Ali Jahangir Siddiqui. PHOTO COURTESY: JS BANK
LAHORE: A combined investigation team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore on Thursday grilled Pakistan’s envoy-designate for the United States, Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, for over an hour in connection with a case of over Rs40 billion alleged embezzlement.
Ali, who currently works as an adviser to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, was also asked to fill a form, seeking details of his assets and properties. His interrogation lasted over 80 minutes, an investigation officer told The Express Tribune.
Recently nominated as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Ali was summoned to appear before the NAB team through a notice sent to him on March 15. The notice accuses him of causing a loss of Rs40 billion to national exchequer through ‘embezzlement’.
NAB summons envoy-designate to US Ali Jahangir in embezzlement case
NAB in the notice had accused him of “syphoning off funds amounting to €23.758 million in 2008 for the purchase of an Italian company, Monte Bello SRL, using a foreign company, Fairytal SRL Sweden, which resulted in a loss to the company and shareholders.”
It also accused Ali of selling shares of Agritech Ltd to different financial and government institutions by Azgard Nine at a higher price than market price to settle the loan defaults of the company, which resulted in an approximate loss of Rs40 billion to the institutions. An investigation in the case earlier had found that the shares were sold at a rate of Rs35 per share while their actual price was Rs11 per share.
On Thursday, NAB was also expecting Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique and Health Adviser to Punjab Chief Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique for investigations into Paragon Society scam. However, both of them did not appear before the probe panel and sent their counsels.
The investigations into the Ashiyana-e-Iqbal Housing Scam had led NAB to Paragon Housing Society scam. As part of the investigations, NAB had raided offices of Paragon Housing Society a few weeks back and confiscated documents.
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NAB had accused the Lahore Development Authority’s (LDA) former DG Ahad Khan Cheema, accusing him of taking 32 kanals of land as bribe to grant contract of Ashiyana-e-Iqbal Project. At least Rs30 million were paid for purchasing the land from an account of Paragon Housing Society.
Last week, NAB presented Ahad before an accountability court and requested an in-camera session. During the hearing, they presented various evidences of his involvement in the graft and sought to extend his physical remand.
An investigation officer told The Express Tribune that the evidences obtained by NAB suggested that the trail of corruption might lead to some stalwart political personalities and departments. In Ashiyana-e-Iqbal scam, NAB has so far questioned Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Secretary to Prime Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad.
NAB has arrested six accused persons including Cheema, Bismillah Engineering proprietor Shahid Shafiq, LDA Chief Engineer Israr Saeed, Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) Chief Engineer Col (retd) Arif, PLDC former CEO Imtiaz Haider, and financial adviser Bilal Qudwani.
The accused persons have been remanded in NAB’s custody till April 03.
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