ISLAMABAD: A local court on Friday indicted Zafar Hijazi, the suspended chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), in the case relating to tampering of the record of Chaudhry Sugar Mills which is owned by the family of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

A special court of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has indicted Mr Hijazi under Sections 420 (cheating), 466 (forgery) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 5(2)(47) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Mr Hijazi, however, pleaded not guilty.

Special court’s judge Irum Niazi read out the charges against Mr Hijazi in his presence.

As per the charge sheet, Mr Hijazi has been accused of pressurising his subordinate staff to close the pending inquiry against the said sugar mills in back date.

SECP’s ex-chairman has been accused of pressurising subordinate staff to close inquiry against Sharifs-owned mills

In response, the accused said that he did not tamper with any record nor did he commit any wrongdoing.

The case was filed after the six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) — which was formed by the Supreme Court to investigate the Panama Papers case — submitted its report to the apex court accusing Mr Hijazi of forgery.

The JIT members had claimed that the examination of witnesses suggested that the deed was done at the behest of the suspended SECP chairman. Mr Hijazi denied the allegations, claiming instead that some other SECP employees had changed the records without any pressure or directives from him.

The FIA in July booked Mr Hijazi and registered a case against him under the above mentioned sections of the PPC and PCA.

On July 21, Mr Hijazi was taken into custody outside the court of the special judge central in Islamabad after the FIA officials argued before the judge that he should not be granted an extension in bail. On July 29, he was sent to Adiala Jail on a 14-day judicial remand. The special court in August granted bail to Mr Hijazi.

In a detailed order on the post-arrest bail, Judge Irum Niazi observed that it has yet to be ascertained if he had pressured his subordinates or the backdated closure of the case record had been made by all of them with consensus.

However, she added, a tentative look at the evidence showed that the closure note in back date had been made after meetings and detailed discussions among SECP officials Maheen Fatima, Tariq Ahmed, Ali Azeem, Tahir Mahmood and Abid Hussain, as they had signed the document along with the applicant.

“All of them are sailors of the same boat,” the judge stated in her order.

After the indictment, the court directed the prosecution to produce evidence against the accused to prove the allegations and adjourned the proceedings.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2017