In 1999, following the upheaval of a military coup, witch hunting started against senior businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians.
Without any notice, inquiry or investigation Mr. Iqbal Z. Ahmed was among those businessmen who were arrested. He was released 42 days later with a statement from NAB that “no evidence had been found against him.”
This was further collaborated in an interview by the then Prosecutor General NAB, Mr. Farooq Adam Khan, published in the monthly magazine, Newsline in July 2000 in which he stated:
“There were other cases, such as those of Iqbal Z. Ahmed and Khawaja Asif. We are fallible, we make mistakes. Hopefully, we learn from them.”
The reputational damage done on knee-jerk actions taken by regimes that are looking for sensational publicity deeply hurt the reputation of the country, its economy and the reputation of the individuals concerned.