Akbar Named as the Mastermind in £190 million Fraud
Shehzad Akbar, the former chief of the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) and a former special assistant to the prime minister on accountability, has been declared one of the key accused in the ongoing £190 million reference case, which, according to the investigators, left Pakistan with huge losses in its coffers. Sources claim Akbar was the brains behind the conspiracy, and he signed a Deed of Confidentiality on November 6 2019, several weeks before the formal consent by the cabinet. According to investigators, the act constituted bad faith and an intentional effort to hide the financial arrangement details.
Money that was stolen out of the official coffers to the private ones
Investigative findings showed that the PS190 million of a civil settlement with the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the United Kingdom was moved to a designated account under the Registrar of the Supreme Court rather than being transferred to the official treasury of Pakistan. The money used to be associated with a large private housing society in Karachi. According to the officials, Akbar did not include the main institutions in the process, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and this led to the embezzlement of close to Rs50 billion.
Covert UK Gatherings and Preeminence of Money Transfers Revealed
From February 4 to May 22 to 26, travel records indicate that Akbar made two trips to the United Kingdom in 2019, where he was welcomed by the UK Home Secretary and Director General of the NCA. In these conferences, he supposedly talked about a covert road map of repatriation of funds without notifying the concerned Pakistani authorities. Inquirers found that in late November 2019, before the cabinet authorisation, money was sent out of the UK to Pakistan following a summit among the high officials where Akbar was summoned in the presence of then prime minister Imran Khan and Principal Secretary Azam Khan.
Background of NCA Settlement and Frozen Assets
The case extends to the winter of 2018, when the NCA under the UK Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 froze about PS120 million in connection with the property possessed by two Pakistani citizens, one of whom was a luxury house at 1 Hyde Park Place, London. In March 2019, the ARU then settled the case out of court with a private housing society, which was later submitted to the cabinet as a state recovery measure. However, researchers claim that the settlement favoured individual people and was exploited as a governmental contract.
Judicial Cases and Court Events
The reference was filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on December 1 2023, with eight accused, among them being the former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi. Even though they both were indicted, six others, among them being Shehzad Akbar, were pronounced criminals since they avoided trial and fled to foreign lands. NAB brought 35 witnesses who were cross-examined, taking place at more than 38 hearings. In spite of all these chances, the defence team did not show any witnesses, and the investigators were still seeking international evidence to aid the prosecution.
Pakistan Seeks Extradition and Recovery of Assets
Since Akbar was declared a proclaimed offender by Akbar, Pakistan has been moving towards getting Akbar extradited by the United Kingdom under mutual legal assistance systems. According to the authorities, the restoration of the PS190 million, around Rs50 billion, is a national agenda and a primary challenge to gauge the accountability commitment of Pakistan. Legal observers observe that the decision of the case may set a legal precedent of critical importance on the recovery of property in the country across its border boundaries, anti-corruption laws and the transparency of institutional supervision within the nation.
