KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has frozen more than 35 bank accounts of former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Jahangir Tareen and his family on Friday.
According to State Bank, the accounts have been frozen at the request of the Federal Investigation Agency. As per SBP, of the seized accounts, 21 of them are owned by Jahangir Tareen’s son Ali Tareen, 14 accounts are owned by Jahangir Tareen whereas the one account is held by his wife.
Earlier today, the FIA summoned Jahangir Tareen and his son who appeared before its team for questioning in separate cases in the sugar scam. Tareen was summoned in two cases while Ali Tareen in a case over allegedly defrauding the shareholders.
The Sugar Inquiry Commission report held Omni Group, Murad Ali Shah, Moonis Elahi, Jahangir Tareen, Salman Shehbaz, and others responsible for their involvement in the sugar scam.
The report transpired that farmers faced losses at the hands of businessmen and middlemen. It stated that farmers were not given their due share while sugar was sold at higher rates.
The findings revealed that certain sugar mills used informal receipts. The mill owners also showed the price of production to be more than the support price which meant that farmers earned less, the report maintained.
Earlier, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had blocked over 100 fake and ‘benami’ bank accounts of 40 main figures of the sugar mafia in a massive crackdown in Punjab and Sindh.
According to sources, the FIA has launched an investigation against the sugar cartel over fraud of Rs110 billion. Sources famous sugar mill owners earned the money through Satta on the sugar.
The FIA has formed several teams to launch a massive crackdown against the sugar mafia. The agency has recovered evidence from seized 32 mobile phones and laptops.
According to sources, the sugar mafia increased the price of sugar through speculation (Satta Bazi) and creating an artificial shortage of sugar in the country.
Sources said that the speculation (Satta Bazi) is being supported by all major sugar groups of the country including Tareen and Sharif, Hamza, Thal and alliance groups.
The sugar mafia hiked the commodity’s ex-mill price from Rs 70 per kilogram to Rs 90 during the past year and earned over Rs 110 billion through Satta, the sources added.
In a letter to the FIA chapter in Karachi, the FIA Lahore had highlighted the role of the sugar Satta mafia in the illegally inflated price of sugar across the country. FIA Lahore has delivered details of 23 key persons involved in sugar Satta dealings in the port city to the FIA Karachi.
