ISLAMABAD: A special court on Friday dismissed former Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman Zafar Hijazi’s acquittal plea in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills record tampering case. Hijazi was indicted two weeks ago. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had maintained that the accused was involved in the tampering of Chaudhry Sugar Mills record. A case was registered against Hijazi on the orders of the Supreme Court after the three-member Panama Papers case implementation bench acted on the JIT report. Hijazi is accused of pressuring his subordinates to change dates on documents related to the sugar mills.
During the hearing, Special Court Central Judge Irum Niazi rejected Hijazi’s application on the reasoning that solid pieces of evidence were available to initiate the trial. The case was adjourned until November 29 and directed the FIA to produce prosecution witnesses in the next hearing. Hijazi was arrested in the premises of the court by the FIA on July 21 after the expiry of his bail before arrest. The FIA team had submitted a 28-page inquiry report to the Supreme Court on July 9 in which it had endorsed the stance of the Joint Investigation Team probing the offshore assets of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in connection with the Panama Papers case. A lower court on July 17 had granted a five-day pre-arrest bail to Hijazi against two surety bonds worth Rs 250,000 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.
Published in Daily Times, November 11th 2017.
