SC orders confiscation of owners property

ISLAMABAD- The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered to confiscate the assets of the owner of Haris Steel Mills and his family for not depositing Rs. 9 billion loans to the Bank of Punjab (BoP) here on Wednesday.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chauhdry issued this order while hearing the BoP financial scam case here.
The SC also ordered to link the Mill owners property to bank guarantee in exchange of bank loans besides ordering Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to speed up the process to arrest the other offenders.
The BoP had granted Rs. 9 billion loan to Haris Steel Mills, Lahore without fulfilling legal requirements. The BoP then filed a petition against the bank defaulters.
During the hearing the bench also ordered to arrest the former President of Punjab Bank Hamesh Khan involved in the case through international police, the Interpol.
During the hearing, the council for Sheikh Afzal and Haris Afzal, Waseem Sajjad Advocate informed the court that his clients had paid more than two million rupees to the said bank adding that they were further arranging money to pay debt to the BoP.
However, the bench observed that the accused were not only betraying the court but also creating difficulties for the law enforcement agencies.
It reiterated the confiscation of property of the accused so that it could be linked to bank guarantee in lieu of loans.
Chief Justice expressed annoyance over the non-serious attitude of Steel Mills owner. We will not allow anyone to grab public property, he remarked.
Do not compel us to take such actions which may lead the nation towards injustice and miseries, he further remarked.
Expressing serious displeasure over the attitude of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice Jawad S. Khawaja directed the NAB that it should dispose of the proceeding in a professional way for extradition of the accused.
He also said the FIA and other law enforcement agencies should speed up the efforts to bring the accused back to the country as soon as possible. The international police, Interpol should also approached for this purpose, he explained.
Meanwhile, Khawaja Haris, the council of Hamish Khan sought the permission of the court to sale the precious vehicles. The lawyer also informed the honourable court that the bank customers had purchased flats abroad with the money deposited from the BoP.
The bench adjourned the hearing by October 19 as the council of Haris Steel Mills continued his arguments before the bench on matter of interest rate.
It may be recalled the SC on 11th Sep issued warrant notices for arrest of Haris Steel Mills, Chief Executive Sheikh Munir on not depositing Rs 500 million in the Rs 9 billion BoP loan case.
It also ordered to arrest the owner of Hyder Steel Abid Raza and Naeem Siddiq, besides fourteen other accused in the case.
Earlier, the NAB requested the Interpol, under the directions of the SC, to issue red notices to main accused in BoP fraud case.
The BoP filed various petitions before the apex court against Haris Steel. The respondents were directed by the court on August 10, 2009 to join NAB investigation, however, none of the respondents appeared before the NAB despite serving of three notices.