Bank of Punjab scam: NAB told to seize property of accused

Investigations show accused had allegedly opened 23 fictitious accounts using forged national IDs and obtained loans.

LAHORE: An accountability court on Wednesday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to freeze the bank accounts and confiscate properties of those accused in the Bank of Punjab (BoP) scam.

They include former president Himesh Khan, Shoaib Qureshi and Haroon Aziz along with two directors of Haris Steel Mills, Sheikh Afzal and Sheikh Munir.

According to case details, on September 27, 2007, the NAB Punjab had filed a reference in an accountability court against 12 people, including six officials of BoP, accusing them of fraud of Rs9 billion.

The investigation showed that accused had allegedly opened 23 fictitious accounts using forged national identity cards and obtained loans of approximately Rs9 billion from 2005 to 2007. Himesh is accused of misuse of power and sanctioning illegal loans worth Rs9 billion, while Seth Nisar is accused of committing willful default of Rs930 million that he had borrowed from BoP.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2011.