Rejecting Federal Investigation Agency''s (FIA) report on the alleged Rs22 billions corruption in Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Supreme Court on Monday directed the agency to nab the real culprits behind the scam and submit a report by February 01.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry with Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday and Justice Sair Ali, gave final warning to FIA to arrest the real culprits, involved in the scam otherwise the court would take action against the probe body of the agency.
The court deplored that FIA, instead of nabbing the true criminal held a watchman and a canteen owner for billions of rupees corruption, which is tantamount to diverting court''s attention from real culprits.
During the course of proceedings, FIA investigation officer Moazam Jah presented the inquiry report regarding the alleged corruption in PSM but the court expressed dissatisfaction over the report.
Expressing annoyance over the investigating officer, the court observed that his failure in PSM investigation would be written in his service record and he would not remain in service. When the court reprimanded Maozam Jaa for not properly investigating the case, he told the court that if the apex court was not satisfied with his performance, it won''t see him again, upon which the court remarked that if he (Moazam) thought that he was not able to do the said investigation properly, he was not qualified for any kind of responsibility.
"Don''t think that you will get yourself transferred, if you have no ability to do this investigation, you will be shown the door...have you come here just to eat the sweet and spit the bitter," the bench warned.
The bench questioned additional secretary industry and production, Tariq Shafi as to why they were reluctant to recover the public money, as it was a collective responsibility of all to eradicate crimes.
Barrister Zafarullah informed the court that according to Auditor General''s report, Rs39 billion corruption was resorted to in the PSM, which when converted into monetary terms, comes out to be Rs48 billions from December 2008 to 2010.
He told the court that FIA had not initiated any action against Lal G, owner of the Abbas Steels Group of Karachi, who is the main accused in this scam. The court directed FIA to proceed against the real culprits and submit report by February 01.