Daily Times

Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday said he was not satisfied with the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) performance in the Saaf Pani Company case.

“NAB’s performance in this case has been disappointing,” the chief justice of Pakistan said while heading a three-judge bench at the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry. The bench was hearing a suo motu case regarding Saaf Pani Company.

Expressing anger over NAB’s failure to provide a detailed inquiry report, Justice Nisar remarked, “Apprise the NAB chairman of the court’s concerns.”

Also upset at the establishment secretary’s lack of cooperation with NAB, Justice Nisar ordered that the accountability body be provided a list of company officials and those who went on deputation.

“What happened regarding an inquiry into the assets of the chief executive officers and other officials of the company?” the chief justice asked during the hearing.

The NAB prosecutor responded, “Inquiry has been completed into the assets of six CEOs. The Punjab government submitted the record of company officials on July 22 owing to which there was a delay in the inquiry.”

He further said that a probe could not be conducted into the assets of all company officials due to a lack of cooperation from the establishment division.

To this, the top court directed the Punjab chief secretary and secretary establishment to cooperate with NAB.

“They will appear in court over failure to follow orders,” the chief justice remarked.

Further the court observed, “Start collecting money that was stolen, it will come in use to build Diamer-Bhasha dam.”

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on April 7 had given a day to the Punjab Saaf Pani Company CEO and the provincial government to submit the complete record, including salaries, perks and privileges of the entire staff and vehicles provided to them to perform their duties.

The apex court had taken a suo motu notice of a plethora of public welfare cases.

The CJP had expressed serious concern over the exorbitant salary and benefits packages of the company’s officials and the money being paid to foreign consultants for water projects.

The Punjab government had established Saaf Pani Company to conceive, plan, design, execute and manage projects for the provision of safe drinking water, in terms of both access and quality, to the communities living in unserved and underserved areas ie rural and peri-urban areas of the province.

Published in Daily Times, July 25^th 2018.