Scions of key politicians hiding main accused in NIC scam

Officials reluctant to pursue arrest of accused as they are hiding out at the residence of top political leaders.

ISLAMABAD: Although all evidence seems to suggest that a high-profile proclaimed offender wanted in four major ‘dirty’ deals worth billions of rupees is in hiding in Islamabad, officials seem reluctant to pursue his arrest – given that he could be benefiting from the patronage of top leaders of the country.

Officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) fear that Ayaz Khan Niazi, wanted for defrauding the National Insurance Company (NIC), among other cases, could be hiding out in comfort at the residence of one of the top leaders in the capital.

One highly-placed source claimed that Director FIA Zafar Ahmed Qureshi was actually removed from his post by the DG FIA, Waseem Ahmed, last week “right before he was about to arrest Niazi”.

However, Qureshi was reinstated on Wednesday on the orders of the Supreme Court.

Another high-profile accused, Mohsin Warraich, in whose name red warrants are now  being issued in a bid to bring him back to the country, was said to be hiding in Dubai. Warraich is said to have procured Rs1.8 billion from NIC on the pretext of a land deal in Lahore, but never transferred the ownership of the 803-kanal plot of land – which he sold for Rs2.2 million per kanal against the market rate of just Rs200,000.

Although now reinstated, Qureshi is not getting the required cooperation from FIA, Islamabad, to conduct raids in the federal capital.

On Thursday, the reluctance to apprehend Niazi, said to be a close friend of Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim, was made apparent during a meeting of the Senate’s standing committee on commerce. The meeting was chaired by Senator Ilyas Bilour.

While senators did not openly identify the actual people who might have given refuge to the proclaimed offender, they kept pestering FIA officials why they were not doing anything to arrest him in Islamabad.

The director, FIA, who is heading investigations into the scam, told the senators that he had conducted several raids, including on the residences of Niazi in Lahore, Khanewal and Miawali without any success. But when senators asked whether FIA had conducted raids in Islamabad, Director Qureshi said that because Rawalpindi and Islamabad were outside his jurisdiction, he could not conduct any raid in the federal capital.

Inside sources said Moshin Warriach, the son of a former minister Habib Warriach who is now in FIA custody, had committed this fraud with the help of young sons of two powerful politicians of the country – one on the treasury benches and another on opposition benches in the National Assembly.

The two scions of two major political families – one belonging to central Punjab and the other from southern Punjab – were said to be responsible for the man’s sudden “disappearance” after he was declared to be a proclaimed offender by FIA.

The sources said that they feared that FIA would make no real effort for his arrest and if they actually carried out raids in Islamabad, they will be just “staged dramas”.

An insider said that efforts were being made to fly the man out of the country to prevent him from identifying the actual people involved in these multi-billion-rupee deals.

The meeting was called to apprise the senators of developments taking place to arrest the top accused in the NIC scam after the Supreme Court took suo motu action.

Members of the Senate body, like Senators Ilyas Bilour, Ishaq Dar, Haroon Khan, Seemi Siddiqi, Dr Safdar Abbasi, can be rightly credited with unearthing the scam in the commerce ministry.

When Senator Haroon Khan wanted to know why he had been removed from the post right after he arrested some big guns, including former minister Habibullah Warrich, FIA Director Zafar Qureshi requested the committee not to press him to reveal the reasons behind the move. The committee did not pursue the matter further “keeping in view his extraordinary breakthroughs, including the arrest of almost everyone involved in the scam”.

Mr Qureshi said out of the 13 accused involved in these scams, nine had been arrested by FIA and three, including Mohsin Warrich, had been declared absconders. He, however, vowed that he would recover the entire amount of embezzled money and “bring everyone to the book”.

Mr Qurershi also shared shocking details about the role of Ayaz Khan Niazi in the four deal struck during the last two years of his tenure after he was brought from Dubai by Makhdoom Amin Fahim as the chairman of NIC. He said that raids were conducted for his arrest in various areas, including Khanewal, where 25 acres of land in his name was seized and in the Essakhel area in Mianwali, adding that he had also bought a house in Lahore in his mother’s name.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2010.