KARACHI: The division bench of Sindh High Court comprising Chief Justice and Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed has ordered the Director General NAB Sindh to submit an inquiry report on the Mega corruption scandal in NICVD on or before the next date of hearing. In case, the needful is not done within the stipulated period, the Director General NAB shall appear and explain in person on 13.2.2023.

The Court had issued notices for 18-01-2023 against Chairman, Director General NAB (National Accountability Bureau), and Chief Secretary Sindh, against a constitutional petition filed by Dr. Tariq Ahmed Shaikh. The NAB officials were required to appear in court along with a progress report pertaining to the NAB inquiry on case No.20180427124456 without fail.  On 18-01-2023 Zahid Hussain Baladi, Special Prosecutor NAB assisted by Qamar Abbas Abbasi, Deputy Director NAB Karachi submitted that the inquiry report in respect of the subject matter of these proceedings would be submitted on or before the next date of hearing.

According to details petitioner Dr. Tariq Ahmed Shaikh is a qualified medical doctor who had been working at the National Institute of Cardio Vascular Disease (NICVD), Karachi, where on account of colossal irregularities and misuse of funds amounting to billions of rupees of public exchequer, he approached NAB authorities for taking actions in accordance with law against the perpetrators.

The issue of corruption in NICVD was also exposed by Auditor General in its report as well as by Transparency International (TI) which highlighted the misuse of funds of more than Rs38 Crore only by one of the Executive Directors. International press also highlighted this issue. In this mature inquiry originated vide letter dated 02-10-2020, where a number of Call up Notices were issued, seemingly no progress had taken place and those irregularities remained unabated.

The petitioner was threatened and later on fired from his job on 10-10-2020 which act of the employer, he has already challenged. The petitioner pointed out that the only purpose of this petition is to seek details of the investigation/ inquiry made against the individuals named in the Notice dated 12-10-2020 and as to what has caused NAB to freeze these investigations as no further progress has been reported.

 He stated that Constitution requires all public functionaries to act in accordance with the law and transparently too, with access to information from the public. 

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 23 2023

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