Former police officer says his documents carry nothing new

MANCHESTER: Former police officer, Inamur Rehman Sehri, who has claimed to have evidence against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Panamagate case, has said that his documents are already part of the Supreme Court and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) records and carry nothing new.

Speaking to The News here, the Manchester-based former FIA officer said that he had submitted the full case file in the Supreme Court under reference no CPLA699/2000. “Anyone can get a copy of that and another copy was submitted to Rahman Malik, alongside the final report. The original files were submitted to the relevant departments and courts on different occasions from 1994 to 1996.”

Inam Sehri has made headlines in media recently after making a number of claims including that the Mayfair Apartments were owned by the Sharif family in 1993 and FIA knew all about it. But Sehri says the alleged ownership was “in a documented form but the files were somehow misplaced”. He says he doesn’t have access to that file but says a newspaper had published a story on it.

The FIA former deputy director Sehri, one of the beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), was dismissed for alleged corruption allegations in 1997 and since 2001 he has been living in Manchester with his family.

Sehri is said to own assets beyond his known sources of income and a case was registered against him in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during former President General (R) Pervez Musharraf’s regime.

It was in 2007 that NAB sought the assistance of Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) to get in touch with Interpol and the Secretariat General of International Crime Police Organisation (ICPO) to bring back Sehri from abroad through a red warrant.

Sehri accepts that a red warrant for him was issued under Pervez Musharraf’s regime but says the Interpol took no action against him. Sehri said: "It was not only I who was dismissed, it was the whole bunch of officers who were investigating Sharif family in the early 90s and coincidentally all of them were dismissed on corruption charges".

When asked that the NAB started an inquiry against him under Musharraf and not Nawaz Sharif, Sehri said he was “victimised” by a fellow senior officer.

Sehri claimed that a senior FIA officer, who had worked at various posts within different departments, influenced investigations against him due to their differences. He claims that all charges against him were dismissed before he left Pakistan in 2001 and his name was cleared from the Exit Control List (ECL).

The former superintendent of police, who also served in Pakistan Railways Police and also worked as deputy director of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), said he was not part of any scheme and not looking for any benefits.

“I am not against anyone, I only want a democratic Pakistan that is the only reason I want to give these evidence to the JIT and all I need is security to get to the JIT. After presenting the evidence I won't ask for any more security. I am over 70 now and living a bonus life.”

Sehri said that he carried with him many files when leaving from Pakistan and all the documents he has are already with the relevant authorities and courts. “Anyone can get a copy of what I have and another copy was submitted to Rahman Malik alongside the FIR. The files that I have, can be found in the Supreme Court or FIA office.”

When asked how it was possible to open fake bank accounts when tough criteria exist within the banks, he claimed that these accounts were opened using influence of Javaid Kiyani within the Habib Bank AG Zurich branch on Davies Road Lahore. “We investigated the accounts and in the documents which we submitted we have written and attested statements of bank officials, who later admitted that Ramzan and Salman Zia did not exist and were just puppet names. There were large transactions ranging from $750,000 to $100,000, which were transferred into different accounts,” says Sehri claiming that these payments were later deposited in Hudaibiya Paper Mills accounts, Bank of America accounts and some UK bank accounts.

Originally published in The News