AKD Securities case: Security czar unhappy with FIA investigation

KARACHI:

The case against AKD Securities has taken a new turn with the country’s top security czar expressing dissatisfaction over the briefing by the Federal Investigation Agency’s sleuths and directing them to consult with the chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

The FIA team, headed by Sindh Director Shahid Hayat, could not justify why the main accused taken into custody from Faisalabad were later released and focus was shifted to AKD Securities.



The FIA had registered a case against 22 people for allegedly causing a loss of Rs290 million to the state-run pension fund, the Employees Old-age Benefit Institution, in 2010 by purchasing shares of a company called Amtex.

The accused included the then chief of EOBI investment department Wahid Khursheed Anwer, owners of Amtex and officials of AKD Securities who had prepared a research report.

The main accused are yet to be arrested. Meanwhile, the FIA has detained AKD Securities CEO and two directors.

In a press conference after the detentions, AKD Group Chairman Aqeel Karim Dhedhi had termed the case ‘a conspiracy’ against his group. He accused a rival group, the principal secretary to the prime minister and the FIA Sindh director for being prejudiced against his group.



He also claimed that the FIA was targeting his group instead of arresting the main accused and the owners of the Amtex Group.

Dhedhi also claimed that the FIA had detained the main accused from Faisalabad, but they were later released. He said this showed that the purpose of the case was to target AKD Securities.

Legal experts say that it is customary for brokerage houses to compile research reports, adding that AKD Securities was involved in a case on the basis of a research report.

They say that even if there were problems with the report, the case went against the EOBI officials and the owners of Amtex, adding that legally, AKD Securities would be the last and the least responsible in such a case.



After Dhedhi’s allegations, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar summoned the FIA Sindh director and his team to Islamabad for a briefing on January 7. According to sources, Shahid Hayat and his team could not provide reasonable answers to the minister’s questions regarding the detention and release of the main accused as well as the FIA’s focus shifting to AKD Securities.

The minister directed the FIA to consult with the SECP chairman so that a decision could be made regarding the future of the case against AKD Securities.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2016.