ISLAMABAD: Senior Commerce Minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, on Thursday acknowledged that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had quizzed him thrice with relation to National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) real estate scam. In an exclusive talk with Business Recorder, Fahim claimed that he did nothing wrong with respect to the NICL scam. "The FIA has asked questions regarding NICL three times from me so far. FIA Director also visited me to seek information and I satisfied them," he added.
In response to an observation that the FIA is now more active in NICL's billions of rupees real estate scam than before, Makhdoom Fahim said that whenever observations came from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, "they (FIA) showed efficiency." Answering another question, Fahim said that it was a private deal between the NICL and his manager which had been scrapped. According to the FIA, an amount of Rs 419 million had been transferred to the accounts of Fahim, one of his wives and his son.
The FIA has requested the Commerce Ministry that a detailed enquiry should be conducted and the report is provided to their office for further necessary legal action in accordance with the law and in the light of the orders/observations of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Recently, the FIA sent a questionnaire to the Commerce Ministry with the objective of carrying out a detailed probe into the appointment of ex-Chairman NICL, Ayaz Khan Niazi.
The questionnaire is follows: (i) whether any advertisement for such appointment was published in print/ electronic media; (ii)whether any application of Ayaz Khan Niazi is on record; (iii)whether he qualified the fit and proper criteria for such appointment; (iv) whether the laid down rules / procedure in accordance with Insurance Ordinance 2000 (Section 12) were adhered to; in the absence of any advertisement, from where the name of Ayaz Khan Niazi figured and was placed in the summary initiated by the Section Officer concerned; and (v) how was the name of Ayaz Khan Niazi earlier placed at S. No 3 in the summary initiated by the Section Officer and was subsequently placed at S.No 1 in the summary moved for the approval of the Prime Minister and whether there is any nexus of this appointment with any senior officer or Commerce Minister.
When Makhdoom Amin Fahim was apprised that National Assembly's Standing Committee on Commerce, headed by Khurram Dastgir, grilled the Commerce Ministry officials on allegedly protecting the Minister and former Secretary Commerce, Salman Ghani despite the fact that both were reportedly involved in NICL scam, he replied that political point-scoring was going on in the Standing Committee and in politics as well.
He argued that his political opponents were making all-out efforts to disgrace him, adding that "let them do what they can". On June 22, Moazam Jah, Director FIA, Sindh, in his report, recognised that Niazi's appointment was made in contravention of the Insurance Ordinance. He also explained how money was allegedly transferred to Fahim and his family members' bank accounts.
Answering another question, Fahim revealed that the Commerce Ministry had requested Prime Minister to appoint Chairman NICL on the permanent basis as presently "Chief Executive TDAP is looking after the affairs on NICL on temporary basis." In response to another question, Fahim said he had requested Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to appoint an officer as Secretary Commerce who had sufficient knowledge of trade matters.
According to sources, Kamran Qureshi, who is officer of 22 grade DMG and presently working as Additional Secretary and Hamayat Ullah Khan, an officer of grade 22 and working as Senior Joint Secretary in Economic Affairs Division (EAD), are the two top aspirants for the Secretary Commerce's post.
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