ISLAMABAD: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has taken cognizance of matters that are neither criminal nor within its jurisdiction.

This was stated by Jahangir Khan Tareen while talking to Business Recorder.

“If there was any shortcoming or wrongdoing on the part of JDW [sugar mill owned by him] then it is a matter for SECP [Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan] to examine - there is no element of criminality or money-laundering but FIA wrongly mentioned these provisions to claim jurisdiction,” Tareen added.

All transactions were with requisite corporate approvals and publicly disclosed to shareholders, stock exchange and SECP and no complaint was ever made by any shareholder nor has SECP has initiated any criminal proceedings against JDW, Tareen further contended.

“I demand the constitution of an unbiased inquiry committee in my case. Sugar Inquiry Commission (SIC) was constituted to uncover reasons for increase in sugar prices and wrongdoing in sugar sector in 2019/20 - when they could not find anything incriminating against JDW the SIC hyped up two corporate transactions from 8-10 years ago which have nothing to do with sugar or sugar prices and presented them as criminal activities,” Tareen said.

“When PML-N was in power, Jehangir Tareen was public enemy no. 1 (being one of chief proponents of the Dharna and the Panama papers case) and I was being politically victimized and my entire business career/transactions were examined threadbare by PML-N using state resources. I was bombarded with bogus tax cases and petitions in ECP [Election Commission of Pakistan] and SC [Supreme Court], but even then no criminal proceedings were ever initiated by SECP or any other institution with respect to these two transactions which were publicly disclosed and well-known even at the time,” Tareen stated.

FIA, he added, has tried to mix company cash transactions with personal cash transactions on the basis that the same person made cash deposits or withdrawals.

“We have a cashier who is responsible for handling cash of all group companies and persons. All family accounts are fully documented and money trail available even for money sent abroad,” he continued.

A letter penned by federal and provincial PTI parliamentarians supportive of Tareen has been sent to the Prime Minister seeking “justice” for Tareen and his time to clarify the “truth” behind the ongoing investigation and those behind this move.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021