Multan Metro Bus ‘scandal’: Who is Faisal Subhan, a real person or fictional character?

ISLAMABAD: Is Faisal Subhan really a front man of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif? The News carried out probe to connect the dots of this unsolved puzzle surrounding this mysterious character of a fictional company who is linked with ‘Mega Corruption’ scandal of Multan Metro Bus Project.

The News carried out probe to dig out the real facts about Capital Construction and Engineering Company and its Chairman Faisal Subhan — the main character of Multan Metro Bus Project saga.

During the probe, it is found that the Chinese company Yabiate in an indecent haste showed a Pakistani company Capital Engineering as its partner in the Multan Metro Bus project to the Beijing authorities much before it had even applied for registration in Islamabad.

The most recent revelations made by PTI Chairman Imran Khan that the Chinese officials of CSRC visited Pakistan and interviewed Faisal Subhan. To support his claim he posted official correspondence between SECP and CSRC on Twitter. However, the document he posted on Twitter actually negates his claim about CSRC interviewing Faisal Subhan.

His own tweeted document says, it was Yabaite’s own finical consultant not the CSRC officials who interviewed Faisal Subhan. It is pertinent to mention here that Faisal Subhan — a character who supposed to be a Pakistani national and owns a multimillion dollars company must have a CNIC which should have been attached with the statement. But this statement carries only the name of a person and no other identification or a contact information. This raises doubts about authenticity of such statement and existence of any such person.

The CSRC document posted by Imran Khan says, “From 3 to 5 February and 28 September to 1 October in 2016, Kun Qian from Gold State Securities and Le Zhou from Shenwan Hongyuan Securities, both Yabiate’s financial consultant, Xueyang Yu from Zhonghua Certified Public Accountants LLP and Jingling CAO from Beijing JunZeJun Law offices carried out an examination of the signing of contract, the construction process, the check and acceptance process and payments of the contract. They also interviewed Faisal Saubhan, director of Capital Construction and Engineering Company, Malik Ahmed, Project Manager, Zahid Butt, General Manager of Sahi and Khurram Shehzad who is in charge of AL, in JW Marriot Hotel, Islamabad”.

Document available with The News also confirms that CSRC officials never inquired any Pakistani individual or visited Pakistan for this purpose.

The second most important fact which implicates Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Multan Metro Bus is the statement of Faisal Subhan — a copy of which is available with The News. Like other fake and forged documents presented by Chinese company, Yabaite, this statement is also a fake document which has been presented by Yabaite to CSRC. The 16-page statement of Faisal Subhan is on blank paper in question answer form along with an unreadable blurred and dark visiting card.

The facts in Faisal Subhan’s statement are also incorrect as according to Subhan, “Our company and the local companies in Pakistan do not have the comprehensive ability to design, construct and manage such projects”.

According to Subhan’s statement Pakistani companies do not have the capability to construct projects like Multan Metro Bus. The fact is that Multan Metro Bus project is the third project of its kind. The question here arises then who completed the first two Metro projects (Lahore and Rawalpindi-Islamabad) if Pakistani companies do not have the capability of constructing such projects.

While responding to the questions of Yabaite’s financial consultant about timeline of the project, Subhan says, “The construction period of Multan Metro Bus Project is from May 2015 to December 2015. The work of Yabaite has been completed. Owing to the incomplete viaduct connection by other subcontractors the platforms constructed by it cannot be put into use”.

Interestingly, the Multan Metro Bus project started on May 24, 2015 and the project was inaugurated in 2017. The question here arises how Yabaite and Capital Engineering could construct the platforms of 16 Bus stations and other construction work within 6 months since the commencement of the project.

Interestingly, the Chinese company’s financial consultants were also worried about the political instability in Pakistan even in September 2016. This is the time when the opposition parties were making hue and cry over Panama Papers. However the overall political situation was not worst at that time. It is pertinent to mention here that the political crisis emerged after the Supreme Court’s verdict on Panama Papers case in April 2017.

It is pertinent to mention that all the other fake and forged letters including Punjab chief minister and two Senators’ letters were prepared in May 2017. This reflects Faisal Subhan’s statement was also prepared at the same time when the political situation was not exemplary in the country.

Another most important fact which needs to be checked is whether Capital Engineering and Construction Company really exists.

In September 2017, The News carried out probe and proved that the Yabaite’s owners and its Pakistani partners made a huge blunder. They submitted the documents of a fictitious company to CSRC but forgot to get it registered in Pakistan. They applied for Capital Engineering and Construction Company in Pakistan much later and failed in their attempt.

The central character who first tried to get the company Capital Engineering and Construction registered with the SECP on instructions of Sheikh Ijaz is one Abid Mehmood, who is a 'consultant' for such registrations. After the SECP raised objections to the name of the company and Abid informed Yabaite’s Pakistani partner about the same, it was a big shocking news for the Yabaite’s owners as documents with the name of "Capital Engineering" were already submitted to Chinese regulator. Later, the name was changed from the Capital Engineering and Construction Company to "CAPFA Construction and Engineering (SMC-PVT) Limited" and the company was successfully registered with this new name.

When The News asked Abid about this development, he admitted applying for the registration of Capital Engineering on the instructions of Ijaz Sheikh somewhere in September, 2016. However, when The News asked him about registering CAPFA, he categorically denied getting CAPFA registered and maintained that he separated himself after the SECP refused to register the company with the name Capital Engineering and his differences with Sheikh Ijaz. But the SECP record proves that even CAPFA is also registered by Abid and even his contact details are given in the SECP records.

Earlier on September 9, 2017, The News succeeded to locate Yabaite’s Pakistani partner Sheikh Ejaz Asghar who lives in Rawalpindi. Ejaz is the co-director of Yabaite Pakistan — the sister company of Yabaite Technology Pvt Ltd. The News had contacted him on September 05, 2017 to know the reality and he promised to give an interview to The News team next day. However, the same day he was arrested by the Punjab Police.

Now the puzzle created by the Chinese Company, Yabiate Technology Pvt Ltd about its Pakistani partner Capital Engineering & Construction Co Pvt Ltd and Faisal Subhan has been solved but one question is still unanswered who the mastermind is of all this plot and making of fake documents.

To justify its unusual transactions of money from some foreign countries, the Yabiate claimed to earn a huge sum of amount from Multan Metro Bus Project through its Pakistani partner company and gave that company a pseudo name -- Capital Engineering & Construction Co Pvt Ltd. Interestingly, first the Chinese submitted the fake documents of this fake company to CSRC whereas registration of the said company with the SECP was an afterthought. After submitting some fake documents of Capital Engineering and Construction Company to CSRC, Yabiate's owners along with their partners in Pakistan hired a consultancy firm in Pakistan to get it registered in Pakistan but failed due to SECP objections to the name of the company.