Pak's NAB chairman goes on leave after SC orders action

The newly-appointed chief of Pakistan's anti-graft body today went on leave after the Supreme Court ordered the registration of a case against him for "creating hurdles" in the probe of a multi-billion rupee corruption case involving the national insurer.
A three judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, ordered to file a case against National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry for creating hurdles in the investigation of the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) corruption case.
Following the verdict, NAB chief went on a long leave citing personal reasons. He sent his leave application to President Mamnoon Hussain, Geo news reported.

The NICL scandal involves purchase of real estate on inflated rates. Zaman had sent a controversial memo to then establishment secretary Abdul Rauf on the progress of billions of rupees NICL scam, even though he was not authorised to do so.
The court also declared illegal the appointment of Ayaz Khan Niazi as the chairman of NICL and also ruled that the money in question be recovered as quickly as possible.
The judgement said that former interior secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, now NAB chief, and Federal Tax Ombudsman Abdul Rauf Chaudhry had tried to obstruct the decision.

The court decided to handover the probe to NAB.

The NAB will also investigate Pakistan Peoples Party's Makhdoom Amin Fahim, former principal secretary to then Prime Minister Nargis Sethi, former establishment division secretary Ismail Qureshi and Salman Ghani - who are all suspected to be involved in illegal appointment of Niazi.
The court added that Captain Zafar Ahmed Qureshi, who was associated with the FIA at the time of the probe into the scam, was deliberately kept away from its investigation in an attempt to obstruct justice.
The bench ordered the initiation of proceedings under section which refers to "misuses" of authority "so as to gain any benefit or favour" for oneself or for any other person, or "to render or attempt to do so".