KABUL (Pajhwok): Some lawmakers on Saturday said officials involved in the release of Kabul Bank main debtor from jail to sign a multimillion real estate contract with the government should be fired.
Former Kabul Bank chief executive and major defaulter Khalilullah Ferozi, who was convicted last year in the massive banking fraud scandal earlier this month launched work on an ambitious township project -- involving an initial investment of $98 million -- in the heart of the nation’s capital.
Ferozi and Sher Khan Farnood -- founder of what has come to be dubbed as a piggy bank -- had been convicted on charges of defrauding the Kabul Bank of nearly a billion dollars.
Each was sentenced to 10 years in jail in December 2014. One of the leading Afghan tycoons, Ferozi is said to be serving his jail term at night under a deal with the government.
Once the country’s largest lender, the Kabul Bank plunged into deep crisis in 2009, when it lost $987 million in fraudulent property deals, huge off-book loans and credit to fake corporations. The big-time scam prompted the government to take over the bank’s affairs and change rename it as New Kabul Bank.
On Nov, 04, legal advisor to president Abdul Ali Mohammadi addressed   the opening ceremony Hoshmand (Smart Town) project granted to Frozi,  that the Kabul Bank screening commission decided to retake the loans from the debtors through easy ways and methods .
Later Wolesi Jirga’s complaints commission claimed Ferozi had paid $7 million in bribe for signing the township project contract and his release from jail with the mediation of Mohammadi and some close allies of the president.
After complaints from lawmakers and civil society organizations, President Ashraf Ghani terminated the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ferozi for not meeting legal conditions for the contract and then suspended Mohammadi.
On Saturday, while taking part in a debate about Mohammadi, a public representative from central Daikundi, Nasrullah Sadiqizada, said” it is not fair to suspend one person because there are many people who are involved in the release of Ferozi.”
He said president’s advisor on finance Hazrar Omar Zakhilwal who had presented the proposal at a Cabinet meeting was also responsible for the release. “Zakhilwal, Ahmad Zia Massoud (president special representative for reforms and good governance) and the minister of urban development should be sacked,” he said, adding only Mohammadi was terminated from his job which was unfair.
Lawmaker from western Herat province Khalil Ahmad Behzad suggested that all those involved should be suspended until the investigation into the case was over. He asked the president to refer Massoud, Mohammadi, Zakhilwal and Urban Development Minister Syed Sadat Mansoor Nadari to the attorney’s office.
MP from central Maidan Wardak province Ghulam Husain Nasiri said until those involved individual were not sacked, the case of Ferozi could not be investigation from different angles.
“The law should not only be enforced on the person who has no power. The law should be the same and equal for everyone,” first deputy speaker  Zahir Qadir said.
He asked the president to suspend from duties officials involved and refer them to the prosecutor’s office if evidence was available against them.
Other lawmakers also asked for the positions of Massoud, Mohammadi, Mansoor Nadari and some other officials involved in the case to be laid off.
myn/ma