Ogra scam: NAB told not to tamper with Dhedhi’s record

SC orders NAB and SECP to act strictly according to law.

KARACHI:

Sindh High Court has instructed National Accountability Bureau (Nab) not to tamper with the record of businessman Aqeel Karim Dhedhi available as on January 23, 2014.

The single-judge bench of the court, comprising Justice Muneeb Akhtar, ordered the defendants including the Nab chairman and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to act strictly according to law.

Earlier Dhedhi, through his lawyer Barrister Murtaza Wahab, said that Nab, in spite of two years’ continuous investigations, had failed to produce any evidence against him in the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) case.



The petitioner argued Dhedhi’s name was not mentioned in the 63-page report compiled on November 6, 2013 by Waqas Ahmed Khan.

On the other hand, on its page 46-47 the report makes mention of the trading of Ogra’s shares and recommends that the affair did not come under the jurisdiction of Nab and that SECP should deal with it, the petitioner said.

The complainant said Nab senior officials were also of the view that Aqeel Karim Dhedhi had no role in the case and therefore his name should not be included in the reference.

However, internal sources in Nab have disclosed that the Nab chairman, under pressure of a media group, wanted to add the name of Dhedhi in Ogra case. The same media group had also initiated a campaign against Dhedhi so that his rival, Jahangir Siddiqui Group, might be given some benefit.

The complainant also claimed that the SECP was also playing in the hand of the said media group, which had done irreparable damage to his goodwill and public image. He also said that the acts of the defendants were illegal and therefore they might be instructed to act under law as the current situation was causing panic among the business circles.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2014.