Hajj scam: Saudi prince withdraws complaint

Prince Bandar Bin Khalid says the kingdom has no financial claims to make.

ISLAMABAD: Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, who had earlier written a letter to the chief justice of Pakistan disclosing financial irregularities in this year’s Hajj arrangements, has dropped his complaint.

In another letter to the Pakistani Ambassador in Riyadh, Umer Khan Alisherzai, the prince said he no longer wished to discuss the matter as he had dropped his complaint, The Express Tribune has learnt on good authority.“This is to inform you that we have no financial claims therefore we are dropping our complaint,” the prince wrote to the ambassador from his private office.

It is alleged that the letter sent by the Saudi prince to the Supreme Court was mailed on Ambassador Alisherzai’s instigation who may be the third casualty after two federal ministers, who were removed from the cabinet in connection with the case, officials told The Express Tribune.

The envoy, however, has bright chances of survival as a group of Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) from Fata is lobbying to save him from the wrath of the prime minister.

The ambassador is alleged to have made over Rs1billion through his front man Ahmad Faiz, and others who arranged substitute accommodations for 50,000 pilgrims after the accommodation arranged by the ministry of Hajj proved to be substandard. Alisherzai had invited the prince for a meeting in Jeddah during the first week of this month to discuss the Hajj. Earlier this week, the ambassador, who hails from Fata, was grilled by a two-member Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probe team consisting of deputy director Khalid Rasool and Mohammad Sabir.

The ministry of foreign affairs and the FIA initiated a separate investigation against Alisherzai for his alleged involvement in the scam while the FIA chief had sent a letter to Ambassador Alisherzai last month after reports emerged implicating him in the scam.

The agency’s chief had asked questions regarding the envoy’s role in arranging accommodations, transport and other facilities for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. It is alleged that the ambassador made money via various ‘front men’.

The ministry of foreign affairs had also initiated correspondence with the ambassador in August this year when the ministry of Hajj lodged a complaint against Alisherezai for his alleged interference in making Hajj arrangements.

In reply to the FIA chief and the foreign ministry, Alisherzai denied the allegations which however failed to satisfy his claims and hence the two-member team was sent to question the ambassador.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2010.