ISLAMABAD - There is a long list of charges against former Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani in Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) scam that surfaced in the investigations of the Federal Investigations Agency (FIA), The Nation has learnt.
The FIA Karachi is investigating a number of cases of misappropriations amounting to billions of rupees in TDAP and former prime minister, the other day, got bail from an anti-corruption court in Karachi in 12 such cases.
According to official documents available with The Nation, FIA had made a list of total 14 charges of corruption against the former PM for his alleged involvement in the scam of wroth billions of rupees and a questionnaire had been sent to the accused at his residence in Multan, two and half months ago.
The investigations of FIA reveal how the former prime minister had been allegedly taking ill-gotten money through his different front men and through a junior bureaucrat deputed at PM House and how official resources of PM House were used to mint money. These show how TDAP chief executive officers were being sacked and replaced one after the other to earn more money by then Prime Minister Gilani through his front men.
The FIA has asked Gilani if Faisal Siddique Khan s/o Siddique Khan, one of the absconding accused in TDAP cases, was languishing in Adyala Jail Rawalpindi when former prime minister was in the same jail. The FIA has found that Khan was the front man of Gilani, besides others, in TDAP scam. He is facing question whether Muhammad Zubair, another alleged front man of then prime minister, was deputy secretary (personal) to the PM House during his tenure as prime minister.
The anti-corruption watchdog in its investigation has found that Faisal Siddique Khan, front man of Gilani, accompanying Muhammad Firdous (an accused in TDAP case) had visited the PM House during the tenure of Gilani as prime minister and met him and in the same meeting Khan presented Rs 5 million to Gilani that were received by Muhammad Zubair, deputy secretary PM House. The FIA has come to know that the amount was given in order to direct Mohibullah Shah, then chief executive TDAP, to approve the general freight subsidy claims according to the desire of Faisal Siddique Khan.
The FIA investigations show that after the abovementioned meeting, Faisal Siddique Khan met Syed Mohibullah Shah in his Karachi TDAP office with reference to the PM House. In this regard, Muhammad Zubair passed on the instructions on behalf of PM to Shah. It was confirmed to the investigators that the telephonic and PA/PS to Syed Mohibullah Shah’s record confirms telephonic contact among Muhammad Zubair, Faisal Siddique Khan and Syed Mohibullah Shah in particular period and later on.
Investigations reveal that after the meeting between Syed Mohibullah Shah and Faisal Siddique Khan, funds of Rs 436 million were released from the ministry of commerce on then PM Gilani’s behest. This amount was subsequently disbursed to various firms/ companies either existing but not eligible or non-existent by the TDAP on the instruction/ desires of Faisal Siddique Khan. The 60 per cent to 70 per cent of this disbursed amount went into the hands of Faisal Siddique Khan through his other front men Mian Muhammad Tariq and Mehr Haroon Rashid Riasani and to another group acting as front men to then Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Faheem, says the probe report.
The investigators have unearthed that around Rs 5 billion were disbursed in similar way under the garb of 25 per cent freight subsidy and Rs 2 billion under the garb of other incentive schemes to firms/ companies either existing or not existent on the basis of fake/ forged documents. The major chunk of this disbursed amount was came in hands of Farhan Ahmed Junejo, the front man of then commerce minister, and PM Gilani’s front man Faisal Siddique Khan who used to hand over Gilani’s share to Muhammad Zubair, deputy secretary in PM House.
The FIA found out that accused Faisal Siddique Khan used to stay in luxurious suit numbers 903 and 909 in Marriott Hotel Karachi. The hotel record confirmed the telephonic contacts of Khan with PM House phone number 051-9222666 allotted in the name of Syed Ali Musa Gilani, son of former prime minister.
The probe says that a dispute regarding ill-gotten money had arisen between then PM and Faisal Siddique Khan and in his place Ghulam Abbas s/o Malik Muhammad Ramzan, a local businessman as well as resident of Multan, was nominated to look after then PM’s interest i.e. shares out of plundering amount from TDAP funds. Ghulam Abaas is also fraudulent recipient of around Rs 140 million from TDAP against fake/ factious/ bogus claims.
The FIA probe says that telephonic record of TDAP also confirms the contact of Ghulam Abbas with then chief executive TDAP and similar as of Khan.
Gilani being prime minister had appointed Syed Mohibullah Shah, a retired bureaucrat, as chief executive of TDAP in 2008 for three years tenure under TDAP Ordinance 2006. Gilani is facing the question that Syed Mohibullah Shah was appointed for three years but his tenure was suddenly and through illegal manners cut short without any apparent explanation and he was replaced with Tariq Iqbal Puri in order to get more illegal pecuniary gain by him.
According to the official record, Puri joined as chief executive TDAP in October 2010 and after immediate joining he released more than Rs 2 billion to firms/ companies existing or non-existent on the basis if fake/ fictions documents. The share of PM House was initially received by Khan and then Ghulam Abbas, the investigations say.
The FIA probe concludes that in similar ways as of Syed Mohibullah Shah, Gilani terminated the contract of Puri on July 5, 2012 apparently on dispute of subsequent hesitation shown by Puri in plundering the government funds. In his place, Abid Javed Akbar was appointed as chief executive TDAP, who openly plundered the funds, the probe said.