Abid Javed Akbar arrested for embezzlement of up to Rs5 billion. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday handcuffed Abid Javed Akbar, the former chairman of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) for alleged embezzlement, Express News reported.
Abid Javed Akbar is the second TDAP chairman after Tariq Iqbal Puri to be arrested for embezzlement.
Express News correspondent Aadil Jawad reported that FIA had started investigating the accounts of TDAP in July of this year, and to date, has discovered financial discrepancies of up to Rs5 billion in the organization during Akbar's term.
Soon after FIA launched its investigations, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif suspended Akbar from his post as CEO, following which, the suspended chairman together with many of his subordinates reportedly went into hiding.
A couple of days ago, FIA arrested Director General Abdul Karim Dawood Pota, who then pinpointed the location of Akbar's 'secret residence' in Karachi to facilitate his arrest.
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@Surprised:
Because the FIA people have done nothing except harass all the honest officers of TDAP, to try to deflect the investigation onto them and let the real culprits such as Amin Fahim, Zafar Mahmood, Yousuf Raza Gillani, Nargis Sethi get away scott free, due to the fact that the FIA investigating offIcer Saud Mirza has a very poor reputation and has probably already gotten money from Amin Fahim, so he is doing everything except investigating the former commerce minister and his associates who used to park themselves at the offices of TCP and TDAP to monitor the minister's scams and corrupt activities.
Wow! So many comments on proving that this man might be innocent and FIA is doing that for the sake of 'rishwat' only.
Why is no one talking about NICL scam and arresting Makhdoom family when money from NICL scam was found in Amin Fahim's account, his wife's account and his son's account?! Is it because of mukk-mukka between PML-N and PPP???!
Well, I've been over this report quite a bit.
He was Elected as chairmen in november and within 5 months blamed for embezzlement of accounts of that year. It just doesn't make sense, it seems the real culprits walk free and innocent honest officials be targetted.
As for the Muslim Leaguer recover the TaxPayers money from the RIGHT PEOPLE, ask your own elected officials to hand down the billions they have stolen..
Let us not get excited. This is land of pure. Rishwat zinda bad.
I have been reading about this TDAP stuff for over 8 months now. What is the end result? All we hear is FIA arrests this chairman or that chairman, but what about filing cases and getting convictions? When are we going to hear about that? Maybe never because from what I understand, the main culprits are not being arrested as they have fled the country and the FIA is only interested in harrassing people to make some money off them. They have not filed one case in the court, nor have them gone after the real culprits like Amin Fahim, Zafar Mahmood, Nargis Sethi and former PM Gillani who did a lot of damage to TDAP.
The main difference between PPP regime and PML-N government is that during the former the media is full of corruption news while during PML-N government accountability process proceeds ahead. We are happy that taxpayer's money is being recovered.
@Dr. Khalid Memon:
They cannot file cases as they are only trying to get their share of the money by blackmailing people. FIA Karachi crime branch has a poor reputation, only a month ago FIA officers investigating TDAP were suspended for bribing businessmen, this was even reported in The Express Tribune. The DG FIA should be held accountable in front of the High Court for the corruption and blackmailing tactics his officers are involved in. But this will not happen unless they get pulled up the Chief Justice.
TDAP scams are all pointing towards the former Commerce Minister Amin Fahim, just like the NICL scams. But the FIA will continue to go after everyone they can to show they are doing something, even after those who are innocent, just to protect Amin Fahim as the FIA has already been paid off by Amin Fahim so they will not touch him.
ET: Perhaps your reporter can also report if people are just being arrested to harass them and then quietly released once they fork out bribes to the FIA Karachi, or whether there are actually cases that are ongoing regarding this issue in the courts. I have yet to read or hear about what evidence the FIA has actually presented in the courts. Seems to me all they are doing is arresting people, then releasing them once they receive some money in their pockets.
So, has he been arrested due to a court order, or has he been arrested because he refused to pay rishwat to the FIA Karachi Crime branch?