Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Chairman Zafar Hijazi reached his office yesterday and directed his IT staff members to give him computer data of Abid Hussain, Ali Azeem Akram, Maheen Fatima and others for retaliatory action against them, it is learnt from reliable sources.

A court has granted bail to SECP chairman Zafar Hijazi yesterday, who faces charges of tampering with the records of the Sharif family’s companies.

Hijazi reportedly said to his staffers, “I am still the chairman of SECP so everyone has to obey me.”

Being chairman of the SECP and a close friend of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, the ministry of finance did not take any action against him so far, giving him ample opportunity to harass the witnesses and destroy witnesses’ record from their computers, the SECP sources claimed.

It is pertinent to mention here that as per SECP human resource manual, any FIR registered against officers involved in a criminal offence should be immediately placed under suspension, but Zafar Hijazi is still performing duties as SECP chief.

SECP Director Abid Hussain, Joint Director Ali Azeem Akram, Director Maheen Fatima, Joint Director Tariq Ahmed and others have recorded their statements before the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against him, on which he has been nominated in the FIR on the charge of tampering with the record of Sharifs’ companies.

An official of SECP said that Hijazi also called an urgent meeting of the commissioners to take action against these officials.

All the officials, who were of the view that Hijazi will not attend office after a clear direction from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, are reportedly very disturbed.

The offences mentioned in FIR are non-bailable; hence, normally, it is less likely that concerned court will grant him bail, the official said. Just after reaching office immediately after being granted interim-transitory bail, he started harassing the SECP officers who were a witness in this case.

In a major unlawful development, he called the head of IT, who is also a witness relating to electronic evidence against him like backdated note and emails, etc. including server data, the source said.

He reportedly ordered IT head verbally (which is his normal practice) to allow him access to the email boxes of important witnesses, especially Maheen Fatima.

While granting the transitory bail till July 17, IHC’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani advised Hijazi to approach the appropriate forum – the Special Court Central. The bail was granted against surety bonds of Rs10,000.