KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed the interior ministry and others to file their respective comments on an application of the National Accountability Bureau seeking the placement of Pakistan’s ambassador designate to the US Ali Jahangir Siddiqui on the exit control list.

NAB filed an application contending that a corruption inquiry was pending against directors of investment firm Azgard Nine Limited, Agritech Limited and others for allegedly siphoning off funds amounting to €23.578 million in 2008 for the purchase of Italian company Monte Bello SRL using a foreign company Fairytal SRL, Sweden, which resulted in loss to the company shareholders.

It further alleged that fraudulent listing of Agritech Limited in Karachi Stock Exchange by concealing the fact that the company had overdue loan in 2010 resulted in a loss of around Rs500m.

NAB requested the court that in these peculiar circumstances, to direct the authorities concerned to place the name of Mr Siddiqui on ECL till the decision of this matter by the court and NAB authorities.

A two-judge bench of SHC issued notices with direction to file comments on May 15.

The lawyer representing Mr Siddiqui argued that NAB was not authorised to hold inquiry into the allegations since it was the domain of the Securities and Exchange Commission Pakistan.

Earlier, Mr Siddiqui had challenged the jurisdiction of NAB in SHC and also sought restraining order about alleged harassment of NAB.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2018