12 August 2004	Thursday	25 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 11: Pakistan Muslim League-N information secretary has accused prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz of violating elections rules and the Constitution by what he called "deliberately concealing" details of his assets in his nomination papers , submitted for contesting by-elections.

Speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday, the PML-N information secretary, Mr Siddiqul Farooque, demanded of the chief election commissioner to disqualify Mr Aziz from contesting the by-polls for the alleged violation of election rules, income tax laws and the Constitution.

Showing documents to the media persons, submitted by Mr Aziz with his nomination papers, Mr Farooque said the finance minister had shown only pound sterlings 310,388 in his account with the Llyods Bank, London.

The PML-N secretary claimed that Mr Aziz had over 30 million pound sterlings in the said account. Similarly, he said, it was surprising that the value of Mr Aziz's assets had not been increased in the past two years.

At the time of Senate elections in March 2002, Mr Farooque said, the minister had declared that he owned a house and a plot in the Defence Housing Authority, Karachi and an agricultural farm in Islamabad worth Rs10.317 million.

While submitting his nomination papers for August 18 by-polls, the minister had shown the same value of his property despite manifold increase in the value of real estate in Karachi and Islamabad.

He said the value of Mr Aziz's apartments in the US and the UK also remained the same which he showed while contesting Senate elections two years back. The value of his overseas property is Rs177.25 million, according to his own declaration, the PML-N secretary added.

He said in an interview, Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had stated that the finance minister paid Rs3 million income tax every year. Mr Farooque was of the view that Mr Aziz should have issued a denial to the prime minister's statement, but he didn't.

The PML-N secretary also claimed that the PML candidate had received his new Pakistani identity card on July 5, only a day before filing his nomination papers. He regretted that instead of taking action, the CEC was looking at all the affairs as a silent spectator.

Our Staff Reporter Khaleeq Kiani adds: Shaukat Aziz has paid a total of Rs15,876 income tax during the last three assessment years against his declared assets of over Rs3.7 billion.

The finance minister, along with his nomination papers, filed last month the statement of his assets and liabilities as of June 2003, although he was required under section 12(2) (f) of the Election Rules to file his statement of assets as of June 2004.

According to Mr Aziz's declaration of assets, his domestic as well as foreign bank accounts, other sources of income and the value of his assets, have remained unchanged for the last two years. Seemingly, he is not drawing salary as finance minister and he is spending nothing.

The statement of assets and liabilities filed by the finance minister to the Election Commission of Pakistan suggest that he paid an income tax of Rs4,908 in assessment year 2003-04, Rs1,854 in 2002-03 and Rs9,114 in 2001-02.

A petition was filed by a freelance journalist Shahid Orakzai before the Chief Election Commission here on Tuesday under Article 62 of the Constitution and section 108(2) read with section 103 of the Representatives of the People Act of 1976.

The minister was not available to explain despite repeated calls. The petitioner drew the attention to the two statements of assets and liabilities by the finance minister, published in the Gazette of Pakistan and submitted along the nomination papers which has an intervening period of more than one year.

He said the balance in an unidentified account in Citibank, New York, is given as $2,912,348 on June 30, 2003 and exactly the same amount is shown in the account on July 6, 2004.

Further the deposit in an account in Lloyds, London on June 30, 2003, was shown to be pound sterlings 310,388,57 and is now showy barely as 310,388 sterlings. If the last two digits, i.e. 57 represented a fraction or was a typographical error, the operational status of this account is almost the same.

The current account (2238-59) at HBL, Islamabad, shows a balance of Rs580,393 and this account, too, apparently remained unchanged. A saving account (5700684018) at Citibank, Islamabad shows a balance of Rs145,467 and this account has not moved by a digit during the period in question.

The balance in an account, identified as foreign exchange (FE) 25 accounts at Citibank, Islamabad, was shown as $761.62 and the same now stands at $761.00. All these bank accounts have not been operated during the last one year.

The petitioner contends that since the minister did not have any other declared account inside Pakistan, the question arises as to how did he meet his expenses during the period between June 2003 and July 2004 if he did not operate a single account.

It may be noted that he had shown a sum of Rs5,000 in his purse on October 15, 2003, and on July 6, 2004, once again, he had exactly the same amount in his pocket. "That is sufficient to prove that he has other sources of income which he did not declare in the latest nomination forms", he alleged.

The petitioner said the minister paid Rs40,000 to his party as the fee for the two party tickets for NA-59 and NA-229 and also deposited Rs4,000 each as security for each nomination.

He contended that from where did he receive the money because the withdrawal was not shown on his bank record. He said the election campaign of the minister was going on with great pomposity but it was not known who was financing this when he was not using his own money.