NAB report gives clean chit to
corruption of Musharraf and his rule
ISLAMABAD: The NAB report on mega corruption
cases though focused on politicians and political governments, conveniently
missed the wrongs of General Pervez Musharraf’s nine-year rule.
Hardly any of the major financial
scandals and corruption cases, involving hundreds of billions of rupees, of
Musharraf’s nine-year rule has been reflected in the NAB report presented
before the Supreme Court.
Almost every key political leader,
including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, former president Asif Ali Zardari,
ex-prime ministers, etc, have been presented as accused in different cases
pending for over a decade.
However, there is no mention of General
Pervez Musharraf, who had illegally doled out over 10,000 kanals of military
land (meant for martyred families) as political bribe to his blue-eyed despite
the fact that the DI Khan military land allotment case is very much with the
NAB.
While the political leaders and the
civilian governments have been maligned in cases of alleged corruption which
have been pending for years but were neither being decided nor disposed off,
Musharraf has been lucky as the NAB overlooked almost everything connected with
the dictator.
From the 2005 Stock Exchange swindle to
the Pakistan Steels Mills privatisation, 2006 sugar scam to the financial
bungling in multi-billion rupee clean drinking water project, alleged kickbacks
in defence procurement, including PAF surveillance aircraft deal, to the doling
out of military land to JUI-F leaders and his (Musharraf’s) personal staff,
massive corruption in the 2005 earthquake funds to ghost pension scandal,
controversial sale of Pakistan’s property in Jakarta to changes in the
Islamabad’s master plan for financial benefits of Musharraf’s chief of staff to
the innumerable cases of illegal and unconstitutional appointments made by the
dictator, almost everything has been missed by the NAB.
Musharraf, who during his rule became a
billionaire with his assets both within the country and outside, has never been
questioned while the NAB has been quick to make references about the key
political leaders’ assets.
The NAB avoided taking notice of The
News investigative story about Musharraf’s successful but dubious journey from
rags to riches. There has been no explanation offered by Musharraf but the
retired general had accumulated billions in offshore accounts besides the
property that he had already purchased in foreign lands or inside Pakistan.
The News in January 2012 had unearthed
the details of Musharraf’s foreign bank accounts where he had deposited almost
Rs2 billion. The story contained the account numbers as well as the amount
deposited in each bank/account yet it could not attract the attention of the
NAB.
The NAB, in its recent report, has
informed the SC about several mega land scams but there is no mention of former
dictator General (retd) Pervez Musharraf who had doled out over 10,000 kanals
of military land meant for war veterans and families of martyred soldiers to
frontmen of some of his political opponents, non-entitled armymen and dozens of
civilian officials including his cook, barber, butler, gunmen and other members
of his personal staff.
This huge chunk of military land in the
Punjab and KP provinces was allotted to non-entitled civilians and soldiers by
the GHQ following orders from the then army chief General Pervez Musharraf.
Over two dozen staff members and officials attached with Musharraf during his
stay in the Presidency were also allotted hundreds of kanals of military land.
In the case of allotment of 6,700
kanals of military land in Punjab to 47 civilian officials of the provincial
government during Musharraf’s rule, a reference was made to the military
authorities by the Shahbaz Sharif government to cancel the anomalous transfer.
However, no decision has been taken as yet on the issue.
With regard to the land given to
non-military personnel including frontmen of some politicians in Dera Ismail
Khan during the Musharraf regime, it was admitted by the military spokesman
during General Kayani’s tenure that the allotments had no legal sanction but
despite this flagrant illegality committed by the military dictator and former
president, corrective measures have not been taken.
In Punjab, 47 civilian officials
(mostly belonging to the Revenue Department) were allotted 6,700 kanals of
military land during Musharraf’s regime. Most of these officials were made OSDs
by the Shahbaz Sharif government during his last term. The Punjab government
also formally approached the military authorities to get the controversial
allocations cancelled.
The Punjab government was of the view
that the civilian beneficiaries have been rewarded for going beyond the call of
duty in facilitating the entire process.
The Punjab government also believed
that if at all some part of the military land was required to be allotted to
civilian officials by the GHQ, it should have been done through the provincial
government instead of making such allotments directly. Musharraf also gifted
away thousands of kanals of military land in Punjab to dozens of people who had
been serving him well during his long stay in the Presidency. On Musharraf’s
orders, not only such land was allotted to his cook, barber, butler and gunmen,
but to all members of his personal staff. A vast majority of armymen was not
entitled to get this benefit but they were still favoured because the man who
ruled Pakistan as his personal fiefdom and ruined every state institution
desired so without any fear of being questioned or held accountable.
With regard to controversial allotments
of military lands in DI Khan, the NAB in 2010-11 approached the GHQ for the
cancellation of military land to civilian persons but there has been neither any
response nor any action taken to revoke Musharraf’s orders. The allotment of
military land during Musharraf’s tenure in 2004 to the civilians in DI Khan was
an illegal act and against the terms and conditions set for the allotment of
such lands. Thousands of kanals of military land was allotted, including 1,200
kanals to frontmen of two top leaders of a political party. Yet the NAB report
did neither mention Musharraf nor the mega scam.
Similarly, no criminal actions were
taken against a gang of well-connected players of the 2005 Stock Exchange scam
which, according to the conclusions of an official committee, had swallowed $13
billion of ordinary shareholders and middlemen during Musharraf’s tenure. It is
alleged some 80 beneficiaries, mostly close associates of Musharraf and his
cronies, had multiplied their fortunes by manipulating the scam. However, they
were neither probed nor arrested to get back from them the plundered billions.
In another case, the Musharraf-Aziz duo
launched a countrywide project called the Clean Drinking Water Scheme with the
promise that one clean drinking water plant would be installed in every union
council across the country by December 2007. Initially, it was a Rs7.7 billion
project but was later raised to Rs16 billion.
Similarly, the Rs3.6 billion Tawana
Pakistan project, providing school nutrition package to girls in 29 districts
of the country, went down the drain because of the involvement of a blue-eyed
minister of Musharraf, but the NAB was never allowed to question the minister.
The Pakistan Steel Mills privatisation,
which was abandoned by the government following the Supreme Court’s order, was
a case of serious charge sheet against Musharraf and his close associates, who
had almost sold this national asset to their close friends for peanuts. As per
the Supreme Court’s judgment, the privatisation process was defrauded, but no
action was taken against anyone.
In 2006, the NAB under Lt-Gen (retd)
Shahid Aziz wanted to probe the sugar scam, involving some ministers of the
Musharraf regime, but in this case, too, the Bureau was stopped from probing
the matter.
Corruption worth hundreds of millions
of rupees was detected in the money allocated for the reconstruction work and
rehabilitation of the 2005 earthquake victims. Massive corruption in these
funds was reported to the NAB and also detected by the NAB’s Frontier office,
but in this case, too, the bureau was asked to stay away.
In 2002, a senior Foreign Office
diplomat, stationed in Jakarta, reported to Islamabad of the alleged kickbacks
received by the then-ambassador, a retired major general and close relative of
Musharraf’s wife, in the sale of Pakistani mission’s property in Indonesia at
throwaway prices. As a result, the diplomat, minister at the Jakarta mission,
was called back, suspended and never restored till his retirement in 2007-08.
The Post Office Department which, too,
was headed by a retired major general and a close associate of Musharraf for
more than five years in violation of rules and regulations, caused a unique
financial scam of ghost pensioners. Although, certain ordinary officials were
suspended and inquired, the NAB did not hold any inquiry and avoided
confronting the top-notch of the department.
A major Malaysian labour export scam surfaced
in which workers were heavily charged and sent to the foreign country but
against fictitious jobs. The unskilled workers were asked to pay Rs60,000;
however, most of them were overcharged as high as Rs160,000 per person. Some
cabinet ministers of the Musharraf regime were allegedly involved in this scam,
but no bigwig was probed.
Untouchables of the oil mafia caused
colossal financial losses to the national economy with the connivance of some
top players of the Musharraf regime. The NAB under Musharraf was told of their
manoeuvring of oil prices to the advantage of refineries and oil marketing
companies but the Bureau was not allowed to cross the limits.
According to a NAB source, because of
the policies of oil pricing, refinery margins, distribution margins and
deregulating the oil imports, a staggering amount of $7-8 billion per year was
handed over to the handpicked chief executives of selected multinational and
the national companies in the oil and gas sector. These refineries and oil
marketing companies, it was reported in the media, were allowed to import
petroleum products where the prices were manipulated to their advantage.
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