PC lodges FIR for dishonouring Rs225 million cheque

ISLAMABAD: After a delay of months, the Privatisation Commission has finally lodged a criminal complaint against Adviser/ Director of Cargill Holdings Syed Sabur Reham for dishonouring Rs225 million cheque in Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) privatisation deal. The complaint was lodged with Islamabad police.
According to FIR (copy is available with The News) Sabur Rehman presented a cheque for Rs225 million, which was dishonoured by Kenya Diamond (a Kenyan bank). It is being alleged that that some officials of the PC were also involved in manipulation of the said deal and action against them is being considered at highest level. But they have not been mentioned in the FIR, as first departmental inquiry will be initiated against them.
According to details of the FIR lodged by the PC director administration, Cargill Holdings Limited won the bid for HEC against Rs250 million. After winning the bid, Cargill Holdings deposited a cheque for Rs225 million with the PC, which was dishonoured by the Kenyan bank, on May 21, forcing the PC to cancel the bid.
When the deal was cancelled, the PC forfeited an earnest money of Rs25 million. The Cargill Holdings, perturbed on the decision to cancel the deal, approached Islamabad High Court and got a stay order against the cancellation. The court on last Friday vacated the stay order and the PC registered the FIR against Sabur.
PC Chairman Muhammad Zubair, while talking to The News, said as soon as stay order was vacated, we got the case registered and it vindicated our position that there was no bad intention in that deal. He further stated that PC was committed to privatise public entities in a transparent manner.
About the delay in registration of FIR, he said there were different legal opinions - one was that registration of FIR would harm the case in the IHC and we went with this opinion, Now the PC has won the case and we have forfeited the bid money of Rs25 million already deposited with the PC by Sabur Rehman. He further said that Cargill Holdings wanted to get the bid money back but we defended the case in court and won. Now criminal proceedings has been initiated against Syed Sabur Rehman.
According to details of the FIR lodged with Aabpara Police Station under section 489-F of Pakistan Penal Code a cheque for Rs225 presented with PC was dishonoured. (Section 489-F is about the issuance of cheque in a financial transaction with ulterior designs, and, if the crime in court is established, person who issues the cheque, can be imprisoned for up to three years or imposed a fine or both the sentences can be awarded.
This is worth mentioning that Cargill Holdings was registered in Kenya on December 10, 2014 – a day after the government decided to re-advertise the HEC for privatisation.
Top bosses of the PC had been defending the deal at different forums and their stance was that the decision to privatise the HEC was taken in the best national interest and this deal was the best one. They admitted that profile of Cargill Holdings was weak but they had no option as this privatisation was not going through, as many attempts remained unsuccessful.
This is worth mentioning that real Cargill company (a US-based company) had also filed a case against Sabur Rehman’s Cargill Holding for using its name illegally, and PC’s top administration knew it.