KARACHI, April 1: An anti-corruption court issued on Monday non-bailable arrest warrants for former federal minister and senior leader of PPP Makhdoom Amin Fahim, former secretary of commerce and others in a case relating to a multi-million-rupee land scam.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted a supplementary charge-sheet on Monday against the PPP leader, the former secretary and four others for their alleged involvement in embezzlement of funds in the purchase of land for National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) in violation of procurement rules in August 2009.

While accepting the charge-sheet for hearing, the judge of the special federal anti-corruption court-II, Sanaullah Khan Ghory, issued the non-bailalbe warrants for PPP leader Amin Fahim, former secretary of commerce Suleman Ghani, two directors of NICL Amin Qasim Dada and Javed Syed, and Khalid Anwar and Amir Hussian and directed the FIA to arrest and produce them in court by April 12.

According to the charge-sheet, the then management of the NICL through consultancy support service estimated the cost of land in question at Rs92.5 million per acre while the FIA through revenue department estimated it as Rs40 million per acre and Nespak, a valuator firm, at Rs41.26 per acre.

During investigation it was revealed that the sale proceeds of the deal amounting to Rs900m were deposited in the joint account of absconding accused Khalid Anwar (frontman of now deceased Zafar Saleem, a grade-20 government employee) and Khawaja Akbar Butt and the suspects distributed it among themselves, it added.

It further said that after having been illegally appointed by Mr Amin Fahim, former NILC chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi, in connivance with other suspects, including the former federal minister himself, embezzled Rs900m in the purchase of the land in question and out of this amount, Rs41 million was transferred in the loan account of Mr Amin Fahim and members of his family in a private bank.

The former minister through his attorney took the plea that he had received the money in question from Akbar Butt for the sale of a property in the DHA Karachi to Zafar Saleem. However, since neither the loan amount had been cleared nor redemption certificate/NOC was issued by the bank, the question of selling the property did not arise and justification given by Mr Fahim was an afterthought, the charge-sheet said.

It said the transfer of Rs41m to accounts of Mr Amin Fahim and his family was the share of the embezzled amount, rewarded by Ayaz Niazi for appointing him the chairman of NICL.