http://theeggplantpost.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/zardari-seeks-to-streamline-corruption-help-people-of-pakistan/

The PPP government seems to be deliberately covering up the wrongdoings of the ousted dictator and his cronies. From 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 2005 earthquake funds to ghost pension scandal; the Bank of Punjab fraud to the controversial sale of Pakistan’s property in Jakarta; 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.

NAB has been turned dormant while the proposed new accountability law recommends that no case against the holder of a public office shall be registered after three years of the expiry of his term or of his ceasing to hold office. If the proposed law is enacted in its present shape, it would give legal cover to all corruption cases and financial swindling of the Musharraf regime after three years of their departure.

Sources in NAB said Gen (retd) Musharraf and some other leading players of his junta have been barring the bureau from pursuing corruption cases of their tenure. These sources said 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. 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 till December 2007. Initially, it was Rs7.7 billion project but was later raised to Rs16 billion but is still nowhere.

Similarly, a 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 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.

The Rs9 billion Bank of Punjab fraud is also connected with Gen (retd) Musharraf, who was not only used to play golf with the absconder BoP president Hamesh Khan but had also close terms with the owners of the Haris Steel, who were given loan controversially. Although, NAB took up the matter during Musharraf’s tenure after The News reported the scam, later, it was directed to go slow and not to touch anyone involved. The present government also remained lenient on this issue; however, it was only after the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that the Supreme Court focussed this scam and directed the government to recover the loan money, besides arresting those involved in the scam.

Hundreds of acres of military land in Punjab and the NWFP provinces had been doled out by Musharraf to JUI-F leaders and dozens of his staff members, including cook, butlers and barbers a few months before Dec 31, 2004, when he had promised to doff his uniform. The Army later admitted there is no legal provision to allot military land to private persons like JUI-F leaders or their frontmen, but still no action has been taken against Musharraf or the beneficiaries to get back the controversially allotted military land.

In 2006, NAB under Lt-Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz wanted to probe the sugar scam, involving some sitting ministers of the Musharraf regime, but in this case, too, the bureau was stopped from probing the matter. Just like what the country is facing today, the sugar cartel had ganged up to sell the sugar at their choice prices.

Corruption worth hundreds of millions of rupees was detected in the money allocated for the reconstruction work and rehabilitation of the 2008 earthquake victims. Massive corruption in these funds was reported to NAB and also detected by NAB’s Frontier office, but in this case, too, the bureau was asked to stay away. The situation remains unchanged even today, and there is no independent probe as to what has happened to the tens of billions of rupees that were allocated for the earthquake victims and areas.

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 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, NAB did not hold any inquiry and avoided confronting the top notch of the department.

To the financial benefits of the then-Chief of Staff of Gen Musharraf, who inherited a big chunk of land in Zone VI, along the Islamabad highway, between Faizabad and Airport Chowk, the CDA’s master plan was changed to allow the construction of multi-storey commercial buildings.

A major Malaysian labour export scam was surfaced in which workers were heavily charged and send 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. NAB under Musharraf was told of their manoeuvring of oil prices to the advantage of the refineries and oil marketing companies, but the bureau was not allowed to cross the limits. NAB could not dare touch the oil mafia for the reason and the situation remains unchanged even today. 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 is said, were allowed to import petroleum products where the prices were manipulated to their advantage.

Sources said there are several other scandals of the Musharraf regime, but the aloofness of the present regime towards the wrongdoings and corruption of the ousted dictator and his cronies is not letting the authorities to hold the responsible accountable.