LAHORE, Oct 19: The Pakistan People’s Party on Sunday criticized the accountability process and disputed the claims made by the National Accountability Bureau about recoveries.

A white paper issued by the party’s foreign liaison committee member, Munir Ahmed Khan, gave details of the recoveries made, expenditure incurred and loans written off by the rulers, and concluded that “Gen Musharraf’s much trumpeted resolve to purge the society of corrupt elements with the help of NAB has evaporated in thin air”.

He alleged that instead of performing its prime job of carrying out accountability of corrupt elements, the NAB acted as a ‘National Arm-twisting Bureau’ and targeted only those leaders who belonged to the PPP and the PML-N and refused to concede to the whims and wishes of the dictator.

“Four years down the road, the NAB also faces charges of harassment and extortion levelled by members of the business community against the investigating and arresting agencies as well as members of the NAB itself. The business community had charged that the accountability process was a means of giving legal cover to government extortion. Several allegations of blackmail were levelled against members of these agencies, coupled with charges of attempted extortion by NAB personnel at lower levels.”

He said though the NAB chairman claimed to have recovered Rs100 billion during past four years, Rs90.383 billion were recovered by the banking sector. Of the remaining Rs10 billion, eight billion were made from government departments like the PTCL and the CDA. The NAB recoveries stood at only Rs2 billion for which the government had spent Rs12 billion on the establishment and day-to-day running of the NAB in the past four years.

The banks, under pressure from the Musharraf regime, had to write off a staggering Rs26 billion loans in the past four years. These write-offs were granted to those politicians, businessmen and industrialists who were supporting the general, the PPP leader alleged. He said another Rs30 billion would be written off in the times to come.

According to him, those who got their loans written off included PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Punjab Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Chaudhry Mansoor Elahi, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Chaudhry Gulzar Mohammad, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, Chaudhry Sabahat Elahi, Qisara Elahi, wife of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Kausar Hussain, wife of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, and Khalida Begum, wife of Gulzar Muhammad.

The PPP leader also named people who faced inquires that were dropped when they joined hands with the government subsequently.

The NAB had once sought the help of International Police (Interpol) to track down and bring back to Pakistan some incumbent federal ministers including the water and power minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, and the minister for industries and production, Liaquat Ali Jatoi. They were put on the Exit Control List (ECL) on NAB recommendations, before finally being inducted into the cabinet.

Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian turncoat Interior Minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat remained in NAB custody for over six months. The NAB arrested him on Nov 17, 1999, on charges that his Shah Jewna Textile Mills had obtained a loan of Rs196.07 million and cash finance of Rs45million and did not pay it back. His loan default case is pending with the State Bank of Pakistan’s special committee dealing with cases of wilful default. The case was referred to the committee on Faisal’s demand who wanted the SBP to look into the cases, with a plea to reschedule the loans in view of the factors that led to default.

The NAB reference is pending with the accountability court, which has been restrained by the higher courts from deciding the case until ordered.

He alleged that those working in the NAB did not have an above-board integrity because of which “the all-powerful Bureau is itself being investigated by the intelligence agencies for a mega fraud into the use and safe-keeping of hundreds of millions of rupees recovered from criminals and plunderers through plea bargains. The chief NAB investigator, who has engaged a number of international institutions for netting opposition parties’ politicians, including Benazir Bhutto in Swiss courts, himself faces a reference for embezzling hundreds of millions of rupees of plea bargain money on which the NAB officials have been gobbling up markups in private accounts”.

He said the incumbent NAB Chairman Lt-Gen Munir Hafeez, who too faces charges of involvement in the embezzlement case, is attempting to hush up the inquiry.

A majority of those politicians against whom corruption charges were framed by the NAB, belonged to the Opposition parties, mainly the PPP and the PML-N. However, charges could not be established against 265 politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen, though they were arrested, tortured and humiliated in custody.

Inquiries against 265 NAB-accused were finally dropped, with no compensation offered to the affected people. Of the 307 politicians tried by the NAB, inquiries against 117 have been completed while 104 cases are still in progress. The number of politicians acquitted by the NAB courts is 62. Corruption cases were filed against 117 politicians by the NAB, out of whom 65 belonged to the PPPP and 36 to the PML-N.

The PPP leader said references/inquiries were still pending with the NAB against former president Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz, Sindh Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mehr, Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Hussain, former commerce minister Razzaq Dawood, former petroleum minister Usman Aminuddin, former education minister Syeda Abida Hussain, former attorney-general Aziz A. Munshi, former law minister Khaled Ranjha and Political Secretary to Prime Minister Rana Nazir Ahmad.

The Musharraf regime allotted at least 5,000 acres of prime land in five divisions of Punjab to around 350 army officers at a throwaway price of Rs380 per acre. This fertile land was given to the serving and retired generals on the pretext that these army generals would “prove to be a front line against an invading army”.