IG Sindh Kaleem Imam. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Appearing before a three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Advocate Sardar Aslam said two of the witnesses in the case have been abducted. He requested the bench to issue an order for their recovery.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan, a member of the bench, asked how the Sindh police would recover them when they were themselves involved in harassing the people. The bench, however, issued notice to Sindh IGP and adjourned hearing till November 17. The matter will be heard at the top court’s Lahore Registry.
FIA launches probe into Omni Group’s loans
Earlier, the bench directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to present before it on the next date of hearing the Omni Group’s Abdul Ghani Majid, who is stated to well aware of the group’s financial dealings with banks.
The top court also summoned top officials of the banks that granted billions of rupees loans to the group. These banks include the National Bank, the Sindh Bank, the Summit Bank and the Silk Bank.
During the hearing, the bench hinted at shifting Anvar Majid, a close aide of the PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, to Adiala Jail as “he is dictating entire Sindh through telephone while sitting in jail.”
The CJP Nisar also offered the counsel for the Omni Group that the court could quash all cases against his clients if they returned all the public money. He also asked the FIA’s joint investigation team (JIT) head Ihsan Sadiq how much time the JIT needed for completion of its investigation.
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Sadiq said the team is trying to complete the investigation as soon as possible but certain issues have to be looked into. He requested the bench for an extension in the time for investigation till December 15. However, the bench granted the JIT two weeks to submit a progress report.
According to the FIA progress report on verification of pledge of stock of sugar of the Omni Group, the sugar mills of Omni Group were availing various financial facilities from different banks including cash finance against pledge of stocks.
The total outstanding loan amount, the Cash Finance Activity, against pledge of stock from all banks is approximately Rs.13,598 million. The pledged bags are 7,536,515, available bags are 837,889 and the missing bags are 6,692,946.
The top court on October 27 ordered the FIA to probe into disappearance of sugar bags from the Omni Group mills in collaboration of local police and submit a report within a week.
In compliance with the order, the FIA Sindh Zone registered 9 inquiries at the Commercial Bank Circle Karachi in order to fix the responsibility and take appropriate legal action to recover the loss.
The probe is being conducted to find out the extent of consequential loss in stock of various sugar mills which were pledged/hypothecated with various banks with roles of mill management, top hierarchy of the banks in granting loans, officials appointed at each mill and bank officials at local, regional and zonal level, the FIA report submitted.
The National Bank claims net loss of Rs4.349 billion, the Sindh Bank claims loss of Rs4.35 billion, the Summit Bank claims net loss of Rs1.64 billion and the Silk Bank of Rs1.12 billion. The report said physical inspection reports were prepared and signed by the EO, bank officials and Muqaddams on spot.
The relevant record – the sugar stock registers, the delivery order registers, sugar dispatch registers, gate passes, export sugar files and other documents – have been taken into custody. The record from the banks has also been obtained and multiple statements of concerned persons have been recorded.
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Further records from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), concerned banks and the Omni Group are still to be collected and analysed while the statements of bankers and the Omni Groups' management are to be recorded. Statements of the sugar agents/exporters are also remaining, the report added.
“Since the probe involves acquiring and analysing lots of record, hence further progress report would be submitted before the court after the receipt of remaining documents and record,” the report stated.
During the course of hearing, the CJP called Namar Majid and asked him about the pledged stock.
Namar said he was unaware of the securities shown by the Omni Group against the loans obtained from the banks. The CJP remarked that he allowed Namar to stay out of jail in order to settle the matters between the group and banks.
The CJP told Namar’s wife to come to the rostrum and politely asked her for cooperation in settlement with banks. “This court is granting one week time for settlement with banks,” he noted.
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