KARACHI, Aug 26: Judge Mrs Qaiser Iqbal of the Accountability Court No 1 ordered on Tuesday the release of three beneficiaries of the Rs3.5 billion Alliance Motors scam after they returned over US$1.78 million.
Mohammed Ismail Ishaq, Fatima Ismail and Kulsoom Ibrahim had applied to the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau for a settlement, offering to return the entire benefits they had attained in the scam.
The judge ordered the release of the three beneficiaries, who were arrested on June 20, after she was informed that the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau had accepted their plea of bargain.
The court was also told that $1,785,475 had already been remitted to the NAB account from the foreign banks of Dubai and Switzerland.
The judge approved the plea of bargaining of accused persons under section 25 (a), NAB Ordinance, and allowed the application of the prosecution for withdrawal of the proceedings against them.
The judge, however, disqualified the three beneficiaries from being elected and appointed or nominated as members or servants of any public office or any statutory or local authority of the Government of Pakistan. They will also not be allowed to avail any financial facility in the form of any loan or advances from any bank or financial institutions owned or controlled by the government for a period described under section 15, NAB Ordinance.
As many as 30 accused in the Alliance Motors scam have so far been arrested by the NAB authorities, who have also investigated 245 properties and 47 bank accounts.
As many as 15 accused were arrested by the NAB authorities on April 29 and they were later sent to the judicial custody.
The investigation officer, Ghulam Asghar Jatoi, also submitted the final charge-sheet in the reference, filed for recovering the properties from the beneficiaries.
As per record the arrested accused were in illegal possession of the properties and assets of the Alliance Motors and T. J. Ibrahim, which, as a matter of fact, belonged to the victims of the scam.
According to the reference, four persons, including Pir Asghar Ali Qureshi, Mohammed Ibrahim and Mohammed Tayyab, got together under the patronage of Pir Mohammed Usman and made two finance companies — T. J. Ibrahim and Co, and Alliance Motors (Pvt) Ltd.
The accused allegedly had no financial background, standing or experience. Still, just by thriving on their religious facade, they cheated the public by promising a hefty monthly profit of 2 to 3 per cent on the invested amount.
According to NAB officials, out of the available integral resources, a special cell consisting of a brigadier, a lieutenant colonel, two case officer, seven investigation officers and the required number of experts from legal, banking, income tax, land revenue and information technology departments was created for investigation of this scam.
They said that all 48,250 claims had been collated and computerised.
