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Friday March 29, 2024

Three forums and three contrasting statements just to fix Hijazi

By Fakhar Durrani
July 28, 2017

ISLAMABAD: In Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) tampering case against Zafar Hijazi, one of the top officials allegedly involved in creating backdated note has given three different and contrasting statements against the chairman on three separate forums.

In a startling turn of events, Miss Maheen Fatima, one of the key witnesses against the SECP former chairman, has once again changed her statement while giving briefing on the case to Senate Standing Committee on Finance and   Revenue on Thursday. In order to cover up the email which was discovered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) during the forensic examination of her laptop, Maheen Fatima has once again altered her statement third time. The same official along with three other top officials, including Commissioner Tahir Mahmood, has already recorded supplementary statement after the revelation of the said email.

The particular email discovered by the FIA during forensic examination sent by Maheen to the SECP commissioner states, “In 2015 the SECP commission implemented various enforcement manuals and as per the requirements of the manual, Mr. Abid Hussain pointed out that the closure note of the file is missing. Therefore the note sheet was closed later on.”

This means the backdate note was created just to avoid departmental action for not complying with the enforcement manuals.  While briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Maheen Fatima claimed that on June 14, 2017 she was locked in a room by Hijazi and pressurised to change her statement before the FIA and was only allowed to leave once Tahir Mahmood and Abid Hussain interfered.

One of the senators particularly inquired from Maheen regarding her statement before the SECP Commission on June 16 in which she revealed that in her appearance before the JIT she had been pressured by JIT members to give a statement and name someone who could be blamed for ordering her to tamper official record. In her response Maheen was elusive at best and could not provide a satisfactory answer to the committee. 

Another senator repeated the question and asked Maheen to give a straight answer. She again drifted away from the question and neither confirmed nor denied making such statement before the SECP Commission.

It is pertinent to mention here that the JIT in its conclusive findings has particularly highlighted that Miss Maheen Fatima is a dicey character who confessed to have opened a fictitious case on a flimsy ground against Chaudhry Sugar Mills in 2011 on the instructions of Ali Azeem Ikram, under influence of the then SECP chairman. The JIT goes further to state that she tried to cover up facts, manipulate events and concealed evidence. Even during the Senate standing committee briefing session a senator called her a liar for concealing facts and evading the committee’s questions.

In JIT's analysis of Maheen Fatima's statement it was concluded that she confessed to have opened a politically motivated case against Chaudhry Sugar Mills in 2011 under pressure of the then Chairman Muhammad Ali and SECP Commissioner Tahir Mahmood, referring it to UKCA and pursuing till late 2012.

Surprisingly, Tahir Mahmood in his statements has feigned ignorance regarding the case even though he was the commissioner at the time overseeing the department looking into this affair.

Maheen had stated before the JIT, “In my opinion, there was not much substance in the case and it was lying dormant, hence, the case was shown to be closed on this date…” An internal email dated June 14, 2017, extracted from her laptop by the FIA during forensic examination also reveals that subsequent to introduction of the Enforcement Manuals in 2015 by the Commission, Abid Hussain had pointed out to Maheen that the case against Chaudhry Sugar Mills was still open. Therefore, it was closed with a backdate as under the Enforcement Manual cases which are open beyond a specified date can only be extended through formal approval and delays are required to be reported to the commission. 

As per record this case remained opened and inactive for over a year after implementation of the manuals and yet the delay was never reported to the commission. While in her statement before the JIT she stated that Commissioner Tahir Mahmood had pressurised her to close the case; however, in her later statements before the FIA Maheen stated that she was pressurised by Hijazi to close the case.

The events of June 14, 2017, seem to have significance since supplementary statements were taken by the FIA after an internal email of the same date was extracted from Maheen’s laptop revealing the intent behind closing the case with a backdated note. 

Maheen’s statement before the Senate Standing Committee on Thursday with new details and her elusiveness to inquiries of the senators regarding her statement to the SECP Commission on June 16, 2017, also appears to corroborate the same. It is yet to be seen how constantly changing statements of SECP officials involved in tampering with official records can be used for conviction.

The JIT in its analysis concluded that the irregular closing of said case in backdates is a misconduct on part of Hijazi, Ali Azeem Ikram, Maheen Fatima and Abid Hussain, inspired by malafide intent. The JIT also noted that Abid Hussain submitted forged documents/ record to the JIT to de-track investigation and mislead the JIT. The JIT has also concluded that, “There is also a need to investigate the role of Mr. Tahir Mahmood (Commissioner) in this affair.”

Again, despite the fact that Tahir Mahmood was overseeing the department handling this case, no inquiry has been initiated against him by either the FIA or any other body.

Careful review of the JIT and FIA reports reveals that apart from statements of the SECP officials who created and aided in the creation of the backdated note, no record of any verbal or written communication exists which may implicate the former SECP chairman, Hijazi, for passing illegal orders to forge official documents. Hijazi has denied all allegations and stated before the JIT and FIA that he had been briefed by these four officials in 2016 that the case was already closed in 2013 after withdrawal of letter from the UKCA.