FIA issues notice to sugar mill owned by PTI minister’s brother

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has put the brother of PTI's Federal Minister Makhdum Khusro Bakhtiar on notice for allegedly selling sugar through Satta.

The agency sent a notice to the owners of the Two Star Industries after the FIA investigation teams recovered huge evidence, revealing the management of the sugar mill, in active connivance with brokers/front men, morphed into a sugar Satta mafia. The notice was served to the top management of the sugar mill of Makhdum Omer Shehryar, brother of Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdum Khusro Bakhtiar for appearance on April 15.

The "Satta Mafia is ramping-up sugar prices fraudulently through a clandestine network (WhatsApp Groups), cheating and defrauding the consumers through exorbitant prices and subsequently hiding the crime proceeds into secret, fake and unrelated third party accounts and assets (money laundering)," read the FIA notice.

"Omer Shehryar's group and associates (Khusro Bakhtiar) hold 50 percent share and other half are owned by the RYK group. Umer Zia Butt, Faisal Butt, Asad Bhaya and Atif Paracha are major dealers of the Two Star Industries. Evidence [of sugar satta] from Umer Zia Butt’s mobile phone was recovered during the forensic analysis," the FIA's findings revealed.

Khusro Bakhtiar showed his shares worth Rs130 million in the Two Star Industries, revealed the official documents. "I previously had shares in the industry but do not own them anymore," he told Geo News. The media should not drag my name in stories, he added. The notice directed Shehryar to appear (in person) before the investigation team and in case of purposeful omission, the FIA warned of proceeding against the directors/CEO/top management," read the notice signed by Munazza Shaheen, Deputy Director (Law) FIA, Lahore. The development came days after FIA summoned PTI senior leader Jahangir Khan Tareen and his son Ali Khan Tareen warning both to appear before the investigators on April 9, 2021."