No one will be allowed to loot taxpayers’ money, says CJP

[Naveed Yaseen]

* DAG says government has located former BoP president Hamesh Khan, owners of Haris Steel Mills

By Masood Rehman

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Friday said no one would be allowed to loot taxpayers’ money and it was the apex court’s responsibility to safeguard the people’s money.

The CJ made this observation during a hearing of the Rs 9 billion Bank of Punjab (BoP) loan scam.

The three-member bench that also included Justice Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Ghulam Rabbani adjourned the hearing until November 3.

On September 27, 2007, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference with an accountability court against 12 people, including six BoP officials and six others, accusing them of embezzling Rs 9 billion from the bank.

The petition had named Sheikh Afzal, director of Haris Steel Mills, Muhammad Munir, Ali Ijaz, Abid Raza and Irfan Ali, former BoP president Hamesh Khan, Haroon Aziz, Azizul Hameed, Muhammad Shoaib Qureshi, former BoP general managers Muhammad Adil Khan, Muhammad Nauman Arif and Muhammad Ziaul Haq as accused.

It said the accused had allegedly opened 23 fake accounts using forged national identity cards and obtained loans of approximately Rs 9 billion between 2005 to 2007 using fake documentation, bogus collaterals, fictitious guarantees and mortgage deals executed by bogus people.

The BoP had granted the loan to Haris Steel Mills without fulfilling the necessary legal requirements, and with the organisation subsequently defaulting on its payments, the bank had then filed a petition in the SC against the mill.

Whereabouts: Earlier, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Shah Khawar informed the court that the government had found the whereabouts of Hamesh Khan, the bank’s former president, Sheikh Afzal, owner of Haris Steel and his son, Haris Afzal.

He said Hamesh Khan was residing in the United States while Sheikh Afzal and Haris Afzal were currently in England, but intelligence reports suggested that they might have moved to Malaysia now.

The DAG said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was keeping a close watch on their movement and fingerprints and all available data on Hamesh Khan had been handed over to the US.

The DAG said the government was making all efforts for the extradition of the accused.

An FIA official also submitted a report in the SC, stating that the concerned authorities abroad had been provided relevant documents and the defaulters would be brought back to the country soon.

Wasim Sajjad, counsel for the BoP, informed the court that an accountability court had issued arrest warrants of several of the accused on charges that they were not cooperating with NAB.

He reminded the court that it had earlier ruled that those accused who cooperated with the government during investigations would not be arrested.

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