Banks allegedly defrauded by Khurram Rasool, former adviser to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, plan to move the Supreme Court against the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for its failure to act against the influential accused.
According to sources, a couple of national and international banks had approached the FIA in November last year for initiating a probe against Khurram, who had obtained loan from a local bank against the properties he had already mortgaged with a foreign bank for a loan he had defaulted on.
The FIA was informed that the ex-adviser to the PM had defaulted on a Rs 10 million loan extended to his self-owned concern against mortgage of his two valuable properties in Rawalpindi. After Khurram had defaulted on the loan, the bank obtained a decree for recovery of its outstanding amount. During the recovery process it was revealed that the mortgaged properties were already pledged to a foreign bank to obtain a loan. The mortgaged properties include two petrol pumps built on a piece of land measuring 11 kanals in total and situated, respectively, on GT Road and Iqbal Town of Rawalpindi. The local bank had approached the FIA last year, on November 21, by filing a complaint against Khurram, praying that the accused be taken to task in accordance with law of the land. However, the sources claimed that FIA’s investigators working on the case were “hesitant” to take Khurram to the book, forcing the affected banks to go in litigation against higher ups in the agency.
“The investigating officer has (allegedly) not taken any action against the accused to date despite repeated requests from the banks and no case has so far been registered against the accused,” the sources said. They said the banks had prepared a petition through which the apex court would be prayed to direct the FIA director general to register a case against Khurram for committing fraud with the banks. The banks would also pray that the former adviser to the PM with a “prior design, ulterior motives and criminal intent” had mortgaged the properties with the local bank with an intention of committing fraud. “The fact of the property being mortgaged with the foreign bank was intentionally not disclosed to the local bank,” says the banks’ petition.
