Ex-SECP chairman to be indicted in record tampering case on Oct 4

ISLAMABAD (NNI): The special central judge has Tuesday announced to indict former Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman Zafar Hijazi on October 4 in the record tampering case of Sharif family’s Chaudhry Sugar Mills.

Judge Irum Niazi handed over a copy of charge-sheet to the accused and set Oct 4 for framing charges against him.

Hijazi, who is out on bail, has been booked in the case in the wake of the Supreme Court’s order in the Panama Papers case for allegedly tampering with financial records of the Sharif’s company.

A four-member FIA team, constituted by the apex court to look into the JIT’s allegations, had proved the record tampering claims.

It found chairman SECP Zafar Hijazi guilty of record tampering and recommended criminal proceedings against him and two of his subordinates – Ali Azeem and Maheen Fatima – under Section 466, 472, PPC read with 5(2) Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) 1947.

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.