June 23, 2006	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1427

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BAHAWALPUR, June 22: MMA deputy parliamentary leader Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar, an MPA, has been named as an accomplice by the alleged plunderers of over Rs30 million in the Al-Zubairi Associates scam.

This was revealed on Thursday by ASP (City) Mehr Zulfiqar Ali while briefing journalists on the progress made in investigation in three major cases — Al-Zubairi Associates scam, UBL fraud and Advocate Yahya Khan’s kidnap for ransom.

According to the ASP, Dr Waseem, his secretary Jalil Hashmi and Prof Nazir Ahmad Bhatti, a retired college principal, had been presiding over the seminars organised by Al-Zubairi Associates chief executive Hafiz Akram Zubairi, the principal accused in the case. They worked for the promotion of Hafiz Akram’s visa business.

He said the absconding Hafiz Akram used to announce such gatherings that the interested ‘job-seekers’ could deposit their advance money even in the accounts of Dr Waseem Akhtar as a guarantee.

The ASP said as Dr Waseem was a simple man, the swindlers might have plundered (from his account) over Rs30 million from about 200 people desirous of going abroad, especially Dubai, to earn some bucks fast there. Sixty of the affected people belong to Bahawalpur.

Cases against six accused had been registered under sections 406, 420 of PPC with the Baghdadul Jadid police. Three of them — Hafiz Akram, his wife Rukhsana and his son Khalid Zubairi had already fled to Dubai while Akram’s relatives, Rana Naveed, who was acting as his (Akram’s) attorney in his absence, and Hafiz Naseem, were arrested. Yet another accused, Maj Jamil (retired), the firm’s general manager, was absconding.

The investigating officer said the police had asked the authorities concerned to place the name of the former serviceman on the exit control list.

He further said the assets of the principal accused, including the site for a housing colony and a bungalow in Satellite Town, had been confiscated. The Federal Investigation Agency’s circle office in Multan, too, had instituted a case against the accused under section 17/22 of the Immigration Act of 1979.

UBL CASE: In the bank fraud case, the ASP told newsmen that the police had succeeded in recovering the Rs27 million from the six accused.

Mastermind Rizwan, a master’s degree holder who was employed two years ago as a key-punch operator and was later promoted to the officer grade three, stole the passwords of six accounts. All his accomplices, including his bank colleague Irfan Javed, had been arrested, the ASP said.

YAYHA CASE: In the Advocate Yahya’s case, the body recovered from the Sarwar Shaheed police station precinct in Muzaffargarh was not of Advocate Niaz Anwar, the ring-leader wanted by the local police in the case.

The ASP said the police reached the conclusion after showing the photographs and other belongings recovered from the deceased’s pockets to the parents of both Niaz and Muhammad Saeed, who were wanted by the police in the kidnap for ransom case of Advocate Yahya and his family, and killing of Yahya’s cousin Rizwan.

In view of the available evidence, he said the Bahawalpur police had moved the Muzaffargarh police to register a murder case against Niaz.