Former SECP Chairman, Zafar Hijazi indicted in record tampering case

Former Chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Zafar Hijazi was indicted on Friday on charges of altering records related to Chaudhry Sugar Mills and pressuring departmental officers to tamper documents.

During the hearing in the local court of special judge Iram Niazi, Hijazi pleaded not guilty.

The former SECP chairman said that a case cannot be registered against him as he tempered neither pressurized any departmental officer to do it.

Meanwhile, the prosecutors maintained that they have solid pieces of evidence against Hijazi and they will prove it in the court of law.

An FIA inquiry team had found Hijazi guilty of tampering the records of companies owned by the Sharif family. The team had submitted a 28-page inquiry report to the Supreme Court on July 9, in which it had endorsed the stance of the JIT probing the offshore assets of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in connection with the Panama gate case.

A lower court on July 17 had granted a five-day pre-arrest bail to Hijazi against two surety bonds worth Rs250,000 each after Hijazi filed for a pre-arrest bail as per Section 498 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Pakistan, citing medical grounds as the basis for the request.