ISLAMABAD The Bank of Punjab (BoP) case on Wednesday engulfed many other influential culprits, who allegedly bribed million of rupees in the fraud of Rs 9 billion and may push the aforesaid bank towards bankruptcy, observed the progress report of National Accountability (NAB). The NAB presented this report before a three-member bench of the Supreme Court. The bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, heard the case of BoP versus Haris Steel Mills Ltd here. NAB had asked Haroon Aziz, Aziz-ul-Hameed and Mohammad Shoaib Qureshi (former General Managers of BoP) to join the investigation to clarify their position in respect of the allegations levelled against them by Sheikh Mohammad Afzal, major accused in the whole scam. Accused Azizul Hameed and Shoaib Qureshi joined the investigation and expressed their willingness to settle their liability. However, Haroon Aziz did not join the investigation despite his verbal commitment given to NAB investigation officer, the report said. Seth Nisar Ahmad and Fahad Nisar did not join the investigation, however, they appeared before the FIA team on December 1, and submitted a written affidavit that they were ready to pay off Rs 400 million obtained from accused Sheikh Afzal in May 2007. Besides, Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoob, Saleem Yaqoob and Waseem Yaqoob appeared before the NAB investigation team without any prior intimation and categorically denied to provide details of their assets as required by the investigation officer, the report explained. It was also noted that the aforesaid parties admitted before the investigation team that an amount of Rs 3.56 billion was transferred from Sheikh Afzal to Sheikh Yaqoob in UAE. During the coarse of proceedings, Wasim Sajjad, counsel for Seth Nisar, handed over the copies of pay order of Rs 200 million and said the remaining Rs 200 million will be paid by December 11 to the applicants, he informed the court. The Chief Justice ordered FIA to put the name of Seth Nisar on Exit Control List and keep his passport in its custody until the apex court gives a final decision regarding the case. The Chief Justice asked NAB to arrest Seth Yaqoob if he does not pay the amount of Rs 1.20 billion. The accused should join the NAB investigation so that the process is finalised, he explained. However, Yaqoobs lawyer A.K. Dogar informed the court that his client was ready to pay the principal amount to BoP. Meanwhile, the court adjourned the hearing till December 11. Earlier, PPP Minister Dr Babar Awan, former Attorney General Malik Qayyum, Ali Waseem, Commissioner Islamabad Fazeel Asghar, Sharif-ud-Din Pirzada and Mohsin Naqvi of CNN were accused of taking millions of rupees bribe to help acquit the owner of Haris Steel Mills from the Supreme Court. The NAB would summon the major characters, which involved in the whole scam soon. Original affidavit of NAB said that the above mentioned characters accepted the money soon after the Rs 9 billion Bank of Punjab (BoP) scam when Sheikh Afzal with his family stayed in Malaysia as absconders. It may be recalled that the main accused of the scam, Muhammad Afzal and Haris Afzal, expressed their willingness to voluntarily return the assets purchased with the funds fraudulently withdrawn from the BoP. They were facilitated to fetch the required documents of immoveable and moveable properties particularly acquired in UAE and Malaysia. Instead of collecting the record through formal channels, the officer used informal channel by contacting ex-account manager Sh Afzal and Haris Afzal in UAE through email and telephone.