SECP Chairman Zafar Hijazi
Zafarul Haq Hijazi was granted bail till July 21 against a surety of Rs0.5 million. Hijazi had been on a transitory bail till July 17, granted by the Islamabad High Court against Rs10,000 worth of surety bonds with directions to appear before a proper forum.
SECP chief distances himself from ‘wrongdoings’ of staff
On July 10, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had lodged an FIR against Hijazi on the directives of the Supreme Court over allegations of tampering record of the Sharif family’s companies.
The FIR was registered under Sections 466 and 471 of PPC read with 5(2)47, the Prevention of Corruption Act at FIA’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU), in Islamabad. Under the mentioned sections, the convict can be awarded a jail term of up to seven years.
The FIA endorsed allegations, levelled by the head of the Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT), Wajid Zia, and advised the interior ministry to put his name on the Exit Control List (ECL).
FIA finds SECP chief guilty of tampering with record of Sharifs’ companies
On June 19, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court – headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan – had directed the FIA director general to launch an inquiry into the JIT allegations that the SECP had tampered with the record of the Sharifs’ companies.
Subsequently, the top court had constituted a four-member FIA team to probe into the allegations. The team submitted, in the apex court, a 28-page report in which it endorsed the JIT’s stance regarding record-tampering.
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