ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance has agreed for a special supplementary grant of Rs10 million for Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate the money laundering scam amounting to Rs35 billion that involves former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.
On September 18, the Ministry of Interior through a letter had informed Director General FIA Bashir Ahmed Memon that Finance Division, on his request, had agreed for ‘supplementary grant of Rs10 million in favour of FIA for investigation in the money laundering case” against a demand of Rs20 million for the purpose.
On September 4, the DG FIA in the letter written to the secretary interior had requested for an additional grant of Rs20 million to probe the mega corruption scandal of alleged money laundering. It is not clear that whether FIA at its own would use this supplementary grant or the amount would be transferred to the joint investigation team (JIT) formed by the Supreme Court on September 6 to probe this case.
The Supreme Court on September 6 had formed the JIT to probe the alleged money laundering that was made in connivance with bankers and there are several suspected beneficiaries including Asif Zardari and Faryal Talpur.
The SC has appointed FIA’s Additional Director General (Economic Crime Wing) Ehsan Sadiq as the head of the JIT. The other members of the JIT are officials from Inter-Services Intelligence, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), State Bank of Pakistan and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
On September 4, FIA in the letter written to secretary interior said that ‘the enquiry entails money laundering of Rs35 billion and is being investigated under the supervision of Supreme Court of Pakistan” through a suo motu case. “Huge volume record related to the case has been collected from State Bank of Pakistan, SECP, FBR, Cane Commissioner, Summit Bank, UBL and Sindh Bank during the course of enquiry and investigation which is under scrutiny.” The letter said that thousands of bank transactions involving billions of rupees were involved in the available record which required proper professionals to pursue the record in order to provide meaningful deductions and conclusions for FIA to prosecute the accused.
