ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued contempt of court notice to the incumbent Federal Investigation Agency director general for interfering in Supreme Court affairs by transferring Zafar Qureshi probing the financial scam of National Insurance Company Limited (NICL). A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani heard the suo moto regarding violation of the Public Procurement Rules, 2004, causing loss of billions to the public exchequer by the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL). The chief justice said the letter written by Malik Iqbal had created obstacle in the investigation carried out by Zafar Qureshi in pursuance of the Supreme Court order. The incumbent DG has intervened in the SC and succeeded in disassociating Zafar Qureshi from the NICL probe. The CJP noting that Malik Iqbal had also used the same tactics in the Haj corruption case issued contempt of court under Article 204 of the Constitution read with Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003. The court observed that Zafar Qureshi was posted as FIA additional director general and in that capacity he had commenced the investigation of the financial scam allegedly committed by responsible officers of the NICL Board of Governors. The FIA ADG interrogated NICL Chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi and successfully managed to recover Rs1.74 billion. As the investigation was in progress in respect of other accused he was abruptly posted as National Police Foundation director, the court noted. The chief justice said they had pointed out to the FIA authorities that he had recovered huge amount and many accused who were abroad could not be arrested yet, therefore the transfer of Zafar Qureshi was unwarranted. The federal government then issued a notification on January 24, 2011, to post Qureshi again as an FIA additional DG. Meanwhile, as the investigation was in progress, the court observed, Qureshi registered other cases against the persons directly or indirectly involved in the NICL scam, DG Waseem Ahmed was dispensed with and Malik Muhammad Iqbal was posted as FIA DG. The court noted that Malik Iqbal instead of assisting Zafar Qureshi in making progress in the criminal cases, surprisingly wrote a letter to the secretary ministry of interior. The chief justice expressing concern said: We failed to understand when the NICL case was in progress what prompted the DG FIA to write a letter to the government. The CJP noted that prima facie it was a device to delay the matter, the reasons better known to Malik Iqbal. The court noted that the ministry of interior in a letter dated April 16, 2011, mentioning the letter written by the FIA DG referred the matter to cabinet division for issuing the notification. The chief justice stated the letter indicates that the notification was issued on the intimation of FIA DG that the challan regarding the case had been submitted in the court. He said interim challan did mean that investigation had been completed. The CJP said the letter of Malik Iqbal had created obstacle in the NICL investigation and issued him contempt of court. The FIA DG had been ordered to file written reply by May 16 that why the contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against him. The hearing was adjourned till May 16.