Rs 9bn loan fraud biggest ever in Pakistani history, IHC told

[LahoreEstate]

ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government told the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday that the payment of a Rs 9 billion loan to a Lahore-based steel mill had culminated in the ‘biggest ever fraud in the country’s history’.

Appearing on a notice, Punjab Advocate General Khawaja Haris told a division bench – headed by Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Aslam – that Haris Steel Mills had declared its property at the highest value and used fictitious identities to obtain the loan.

He said ‘serious offences’ had been committed by those accused in the case in collaboration with Bank of Punjab employees. He said “a total of 23 accounts were managed under the names of Muhammad Munir, Muhammad Jamil, Sheikh Muhammad Afzal, Waris Malik and others” – none of whom exist – to execute the fraud.

He also denied the authenticity of the documents used by Haris Steel Mills to obtain the loan. “Besides the names of shady personalities used for securing the loan, the names of two ghost mills – Prime Steel and Haider Steel – were also used,” he said.

He said the documents seized from those accused in the case showed that the owners of the ghost steel mills also did not exist.

“I strongly disagree with the version that it had been a matter of rescheduling or imprudence of loan,” he said, adding that it was a matter of ‘serious breach of trust’. He said an inquiry into the scam launched by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in 2007 was ‘fully legitimate’.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg7_21