NIC land scam: UK to hand over key accused shortly

Mohsin Warraich to be handed over to FIA on December 9.

ISLAMABAD: The government of the United Kingdom is said to have given firm assurance to Pakistan that one of the main accused in the multi-billion rupee National Insurance Corporation (NIC) scam, Mohsin Warraich, would be handed over to the FIA on December 9. Warraich is understood to be in hiding in London with his wife, Beenish Warraich, a UK national. Red warrants were issued against him last week.

However, Beenish Warraich, a barrister by profession and daughter of former health Minister Naseer Khan, is filing a case in a British court to stop the extradition. She is taking the plea that her husband and her father-in-law, Habibullah Warraich, a former minister and politician, are being victimised by the present government on political grounds.

Beenish Warraich is expected to take the plea that if her husband is handed over to the FIA, “he would be subjected to torture and other inhuman treatment.”  In response, the Pakistan government is said to have given an assurance to the UK that FIA Director Zafar Ahmed Qureshi enjoyed a good reputation.

Beenish Warraich herself has been named in the NIC scam FIR as co-accused along with her husband, two sisters-in-law, mother-in-law and father-in-law Major (r) Habibullah Warraich, who is already in FIA custody after it was claimed that money taken from NIC was transferred to their accounts by Mohsin Warraich.

One top official claimed that the British government has already accepted the plea of the FIA that the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had specifically issued instructions on the last hearing of the NIC to bring the key accused of NIC scam, Mohsin Warraich, to Pakistan before December 9 when the CJ would next hear the case.

The CJ had observed in the last hearing that unless the two main accused – former NIC chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi and Mohsin Warraich – were either arrested or brought back to Pakistan, investigations would remain inconclusive.

The CJ had also ordered the arrest of former chairman NIC Ayaz Khan Niazi, who surrendered to the FIA in Karachi last week.

An FIA team from Lahore is being rushed to Karachi on Monday to bring the former chairman to Lahore, where two criminal cases are registered against him, along with Mohsin Warraich. Niazi was said to have surrendered himself before the FIA in Karachi so he would not land in the hands of Director Zafar Qureshi, who would have delved into the illegal activities that could involve the sons of leading politicians of the country.

Earlier, sources claimed that DG FIA Waseem Ahmed had held a meeting with diplomats of the UK high Commission in Islamabad seeking the extradition of Mohsin Warraich.

Warraich had flown to the UK from Dubai last week after red warrants were issued by the FIA for his arrest and subsequent hand over to Pakistan. It is believed that British diplomats had assured the DG FIA that Mohsin would be handed over after due process.

Director FIA Zafar Qureshi has recovered over Rs2 billion from the Warraich family since being appointed investigation officer in the case. A sum of Rs1.4 billion has been repaid out of a total of Rs1.6 billion by the family, while bank cheques worth Rs280 million were with the FIA and would be cashed before the end of December. In the second land deal, in which Rs1.2billion were paid by the NIC to Mohsin Warraich, a sum of Rs440 million has been recovered to date.

Talking to The Express Tribune from Dubai last week before flying to the UK, Mohsin Warraich claimed innocence. He said that he had not committed any fraud, as he was the seller and was paid the amount he had sought for the sale of his lands.

Mohsin Warraich lamented that his family was being victimised politically and female members of his family were being named in FIRs without reason. He claimed that the money transferred in accounts of female members of the family was related to “routine household expenditures.”

Published in the Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2010.