Court directs NAB to submit report

RAWALPINDI After the statement of Interior Minister Rehman Malik before the court that he was receiving life threats and could not appear before the court on every date of hearing, the Judge of Special Accountability Court No1 Tariq Abbasi directed the NAB to submit its response in that regard by12 March.
According to details, the court was told by Rehman Malik through his lawyer Amjad Iqbal Qureshi that any attempt on his life could also be fatal for the innocent lives present in the court at the time of his appearance before the court. The court could not take up the acquittal plea of the minister in two corruption references as the NAB authorities said the relevant record was before the Lahore High Court where the minister had challenged his conviction in absentia is the trial court.
There are two corruption references pending against Interior Minister Rehman Malik, in one reference a team of FIA raided the premises of Abbas Raza and Hashim Raza and took away Rs0.7 million with some gold ornaments in 1991-92.
Rehman Malik was DG FIA at that time. In the second reference Rehman was alleged of getting two vehicles as commission during purchase of vehicles, again during his tenure as DG FIA. According to his lawyer it came to surface later that only two vehicles were purchased for FIA. Rehman, after presenting before the court, told the media men that the government had foiled the conspiracy of spreading sectarianism. In this connection, my talks with various Ulema belonging to different schools of thought are successful. To a question, he said that the banned militant outfit Sipah-e-Sihaba worked with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.