FIA officers investigating cases against Shehbaz transferred

Move at critical juncture when challans have been submitted baffles agency

LAHORE:

The transfer of officers investigating important cases, including the alleged money laundering and sugar scandal ones against PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, his son Hamza Shehbaz and their family members, on Tuesday left the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) baffled.

“At this critical juncture when the cases have entered their final stages and challans have been submitted to the court, the transfer of officers is beyond comprehension,” sources in the FIA told The Express Tribune.

Following the resignation of Special Assistant to the PM on Accountability Shehzad Akbar, the FIA director general transferred officers investigating well-known and important cases. These cases also include sugar scandal and money laundering.

Among the transferees are officers investigating cases against estranged PTI leader Jahangir Tareen, Shahbaz and Hamza. In total, nine FIA assistant directors have been transferred.

The services of the transferred officers have been handed over to the additional FIA director general (South) Karachi.

FIA Lahore Assistant Director Syed Ali Mardan, who is also part of the JIT investigating cases against Shehbaz, Hamza and former FIA director general Bashir Memon, has been transferred. While FIA assistant directors Emad Arshad and Rana Faisal, who were investigating important cases, have also been transferred.

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Abdul Qayyum, Zawar Ahmed, Shiraz Umar, Nadeem Ahmed and Sibghatullah Khan are also among the other assistant directors transferred.

The entire Lahore team has been ordered to report to Karachi zone.

The move comes a day after Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed held a meeting with Adviser to the PM on Accountability and Interior Musaddiq Abbasi and urged the newly appointed official to work towards rectifying flaws in the prosecution process to “catch big fish”.

The meeting came at a time when the ruling PTI is under fire for not being able to act on its agenda of rooting out corruption. Recently, Pakistan went down 16 spots on the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), prompting the people to question the incumbent government’s anti-corruption stance.

During the meeting, Rashid guided Abbasi about government’s accountability drive, and called for speeding up the process to bring ongoing cases to a logical conclusion.