SBP confirms Zainab case suspect has no bank accounts
A report submitted by the State Bank of Pakistan to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) reveals that the suspect in the Zainab case has no bank accounts, media on Friday.
Sources in the FIA said the agency's own investigation have also found no bank accounts of the suspect. Dr Shahid Masood had in his programme on TV channel NewsOne claimed that the suspect maintained over 37 bank accounts, mostly foreign currency denominated, with transactions in dollars, euros and pounds sterling. He had repeated the allegations in the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Earlier on Friday, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal too had said that the SC and media had been caught up in a "makebelieve" story on the Kasur case propagated by the anchor and aimed at defaming the government. He said that the latest example of how social media is a "tool for fifth generation warfare" came about following the arrest of Zainab's murderer when the Punjab government was being praised. "Suddenly a make-believe spin was thrown in which the media and the Supreme Court got caught up in."
"This proves how big of a tool of chaos and disruption social media is," the minister said, adding that "it later turned out that the news run by an anchor, on which the Supreme Court also took notice, was entirely makebelieve." He warned that numerous such 'attacks' on the government "could be expected as it was election year."
"Make-believe, fictitious and false news stories will be spread by foreign agencies via social media," he added. The tragic murder of Zainab in Kasur was given a new twist on Thursday when anchor Dr Shahid Masood handed over to Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar two names written on a folded paper of people who, he claimed, were behind an international racket running a child pornography ring.
Later, while talking to journalists, he claimed that one of them was a sitting federal minister but kept the name secret, saying the disclosure might endanger the life of the suspected killer of the Kasur girl who was arrested on Tuesday. In his programme, the Dr Masood had requested the chief justice, the prime minister and the army chief to take notice of these facts, claiming that the rapist was neither a psychic, deranged or an insane person nor a simpleton.
The Supreme Court is already seized with a suo motu case about Zainab's rape and murder. "We are not only in agreement over security requirement but are also following them," Iqbal said about the recent changes to the on-arrival visa policy for the country. "On one hand we need to complete our security requirements and on the other facilitate legitimate traffic of tourists, investors and businessmen," he said.
He said that Pakistan has a lot to gain from people of developed countries arriving in Pakistan but that the developed countries have nothing to lose by not arriving to the country. On a question on why he was changing all policies enacted by his predecessor Chaudhry Nisar, he said:
"We are not changing our policies, only rationalising them." "If multinational companies and organisations want to provide their foreign staff or theselves with bullet-proof vehicles and are willing to pay for it, we should not add hurdles to this," he added.
He explained that there are two types of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), those who facilitate the arrival of foreign spies and with security concerns about them "but all INGOs are not enemies of the country" and many are doing important developmental work, he said, while giving example of the Aga Khan Foundation, the registration of which was also blocked.