Canal Motors scam: Diyal named as fraud beneficiary

Stolen property transferred to former Council chair.

LAHORE:

Ejaz Diyal, former chairman of the Lahore District Council and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PLM-Q) ticket holder for a National Assembly seat, has emerged as a beneficiary in the Canal Motors scam and in possession of illegally obtained property, The Express Tribune has learnt.

More than 200 people were deprived of over a billion rupees in deposits for vehicles by Canal Motors. Its chief executive, Rana Qaiser Nazeer, is in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which has been investigating the case for a year and a half. An army major and a superintendent of police (SP) are also said to be involved.

According to the NAB investigation, on March 7, 2010, then Saddar Division SP Rana Mansoorul Haq abducted Nazeer and Canal Motors scam co-accused Mohsin Abbasi and Ahsan Abbasi and held them until March 16. In the interim, he forced them to sign over properties worth millions of rupees to his friends and family, according to NAB.

These properties include 134 kanals in Chak No39 South, Sargodha district, valued at Rs20 million. NAB investigators discovered that this property had been transferred to Diyal during Nazeer’s detention. A house in the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) society in Lahore, valued at Rs25 million, had been transferred to Rana Bilal. A house worth Rs7 million in Sabzazar had been transferred to another person.

NAB sources said that Diyal and Bilal had admitted to possessing property obtained through illegal means and had voluntarily returned millions of rupees to the bureau. However, the sources said, the amount handed over (Rs18 million) was a lot less than the value of the properties.

The bureau has rejected their application to accept the money as a ‘voluntary return’ and is instead counting it as ‘recovered’. The sources said that arrest warrants for Diyal and Bilal had been sought, but the bureau is likely to use this as a bargaining chip to get more money out of them. They said that an application for an arrest warrant for the SP had been sent to NAB headquarters for the chairman’s approval. The chairman must approve the arrest of any government officer of grade 18 and above.

Nazeer told NAB that SP Haq and Major Hameed Rana and their family and friends were also beneficiaries in the scam.

No money has yet been returned to the over 200 people who got conned by Canal Motors. The company would offer cars to customers at discounted prices. After they paid and before they were to receive their cars, Nazeer would call the buyer to say that another customer was willing to pay extra for the car, and if they agreed to delay delivery for another month, they would be entitled to the profit. Many claimants told NAB that they had received profit cheques, but never received cars or their full payments back. Nazeer used the stolen money to buy the properties that were transferred by the SP, the NAB sources said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2011.