EOBI scam: SHC rejects bail pleas of AKD Securities officials

AAG says accused men’s role in fraud proven during probe

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has thrown out bail applications filed by the AKD Securities chief executive officer and two others in a multi-billion-rupee pension scam.

A division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Farooq Shah dismissed the applications, noting that they lacked grounds to seek bail concession.



AKD Securities CEO Farid Alam and directors Tariq Adam Ghumra and Muhammad Iqbal had moved the SHC after the trial court rejected their bail requests.



Federal Investigation Agency officials had detained them on January 4 for their alleged involvement in a scam relating to the sale of shares to the Employees Old-age Benefits Institution. Since then they have been in FIA custody for questioning.

The lawyer representing the detained AKD officers argued that his clients had no role in the scam. He pleaded with the court for granting them post-arrest bail.

In his arguments, Additional Attorney General Salman Talibuddin argued that the EOBI had invested Rs350 million in Foundation Securities and suffered losses.

He claimed that the detainees had made clients for their group’s company, Pearl Securities, which earned substantial amounts of money within months. Pearl Securities was already declared a defaulter by the National Bank of Pakistan and other banks, he added.

Talibuddin also claimed that high-profile personalities were involved in the case and they did not wish to be investigated because they would be exposed.



Opposing the bail applications, he contended that the accused men’s role in the scam was established during the investigation, adding that they were not entitled to get bail.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2016.