Team awarded Sitara-e-Imtiaz for winning Karkey case

Officers were among 184 Pakistani and foreign nationals who would be conferred with civil awards

ISLAMABAD:

President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday conferred Sitara-i-Imtiaz on the team comprising officers from Pakistan Army whose efforts saved the nation from a penalty of $1.2 billion.

According to the cabinet secretariat press release, the officers were among the 184 Pakistani and foreign nationals who would be conferred with civil awards for showing excellence and courage in their respective fields.

As per media reports, Brig Rana Arfan Shakeel Ramay, Lt Col Farooq Shahbaz and Ahmed Irfan Aslam made efforts for gathering information from Swiss, Lebanese, and Dubai banks regarding the corruption of Turkish power rental company Karkey.

The officials also collected documents from Panama and British Virgin Island that proved useful in winning the case against the firm.

As a result of their fool-proof investigations, Karkey was forced to withdraw cases it had filed against Pakistan, thus saving the nation from heavy penalties and international embarrassment.

The team, headed by Brig Ramay, would be conferred Sitara-i-Imtiaz for public service on March 23, 2021.

Last year, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government achieved massive success when it resolved the $1.2 billion award against the country in the Karkey case, announced by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in August 2017.

The statement was made by Prime Minister Imran Khan on social media on Nov 4, 2019 wherein it was stated that the PTI government with the help of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had amicably resolved the Karkey dispute and saved Pakistan’s $1.2 billion penalty imposed by the ICSID. The premier congratulated the government’s negotiating team for doing an excellent job.