Daily Times

A banking court, on Friday, granted seven days’ custody of Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed and his son Abdul Ghani Majeed to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in money laundering case.

The court also granted the physical remand of the father and son to the FIA for further investigation into the money laundering case.

Both the suspects were produced before the court by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) without handcuffs. Majeed objected over the presence of media personnel in the court and asked the FIA officials to remove them.

“We don’t want to waste time on forming a joint investigation team (JIT). We will continue to supervise this case as suo moto action was taken against it,” the top judge remarked

The Omni Group chairman and his son were arrested two days earlier by the FIA from outside the Supreme Court after Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar had rejected the pre-arrest bail of Anwar Majeed and Abdul Ghani Majeed during the hearing of their case on money laundering.

The CJP had asked Anwar Majeed and his family members to appear before the court on August 13 but the family had failed to appear before the court. The CJP had then rejected Majeed and his family’s notice of absence and had summoned them to appear in the court at the earliest.

Majeed and his sons appeared before the court on August 15. The Omni Group chairman was accompanied by all four of his sons. During the hearing, Majeed’s other three sons Nimr, Kamal and Zulqernain were placed on the Exit Control List (ECL).

During the hearing on August 15, the bench also rejected the petition of Omni Group lawyer Shahid Hamid.

The counsel had filed a petition seeking a pre-arrest bail for Anwar Majeed and Abdul Ghani Majeed. Justice Nisar also rejected Anwar Majeed’s plea to unfreeze his bank accounts and directed the chairman and his family to appear before the FIA.

He also included them in the investigations of fake bank accounts.

CJP Justice Nisar remarked during the hearing that Majeed and his family could be arrested at the discretion of the FIA. He said that Anwar Majeed and his sons were not required to be present in court for future hearings.

In July, the Supreme Court had taken up a suo motu case pertaining to ‘fake accounts’ and money laundering. The case was based on a 2015 inquiry regarding suspicious transactions. As a result of the inquiry, seven people were found involved in transacting Rs 35 billion (bn) suspiciously and 29 ‘benami’ bank accounts were unearthed.

The seven people were allegedly using 29 bank accounts to transfer funds obtained through kickbacks.

Further investigation into the matter revealed that the amount of money laundered through these ‘fake’ accounts could go up to Rs 100 bn.

Published in Daily Times, August 18^th 2018.