LAHORE: Disgruntled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen on Monday said Prime Minister Imran Khan had assured his posse of justice in cases against him during a meeting last week.
He was speaking to reporters outside a banking court in Lahore where he and his son Ali Tareen appeared in connection with cases of corporate fraud and money laundering registered against them by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in March.
Following the proceedings, the court extended until May 19 the interim bails it had earlier granted to the two.
“As far as the meeting of our group with the prime minister [is concerned], it went very well. They talked openly and expressed their reservations [against the inquiry] to him. And the prime minister assured that he would himself look into [the cases].”
“I’ve never run away from this investigations,” declared Tareen as he observed that the probe in the sugar scam had been proceeding for a year and he had provided hundreds of thousands of documents to the court and relevant authorities.
He also said that officials of his company, JDW-Group, had appeared “75 to 100 times in court” and “hopefully a solution will be found to this but remember we never said to finish cases.”
He said Senator Ali Zafar — who is tasked by Imran with overseeing the sugar scam probe — had started doing his investigation and praised him as a “wise and experienced lawyer” who knew corporate affairs.
The cases against Tareen and his family were registered under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating of public shareholders), and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), read with sections 3 and 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.
Today, Tareen reiterated that the cases were not of criminal nature and the FIA had no role in it since it was based on corporate issues and there was no element of use of public funds, secret accounts, or money laundering.
“So we hope from Ali Zafar that he will present a report to the prime minister after taking a good look.”
Tareen said he had appeared in court whenever there was a hearing and wanted the court to work and “act in a transparent manner”.
Tareen had returned to Pakistan in November after ending his seven-month-long self-imposed exile after falling out with Prime Minister Imran following an inquiry into the last year’s sugar scandal that accused several sugar producers — including him — of “underreported sales and fraud”.
At the time, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar had declared sugar-producing units under JDW-Group were found guilty of “double billing” and “over-invoicing” as well as “corporate fraud”.
Tareen had rejected the findings of the Sugar Inquiry Commission. “I am shocked at the kind of false allegations levelled against me. I have always run a clean business. All Pakistan knows I always pay full price to my growers,” he had said in a tweet.
“I DO NOT maintain 2 sets of Books. I pay all my taxes diligently. I will answer every allegation and be vindicated IA.
I have already submitted a detailed reply along with concrete evidence in response to FIA notice. Unfortunate to see them go on another smear campaign against me & my family without establishing anything illegal.”
