The court had initiated suo motu proceedings after taking note of a media report of alleged corruption in the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), which suffered losses of Rs22 billion.
Pakistan's Supreme Court today asked interior minister Rehman Malik to submit a written reply to a notice issued to him for "interfering" in a probe into alleged financial irregularities in a state-run steel company after he appeared before it to explain his position verbally.
A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry rejected the minister's plea to respond to the notice verbally. Malik, who was served the notice last week, personally appeared in the apex court today.
The court had initiated suo motu proceedings after taking note of a media report of alleged corruption in the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), which suffered losses of Rs22 billion. The bench later adjourned the matter till January 25 with a direction to Malik to personally appear before it at the next hearing with a written reply.
"We would proceed according to the rules. First of all, you have to give a reply to the show cause notice," observed chief justice Chaudhry. The bench granted time to the minister to furnish a written reply.
The Director (Legal) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) presented a report of the progress in the probe to the court. The FIA also informed the court that four first information reports had been registered and further cases will be taken up against the accused in the coming days.
Earlier, the court had issued a notice to Malik for transferring FIA chief Tariq Khosa, describing it as an act of interference in the court's affairs as Khosa was probing the reasons for losses of Rs 22 billion incurred by Pakistan Steel Mills.
According to media reports, Khosa, who was promoted and made a federal secretary, was pushing the Prime Minister's Secretariat to allow him to arrest a federal minister of state whose money exchange firm was found involved in laundering money linked to the Steel Mills.
The Supreme Court had taken suo motu of the case following an article that alleged the government did not know the exact losses suffered by the Steel Mills. The Pakistan Steel Mills' management later estimated the losses at Rs 22 billion.
Former Pakistan Steel Mills chairman Moeen Aftab Shiekh, who was sacked by prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has been accused of causing losses of billions of rupees by buying raw materials at inflated prices and slashing steel prices to benefit the Abbas Steel Group owned by businessman Riaz Lalji, an associate of president Asif Ali Zardari.
The apex court's action against Malik came after it also struck down a controversial graft amnesty that benefited him, Zardari and over 8,000 other people.
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