It has been revealed that Brigadier (Retd) Mussaddiq Abbasi, who was appointed as the Prime Minister’s adviser on Accountability and the Interior on January 26, after the resignation of Barrister Shahzad Akbar on January 24, had, in the past, been investigated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for two complaints against him. According to the documents available with Bol News, the probe against Brigadier Abbasi was launched in 2011 when he was posted as Director General NAB in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
One of the complaints against him, a copy of which is available with Bol News, was lodged by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Officer Dilawar Khan Bangash, and was received by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs through the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. The document was signed by Colonel (retd) Subhan Sadiq Malik, the then Director General of HR & Finance. According to Colonel Malik, he had received several complaints against Brigadier (retd) Abbasi from the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, ordinary citizens and other sources. Some of these complaints were described as extremely serious.
Speaking to Bol News, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, a former officer of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), said that the formal complaint against Brigadier (retd) Abbasi had been dismissed without any investigation.
“The complaint against him came to light in August 2011 while Fasih Bukhari had assumed the post of NAB chairman on October 17, 2011,” said Dr Siddiqa, adding that when she joined NAB, then Brigadier (retd) Abbasi was also performing his duties there. “He was DG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in those days and I used to meet him every week for board meetings,” she recalled.
Dr Siddiqa said that perhaps Brigadier (retd) Abbasi has been appointed in place of former Accountability and Interior tsar Barrister Shahzad Akbar because he is aware of several ongoing corruption cases in Pakistan and his ability to recover money is far greater than that of Akbar,
Bol News talked to several senior NAB officials on the issue, some of whom claimed that Brigadier (retd) Abbasi had, in the past, been working to serve the interests of former chairman Munir Hafeez and those of Tariq Abbasi.
Sources also told Bol News that Brigadier Abbasi is involved in cases involving Pakistan International Airlines and is related to Major General (retd) Zaheerul Islam.
One source recalled that on January 4, 2012, the then Deputy Chairman NAB, Javed Qazi, wrote a letter to Brigadier (retd) Abbasi seeking clarification of the allegations against him.“The competent authority has received a large number of complaints against you from different sources, ie. the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and the Ministry of Law and Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, containing allegations of a grave and serious nature,” Qazi’s letter to him reads, a copy of which is available with Bol News.
Brigadier Abbasi was asked to respond to Qazi within seven days and questioned why disciplinary action should not be recommended against him in light of these allegations.
Allegations of violence against him surfaced in another complaint to then-President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, demanding action against Abbasi. In this petition, the complainant had mentioned the Sindh High Court orders on the basis of which NAB officials were directed to take action against Abbasi.
“In this case, a bribe of Rs 8 million was allegedly demanded from Abbasi and in return the case was put on hold for five years,” reads the copy of the complaint available with Bol News.
According to the complaint filed against Brigadier Abbasi, during his tenure as Director in Karachi, he used to torture political and civil servants and tried to extort money from them. “One such case was challenged in the Sindh High Court. The orders are now part of PLDs. The High Court Judge referred to Abbasi as a cunning person and directed the NAB authorities to take action against the officer,” the complaint reads.
“Abbasi demanded Rs “8 million from the custom appraiser and kept his case pending for five years. The judgment clearly spelled out his name as the main culprit,” the complaint reads, while adding that instead of awarding him punishment, the then DG merely transferred him to Peshawar with a bad report.
The complaint written to the then President and Prime Minister mentioned that the High Court judgment had all the relevant details. “He also allegedly managed his inductions in NAB after retirement with double benefits,” the complaint read. It also alleged that he had thousands of kanals of land in District Badin of the Sindh province. “Abbasi has a farmhouse, fish ponds, dairy farms and around 20 flats over there,” the complaint said, adding that in 2008, NAB KP had recovered Rs 30 million from the ‘Best NGO’ in the earthquake-affected areas.
“Brigadier Abbasi diverted the money to his own village, particularly to his own and his brothers’ houses in Berot Tehsil Abbottabad, and established a water supply scheme [there],” the complaint alleged.
Interestingly, his own brother was the contractor of the scheme and his nephew was the supervisor, getting Rs 80,000 as salary from Best NGO. “The cunning officer has also developed a luxurious bungalow at Berot,” the complaint stated.
In light of all these allegations against Abbas, it is widely felt that Prime Minister Imran Khan should conduct a thorough probe of the charges, because if they are proved true it will reflect badly on the premier and his government.
