ISLAMABAD: A special court of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday convicted a ‘front man’ for a former religious affairs minister, sentenced him to 30 years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs4.05 million in the Rs8.8 million Haj corruption case.

Special Judge Central Malik Nazir announced the verdict according to which the convict, Ahmed Faiz, could face another 10 years’ imprisonment if he does not pay the fine.

An alleged front man for former Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi, Ahmed Faiz was accused of receiving kickbacks during the process of renting “substandard” buildings for pilgrims. After being declared a proclaimed offender, Faiz was arrested in Saudi Arabia in July 2014 and brought back to Pakistan.

The special court had on June 3 last year convicted Hamid Saeed Kazmi, former Joint Secretary Religious Affairs Ministry Raja Aftabul Islam and former Director General Haj, Rao Shakeel in the same case.

During the course of the hearing on Friday, FIA’s deputy director legal Waseem Ranjha said that Ahmed Faiz was not an employee of the religious affairs ministry, but was getting the protocol of a BPS 20 officer.

He said that the Pakistani haj mission in Saudi Arabia accommodated Faiz as real estate advisor on Kazmi’s directions. Ahmed Faiz was negotiating deals for the renting of buildings for hiring pilgrims during which he received kickbacks, Mr Ranjha alleged.

According to Mr Ranjha, the accused rented substandard buildings on exorbitant rates and made huge commissions.

The Supreme Court had in 2010 taken notice of the mismanagement in the arrangements for the 2009 Haj. Under SC orders, the former PPP government had assigned investigation of the case to an FIA team consisting of Director Hussain Asghar and Inspector Ghazanfar Abbas.

The PPP government had posted Mr Asghar to Gilgit Baltistan and repatriated him after the then SC Chief Justice Iftikar Mohammad Chaudhry ordered so.

The former religious affairs minister was found involved in corruption, causing huge losses to the national exchequer. A case was registered against Hamid Saeed Kazmi, who was arrested on March 15, 2011 and sent to jail, where he spent nearly two years. Kazmi was subsequently indicted in the corruption case on May 30, 2012 in which he pleaded not guilty.

According to the charge sheet, the accused men – including Hamid Saeed Kazmi, Rao Shakeel and Raja Aftabul Ismam- were found involved in fraud, cheating, misuse of authority and causing huge losses to the national exchequer and the public at large.

Islam and Shakeel were in the FIA’s custody since 2009 and were recently released from jail as their terms were completed a few months after their conviction. Kazmi, who remained on post arrest bail till his conviction, is serving his sentence in Adiala Jail.

Published in Dawn January 28th, 2017