ISLAMABAD: While the Supreme Court has taken note of how the convicted FIA officer Ahmed Riaz Sheikh got a top job, the NAB is treating him with velvet gloves and has not yet reopened his case although he enjoys no immunity like his friend President Asif Zardari.

As cases of all other NRO beneficiaries have been reopened, Sheikh has emerged as a unique case, who is still escaping the long arm of the law, courtesy the concession NAB has extended to the man.

Officers responsible for accountability say the Punjab NAB had written a letter soon after the NRO judgment, recommending to the NAB chairman to reopen the cases against Sheikh. More than two months have passed but the head office continues to sit on that letter, without taking any action.

The NAB feels so scared of Ahmad Riaz Sheikh that it could not even come to help its employees as they faced his wrath for carrying out investigations landing him in jail. The story goes: two NAB officials, Raja Shahid Nasir and Col Saeedullah Cheema, paid through the nose for probing Sheikh’s case in 2001.

As the PPP came to power and Sheikh was given the charge of the Lahore Intelligence Bureau, the first thing he did after assuming the spy office was to lodge an FIR against NAB’s investigators, fabricating allegations of breaking his lockers. He conducted unauthorised raids at the residences of the two said officers who rushed to NAB for help as they had left the bureau, alleging victimisation.

The NAB refused any protection, leaving them in the lurch to run from pillar to post, appearing before courts to plead their innocence and paying their expenses through their own pockets. Now they are so upset, they don’t even take any call from the NAB that sometimes require their help in discovering some past record, said a senior official in the NAB Lahore office.

As this correspondent also tried to reach one of these victims of Sheikh, Lt-Col Saeed Cheema, he bluntly refused to talk. “I said I don’t want to talk and this is my last word,” he said when asked to describe his suffering.

Ahmad Riaz Sheikh did not attend repeated calls nor did he reply to messages sent to him. The NAB’s inaction on Sheikh is in contrast with the bureau’s past record when it had sponsored a TV play characterising his malpractices as the epitome of corruption. The play was part of an awareness campaign against corruption with a Sheikh-like character in the central role.

Sheikh, a man with known means, was convicted by an accountability court and sentenced to 14-year rigorous imprisonment, a fine of Rs20 million was imposed and his property was confiscated. The Lahore High Court upheld the sentence and then he went to the Supreme Court where he received bail from the Dogar court.

Now when cases of all beneficiaries have been reopened after the NRO was quashed, except President Zardari, Sheikh is enjoying an immunity he is not entitled to. While his seniors, Rehman Malik and Salman Farooqui are facing the courts, he has been rewarded by a promotion in FIA.