Former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Zafar Hijazi. Photo: Geo News file 

 

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday reserved the decision on former Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman Zafar Hijazi's plea to quash the FIR filed against him in the record tampering case.

The Federal Investigation Authority's (FIA) special court had framed charges against Hijazi in October last year for allegedly tampering with the records of Chaudhry Sugar Mills which is owned by the family of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The FIA had submitted a forensics report, while Hijazi's lawyer had presented the written arguments before Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani. 

After hearing the arguments of Hijazi's legal counsel, Justice Kayani reserved the decision. 

Hijazi had petitioned Islamabad High Court against a special court?s dismissal of his acquittal plea in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills record-tampering case in December last year. 

In the petition, he had stated that the special court disregarded the evidence presented in the appeal and prayed the IHC to declare the former?s decision null and void.

The former SECP chairman was indicted last year, in November, at the Islamabad court, where the FIA maintained that the accused is involved in the tampering of mills record.

The case

An inquiry team of the FIA 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 joint investigation team probing the offshore assets of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in connection with the Panama Papers case.