LAHORE: A Judicial Magistrate here on Saturday remanded Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) founding member Hamid Zaman in the Federal Investigation Agency’s custody for two days in the PTI prohibited funding case.
The FIA produced Hamid Zaman, the general secretary of Insaf Trust, in the court of Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk. During the hearing, the FIA submitted a plea seeking a 14-day physical remand of the PTI leader. “The remand is required to complete the investigation,” FIA prosecutor Munim Bashir Chaudhry said.
However, Khwaja Haris, counsel for Zaman, told the court that his client had never received any notice of inquiry and requested the court to reject FIA’s request. “I have all the record documents here. Why is FIA even asking for remand,” he asked.
The agency said that it is investigating Zaman for his involvement in the foreign funding case. The PTI received funds from foreign sources in its bank accounts.
He was taken into custody by the FIA on Friday from his office located on Waris Road in Lahore for his alleged involvement in the PTI prohibited funding case. Zaman and other PTI leaders — including Saifullah Nyazee and Tariq Shafi — were arrested on Friday.
According to a first information report (FIR) registered against him, both Zaman and Shafi have been accused of being accomplices of Abraaj founder Arif Masood Naqvi.
The FIR alleged that Naqvi had “siphoned off Rs9.1bn from funds of Abraaj Group and its subsidiary companies abroad and funneled to Aman Foundation’s accounts through Foreign Telegraphic Transfers (FTTs) with unexplained money trail.”
It said that Zaman was the general secretary of the Insaf Trust, which the complaint stated was a “bogus trust to give the impression that same is part of PTI”.
He was also one of the characters named in the Election Commission of Pakistan’s verdict in the PTI’s prohibited funding case and was summoned by the FIA several times following the launch of an FIA probe in the basis of the decision, which stated that the party had, in fact, received prohibited funding from 351 foreign companies and 34 foreign nationals.
In August, a three-member bench of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declared that the PTI received funding from prohibited sources including foreign nationals and companies in sheer violation of the Constitution and laws. The electoral body named at least 35 non-Pakistani nationals — many with Indian origin names — and over 350 companies that provided funds to the PTI by 2014.
Following the verdict by the ECP, the FIA launched a probe into the prohibited funding case and formed five inquiry teams.
The teams will carry out investigations in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Islamabad, and Quetta.
FIA officials say the investigators will seek records from the State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and other financial institutions.
The five teams will be supervised by a main team at the FIA headquarters.
