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LPP Press Confarence
23.nov 2009 |
Straggering 31 Billion Dollar corruption under Musharaf:
Farooq Tariq
Spokesperson Labour Party Pakistan
Labour Party Pakistan is of the firm view that the value of the national
wealth plundered during eight years of General Musharaf regime is much
higher than what is being estimated and investigated for the 11 years of
civilian rule when Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were in power. Gen
Musharaf must be brought back to Pakistan and made to face the
corruption and sedition charges.
According to our estimates, a massive corruption amounting to over 2,576
billion rupees (US $31 Billion) took place during 8 years of
Musharaf-Shaukat Aziz. A major part of it--over 1,550 billion
rupees--was embezzled through just one wrong economic policy,
privatization of national assets.
The total national wealth plundered in some areas included:
Privatization 1550 billion rupees
Bank of Punjab 7 billion rupees
Petroleum 83 billion rupees
Stock Exchange 780 billion rupees Fiddling in aid for
earthquake victims 120 billion rupees
Sugar scandal (2005) 36 billion rupees
Total 2576 billion rupees
A sum of 83 Billion Rupees was gobbled by different oil companies with
the help of corrupt oil ministry officials and the minister himself by
fixing a prices formula that favored oil companies.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has submitted to the Justice
Bhagwandas Commission a report on these wrongdoings. As a result of
faulty policies, the profits of Shell Pakistan, Caltex and PSO
registered an increase of 232 per cent, 281 per cent and 252 per cent
respectively between 2001-02 and 2004-05. Likewise, the profits of
Attock Refinery, National Refinery, Pak Refinery and Parco jumped by
4331 per cent, 3578 per cent, 1717 per cent and 597 per cent,
respectively, between 2001-02 and 2004-05.
Another 7 Billion Rupees were taken away from Bank of Punjab by making
fake declarations to enable a fake steel company get the bank loan. The
bank of Punjab was functioning under direct orders of Choudry Pervaiz
Elahi, the then chief minister of Punjab.
In March 2005 the share market collapsed. Quite suspiciously the KSE-100
share market index had surged from a figure of 6,218 on 31 December 2004
to a startling high of 10,303 on 15 March 2005 . In a short space of two
and half months the market had ballooned up by 65%. And then it crashed
hitting a low of 6,939 on April 12, 20 The financial explosion caused a
loss of Rs780 billion - the losers were small and middle class
investors.
The evidences revealed then prime Minister Shaukat Aziz as orchestrating
the whole trap with help of their close allies at Karachi Stock
Exchange.
Here is a list of leading 13 of the 88 brokers who have been named in
the forensic report as having profited from the 'situation': Atlas
Investments, AKD Securities, BMA Securities, Arif Habib, Orix
Investment Bank, KASB, Taurus Securities, Abdul Jabbar Khanani, Escort
Investments, Jehangir Siddiqui, Akbar Ali Cassim and Sons, Motiwala
Securities, Elixir Investments.
The claim that corruption cases involving embezzlement of around Rs1,000
billion were terminated under the NRO is peanuts if one compares it with
the corruption carried out under General Musharaf and Shaukat Aziz with
full support of Chaudrys of Gujrat, the land grabbers.
After coming to power General Musharaf declared that he would not allow
the people to be taken back to the era of "sham democracy" but to a true
one. How ironic it is that he himself promulgated the most notorious
corruption ordinance in the shape of NRO in a bid to prolong his rule.
In November 1999, Musharaf set up the National Accountability Bureau
(NAB) to deal with the cases of corruption. But soon it became apparent
that banks and financial institutions had failed to make any appreciable
recovery out of the total estimated amount of Rs356 billion payable by
defaulteds as on 12 October 1999. (This figure was cited by the Supreme
Court in the Zafar Ali Shah case from a report of the Governor, State
Bank of Pakistan.)
A record 700 billion Rupees of corruption has taken place during the
privatization of financial institutions. When Habib Bank Limited's (HBL)
51 percent shares were sold out to Agha Khan Fund for Economic
Development in December 2004 for only 22 Billion Rupees, its total
assets were more than 570 billion Rupees ($8.76 billion). While another
larger bank, United Bank Limited (UBL) was sold out only for 13 billion
Rupees. The sale of these two banks on throwaway prices is the largest
financial scandal in Pakistan history.
The privatization of 26 per cent shares of Pakistan Telecommunication
Limited (PTCL) to Dubai based Aitsalat with management rights for only
157 Billion Rupees ($2.59 billion) is another gross violation of the
rules set up even by Privatization Commission of Pakistan. The Aitsalat
bought PTCL after a 10 days strike against privatization by workers.
Although the protesters were crushed by the military regime in June
2005, the company refused to take over and sought further concessions.
At the demand of the private company, an amount of $370 million was
reduced from the original price and payment of the rest of the amount
was accepted in installments.
Aitsalat announced at the time of privatization in 2005, that none of
the 70,000 workers would be fired. However, in 2007, the company kicked
out 30,000 workers in the name of so-called voluntary scheme.
Karachi Electrical Supply Corporation (KESC) was sold out for only 16
billion Rupees. It failed to improve any electricity supply. On the
contrary, there has been regular load-shedding making most of the
political parties to demand re-nationalization of the KESC.
There has been a severe crisis in the agriculture sector due to
privatization of fertilizer units. Pak Saudi Fertilizer in Mir Pur
Mathelo was handed to Fauji (military) Foundation in 2002 for just 8
billion Rupees. At the time, its annual profit was more than 4 billion
Rupees. At Multan, Pak Arab Fertilizer was handed over to Arif Habib
Group for only 13 billion Rupees. The price of the land of this factory
was over 40 billion Rupees at the time of the sale in 2006. On 15 July
2006, the largest Public sector factory Pak American Fertilizer was
handed over for just 16 billion Rupees.
After the privatization of these factories, the price of a pack of
fertilizer has gone up from 1300 Rupees to 3700 Rupees. This has put a
massive extra burden on the peasants and cost of all agricultural inputs
has shot up.
Lahore's historic Falate's Hotel was sold out for only 1.21 billion
Rupees. It is located in the heart of Lahore spreading over 50 kanals of
precious land.
Large-scale corruption is witnessed in almost every deal done by the PC.
According to an independent research report, not only quality of the
products produced by these privatized companies worsened, their prices
also registered massive hike.
The economy is in consistence decline. As a result, the trends of
monopolizations have increased and the multinational companies have
further monopolized the economy. These all facts negate the very
justification of privatization.
We demand the PPP government put an immediate stop to the privatization
process, form an independent commission to investigate the corruption
involved in the sell-off processes, abolish the Privatization Commission
and Privatization Ministry.
The Protection of Economic Reform Ordinance should be withdrawn as it
gives constitutional protection to the process of privatization.
The direct negative impact of privatization has been seen on working
class. At least 600.000 workers have lost their jobs during the 15 years
of privatization from the privatized institutions. Most of privatized
factories work on contract system, opening a flood gate of informal
sector, a severe exploitation of workers - particularly women workers -
where no labour laws are applicable.
We demand a commission to look into the facts and the government must
bring the people involved in corruption practices during the Musharaf
era. General Musharaf and Shoukat Aziz must be brought back to Pakistan
to face the charges. Mr. Salman Shah, the economic adviser of General
Musharaf, must be immediately arrested on facilitation and enabling the
corrupt people to earn more.
We also demand that all those in NRO list must be given a chance to
prove themselves innocent. Justice must be done with all the corrupt
politicians, military generals, bureaucrats and businessmen. The NRO
list is just the first beginning of opening the lid from the corruption
cauldron. |
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