SECP chairman Zafar Hijazi arrested

ISLAMABAD: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday arrested Security & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman Zafar Hijazi from outside a special court in Islamabad after Special Judge Central Tahir Mehmood cancelled his bail, according to local media.

 The SECP chairman faces charges of tampering with records of the Sharif family’s companies. The joint investigation team (JIT), probing into Sharif family’s offshore assets, had earlier alleged that the SECP tampered with records of the sugar mills.

An FIA inquiry team, under the directions of Supreme Court’s special bench, had found Hijazi guilty of tampering the records of companies owned by the Sharif family and recommended registering a First Information Report (FIR) against him.

A lower court on July 17 had granted a five-day pre-arrest bail to Hijazi against two surety bonds worth Rs250,000 each after Hijazi filed for a pre-arrest bail as per Section 498 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Pakistan, citing medical grounds as the basis for the request.

Hijazi and some other senior SECP officers appeared before a four-member FIA team last week after Panamagate case implementation bench ordered the investigation agency to probe the allegation.

A news report claimed that investigations into alleged money laundering by Chaudhry Sugar Mills was closed in 2013 but it did not reflect in files of the SECP and that later in 2016 the SECP chairman Hijazi forced his subordinates to tamper old files to show closure of inquiry in backdates, that is, in 2013.