The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, on Tuesday said he was not satisfied with the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) performance in the Saaf Pani Company case.
The Chief Justice was heading the three member bench of the apex court' Lahore Registry and hearing the suo motu case pertaining to Saaf Paani Company case.
He said, "NAB's performance in this case has been disappointing."
While expressing his dissatisfaction over NAB's failure to provide a detailed inquiry report, he said, "Apprise the NAB chairman of the court’s concerns."
Also upset at the establishment secretary's lack of cooperation with NAB, Justice Nisar ordered that the accountability body be provided a list of company officials and those who went on deputation.
Justice Saqib Nisar questioned, "What happened regarding an inquiry into the assets of the CEOs and other officials of the company?"
The NAB prosecutor responded, "Inquiry has been completed into the assets of six CEOs."
"The Punjab government submitted the record of company officials on July 22 owing to which there was a delay in the inquiry," the NAB prosecutor added.
He further said that a probe could not be conducted into the assets of all company officials due to a lack of cooperation from the establishment division.
To this, the Supreme Court directed the Punjab Chief Secretary and secretary establishment to cooperate with NAB.
"They will appear in court over failure to follow orders," the Chief Justice remarked.
Further the Court observed, "Start collecting money that was stolen, it will come in use to build Diamer-Bhasha dam."
Earlier, on April 7, the Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had given a day to the Punjab Saaf Pani Company Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the provincial government to submit the complete record, including salaries, perks and privileges of the entire staff and vehicles provided to them to perform their duties.
The Supreme Court had taken a suo motu notice of a plethora of public welfare cases.
The Chief Justice had expressed serious concern over the exorbitant salary and benefits packages of the company’s officials and the money being paid to foreign consultants for water projects.
The Punjab government had established Saaf Pani Company to conceive, plan, design, execute and manage projects for the provision of safe drinking water, in terms of both access and quality, to the communities living in unserved and underserved areas i.e. rural and peri-urban areas of the province.