Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) official Maheen Fatima –said that she was forced to change her statement to the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) under pressure on Thursday.

Speaking in front of the Senate Standing Committee of Finance, Fatima alleged that former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Zafar Hijazi locked her in a room on June 14 and was only allowed to leave once Tahir Mehmood and Abid Hussain interfered.

She claimed that Hijazi ordered the case to be closed in back dates as Chaudhry Sugar Mills would have to face consequences if the case was closed in current dates.

“Hijazi issued orders to close the case on note sheet, and not make a [formal] report,” Fatima added. “SECP wrote letters to UK CA and FAA in August 2011 for a probe into 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.”

The investigations however continued under Section 263, he added, claiming Hijazi 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 in June 2013’s dates,” Mehmood added.

In response to the question of why Hijazi issued such orders, Abid Hussain said ‘maybe he did so because the Panama case had begun by then.’ 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 current dates.”

An FIA inquiry team had found Hijazi guilty of tampering the records of companies owned by the Sharif family. The team had submitted a 28-page inquiry report to the Supreme Court on July 9, in which it had endorsed the stance of the JIT probing the offshore assets of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in connection with the Panama gate case. Hijazi’s lawyer, however, had argued in court that SECP staffers did not tamper records of Chaudhry Sugar Mills under duress. Both the SECP officers named in the case had acted on their own, his lawyer had said.

The former SECP chief was physically remanded to FIA’s custody for another three days after his four-day remand expired on July 26. Court approves three-day physical remand of Zafar Hijazi

Court instructed FIA to produce Hijazi before the judges again on July 29 after his latest remand expires.

INP/AJ