Chaudhrys belonged to a respected family: Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry

Islamabad (14-04-2011) The supreme court on Thursday admitted three applications moved by PML President and former prime minister Chaudhry Shujat Hussain and Ch Moonis Elahi in which the court was requested to remove FIA additional director general Zafar Qureshi from the NICL scam investigation and rather an investigation may be started against him. In these applications, it wax prayed that the main accused in the NICL scam, Habibullah Waraich & family, had deposited all the required amount with the FIA but despite the fact of the recovery, Moonis Elahi, his wife and other family members were being harassed by Qureshi while a probe has been launched into the bank accounts of Moonis Elahi which was uncalled for. 

The apex court bench comprising chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani directed Zafar Qureshi to submit reply to the application by the Chaudhry family. During the proceedings of the case, the chief justice said that the Chaudhrys belonged to a respected family and the investigators should take care of the fact while dealing with them. The court also said that any investigation into those bank accounts which are not linked to transactions vis-à-vis the NICL would be against rules. In their applications, the Chaudhry family had pleaded that Qureshi had leveled baseless allegations against the applicants and even he had stated that he was facing life threats from the Chauhdrys. It was stated that Chaudhrys belonged to a respectable family and could not even think of any such plan as described by Qureshi. It was prayed that Qureshi’s baseless allegations should be investigated and he should be removed from investigation of the case. Senator Wasim Sajjad, the attorney of Ch Shujat, told the court during the proceedings that the Waraich family had deposited all the required amount with the FIA and no amount was liable but the FIA officials were still harassing Moonis Elahi and his family members. Besides, he added, investigation into other accounts of Ch Moonis was also launched, his accounts have been frozen, while the credit cards of his children are also been sought for investigation purpose which was uncalled for. 

He said the Chaudhrys were basically businessmen and thus it was natural to have heavy amounts in their accounts for business purpose. He said the Chaudhry family was being targeted on political whims which should be stopped. A large number of parliamentarians and PML workers were present on the occasion in the courtroom No.1 of the apex court building. Prominent of those were PML Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Sayed, PML parliamentary Leader in the national assembly Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, President PML KP Engineer Amir Muqam, MNAs Sh Waqas Akram, Marvi Memon, Prince Nawaz Allai, Pir Aslam Bodla and others.