Transaction through fake account a big crime: CJP

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa on Tuesday indicated that criminal cases will be reduced to zero in the Supreme Court (SC) in the next few weeks, remarking fake accounts cannot be opened without the willingness of bank officials, therefore, transaction through fake accounts is a big offence.

He expressed these views while hearing a case of a banker Muhammad Anwar regarding opening of fake accounts. During the course of proceedings, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa said an account was opened with Rs0.1 million and somehow turned the amount into Rs0.9 million. The counsel for the accused said his client had opened accounts in different branches of the same bank. He said the trial court had sentenced Anwar Ayub to three years in prison and imposed Rs0.8 million in fine. In another case, the court gave his client an eight-year sentence, he added. He said the high court reduced the sentence to three years.

The chief justice said the accounts are not opened without a verification process and a three-year sentence is quite less in the case. He said the suspect’s signatures were present in all the opening forms and he was involved in all the transactions. The court concluded the case as the suspect withdrew his plea.