Hearing in case against ex-CIA man begins

Published December 18, 2002

RAWALPINDI, Dec 17: Special Judge Central, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Saqi Mohammad, on Tuesday started hearing in a corruption case in which a former inspector of CIA was charged with blackmailing some officials while investigating an alleged misappropriation case.

The inspector, Shehzad Haider, was charged with demanding Rs3.5 million from some officials while investigating a misappropriations case in a housing project of Kahuta Research Lab (KRL).

Later on, an assistant director at Abdul Qadeer (AQ) Khan Laboratory, Mohammad Ali, pointed him out to the military intelligence (MI) for allegedly demanding money from him and threatening him with incrimination.

The MI informed the deputy commissioner of Islamabad about the matter. The accused was ultimately arrested red-handed by the magistrate, Farasat Ali, during a raid at a house in Islamabad, where the accused was scheduled to take Rs 100,000 from the complainant. Earlier, the magistrate had signed all the currency notes, which were recovered from the accused on the spot.

As the accused was facing some other corruption charges too, the authorities terminated his services. The Lahore High Court had also rejected three writ petitions of the accused in other cases of corruption.