Daily Times

KARACHI: The troika that has implicated the country’s top stock brokerage house AKD Securities in a false case is now trying to save its skin by trying to back out.

Stock market sources say that Jahangir Siddiqui, his friend FIA Director Shahid Hayat and a former employee of JS Group, and now the Principal Secretary of PM House, Fawad Hasan Fawad have failed to submit any concrete proof against AKD Securities in the case of plundering of assets of EOBI by its former chairman. On the whims of JS Group the FIA tried to implicate AKD Securities in the case on the basis of a research report. They were also worried that the cases against big rip-offs by the JS Group would be reopened now.

The Supreme Court has already ordered an inquiry against JS in Azgard-9. The prosecution charged that AKD Securities had prepared a research report about Amtex that proved to be counter-productive. However, it is very interesting that the said report has nothing to do with the buying of shares by EOBI chief. FIA’s investigation officer and his staff are perturbed over the situation, as they are facing humiliation because they have failed to find any clue against the three detained officials of AKD Securities, and fear a backlash from their high-ups following their failure in the case despite many hearings.

A judicial magistrate, while hearing the case, had expressed her annoyance over the way investigators were behaving. Despite several days’ investigation the FIA had miserably failed to submit any proof against the three officials. Furthermore, the attorneys of the three senior officials, Shahab Sarki and Dr Amjad Bukhari, argued that the FIA has been investigating their clients for the last two years but could not find any evidence against them. They said that the case has been lodged against the officials on the basis of personal grudge and based on a research report that has nothing to do with the case.

The case has become the biggest worry for FIA Director Shahid Hayat whose reputation as an independent and honest officer is being jeopardised. Market sources say that the case is becoming a laughing stock FIA, as it had instituted it on the basis of a six-year-old research report and which has panicked hundreds of researchers in brokerage houses, banks, DFIs, corporate sector, etc. They are reluctant to speculate on or assess the stock market. The situation is leading to a brain-drain among the scholars. The FIA has caused such damage that even Indian spy agency RAW could not cause, sources maintained.