SHC rejects Ali Jahangir Siddiqui's plea on NAB inquiry

KARACHI: A bench of Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday rejected a petition of former Pakistani ambassador in United States Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, against transfer of NAB inquiry against him to Lahore, ARY News reported.

The bench allowed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to continue its inquiry against Siddiqui and directed the petitioner to cooperate with the accountability watchdog.

The court also granted eight days’ to petitioner to get protective bail and directed him to go to the concerned court for bail.

In an earlier hearing the counsel of the former ambassador, said that the NAB have no jurisdiction to investigate any issue related to stocks.

The NAB counsel contended that the accused inflicted a loss of Rs40 billion to government entities by selling shares on inflated rates. He sold shares through Azgard Nine company, the NAB lawyer argued.

Mr Siddiqi was earlier, summoned by the accountability watchdog to defend the alleged role of his company M/s Azgard Nine Limited (ANL) in the manipulation of shares that caused billions of rupees losses to the national exchequer.

NAB was probing affairs of the company with regard to siphoning off funds amounting to 23.7 million euros in 2008, which were used to purchase an Italian Company, Monte Bello SRL.

The NAB said the shares of a company named Agritech Limited were sold to various financial and government institutions at an inflated rate than the market to settle loan defaults. This resulted in a loss of Rs40 billion to a number of financial and government institutions.