempt to render or willfully fail to exercise their authority to prevent the grant or rendition of any undue benefit or favour which they could have prevented by exercising their authority then, unless the contrary is established in clear terms, criminal intent on their part, for the purposes of the provisions of section 14(d) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, shall from now onwards be more readily inferred than was done by the courts in the past.
It must be realized and appreciated by all concerned that Ministers and legislators exerting pressure upon civil servants for political favours in the public sector and a bureaucracy ready to oblige them form a deadly alliance and their unholy collaboration works as a recipe for destruction of merit, weakening of the State structure and promotion of injustice in the society.
It is but obvious that a society which allows merit to be sacrificed at the altar of political patronage, which does nothing to prevent weakening of the State structure and which closes its eyes to injustice is doomed to self-destruct. It is, therefore, about time that the National Accountability Bureau and the courts of the country come down heavily upon such predators of a strong, just and decent society.