ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was told here on Monday that Rs7.5 billion, out of the Rs9 billion Bank of Punjab (BoP) loan scam, had been recovered from Sheikh Afzal, the chief executive of the Haris Steel Industry, and his accomplices by seizing foreign and domestic assets owned by the accused.
A three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, which had taken up the petition of the Bank of Punjab against the steel concern also withdrew the protection it earlier had granted to Seth Nisar, one of Sheikh Afzal’s brothers and co-accused in the scam, when it was informed that he was not cooperating with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The court ordered the bureau and other investigating agencies to proceed against him according to the law.
On Nov 24, the court had granted protection to Seth Nisar when he turned himself in and showed willingness to clear liabilities.
Sheikh Afzal, who was brought back from Malaysia last month, confessed in a statement recorded by the provincial NAB authorities in Punjab that he had paid a lot of money to a lot of people out of fraudulently withdrawn funds.
In his confessional statement, he urged the court to recover the money that he had paid to aforementioned people.
According to Mr Afzal, he had initially engaged Irfan Qadir to represent him in court in May last year and paid Rs1 million as legal fees for filing a petition against NAB proceedings in the Lahore High Court (LHC). When NAB officials raided his house, his lawyer suggested him to engage a panel of prominent lawyers to influence the court. He then contacted advocates Wasim Sajjad and Sharifuddin Pirzada.
In June 2008, when the NAB seized his office, Sheikh Afzal claimed that Ali Wasim, Wasim Sajjad’s son, contacted him and said: ‘Mr Afzal, Insaaf Lainay Ke Liye Kuch Aur Bhi Karna Parta Hay (Mr Afzal, if one wants to get justice, one has to do ‘other’ things) and offered to let his office vacated because he had a very close association with a son-in-law of an LHC judge.
He said he paid Rs7.5 million to Ali Wasim through Irfan Ali (manager of Haris Steel).
Tony Shah, a mutual friend of Ali Wasim and Sheikh Afzal who was involved in a business that concerns cricket matches, also told the NAB that after failing to do the job Ali Wasim did not pay back the money he had gotten from Mr Afzal, but said he would pay only half the amount because he had partially succeeded in getting the desired results.
When the case was fixed before the LHC in May-June last year, Mr Afzal said he paid Rs3.5 million to Mohsin Naqvi, a journalist friend of his, when he offered to get the case ‘quashed’ because ‘he enjoyed good relations with the LHC judge’.
In June 2008, Malik Mohammad Qayyum allegedly told him that he knew all of LHC judges and even told him that he had spoken to relevant LHC judges on telephone in the presence of his lawyer and assured him that he would get relief.
Malik Qayyum even assured him (Sheikh Afzal) that if the high court asked about Qayyum’s opinion, he would support Sheikh Afzal. Thus Rs3.5 million was delivered to Malik Qayyum.
Later, when the case was transferred to the Supreme Court, Advocate Malik Qayyum told Sheikh Afzal that he and Advocate Sharifuddin Prizada had held a number of meetings with an apex court judge.
Apart from legal fees, Sheikh Afzal alleged that he had paid Mr Pirzada Rs10 million during July-August last year. The amount, he claimed, had been paid in return for orders obtained in July. Mr Pirzada attributed the success to his relations with a judge of the apex court.
Sheikh Afzal also alleged that Mr Qayyum informed him that the counsel had allegedly paid Rs1 million to Advocate Ibrahim Satti (private counsel representing NAB in the apex court) in July last year through Advocates Qayyum and Pirzada and in September 2008 Rs1.5 million to former Attorney-General Sardar Latif Khan Khosa.
‘Qayyum visited me in Malaysia: Afzal’
According to Mr Afzal, Malik Qayyum, who was then attorney-general, visited him in Malaysia in July last year and stayed at Shangri La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Sheikh Afzal said he had arranged for the stay. During the dinner, Malik Qayyum even called a judge of the Supreme Court and promised to get the case settled in 10 days.
‘Later we got a favourable order from the Supreme Court which ordered restoration of the position of investigation as it existed in June 2008. Advocate Qayyum called me to claim credit for the verdict.’
Sheikh Afzal alleged that Advocate Qayyum visited him thrice along with his wife when he was in the UAE in August-September last year and assured him that he had paid officials concerned to get the case ‘quashed’, either by the apex court or the high court. He said at that time he was paid 300,000 UAE dirhams.
Malik Qayyum also introduced him to Sarfraz Merchant, a Karachi-based businessman, in July last year and told him that he had good ties with a judge of the Supreme Court.
In July the same year, Malik Qayyum told him that Senator Babar Awan, who ‘commanded great influence’ was his friend and that it was necessary to ‘pay him over and above the agreed amount of Rs50 million’.
Mr Awan also arrived in Dubai in Ramzan of 2008 where the balance amount was paid in addition to 50,000 UAE dirhams for shopping.
During the day’s proceedings, Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Director, Law, Azam Khan, informed the Supreme Court about former Chief Commissioner Islamabad, Fazeel Asghar’s alleged role in helping Sheikh Afzal flee the country despite his name being on the Exit Control List (ECL).
Although Mr Asghar refuted the allegations, he agreed to submit a detailed report on a questionnaire by the FIA in a week, Mr Azam said.
Azam Khan said that after paying Rs5 million and Rs1 million, Mr Asghar introduced Shiekh Afzal to Gohar Sarfraz, an assistant director in the Airport Security Force (ASF), for immigration clearance.
But Gohar Sarfraz is on a ’long leave’ and, despite raids on his house, could not be arrested, Mr Azam said. However, Hafiz Mohammad Tariq, Immigration Officer, has been arrested.
Khwaja Haris, the lawyer for the BoP, informed the court that Sheikh Afzal had said that 40 per cent of the loan (Rs1.2 billion) had been given to Seth Yaqoob, Mr Afzal’s brother.
He said Seth Yaqoob had said that he could not repay the money in less than three years.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ordered Khwaja Haris to negotiate with Mr Yaqoob for an amicable and out-of-court settlement and directed the authorities not to arrest Mr Yaqoob till Jan 11.
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