ISLAMABAD: The Rawalpindi National Accountability Bureau on Tuesday filed a fifth reference in the ongoing fake accounts case nominating Abdul Ghani Majid of the Omni Group and a former Sindh secretary, Ejaz Ahmed Khan, and 11 others.

NAB said suspect Ejaz Khan, who was then the secretary of the special initiative department, in active connivance with project director Hassan Ally Memon and others misused their authority to extend undue benefit to M/s Harish and Company and suspect Mr Majid.

It said that the suspects with mala fide intentions and in connivance with each other recommended “illegal award of contract for approval and extended illegal benefit” to other suspects, causing a loss to the tune of more than Rs60 million to the exchequer.

The fifth reference also accuses Mr Majid of acquiring benami properties in the name of his daughter Minahil Majid. Those properties include a plot in the Defence Housing Authority in Karachi which was acquired through ill-gotten money. NAB informed the accountability court in the previous reference that this plot has been confiscated.

Besides Mr Majid, his daughter and secretary Ejaz Khan, other suspects are Ali Akbar Abro, Aijaz Ahmed Memon, Athar Nawaz Durrani, Abdul Haleem Memon, Muhammad Farrukh Khan, Muhammad Ramzan, Muhammad Siddiq Sulemani, Zeeshan Hasan Yousaf and private contractor Harish.

The references in the fake accounts case are linked to former president and co-chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.

The FIA had named Mr Zardari, Ms Talpur, Omni Group chairman Anwar Majid, his sons and over 10 others as suspects in an interim charge sheet filed in the banking court in August 2018 for alleged money laundering to the tune of over Rs4 billion, after 29 ‘fake’ bank accounts were found in three banks — Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and United Bank.

So far, at least three accused have consented to become approvers in the fake accounts case. On April 30 Sher Mohammad offered to stand in the witness box and on April 8, Kiran Aman and Noreen Sultan had moved an application offering to become approvers in the case.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2019