Record tampering: SC orders registration of case against SECP chairman

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered registration of a case against Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman Zafar Hijazi for tampering with the records of the Sharif family’s companies.

A three-member bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, gave this order while hearing the Panama Papers implementation case.

A four-member FIA team, constituted by the apex court to look into the allegations by the JIT probing money laundering allegations against the Sharif family with regarding to record tampering, submitted its report to the top court.

The team had earlier on Saturday submitted its report in the apex court, which found chairman Zafar Hijazi guilty of record tampering and recommended criminal action against him and two other his subordinates – Ali Azeem and Maheen Fatima – under Section  466, 472, PPC read with 5(2) Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) 1947.

Earlier, SECP Director Maheen Fatima had accused the SECP chairman of exerting intense pressure on her to blame the Panamagate JIT of misbehaving with her during an interrogation session.

In her statement to the probing team, she asserted that the money laundering investigation against Chaudhry Sugar Mills was closed on the chairman’s directives.

The director has further accused the chairman of threatening her with dire consequences including transfer to Gilgit-Baltistan on defiance of his orders.

The Panamagate JIT had previously complained to the top court that SECP had allegedly tampered with the record, apparently to favour the Sharif family who owns Chaudhry Sugar Mills. The court had then formed a team of the FIA to probe into the allegations.

Record tampering controversy deepened when SECP claimed it had closed the probe against Chaudhry Sugar Mills in 2013 on money laundering charges, before the PML-N came to power, but signatures on the documents showed the inquiry was closed in 2016.