LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) two officers probing the sugar scams involving PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and ruling PTI’s estranged leader Jehangir Khan Tareen were transferred on Tuesday in ‘violation of the interior ministry’s rotation policy.’

The transfer of assistant directors (Lahore) Ali Mardan Shah and Umaid Butt to Karachi came on the heels of resignation of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar.

“The reshuffle in the FIA Lahore was expected after the departure of Mr Akbar for his failure to send Shehbaz Sharif in jail in a money laundering case. More transfers may also follow,” a source told Dawn.

The interior ministry [interestingly], he said, did not follow its own rotation policy in the transfer of these officials.

Reshuffle violates interior ministry’s rotation policy

According to the rotation policy, “from among all serving officers (administrative, investigation, legal cadre BS-16 to BS-20) or those who will be appointed/promoted in future, such officers who had served an aggregate more than 10 years in a particular province/ICT & GB zone shall be transferred out of the province/ICT, GB zone to serve the mandatory rotation policy.”

However, both officers have a total service of five years.

“The total service of both officers is five years…so they are transferred for reasons extraneous to the rotation policy of the interior ministry,” the source said.

Last week the FIA had ‘resubmitted’ investigation report (challan) on the Rs16bn money laundering/sugar scam case against Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz and his son Hamza to the special court (central) after what the agency says ‘resolution of the jurisdiction matter’.

The challan comprises a final investigation report (66 pages) along with seven additional volumes comprising 4,370 pages of documentary evidence, the FIA says.

The FIA has nominated Shehbaz Sharif and his sons — Hamza and Suleman — as the principal accused in the case. Fourteen others have been named in the FIR under sections 5(2) and 5(3) (criminal misconduct) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, read with 3/4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

“Eleven low-paid employees of the Sharif group who ‘held and possessed’ the laundered proceeds on behalf of the principal accused, are found guilty of facilitating money laundering. The three other co-accused of the Sharif group also actively facilitated the money laundering,” the agency says.

The benami accounts, which had deposits totalling Rs16.3bn, were not declared by the principal accused, according to the FIA. Both Shehbaz and Hamza are on pre-arrest bail till Feb 10.

Jahangir Tareen and his son Ali Tareen are facing Rs5bn money laundering and fraud charges in three FIRs in the sugar scam. The pre-arrest bail of the Tareens have been confirmed.

“Currently, the FIA investigators are probing transfer of crime proceeds to the United Kingdom,” the source said on Tuesday. The agency is digging out evidence related to an onward money trail in the ‘suspicious’ transactions of the duo believing that this will be helpful to prosecute them in the court of law.

The FIA allegedly did not actively pursue the case against Tareen after he managed to exert pressure on Prime Minister Imran Khan through a group of about 40 lawmakers hailing from south Punjab who are backing him. The 30 MPAs and eight MNAs had threatened the premier that they might consider other options if ‘justice’ was not rendered to their leader (Tareen) in what they called ‘fake cases’ (against him).

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2022