The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) special prosecutor to file comments regarding whether any inquiries were pending against former Sindh excise and taxation minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla and others excise officers.The high court also directed NAB to conclude the inquiry against the former excise minister and others within three months. The direction came on petitions filed by Chawla and excise officers against NAB call-up notices pertaining to corruption and misuse of authority.
The high court had on a previous hearing directed NAB to explain delay in the corruption inquiry against the former provincial excise and taxation minster, and other excise officers for almost two years.
A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that the inquiry was initiated in 2021 and despite the lapse of two years, it was still in the inquiry stage. A NAB investigation officer (IO), AleemBaig, who was a previous IO of the case, submitted that he had authorised the inquiry in September 2021 till May 2023, a period spanning over 18 months, and during that he collected relevant documents and sent them to NAB.
The SHC observed that the NAB inquiry had to be concluded within four months under the NAB’s standard operating procedures (SOPs). The bench observed that the investigation officer did not explain why the inquiry had not been completed within four months as specified in the SOPs. The bench observed that the investigation officer also did not produce any document in respect of extension in time for completion of the inquiry.
The high court observed that NAB inquiries could not be allowed to continue endlessly with the sword of Damocles hanging over the petitioners continuously who had not been issued call up notices.
