ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has decided to resume the hearing of the Rs9 billion Haris Steel Mills scam involving 23 ‘fake’ bank accounts that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed in 2007.

According to investigators, Haris Steel director Sheikh Afzal with co-accused Mohammad Munir, Ali Ijaz, Abid Raza and Irfan Ali in connivance with then president of Bank of Punjab (BoP) Hamesh Khan and other officials using fake documents, bogus collaterals, fictitious guarantees and mortgage deals executed by fictitious persons opened 23 ‘fake’ accounts and obtained Rs9bn loans for the steel mills and its two sister concerns between 2005 and 2007.

The IHC registrar office has now fixed the case before a two-member bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri for hearing on August 12.

NAB filed the case involving Rs9bn & 23 fake accounts in 2007

The high court had heard the matter in 2008, but the court was declared unconstitutional on July 31, 2009, and the case was transferred to the Lahore High Court (LHC). While the case was again transferred to the IHC a few years later, some accused persons took the matter to the Supreme Court, which referred it back to the IHC in 2017.

In 2007, NAB had filed the reference against 12 people, including six BoP officials and six others, in the Rs9bn loan scam. The name of former BoP president Hamesh Khan was put on the Exit Control List (ECL) after the reference was filed, but he managed to flee the country in July 2008.

The Supreme Court then directed the government to arrest the ex-president of the bank through Interpol. Subsequently, he was nabbed in the United States in December 2009 on Pakistan’s request.

Both NAB and the BoP’s internal audit team later identified the suspects as the main culprits in the Harris Steel Mills scam.

According to the NAB investigation, Sheikh Afzal was the owner of the fake steel mills named after his son Haris.

The case, however, may cause some unease for the PML-Q, the ruling coalition partner in Punjab and at the Centre, as the BoP report stated that Kamran Rasool [the Punjab chief secretary during the Gen Musharraf regime] was instrumental in Hamesh Khan’s appointment in 2003. The sole reason for the recommendation was said to be his liking for the banker while he used to work for Gujrat’s Kunjha Textile Mills, which is owned by the family of former chief minister and PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

The BoP report is based on the investigation carried out by the additional inspector general of Punjab police on the directives of the apex court.

The report stated that all the firms used or established by Mr Afzal, the key suspect, were just facades for obtaining paper loans. The report claimed that directors Mughis Sheikh and Khuram Iftikhar were also instrumental in the scam, alleging that they were rubber-stamping ‘credit approvals’ for the company.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2021