Supreme Court adjourns IIBL fraud case hearing

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of bail applications submitted by Nadeem Anwar and Javed Iqbal Qureshi in Islamic Investment Bank Limited (IIBL) fraud case after accepting the request made by the counsel of one of the applicants. The case was adjourned to a date in office.
Former IIBL chief executive Nadeem Anwar and former IIBL director Javed Iqbal Qureshi were arrested in June 2005 by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the written complaint lodged by the Registrar of the Supreme Court against them in a fraud case worth millions of rupees.
Waseem Sajjad appeared before the court and apprised that proposals had already been submitted with NAB for ensuring the recovery of the Supreme Court's amount and requested the court to adjourn the matter for few weeks.
The bench comprising Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Muhammad Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Zawwar Hussain Jaffery accepted the request and adjourned the hearing of the case to a date in office.
The bench directed the NAB chairman to submit a written reply about proposals submitted by the accused for the recovery of the amount deposited by the Supreme Court with the Bank. Raja Ibrahim Satti appeared before the court as counsel of the co-accused Javed Iqbal Qureshi.
According to the complaint, the Supreme Court deposited more than Rs 400 million in the IIBL after receiving the amount from the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) as guarantee in a customs duty case.
The CBR requested the Supreme Court to release the said amount which was deposited with the apex court as guarantee after the decision of the Supreme Court, but it was not done even after passing weeks due to the non-availability of the amount in the account of the Bank.
Two cheques given by the management of the IIBL to Supreme Court were dishonoured and there was no amount in the account of the said bank. The then-chief justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui appointed Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry the then-senior most judge after the chief justice to inquire into the matter.
According to the inquiry report prepared by Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the IIBL management was declared involved in the fraud case with the connivance of SC Registrar M.A. Farooqui causing damage to apex court's repute regarding the security deposits.
The Supreme Court referred the matter to NAB to investigate the case, which arrested Nadeem Anwar, Javed Iqbal Qureshi, M.A. Farooqui and others according to the findings of the inquiry report prepared by Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. M.A. Farooqui and some others were released on bail but Nadeem Anwar and Javed Iqbal Qureshi are still in the jail.