March, 24 2005	Thursday	13 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, March 23: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar has claimed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has “suffered a stunning defeat in the Geneva jurisdiction” in the Dargal tractor case despite spending billions of rupees in hurling wild allegations against the PPP leadership.

In a statement here on Wednesday, the PPP senator said for the last eight years, the charges and counter charges were repeated in a blaze of publicity. Last year, he said, the NAB claimed that the Dargal funds were to be returned to Pakistan. He said the real owners of Dargal went into the appeal, which was granted.

A short translation of the decision sent to the PPP Media Office, he said, revealed that the NAB had suffered a stunning setback after having spent more than 10 times what was in the Dargal accounts.

According to the short translation of the letter, sent on March 3, 2005, the authorities from the Chamber of Accusation of Geneva informed the Dargal lawyer that it had accepted the appeal of Dargal and decided to annul the decision by examining the judge to restitute the funds to Pakistan, he said.

He said the Chamber of Accusation also estimated that the counsel of Dargal should have had access to the document requesting the transfer of the funds and that the examining judge had not respected the rights of Dargal. The ordinance also underlines that the conditions of a transfer to the demanding state were not fulfilled taking into account the incertitude around the procedure in Pakistan.

The PPP senator said the NAB had accused the PPP government of receiving bribes in the purchase of Ursus tractors, manufactured by the Swiss company Dargal. He said the then PPP minister for agriculture, Nawab Yousaf Talpur, had pointed out that the PPP government had obtained tractors at throwaway prices of Rs100,000 each bringing enormous benefit to the small farmers and increasing agricultural output. In contrast, the subsequent regime had purchased the same tractors for almost four times more at nearly Rs400,000 each.

However, despite the huge benefit to Pakistan in cheap tractors, he said, a hue and cry was made of corruption clouding the real benefits to the country by the vested, anti-democratic forces against democratic leaders.

Mr Babar was of the view that the Dargal decision would have far-reaching consequences for other cases being investigated in Geneva. So far, he said, Islamabad had been making baseless charges and expecting governments to accept politically-motivated charges at face value. He said despite Dargal documents of bank and company formation clearly showing the innocence of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari, Islamabad carried on a massive propaganda battle. In the face of the propaganda battle, he said, it was first difficult for neutral observers to know the truth. However, after eight years of an uphill battle, the first success for the innocent defendants has been reached, he added.

The PPP senator said it was now expected that wild charges would not be accepted simply because a state was making them and that those charges would have to be established on the basis of facts and proofs.

After eight years and many special courts and handpicked judges, it is clear that there are no facts and proofs against the PPP leadership, he said, adding entire nation had suffered due to politically-motivated cases for which billions of state funds were wasted in a country with a staggering 57 per cent poverty rate.