Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday arrested Security & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman Zafar Hijazi from outside a special court in Islamabad after his bail application was rejected, Express News reported.
The SECP chairman faces charges of tampering with records of Sharif family’s companies. The joint investigation team (JIT) – probing into Sharif family’s offshore assets in line with the apex court’s April 20 verdict in Panamagae case – had earlier alleged that the SECP tampered with records of the sugar mills.
On June 19, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court – headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan – had directed the FIA director general to launch an inquiry into the allegations by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that the SECP had tampered with the records of the Sharifs’ companies. Subsequently, the top court had constituted a four-member FIA team to probe into the allegations.
A news report claimed that investigations into alleged money laundering by Chaudhry Sugar Mills was closed in 2013 but it did not reflect in files of the SECP and that later in 2016 the SECP chairman Hijazi forced his subordinates to tamper old files to show closure of inquiry in backdates, that is, in 2013.
