Last Updated on: 29th June 2023, 09:22 am
Why Did The FIA File Charges Against Shahzad Akbar And Sophia Mirza?
Model Sophia Mirza, former PM Shahzad Akbar, and Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) officials have been charged by Islamabad police with conspiracy, forgery, and abuse of public power at the request of Sophia’s former husband, Umar Farooq Zahoor.
Norwegian-born Pakistani businessman Umar filed a complaint (465/22) with the Secretariat Police Station in Islamabad, alleging that Sophia and Akbar conspired to build a story against him by abusing their positions of power and an exercise undue influence. The Secretariat Police Station has acknowledged the existence of a case.
Umar has hired lawyer Mian Ali Ashfaq to represent him on various forums in this dispute. According to the lawyer, there is strong evidence against the suspects and they are likely to be convicted with effective and vigorous prosecution in this case.
According to Umar’s lawyer, the Islamabad police should use all means at their disposal to arrest Akbar and prosecute him in this case, including his arrest by Interpol if he refuses to comply with communications sent to him in a timely manner.
Umar claimed in the application that Sophia, also known as Khushbakhat Mirza, and Akbar conspired against him and deliberately misled the office of PTI chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan by hiding information that he was Liberia’s itinerant ambassador to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Pakistan from the Federal Cabinet, and that as a diplomat in an internal dispute he was not criminally objectionable.
Since 2019, Umar has been serving as the Goodwill Ambassador of the Republic of Liberia for the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Pakistan region while residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where he has lived for the past 20 years.
In addition, Umar said that the two senior FIA officials were complicit in the conspiracy against him. The officers are accused of fabricating information about Umar linking him to criminal activities and a gang.
“That Shehzad Akbar, Sofia Mirza, and Sanaullah Abbasi (EX FIA DG) were consulted with criminal intent and each other were registered under FIR No. 36/20 and 40/20 with FIA CCC Lahore and Shehzad Akbar and Sanaullah Abbasi with the criminal intent of abuse Their position and authority have pressured investigators into the case […] to prepare a false arrest warrant against the actor [to] enable them to obtain a red warrant from Interpol,” FIR says.
“Furthermore, after consultation with criminal intent, they prepared a false arrest warrant and an arrest warrant and prepared another false non-executable arrest warrant,” the filing reads.
According to the Umar Police Station’s request, the accused “prepared false documents fabricated and forged by order of the Honorable Court and Judge and used the same as the original to follow Abbasi’s instructions and will to the Supreme Court with a false, incorrect and fabricated report dated January 1, 2022.”
Umar asked the police station to file charges against the suspects for fabricating and preparing false documents, including “forging a judge’s signature and seal, using forged documents as originals, intentionally preparing a fabricated report for the court based on forged documents and Abuse”. Official authority involving fraud that violates trust in the public office entrusted to him.
“The forgery of a judge’s signature and seal, the use of forged documents as originals, the knowing preparation of a forged report based on forged documents for the Supreme Court, and the criminal abuse of authority by violating trust in the information entrusted to the official is violated to them and about the name of the accused, Umar asked the police station to open a case against the suspects for creating false and forged documents.”
In March 2020, Umar’s ex-wife Sophia applied to the FIA’s Lahore office to bring charges against him on money laundering and corruption charges in order to have him included in the Interpol database.