Daily Times

KARACHI: Former Karachi Development Authority (KDA) director general (DG) Nasir Abbas, who is facing money laundering and corruption charges, visited Canada and the Unites States along with his family over 200 times in the last five years, said Inspector Muhammad Iqbal, the investigation officer of the State Bank Circle on Wednesday.

The revelation came a day after he was taken into custody by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials from the Karachi Central Jail where he was remanded in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) custody.

A reliable source told Daily Times on Tuesday that FIA officials had traced the record of over 200 visits of the former KDA DG along with his family members in the last five years.

“Nasir Abbas traveled to Canada and America from Karachi over 37 times in the said duration, which is being considered an extraordinary activity being a government official,” said the official.

According to the rules, every passenger can carry $10,000 so it might be a very clever way to transfer money abroad.

“People use carriers to transfer their money in a safe way. If one person carries $10,000 it means in over 200 visits he can transfer over $2 million dollars, which is a handsome amount” the official added.

Nasir Abbas is currently facing two cases registered by FIA for having “fake passport and transferring money abroad illegally”.

Hanif Patni, who is said to a close aide of the former DG, was arrested taken into custody by the NAB.

Earlier on September 15, NAB officials had arrested two KDA officers namely Jawaid alias Kancha and Farid Shaikh, who were said to be close aides of the former director general, for their alleged involvement in illegal allotments of plots and China cutting. Earlier, Nasir Abbas was arrested by the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) Karachi on September 16 for having three passports.

An enquiry was initiated in the FIA in the end of 2016 against him for having private and business passports despite being a government official, which was an offence according to passport act and service rules.

After a weeklong interrogation, Nasir Abbas was due to receive his bail orders from a judicial magistrate but just week after his arrest, another FIR was registered within FIA’s State Bank Circle (SBC) on September 24 for his alleged involvement in money laundering.

This new FIR was registered under Sections 5/8 and 22/23 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947.

The FIA had also tracked down three key money exchange companies of the country which helped him transfer money abroad illegally. In the meantime, when FIA officials were interrogation Nasir Abbas in the two cases the NAB officials also adopted a hasty approach in enquiring the corruption cases against Nasir Abbas and arrested his three alleged front men – Jawaid Kancha, Farid Shaikh and record keeper Kamran – to complete the reference against them for submitting it before the an accountability court as early as possible.

“The NAB teams are working on three references against Nasir Aftab and his three front men and one of these references is about to be completed in coming days, which would be presented in the NAB court as record keeper Kamran is ready to be become an approver and cooperate with officers to compile evidences of illegal allotments of over four dozens plots worth Rs 250 million in Gulistan-e-Juhar,” NAB officials told Daily Times.

On the other hand, the FIA has collected conclusive evidences to prove the case of illegal transfer of money by Nasir Abbas.

Published in Daily Times, October 12^th 2017.