ISLAMABAD: A Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) official – Maheen Fatima – on Thursday said she had been forced to change her statement before the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA). Speaking in front of the Senate’s Standing Committee of Finance, Fatima alleged that former SECP Chairman Zafar Hijazi had locked her in a room on June 14. “I was only allowed to leave once other officials Tahir Mehmood and Abid Hussain interfered,” she said. She claimed that Hijazi ordered the case to be closed in back dates as Chaudhry Sugar Mills would have to face the consequences if the case was closed on the current date. “Hijazi issued orders to close the case on the note sheet, and not to make a [formal] report,” Fatima said. “SECP wrote letters to UK CA and FAA in August 2011 for probing a company,” SECP Commissioner Tahir Mehmood said. “UK CA asked 21 questions in response, but we did not have answers to these questions, hence the probe was closed,” he said. The investigations, however, continued under Section 263, he added, claiming that Hijazi had called him to his office in June 2016 and ordered the investigations to be closed in backdates. “Ali Azeem and Maheen Fatima were also called alongside and we were ordered to close the case by using the June 2013 dates,” Mehmood added. To a question about Hijazi’s possible motive behind such a move, Abid Hussain said: “Maybe he did so because the Panama case had started.” Ali Azeem Ikram, too, claimed to have been summoned to Hijazi’s office in June 2013 in the presence of Tahir Mehmood, Maheen Fatima, and Abid Hussain. “Hijazi started scolding me as soon as I entered the office,” Ikram stated before the Senate committee. “He [Hijaz] asked why I had written letters to UK authorities and said these people [Sharif family] would suffer if the case was to be closed in the current dates.” An FIA inquiry team had found Hijazi guilty of tampering with official record of companies owned by the Sharif family. The team had submitted a 28-page inquiry report to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on July 9. It had endorsed the stance of the Joint Investigation Team. Hijazi’s lawyer, however, had argued in court that SECP officials had not tampered with the records of Chaudhry Sugar Mills. Both the SECP officers named in the case had acted on their own, his lawyer had said. The former SECP chief was remanded to FIA custody for another three days after his four-day remand expired on July 26. Dr Asim case: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) on Thursday sought a detailed reply from the Interior Ministry over the inclusion of Dr Asim Hussain in the Exit Control List (ECL). A-three-member SC bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, was hearing a petition filed by Dr Asim, seeking the removal of his name from the ECL. The court issued the notice to Interior Ministry, directing it to submit details about putting Dr Asim’s name on the ECL. The court further ordered the ministry to explain the grounds on which someone’s name was put on ECL. The court observed that it wanted to know the Interior Ministry’s stance. In his petition, Dr Asim stated that he faced a number of health conditions and urgently needed medical care abroad. The former minister is reportedly undergoing treatment for a cardiovascular ailment. The petition, filed by Barrister Latif Khosa, also points out that Dr Asim has already been granted bail by the Sindh High Court (SHC) and anti-terrorism courts. In March, the SHC had granted bail to the PPP leader in two corruption references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).On the same day, an anti-terrorism court had issued a release order for the former federal minister in a case relating to the alleged treatment of terrorists at Ziauddin Hospital, where the accused was the deputy managing director. NAB had been pursuing Dr Hussain on charges that the former petroleum minister deprived the state exchequer of Rs 462.5 billion between 2010 and 2013 — Rs450 billion through a fertiliser scam, Rs 9.5 billion through land fraud and Rs3 billion through money laundering. Dr Hussain was eventually released from prison on March 31 after 19 months in detention. He had filed a request in the SHC for the removal of his name from the ECL. However, the plea had been rejected on June 5. Published in Daily Times, July 28th , 2017.