The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) sought an NOC from a banking court on Monday to interrogate Abdul Ghani Majeed, son of Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed, in alleged money laundering cases involving former president Asif Ali Zardari and others.
NAB’s special prosecutor Shahbaz Sahotra submitted an application with the Karachi banking court, stating that the anti-graft body had been tasked with investigation of these cases by the Supreme Court and it had appointed its deputy director Abdul Fatah as the investigation officer.
Sahotra pleaded with the court to allow NAB to grill Abdul Ghani as the suspect is already in Adiala Jail on judicial remand and without permission the investigation team could not get access to him. He added that the suspect would be the first to be formally interrogated by NAB.
The judge, Tariq Mehmood Khoso, asked the prosecutor about the whereabouts of the investigation officer to which he replied that Fatah was not available at the moment. Expressing displeasure over it, the judge refused to entertain the request and directed Fatah to appear before the court on February 6.
Meanwhile, the court was also informed that NAB acting on the SC orders was considering transferring the case proceedings to Islamabad. The prosecutor asked the court to add the intimation in the case record, which the judge accepted.
At the next hearing, the court will hear arguments on the bail applications filed by Abdul Ghani and his father Anwar. They have challenged their incarceration on the pretext that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which previously handled the matter had no evidence against them and was playing delay tactics to prolong the defendants’ ordeal.
Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, Anwar’s other sons Nimr Majeed and Zulqarnain Majeed, among others, are on interim bail until February 14, while Abdul Ghani, Anwar, Summit Bank’s former president Hussain Lawai and its senior vice-president Taha Raza are in jail.
They have been accused of facilitating money laundering to the tune of Rs35 billion through various fake accounts opened in different banks. According to investigators, prima facie the money laundering is done at the behest of the former president.
Land grabbing reference
The NAB Karachi office field a reference against land grabbers in a land fraud case involving 29 acres.
A spokesman said the bureau had filed a corruption reference against land grabber Javed Iqbal, his accomplices, including Qazi Jan Muhammad, on charges of embezzlement of government land measuring 29 acres in sectors 31 and 32 of Scheme 33, Karachi.
In the reference, admitted under number 1 of 2019 by an accountability court, it was charged that 29 acres of government land were grabbed by the accused persons through fake and fraudulent entries in the revenue record. The fraud was allegedly masterminded by Javed Iqbal in connivance with revenue officials.
Iqbal launched an illegal housing project named Al Raheem Villas on the land, which was further fraudulently sold to public by Iqbal, Amir Ali and Irshad Khaskheli.
Qazi Jan Muhammad, the then deputy commissioner of Malir district, fraudulently issued sanads of a fake village named Abdullah Shah Ghazi Goth, Block F-II, for the same land, thus facilitating land grabbing by his accomplices. Such sanads were issued to public to give legal cover to the illegal project.
Abdullah Shah Ghazi Goth Block F-II and Al Raheem Raza City had already been declared illegal from the Sindh Building Control Authority, thus intimating the general public and the government departments to exercise caution while making investments.
Qazi Jan Muhammad, Iqbal Awan the then Mukhtiarkar, Ibrahim, Abdul Latif Brohi, the then Mukhtiarkar, and Iftikhar ud Din have been arrested and are currently in judicial remand. Javed Iqbal has been arrested in a separate case. Further investigations are underway.
