Zardari’s ‘dubious’ businessman friend reaches home safely after mysterious kidnapping

KARACHI - A well-known Pakistani businessman Riaz Lalji, who is said to be one of President Asif Ali Zardari’s close friends, returned to his house here hours after he was supposedly kidnapped by some unknown persons.

Lalji, along with his gunman and driver went missing soon after he reached Karachi from Dubai on Sunday (May 30).

His vehicle was found abandoned near the Karachi airport.

Confirming Lalji’s return, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Karachi Wasim Ahmed said an investigation team headed by DIG East Abdul Khaliq Sheikh has been formed to probe the businessman’s mysterious disappearance and return.

Lalji, a close confidant of Zardari, is a proclaimed offender and his name also features in the massive corruption cases concerning the Pakistan Steel Mills and the infamous Rice Export Corporation of Pakistan (RECP) scam.

Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is still investigating Laljee’s alleged links with fugitive American commodities trader Marc Rich in a rice scandal in which under pressure from the then Benazir government in 1995-96, the RECP sold hundreds of thousands of tons of rice to Rich’s company at prices much below those quoted by other bidders, causing a loss of millions of dollars to the Pakistani exchequer. (ANI)