ISLAMABAD: The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has revealed that his entity didn’t have the documents pertaining to Multan metro bus project which has been linked to a corruption and money-laundering scandal.
According to a report in a local newspaper the other day, SECP Acting Chairman Zafar Abdullah told the Senate’s Committee on Finance that the Yabaitescam came to the fore after the regulatory authority of China raised eyebrows over the suspicious inflows into their accounts.
He said that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) conducted a probe against Yabaite last year, as the company had claimed it had received the amount in lieu of work carried out in the Multan metro bus project in Pakistan.
He told the committee that a delegation of CSRC visited Pakistan in December last year and sought the SECP’s assistance in regard to authenticating the information provided by Yabaite.
In the meanwhile, correspondence then continued between SECP and CSRC, but on August 30, the FIA was officially handed over the case, after fake letters said to be written by Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and two senators were given by Yabaite to CSRC.
Senator SaleemMandviwala, chairman of the finance committee,asked Abdullah if the documents shared by CSRC proved the statement of the CEO of Capital Engineering that the entity was owned by Shehbaz Sharif.
SECP officials say that no trace had been found of Capital Engineering in their database and no records pertaining to the company were available and neither any address too. No CNIC or contact details were available added the officials.
The officials shared that a probe had been initiated in this regard by FIA and results were awaited from CSRC regarding its final enquiry report into this matter.
In a related development, senior journalistShaheenShehbaion Thursday tweeted to Deputy Mission Chief of Chinese Embassy Lijian Zhao querying as to why he had tweeted in defence of Shehbaz Sharif.
“Can you please explain why you twted in Defence of Shahbaz Sharif when China is investigating the Multan Metro Scam,” he tweeted.
Lijian responded to the tweet, saying, “If you could know Chinese language, you might have understood better. Yabaite is a scam. It was not in Multan Metro.”
In another tweet, Lijian said, “This is the official statement from Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Chinese side is clarifying the facts.”
