LAHORE – Former National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi was handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Karachi on a three-day transit remand on Thursday by Duty Magistrate Ahtisham Sadiq.
The FIA Karachi two-member team consisting of Deputy Director Corporate Crime Circle (CCC) Altaf Hussain and Inspector CCC Muhammad Anwar reached Lahore and requested Niazi’s transit remand from Sadiq.
The FIA Karachi team said that Niazi was wanted in FIR Number 14/2010 registered in FIA Corporate Crime Circle Karachi Police Station relating to purchasing commercial land in Dubai International Financial Centre for Rs 1 billion and the accused be handed over on transit remand for being shifted to Sindh from Punjab for completing interrogation of the case, which the magistrate granted.
During a press conference at his office, FIA Punjab Director Zafar Ahmed Qureshi said that the FIA had managed to break Niazi’s silence during interrogations but the accused would tell details in the Supreme Court only. He said that the FIA had recovered Rs 1.6 billon in NICL scam and would receive Rs 80 million more by December 31.
Qureshi said that the FIA was also trying to bring accused Mohsin Warraich back to Pakistan and wife and two daughters of former defence state minister Major (r) Habibullah Warraich had already assured the FIA to return all money of the NICL scam.
On Thursday, Transparency International (TI) Pakistan Chairman Syed Adil Gilani’s counsel appeared before the FIA Punjab director on behalf of his client and assured that Gilani would fully corporate with investigations of the NICL scam. Qureshi forwarded another questionnaire to Gilani, as previous questions had raised more queries and ambiguities about the NICL scam.
The FIA Punjab director said that he and members of investigation teams had examined Gilani’s answers thoroughly and found some ambiguities owing to which a second questionnaire was sent to Gilani.
