ISLAMABAD, April 6: The United Nations inquiry report on ‘manipulation of the Oil For Food Programme (OFFP) by the Iraqi regime’ has revealed involvement of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in the scam, according to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Deputy Chairman Hassan Wasim Afzal.

Citing the report prepared by the UN inquiry committee, which the NAB received on Thursday, the official said: “Ms Bhutto has paid $2.2 million commission to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain for getting $150 million contract for supplying food.”

He said that under the OFFP, the government of Iraq had sold $64.2 billion oil to 248 international companies for obtaining food for people of the war-torn country.

The programme was started by the UN in December 1996 after the lifting of international sanctions on Iraq and concluded in 2002.

Saddam Hussain manipulated the OFFP and took commission of $1.5 billion from the companies for awarding contracts for supplying food in return for oil.

The NAB deputy chairman, who made his first appearance before the press after taking over the post, said the UN had asked all members countries, including Pakistan, to take action against their nationals involved in the scam.

He said the NAB would send evidences of Ms Bhutto’s alleged corruption to the courts and governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Spain where she and her husband Asif Ali Zardari had made assets and where cases of money laundering and illegal assets were being tried.

He alleged that Ms Bhutto had entered into the OFFP during her exile sometime in 2000-2001 through her Dubai-based Free Zone company Tempo Global Gains.

The firm was owned by her, her relative Syed Hassan Ali Jafri and former director-general Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Rehman Feroze Malik.

Mr Afzal said the government would seek ‘international legal mutual assistance’ from the government of the UAE and request for freezing the bank accounts and other assets of Ms Bhutto’s company.

“We would also ask the UAE government to provide all relevant documents of the company to Pakistan so that they could be sent to the UN and used in different cases being tried against Ms Bhutto and her allies anywhere in the world,” he added.