ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court Thursday observed that if the country recovers over one trillion rupees involved in the mega corruption scams, there will be no need to beg money from states and financial institutions.
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) last week submitted a revised report of 150 mega scams to the apex court bench hearing a case regarding performance of the bureau. Out of these cases, 50 are of financial nature, 50 about land and 50 of misuse of authority.
During Thursday’s proceeding, NAB Additional Prosecutor General (APG) Akbar Tarar submitted a detailed report of Rs264 billion recovered in the last 15 years (from 2000 to 2015).
The two-member bench comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Dost Muhammad hearing a related application directed the federation and the Punjab government to submit report about construction of Dadocha Dam, which was supposed to provide water to twin cities. But, a housing society is being developed on the land required for the dam.
The NAB in its report said that of the Rs264 billion, Rs19.046 billion came as Voluntary Return, Rs10.712 billion in Plea Bargain, Rs181.367 billion on account of bank default/restructuring/rescheduling of loans, Rs15.95 billion in the case of Punjab Cooperative Liquidation Board, Rs29.24 billion court fines and Rs7.372 billion in the form of indirect recoveries.
According to year-wise break-up, the bureau recovered Rs38.73 billion in 2000, Rs88.263 billion in 2001, Rs33.794 billion in 2002, Rs29.80 billion in 2003, Rs3.471 billion in 2004, Rs3.278 billion in 2005, Rs14.166 billionin 2006, Rs7.465 billion in 2007, Rs2.33 billion in 2008, Rs3.303 billion in 2009, Rs7.369 billion in 2010, Rs1.608 in 2011, Rs17.659 billion in 2012, Rs6.496 billion in 2013, Rs3.534 billion in 2014 and Rs2.418 billion in 2015 (till date).
In Dadocha Dam case, petitioner Col (r) Tariq Kamal informed the court that he had filed a complaint in the NAB on 16-9-2010 informing that the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Bahria Town and Habib and Raffiq entered into a joint venture to undertake real estate projects including DHA Valley, Phase-II extension of DHA, DHA Expressway, DHA Villas and Dadocha Dam on the forest land in Rawalpindi.
He submitted that the dam was planned to overcome water shortage in twin cities, but the DHA Valley is also being constructed at the same site where Dadocha Dam is planned. He told the dam construction will not be possible if the housing society consumes the land.
In 2000, the Punjab government asked Small Dam Organisation (SDO) to prepare feasibility of two new small dams in the Rawalpindi district to overcome water shortage. Technical experts and engineers selected two suitable sites for construction of new water reservoirs. One was Chirah at Korang stream and other was Dadocha on River Soan. In 2002, the feasibility report and PC-1 of Dadocha Dam was prepared by SDO. According to that the project would be constructed on Soan River near Dadocha village some 35km east of Rawalpindi. The petitioner told that one of the NAB inquiry reports mentions that ‘DHA and Bahria Town are reluctant to provide record regarding the matter’. The bench declared the NAB first report ‘highly unsatisfactory’ and stated the second report too is not satisfactory.
NAB Deputy PG Fozi Zafar informed that inquiry regarding Dadocha Dam was authorised on March 3, 2012 and it was still incomplete. The court asked the NAB to explain the reason of such a long delay in case completion. It directed the federal government (thorough Deputy Attorney General Amir Rehman), the Punjab government and the Small Dam Organisation to submit report on Dadocha Dam. The hearing was adjourned until July 23.