Senate Standing Committee on Commerce has summoned the officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on January 16, 2010 in Islamabad for questioning on the progress in investigation in the multi-billion rupee scam of National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL).
The committee comprises Senator Ilyas Bilour, Senator Haroon Akhtar, Senator, Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Senator Shireen Siddiqui, Senator Safdar Abbasi and Senator Gul Muhammad Lot. The suspended Chairman of NICL, Ayaz Khan Niazi, who is the principle accused in the scam, faced the FIA Lahore for only a few days after which he was sent back to Central Jail Karachi, wherein according to government circles, he is being treated like a 'guest'.
During investigation by the FIA Lahore, sources revealed that Ayaz Niazi made a concerted effort to shift the responsibility of the entire scam on the Commerce Ministry, which vehemently denied his claims, saying that there is no record of his accusations. Well informed sources told Business Recorder that the FIA was requested by the Commerce Ministry to send weekly update reports to it with regard to ongoing investigation, however, the former has not yet complied with this request.
Ayaz Niazi allegedly has close ties with the country's top brass who are now active to save his skin. Former Minister for Defence Production, Habib Ullah Warraich is in jail but his son Mohsin Warraich is still at large. However, the accused has returned billions of rupees. A manager of Monis Elahi, son of former Chief Minister, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has also been arrested by the FIA but two key culprits of Korangi land scam have not been cuffed so far.
Director FIA, Punjab, Zafar Qureshi and Director FIA, Sindh, Moazzam Jah had promised the Senate panel that they would provide updates on the probe, which is still under process. The Senate standing committee played a pivotal role in unearthing NICL scam, and in identifying a couple of key culprits. Secretary Interior, Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry is amongst those Directors who signed the deals executed by Ayaz Niazi.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.