Dhedhi makes futile bid to exclude his name

ISLAMABAD: Defying the relentless pressure from an influential accused, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to re-submit Rs76 billion Ogra corruption reference in Accountability Court No 1 on Monday without any change in the original list of accused, The News has learnt.

Sources said the name of two former prime ministers and stock market tycoon Aqeel Karim Dhedhi (AKD) are still part of the two references despite the tycoon’s efforts for the exclusion of his name from the list of accused.

When contacted, a spokesman of the NAB confirmed that the reference would be re-filed on Monday after removing some technical reservations of the Accountability Court. He said the matter is in the court so no further comment could be made on the issue. Talking to The News, AKD had claimed that his name is not part of any NAB reference filed in the accountability court. Sources said the tycoon exerted tremendous pressure on NAB officials through various means to exclude his name from the list of accused in the multi-billion scam.

However, sources in the court as well as the Bureau confirmed that the name of the tycoon is still part of the list of accused as per the decision of NAB’s Executive Board Meeting (EBM) held on 22 January 2013.

The accused tried to get a stay order from the Sindh High Court (SHC) but the court only directed the Bureau to act in accordance with law on the basis of record as of 23 January 2014.

“Notice to the defendants for 28-1-2014. Till next date the official defendants number 1 to 4 shall act strictly in accordance with law and on the basis of the record as it stands as of today,” the court order states.

It is worth mentioning that NAB had already approved the reference against Dhedi and others on 22nd January so under the court order the Bureau was free to proceed against all the accused in accordance with the law and as per the directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The Bureau later filed two references with the accountability court on 24 January; one pertaining to illegal appointment of principal accused Tauqir Sadiq as chairman Ogra and second about Rs76 billion Ogra corruption.

The list of accused in illegal appointment case included ex-PMs Yusuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ahsraf and four others while in the corruption references, the list of accused included AKD, Tauqir Sadiq, Zohair Siddique, Abdur Rashid Lone and eight others. However, the Registrar Accountability Court had returned the two references for “resubmission after removing the observation as soon as possible.”

Sources said the observations of the Registrar were minor and technical in nature as the Bureau was directed to submit the copies of the reference for all the accused along with all supporting documents.

A NAB official told The News that one reference pertaining to illegal appointment of Tauqir Sadiq has already been re-submitted along with all relevant documents while the second reference will be submitted on Monday. During the hearing of the Ogra case on Saturday the Accountability Court Judge Mohammad Bashir directed NAB to file the final challan in Ogra corruption case by 4 February (Tuesday). The final reference mentions Ogra related corruption to the tune of Rs76 billion through massive gas theft, illegal raise in UFG (unaccounted for gas) benchmark, stock market manipulation and illegal allocation of CNG stations during the tenure of Ogra ex-Chairman Tauqeer Sadiq.

The total volume of Ogra scam has increased to Rs120 billion as NAB has already filed an interim reference of Rs44 billion in the accountability court in November 2012. Sources said the name of AKD was included in the reference over his alleged involvement in insider trading related to shares of SSGC.

An expert committee of SECP constituted on the request of NAB in November 2013 concluded its findings after analyzing the stock market data and other evidence that the AKD Group was prima facie involved in stock market manipulation, which caused huge losses to the national exchequer.

According to SECP experts, AKD allegedly minted at least Rs500 million through manipulation of share after raise of UFG benchmark from 5 to 7 per cent. The same amount is considered a loss to national exchequer as the shares were dumped to government institutions like National Bank of Pakistan in connivance with the relevant officials of these institutions.

Contrary to AKD’s claims that NAB had included his name in the list of accused just days before the approval of Ogra reference, the tycoon was first mentioned in a NAB report submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 28th September 2012.

The report signed by former Chairman NAB Admiral (Retd) Fasih Bokhari mentioned “a stock broker tycoon of Karachi” as one of the beneficiaries of the Ogra scam. In his own petition No 3554/2012 filed in Sindh High Court on 4 October 2012, AKD pleaded for pre-arrest bail, citing the same Supreme Court report which states: “The suspected beneficiaries include Lahore based firm namely Mirza & minto and a stock broker tycoon of Karachi Stock Exchange both of them have not joined the investigation proceedings properly.”