A banking court on Saturday extended the pre-arrest bail of PTI stalwart Jahangir Tareen and his son Ali Tareen in money laundering and financial fraud cases, including the sugar scam, till April 22.
Later Tareen, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader and party’s former secretary-general and once one of the closest confidantes of PM Imran, spoke to the media representatives in which the differences with the Prime Minister could be clearly seen.
Tareen’s controversial political career
As one of the richest politicians and businessmen in the country, Tareen’s political character was often controversial, even before in 2016 he was disqualified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Within the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Tareen survived several major onslaughts, such as PTI’s election commission report by retired Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed or the episode with Tasneem Noorani.
The party head Imran Khan backed him when the latter developed a severe political scuffle with Shah FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi to an extent that the latter accused him of playing a suspicious role in his trounce in the provincial election of 2018.
In short, Tareen’s 11-year-old journey in the PTI has been marked with one controversy after another. Within two years after joining the PTI in 2011, he was nominated by the party’s chief as the PTI’s secretary-general, replacing former CM Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khan Khattak.
Though, the 2016 apex court verdict shot down his dreams of being the chief minister Punjab or of becoming a federal minister after the PTI came to power.
However, Tareen continued to play a key role behind the scenes. He remained the main player in Bani Gala prior to the 2018 polls. Most seats in Punjab were allotted on his recommendations, and he also supported cobbling together a coalition government for the PTI in Punjab.
When in 2018, Imran became the prime minister, he knew how crucial Tareen’s role was and thus he reposed his confidence in him despite reservations of the key leaders at the party.
But in the last two years, PM Imran and Tareen’s relationship has hit a rough patch, due to the sugar crisis in the country, which put the govt in an embarrassing position, the prime minister was not fully convinced with Tareen’s version of the event that led to a sugar price hike, and thus ordered an inquiry.
Sugar crisis-FIA probe
In 2019, a sugar inquiry commission — formed on the instructions of the PM Imran to investigate the rise in the price of the commodity — had disclosed names of various bigwigs, including Jahangir Tareen, who had allegedly benefitted from the crisis.
Later, Tareen quietly departed for London in June despite being a prime suspect in the sugar scam and arrived in Lahore on 6 November 2020 after spending several months in the United Kingdom.
His departure had prompted a backlash from the nation and opposition. Several political parties had raised questions over Tareen being permitted to leave and had accused PM Imran of pursuing selective accountability in the country.
In the meantime, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA had sought a reply from Tareen and had summoned him for a probe. At first, he had turned down the summons. Later, he requested FIA for more time to reply to its queries, adding that he would appear before the agency once he returned.
The federal agency has sought details of Tareen’s assets in Pakistan and abroad, his bank transactions especially the transfer of money abroad, bank accounts of his family members and his employees and sugar-related transactions of his firm JDW.
On March 31, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had filed two FIRs against Jahangir Tareen and two other family members in the sugar scandal and money laundering charges.
FIA Lahore registered cases against Jahangir Tareen, his son Ali Tareen and his son-in-law in the sugar scam. The agency said over three billion rupees money laundering made by showing investment in a closed factory.
SBP freezes 35 bank accounts of Tareen
On April 9, 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.
According to State Bank, the accounts have been frozen at the request of the FIA. 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, the 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.
Will cases against Tareen get a logical conclusion?
No doubt, corrupt practices by the politician have deteriorated the performance of national institutions. They have looted the country over the last thirty years but their cases have yet not been decided.
Now it is time for state institutions to focus on ensuring logical conclusion of all mega corruption cases as it is essential for public welfare and the solution to problems.
Pakistan is a country with frail institutions, where political instability is the rule and bureaucratic and political corruption is pervasive. This leaves businesses and the economy with no option but to resort to unlawful practices in order to push things along and circumvent ineffective regulations and countless political, bureaucratic and judicial hurdles.
Tareen, who was the major planner of the ruling party, is now facing money laundering and fraud charges in the sugar scam. It’s no doubt that he played a crucial role in the formation of the central government.
Back then, no one could even envisage that Tareen would one day be considered a threat to the PTI but now PM Imran has made it clear that it was not possible that accountability is confined only to the political rivals.
In Pakistan the perspective that corruption is to blame for the country’s national economic woes, as well as other issues. It needs to be rooted out by taking steps without any discrimination against those involved in plundering the nation so the country tracked in the right direction.
