LAHORE - FIA can take action against the witnesses and employees of Allied Bank Limited (ABL) who have backed-out of their witness against Moonis Elahi in NICL case, said a senior FIA officer seeking anonymity on Thursday. The FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) on Wednesday failed once again to submit complete challan against Moonis Elahi in National Insurance Company Ltd (NICL) land scandal before the Special Banking Offences Court, as eight employees of the Allied Bank Limited who were claimed as witnesses by the FIA against Moonis stated that they had not given any statement against PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi to the FIA. The banking court judge directed the FIA to provide all the copies of statements of the witnesses, under CrPC 161 and 164, to the counsel of Moonis. Hina Rabbani, Junaid and Shaukat, the three employees of ABL Yateem Khana Branch, Umar Farooq, Nadia Faisal and Liaquat Ali, the employees of ABL Airport Branch, and two others appeared before the magistrate Irfan Basra and requested the court to record their statements under section CrPC 164. Sources claimed that earlier the witnesses were considered as prosecution witnesses but after their backtracking they would be considered defence witnesses and action could be taken against them under section CrPC 211. Sources claimed that their statements on affidavit were still important. They claimed that as now the PML-Q was sharing power with PPP it might have influenced the ABL head to pressure the witnesses to back-out. Meanwhile, Muhammad Maalik, a manger of PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi, involved in NICL scam on Thursday withdrew his bail petition from the LHC saying that he plans to file it later. The counsel of Maalik appeared before the LHC division bench, headed by LHC CJ, requesting that he wanted to withdraw the petition under the instruction from his client. The court accepted the request and disposed of the petition as withdrawn. The FIA claims that Maalik misappropriated Rs 420 million and deposited it in the account of one Mohsin Warraich.