ISLAMABAD - Amidst extreme public pressure for the recovery of over Rs 21.6 billion of the poor, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is set to contact interior ministry for the issuance of red warrants of absconders of multibillion rupees mega Mudaraba scam and bring back the big fish who are staying in eight different countries, The Nation learnt on Tuesday.
Sources privy to the development informed that the NAB has done the file work and will approach the ministry of interior soon to proceed further for the issuance of the red warrants of more than 50 absconders of Mudaraba scam including Mufti Osama.
Sources told that the main accused Mufti Ehsan and Mufti Ibrar are under arrest while many of the directors of the fraud companies, including Mufti Osama, Habib-ur-Rehman, Abdul Malik Bajouri, Muhammad Shahid Aziz, Abdul Rehman Khan and many more, have been escaped.
The NAB has already approached the eight countries including Thailand, China, Bangkok, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia to arrest several accused allegedly involved in multibillion rupee Mudaraba and Musharaka scams. The NAB has written to these eight countries under Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) to arrest the accused.
They sources said that NAB is investigating several dozen cases pertaining to cheating public at large through fake Mudaraba and Musharaka schemes launched by so-called religious scholars. The victims were promised 5 to 10 per cent monthly profit for their investment in these fake schemes. However only after few months the payment was stopped and the victims approached the NAB for recovery of their looted money.
The Rawalpindi region of NAB alone is investigating 93 cases of Mudaraba and so far 40,139 affected persons have submitted their complaints with the region claiming a total of Rs 21.675 billion. According to the sources, the total money looted is over Rs 82 billion. The NAB has so far recovered Rs 1.691 billion in this mega scam including cash and property. The bank accounts of all the accused persons have also been seized, the sources added.
The NAB has filed two references in this scam. Six cases out of 93 are at investigation stage, 17 are at inquiry stage and three are at complaint verification (CV) state, while a huge number of new complaints are also being assessed.
When contacted, NAB spokesman Hafiz Muhammad Irfan confirmed the development. He said, “Many accused of Mudaraba scam are at large and the persons who will be declared proclaimed offenders will be brought back at any cost and NAB is prepared and will contact interior ministry to proceed further for the issuance of the red warrants. NAB has also requested several countries for MLA under section 21 of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 to trace assets acquired by the accused persons involved in Mudaraba scam and the NAB is making all-out efforts to arrest all the accused.”
He said Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has passed strict instructions to the regional bureaus to immediately arrest all the remaining accused involved in Mudaraba scam, recover the looted money and return to the poor affectees who have pinned their hopes on NAB.
The NAB has so far arrested 14 accused in different Mudaraba scams including Mufti Ehsan-ul-Haq, Mufti Ibrar-ul-Haq, Hafiz Muhammad Nawaz, Moeen Aslam, Obaidullah, Mufti Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Sajjad Ahmed, Asif Javeed, Ghulam Rasool Ayubi, Muhammad Hussain Ahmed, Hamid Nawaz, Muhammad Irfan, Bilal Khan Bangash and Matti-ur-Rehman.