Sharifs’ accountant: Police summon 6 FIA men in kidnapping case

Say ‘one-sided’ action will be taken if they fail to appear.

LAHORE: A top police official on Monday summoned six Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials to appear before the police on Tuesday (today) and help the ongoing investigation into the abduction of Muhammad Akram, former accountant of the Sharif family.

In an effort to expand the scope of investigations, Inspector Abid Hussain, who is in charge of investigations at the Shadman Police Station, issued notices under section 160 of the criminal code procedure to six FIA officials – an additional director, a deputy director, two assistant directors and two sub-inspectors. They are to appear before SP investigations of the Model Town Police Station.

Hussain visited FIA’s Punjab office and served the notices personally after intimation with FIA Punjab Director Waqar Haider.

Four of these officials, namely Syed Javed Hussain Shah, Jameel Ahmed Khan, Ghulam Murtuza Bajwa and Muhammad Riaz Butt have received the notices. Sajid Akram has not received his as he is currently in China, while Nasir Jameel left the office before Hussain arrived.

The summons state that ‘one-sided’ action will be taken if the above mentioned FIA officials fail to appear before the police within the stipulated time frame.

A member of the investigation team told The Express Tribune that more officials of the FIA Punjab chapter, zonal office in Islamabad, and the FIA headquarters will also be summoned soon. He particularly mentioned the name of additional director in the Islamabad zonal office Sajjad Haider, who is considered to be a close aide of interior minister Rehman Malik. Haider, however, reportedly left for the United Kingdom on Saturday, a day before the interior minister’s scheduled visit to the UK.

Investigation officer Abid Hussain confirmed that the notices have been issued and that more FIA officials are to be summoned shortly.

Muhammad Akram, 75, was abducted on May 3. He claims he was kidnapped so he could be coerced into coughing up evidence against the Sharif brothers. Akram maintains that the FIR was lodged three days after the incident occurred as he wanted to consult members of the Sharif family first.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2012.