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ISLAMABAD: Former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Zafar Hijazi, has been acquitted in the case registered against him over six years ago for alleged tampering of the records of sugar mills owned by the Sharif family.
A special court of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) acquitted Mr Hijazi of the charges and ruled that the FIA had failed to substantiate the allegations against him.
The FIA had registered the case against Mr Hijazi in July 2017 for backdating the closure of the inquiry into Sharif family’s Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) Limited. The case was registered on the orders of the Supreme Court after the three-member Panama Papers case implementation bench acted on the JIT report.
In a report submitted to the Supreme Court in July 2017, the FIA stated that Mr Hijazi had obtained the mill’s records and verbally ordered SECP officials Maheen Fatima and Ali Azeem Ikram, in the presence of Abid Hussain and Tahir Mehmood, to backdate the closure of the investigation.
The note, dated Jan 14, 2013, was prepared and sent on June 29 and June 30, 2016, by SECP Corporate Supervision Department Additional Director Tariq Ahmad via email to Internal Audit and Compliance Department Director Maheen Fatima, the report stated.
Therefore, the FIA registered criminal case against Mr Hijazi under sections 466 and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
However, during the course of cross-examination, Maheen Fatima conceded that Mr Hijazi had never pressured her to close the CSM file.
Earlier, in March 2018, IHC Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani dismissed the petition seeking acquittal of Mr Hijazi.
In the plea, Mr Hijazi alleged that SECP’s officials, — Maheen Fatima, Tariq Ahmed, Ali Azeem, Tahir Mahmood and Abid Hussain — were allegedly involved in the case and had falsely blamed him to save their own skin.
It may be mentioned that in May 2017, Mr Hijazi had disclosed that the Supreme Court’s registrar made him a WhatsApp call and conveyed him the directions that the name of Bilal Rasool should be included in the SECP’s panel for the JIT.
The apex court had sought nominations from the FIA, National Accountability Bureau, SECP, State Bank of Pakistan, Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence to constitute a six-member team to probe allegations of money laundering against Mr Sharif.
The case against Mr Hijazi was registered on July 10, 2017, and he was taken into custody on July 21.