Moonis Elahi
“I am in Dubai for my business engagements and I want to tell those who are trying to implicate me that they will face disappointment at the end of the day,” Moonis Elahi told by phone. - File Photo

LAHORE: As the Federal Investigation Agency has issued summons to Moonis Elahi, son of former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi, in connection with the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL) scam, the latter says he is ready to come back and face all “fake” charges against him.

“I am in Dubai for my business engagements and I want to tell those who are trying to implicate me that they will face disappointment at the end of the day. My counsel will appear before the court and clarify my position,” Moonis Elahi told by phone on Wednesday.

However, Zafar Ahmed Qureshi, Additional Director General of FIA, said: “If Moonis Elahi does not appear before the investigation team the agency will get his red warrants issued.”

The name of Moonis Elahi was placed on the Exit Control List on the Order of the apex court on Tuesday, but he had already left for Dubai on Jan 20.

Mr Qureshi further said the agency had summoned Moonis as the reply he submitted in response to its questionnaire was “unsatisfactory”.

Moonis said: “My manager (Maalick) did not hand over Rs220 million to me. Maalick had told the magistrate that the FIA had obtained his statement against me by torturing him.”

The PML-Q leader further said Zafar Ahmed Qureshi was trying to “settle an old score” against him and his family.

“My father, during his tenure as chief minister, had made Mr Qureshi an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for his poor performance. Besides, he also had a grudge against us for not making his brother, Ismail Qureshi, the chief secretary and refusing a Q-League MNA ticket to another brother Mazhar Qureshi,” he alleged.

“This shows that despite having no concrete evidence against me, Qureshi is bent upon implicating me,” he said.

Mr Qureshi, however, termed these allegations baseless.

“I was made an OSD after I refused to do a partial inquiry in Sonia Naz case. Ismail Qureshi had never been an aspirant for the slot of chief secretary and Mazhar Qureshi quit the Q-League after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” he said.

The FIA official further said he would ensure transparent investigation into the case and would not yield to any pressure.

“I have also constituted a team for the arrest of Amin Qasim Dada, a member of the board of directors of NICL, and requested the Sindh home ministry to help it in this regard,” he said.

The FIA Lahore has registered two cases in the scam and arrested 12 people, including former NICL chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi and former minister Habibullah Warraich, under sections 409, 420, 468, 471, 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

Three other main accused — Mohsin Habib Warraich, Amin Qasim Dada and Javed Syed — are still at large. The FIA has got issued red warrants for Mohsin Habib and has requested British authorities for his extradition.

According to the FIR, Warraich's company, Messrs Privilege, purchased a plot measuring 803 kanals from the NICL at Mauza Toor, Lahore, for Rs1.68 billion in February last year.

“It transpired that the corporation had sold the land without getting the land mutated in its favour. This is a serious breach of financial discipline and a major irregularity,” it says.

In the other case, the NICL sold land measuring 20 kanals on Lahore Airport Road to Mohsin Warraich for Rs1.7 billion. It sold the land at a rate of Rs53 million per kanal, though its market value was much higher.

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