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FCAs case hearing adjourned to allow negotiations

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: At the request of the depositor, a full bench of the Supreme Court here on Monday adjourned the hearing into the foreign currency accounts case to allow parties to finalise their out of court negotiations.

The request was made by Saiyid Nurul Huda, a Pakistani residing in London who says he had invested US $1.5 million in the FCAs at the guarantee of the Federal government several years ago but those were frozen by Nawaz Sharif's administration after May, 1998's nuclear tests by Pakistan and India.

Huda rose to make the statement before the bench presided over by Chief Justice Irshad Hassan Khan saying that he and his bankers were trying to settle the issue out-of-court and he needed time to finalise those.

Other two judges on bench were Justice Chaudhary Mohammad Arif and Justice Qazi Mohammad Farooq Pasha.

A different bench headed by the former Chief Justice Saeeduzzamn Siddiqui and comprising had adjourned the case on Jan 17 at the request of the Federal Law Minister Aziz A Munshi for three weeks to allow him time to consult his cabinet colleagues and return to the Court with a solution to the impasse.

The petitioner, Nurul Huda is asking the Court for permission encash his account into Pak rupees and then repatriate the amount by buying the foreign currency in the open market.

The former Chief Justice Siddiqui had warned Munshi, who is also the Attorney General that if the government failed to solve the problem, the judges would pass a "harsh order" for implementation.

An earlier bench in June last year had appreciated the government's difficulty in refunding the accounts due to shortage of hard currency but asked it to arrange payment of interest promised to the investors and to also apportion some foreign currency every year to pay to the account holders wishing to close their accounts because of hardships.

Nurul Huda had returned to the Court shortly after saying that his bankers, the Citibank were not paying him the interest and also wished to convert his savings at the official rate which was lesser than the open market rates.

Immediately after the adjournment, the lawyers for commercial banks as well as the State Bank of Pakistan and its officials went into conference with the Law Minister Munshi, Deputy Attorney General Tanvir Bashir Ansari and the Federal Law Secretary, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar and remained there till the afternoon. On emerging from the conference none offered a comment.