ISLAMABAD: The National Accounta­bility Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday filed an interim reference before an accountability court against nine more persons, including some serving and retired officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and Omni Group, in the fake accounts case.

The interim reference was filed days before former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, former Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) chairman Hussain Lawai, Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed and others have been summoned by the accountability court.

The nine persons against whom the interim reference was filed were former KMC administrator Mohammad Hussain Syed, ex-metropolitan commissioners Matanat Ali Khan, Shamsuddin Siddique, former Karachi Development Authority (KDA) director Najamuz Zaman, additional director Syed Jamil Ahmed, Abdul Rashid, Abdul Ghani and Younus Kidwai.

Reference filed against nine more suspects; two amenity plots worth Rs600m retrieved in Karachi

According to NAB, being public servants, the suspects had allegedly misused their authority and illegally allotted amenities plots to non-entitled persons. The reference alleged that they were involved in illegal allotment of plots reserved for libraries and temple, causing a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.

After necessary scrutiny at the registrar office, the interim reference was submitted to the accountability court.

Earlier, an accountability judge had summoned Mr Zardari, Ms Talpur and others in the mega money laundering and fake accounts case to appear before court on April 8.

A senior NAB official told Dawn that the bureau’s Rawalpindi team retrieved two amenity plots worth Rs600 million in the fake accounts case from one of the nine suspects. He said the suspect, Younas Kidwai, who also had Canadian citizenship, had been living in the UAE for the past 14 months.

The official said the KMC had illegally sold the two plots reserved for a public library and a temple in Karachi to Mr Kidwai. “These plots could neither be sold nor be used for any other purposes,” the official said, explaining that the suspect surrendered the two plots when NAB served him notice.

Investigations into the fake accounts had been launched on the direction of former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar who had taken suo motu notice of the matter and constituted a joint investigation team (JIT) for the purpose.

The JIT in its report contended that prima facie evidence brought to the record during investigations indicated that the Zardari and Omni groups, which started with a paid-up capital of Rs600 in 1981 and Rs6,000 in 2001, respectively, had amassed assets through misappropriation of loans, government funds, kickbacks and proceeds of crime.

The report requested the Supreme Court to order freezing of the assets of both groups held through different subsidiary and front companies and those held in the name of their directors, pending the final adjudication by the accountability courts.

It highlighted that the International Business and Shopping Centre (IBSC) project, which was identified by the JIT as “benami” property of Mr Zardari held in the name of his alleged front man Iqbal Memon (International Builders), was frozen in 1998.

The JIT also mentioned a transfer of Rs357 million from 12 fake accounts into the accounts of Ms Parthenon. It transpired that Ms Parthenon was a front company of M/s Park Lane since it had no independent business of its own when it entered into a joint venture with Park Lane.

Park Lane case

In a related development, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued a notice to NAB on a petition filed by a local PPP leader Faisal Sakhi Butt.

Mr Butt filed the petition against the summons issued to him by the bureau in connection with selling of a piece of land to M/S Park Lane. His counsel, Barrister Masroor Shah, argued before the court that Mr Butt was not a public office holder. He said his client had purchased private land from a private person and transferred it to a private company. He said NAB lacked jurisdiction to proceed in this private matter and questioning of private transaction did not fall within the ambit of National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

After initial hearing the bench issued notice to NAB and referred this matter to the IHC chief justice for entrusting the same before a division bench hearing an identical case.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2019