Modaraba scam: NAB takes 14-day remand of religious scholar

Mufti Ehsanul Haqfaces charges of convincing his devotees to invest in his Modaraba and causing a Rs1.3 billion loss.

ISLAMABAD:

An accountability court on Saturday handed over a religious scholar, charged with financial crime, to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on a 14-day physical remand.

Mufti Ehsanul Haq, a religious scholar from Gujranwala, faces charges of convincing his devotees to invest in his Modaraba and causing a Rs1.3 billion loss to the investors.

NAB had arrested Haq from a mosque of the federal capital during a clerics’ gathering on September 6. On Saturday, Haq was produced before the National Accountability Court, where Judge Muhammad Bashir handed him over to NAB.

According to the NAB investigator, Mufti Haq conned thousands of his rich devotees into investing billions of rupees in a fake Modaraba that he had claimed to have set up.

Modaraba companies are monitored and regulated by the Registrar (Modaraba Companies and Modarabas), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2013.