Ex-BOP chief Hamesh Khan gets bail after 1,950 days

LAHORE: Arrested in Washington DC by the US Department of Justice on December 11, 2009, former Bank of Punjab President Hamesh Khan was finally granted bail on Tuesday by a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, which thereby means that the key Pakistani banker involved a multi-billion rupee financial scam has been released after five years, four months and two days or about 1,950 days to be more precise.
Likely to speak against a few leading national politicians and tycoons in coming days, Hamesh was formally indicted by Accountability Court in Lahore on April 12, 2012 or exactly three years before his bail application was accepted by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Hamesh was asked to furnish surety bonds worth Rs10 million to ensure his release.In May 2010, Pakistan had formally requested the US for extradition of Hamesh Khan, who had managed to flee the country on March 27, 2008 despite the fact that his name had been placed on the Exit Control List.
Newspapers and electronic media outlets were abuzz with rumours during early May 2010 that during her visit to Pakistan, the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had agreed to hand over Hamesh Khan to the Pakistani authorities.
Before Hamesh’s extradition to Pakistan, a team comprising Federal Investigation Agency and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials had gone to Washington DC on October 12, 2009 for talks with senior members of the US justice department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
But it was the three-member Supreme Court bench comprising the then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Ghulam Rabbani that had shook everybody by ordering the Federal Investigation Agency to expedite the process and complete an inquiry against the people who had also facilitated the escape of Sheikh Afzal, owner of Haris Steel Mills.
The then chief justice of Pakistan had observed that no one would be allowed

to plunder the national exchequer and flee the country, adding that all such persons would be brought to justice.
Appearing on notice, the then FIA Director (Legal) Azam Khan had informed the Supreme Court that Hamesh would soon be extradited from the US. The FIA official had stated before the Apex Court that Hamesh had been arrested in the US and the Pakistan Foreign Office had provided evidence against him to the US Law Department for his extradition to Pakistan.
On May 14, 2010, the United States had handed over Hamesh Khan to the two-member National Accountability Bureau team comprising Deputy Prosecutor General Raja Aamir Abbas and Deputy Director Punjab Rizwan Khan.
Hamesh was thus brought to Lahore on May 15, 2010 by two National Accountability Bureau officials through a commercial PIA flight PK-724 and was immediately lodged at Chamba House Lahore. He was escorted out of the Lahore Airport via the Hajj Lounge (Old airport).
A peek into the archives reveals that the government of Shahbaz Sharif had been accusing movers and shakers of the previous government for their alleged involvement in Punjab Bank scam.
Sardar Zulfikar Khosa, the then advisor to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had earlier stated that the federal government should place their name on exit control list.
Earlier on March 16, 2010, a US court had ordered the country’s State Department to extradite Hamesh Khan, who was alleged to have issued about Rs9 billion to Messrs Haris Steel Mills without adequate documentation and insufficient collateral.
This was the time when the Bank of Punjab had ended up needing a bailout of Rs10 billion from the Punjab government, its largest shareholder.
The largest shareholders of Haris Steel Mills, Sheikh Afzal and his son Haris Afzal, were extradited from Malaysia on November 16, 2010 to face charges of defrauding the bank.
On May 26, 2010, Hamesh Khan was produced before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
It is also imperative to note that on October 16, 2010, the judicial remand of Hamesh Khan was extended till October 22 by an accountability court. In December 2010, an accountability court had extended the judicial remand of Hamesh, Haris Steel Mills Director Sheikh Muhammad Afzal and Seth Nisar till December 22 of the same year.
Earlier, on an application filed by Hamesh Khan, the court had directed NAB authorities to make arrangement for medical checkup of the accused in Services and Dental Hospital.
In March 2011, the management of the Punjab Bank said it was cooperating with investigators after having pointed out the list of 733 loans worth over Rs52 billion had been dished out in violation of banking regulations on documentation and collateral.
The bank’s President, Naeemuddin Khan, was reported by local media as saying that that the bank was suing those 733 borrowers and had cases pending against all of them.
Naeem Khan had further claimed that the management had succeeded in restructuring nearly 87 per cent of those loans, including an amount of Rs18 billion, which the institution had already received in payments towards those debts.
Meanwhile, officials at the NAB had maintained that an amount of Rs7 billion has been recovered from Haris Steel Mills and its principal shareholders, Sheikh Afzal and his family.
On March 29, 2011, on the direction of NAB, the standing crop of wheat on 51 acres of land owned by Hamesh Khan was auctioned at the Pindi Bhattian tehsil office.
This land was situated in villages of Harsa Atlay and Kot Meeran in Punjab. In March 2011, the FIA police also arrested Karam Dad Bhatti, a close friend of Hamesh Khan, for an alleged embezzlement of Rs50 million.
According to details, the police had apprehended Karam Dad Bhatti in a fraud case of Rs50 million on the complaint of Bank of Punjab Hafizabad Manager Rana Muhammad Saleem.
The manager had also nominated him in another fraud case of Rs39.7 million.
On May 24, 2011, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Lahore High Court Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry had dismissed bail petitions by Hamesh Khan and Sheikh Afzal of Haris Steel Mills.
After hearing lengthy arguments from both sides, the court had observed that the accused had been absconders and did not deserve the concession of bail.
Hamesh Khan’s lawyer, Mahmood Sheikh, had argued that his client had no role in the scam as he was on leave when all the allegedly illegal loans were sanctioned, pleading further that when he (Hamesh) had found out about the fraud, he had immediately referred the matter to the NAB and had suspended seven bank officers, including the general manager.
Hamesh’s solicitor Mahmood Sheikh had asserted that his client had obtained interim bail from the High Court but the NAB authorities had continued to raid his residence.
The lawyer had added that it was due to NAB’s hostility that Hamesh Khan had to flee abroad, maintaining that the former Bank of Punjab Chief had himself written to the Supreme Court that he wanted to return.
Advocate Maqsooma Zahra Bokhari, counsel for the Punjab Bank, had argued that Hamesh Khan was the leader of the gang involved in the sanctioning of illegal loans, contending the accused were not trustworthy and may again flee abroad if the court released them on bail.
The NAB deputy prosecutor Mian Bashir had also opposed the bail petitions. The Lahore High Court Chief Justice had observed that the court was aware of the fact that it took months for the Supreme Court to get the accused arrested by issuing red warrants.
Meanwhile, a panel of advocates including Ahmad Awais, Waqar Hassan Mir and Asad Manzoor Butt had defended Sheikh Afzal in Lahore High Court. In July 2011, an accountability court had sought reply from NAB authorities on an application filed by Hamesh Khan, who was seeking a comprehensive medical check-up from senior doctors.
It is worth mentioning that this scam had hit the headlines in local media outlets after the National Accountability Bureau Punjab had filed a reference on September 27, 2007 against 12 people, including six officials of Bank of Punjab and six others accused of defrauding the financial institution.
In this reference, the NAB had accused Hamesh Khan of misusing his powers while sanctioning the credit facility under review.
Meanwhile, Seth Nisar of Haris Steel Mills had been accused of committing willful default of Rs930 million he had borrowed from the Bank of Punjab.
The investigation in the BoP scam had focused around Hamesh Khan, Shaikh Muhammad Afzal and Seth Nisar (directors of Messrs Haris Steel), Muhammad Munir, Ali Ijaz, Abid Raza, Irfan Ali, Haroon Aziz, Azizul Hameed, Shoaib Qureshi, Adil Khan, Nauman Arif and Ziaul Haq etc.
All these above-mentioned people were questioned in connection with their fake and forged national identity cards being used for opening 23 fictitious accounts in the Bank of Punjab and had obtained loans of approximately Rs9 billion from 2005 to 2007 with the help of fake documentation, bogus collaterals, fictitious guarantees and mortgage deals.