The President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi, has upheld the ‘Removal from Service’ penalty of former Assistant Director of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Sukkur for leaking classified information that led to an accused criminal escaping arrest.
He rejected the former official Faheemullah’s appeal against the major penalty of ‘Removal from Service’ that had been imposed by NAB and stated that even this penalty does not do justice to corrupt individuals. The President directed NAB to prosecute Faheemullah and the other suspects in an inquiry in a Court of Law to punish them for the wrong done to the country and for corruption within the institution that is responsible for controlling it.
Faheemullah (the appellant) had been accused of leaking former-Deputy Director Food Department Larkana Rafiq Ahmed Rajpar’s Warrant of Arrest (WoA) as he was wanted in a food case by NAB Sukkur. Faheemullah had shared classified information with his friend former Deputy Assistant Director NAB Yaqoob Rajpar who is currently serving as the Assistant Commissioner Federal Board of Revenue, Shikarpur, and the latter had passed the information about the WoA to Rafiq Rajpar, who then managed to flee and avoid its execution.
After an inquiry and fulfilling all the legal formalities, the charges of illegally sharing WoA against Faheemullah were proven and a significant penalty of ‘Removal from Service’ was imposed on him. Faheemullah subsequently submitted an appeal addressed to the President of Pakistan, the Appellate Authority, under the NAB Employees Terms and Conditions of Services (TCS) Rules 2002.
After granting Faheemullah the opportunity of being heard, and examining the details of the case, President Alvi rejected his appeal because he had not provided a cogent reason for a recall of the ‘Removal from Service’. He noted that the WoA and other documents about the case originated from Faheemullah and had reached Rafiq Rajpar, who, based on the information, was getting bails and avoiding arrest in the food case.
He also highlighted that the existence of links between Faheemullah, Yaqoob Rajpar, and Rafiq Rajpar had been established, and the forensic analysis of the telephones owned by the appellant and Yaqoob Rajpar also showed that gross corruption was taking place in the NAB under them.
The President then directed for investigation and tracking of the blatant corruption within the NAB, Sukkur, to conduct and reject Faheemullah’s appeal.
