IHC approves SECP Chairman Zafar Hijazi's pre-arrest bail

Dunya News

Zafar Hijari had approached the court and applied for the bail early today.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday has approved pre-arrest bail of Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Chairman Zafar Hijazi in record tampering case.

Zafar Hijazi had approached the court and applied for the bail early today.

Acting on the directives of Supreme Court (SC), police have also lodged criminal case against him for tampering the record of Sharif family’s companies that was forwarded to Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and formed a team for his detention.

Earlier during the hearing, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed had stated that the apex court instructed to drill the name of person on whose orders SECP chairman clandestinely altered the records.

Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) had endorsed allegations leveled by Panamagate JIT’s head Wajid Zia and found SECP chairman Zafar Hijazi guilty of tampering with record of Sharif family’s companies. The authority had penned a letter to Interior Ministry to put offender’s name on Exit Control List (ECL).

It was also disclosed that Zafar Hijazi had on June 29, 2016, ordered Ali Azeem and Maheen Fatima to close the inquiry of Chaudhry Sugar Mills in the date of January 2013. He also pressurized his subordinates to forge the records.

The inquiry committee recorded statements of 12 officers and found SECP chairman guilty of “misconduct by passing illegal orders and pressuring his subordinates to do illegal acts." It called for lodging a case under Sections 466, 472 PPC read with 5 (2) PCA 1947 against him.