LAHORE, July 25: President Pervez Musharraf has said that the campaign against corruption spearheaded by NAB has yielded positive results, with the menace eliminated to a great extent from society, especially from the higher echelons. Speaking as the chief guest at the cheque distribution ceremony among the cooperatives scam victims at the Aiwan-i-Iqbal organized by the Punjab NAB on Monday, he appreciated the Bureau’s performance and said the campaign against corruption has also left a positive impact on the national economy, “which is one of the best performing economies of Asia today.”

Governor Khalid Maqbool, Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, NAB chairman Lt-Gen Munir Hafeez, Punjab NAB DG Maj-Gen Masood Aslam and PCBL chairman Brig Farooq Maan (retired) were also present on the occasion.

The president said: “When I took over in 1999, corruption was so deep rooted that the lion’s share of funds meant for development, was misappropriated by corrupt elements, with only a small portion utilised on development projects.”

Substantiating his point, he said “in 2000 in a briefing about a project I was told that it would be completed at a cost of Rs116 billion. I asked for reviewing the project and later I was told that it would cost Rs75 billion. However, I asked the army to help execute the project which was completed at a cost of just Rs16 billion.”

Quoting more such examples, the president observed that “you can well imagine how national resources were being looted by the corrupt mafia.” He said the record showed that Rs1,000 billion was spent on development projects during 11 years, from 1988 to 1999, but no mega project of national level could be seen on ground except for the motorway from Lahore to Rawalpindi.

“There is no doubt that a major portion of the funds were pocketed by those at the helm of affairs,” he remarked. The president said as against Rs1,000 billion spent from 1988 to 1999, “we have initiated 12 gigantic projects of national level across the country execution of which would cost only Rs300 billion.”

About the cooperative scandal, he said ban was imposed on cooperatives in 1991 and the PCBL was constituted to recover looted amount and make repayments to the victims but no relief was provided to them by successive governments till 1999.

He said the reason for their failure to take to task those who deprived people of their hard earned savings was that they lacked will and did not want to lay hand on the big fish.

The president said “on the contrary, we decided to first bring to justice to those who considered themselves powerful and above the law.” Gen Musharraf regretted that there had been bad practice in our country of targeting only the poor and leaving those enjoying status in society.

“I am personally averse to this approach and have the conviction that any one indulging in illegalities should be brought to justice no matter how powerful he is. It was in line with this commitment that I strictly directed the NAB to go for the big fish without any hesitation.”

He said this strategy worked well and the NAB succeeded in retrieving big share of the looted amount from powerful corruption mafia, with a number of them sent behind the bars.

President Musharraf said the strategy of not sparing anyone involved in corrupt practices had an overall positive impact, with the clear message that anyone indulging in irregularities would have to face the music.

However, he observed, it could not be claimed that corruption had been fully eliminated.

“In fact this menace can’t be eliminated totally, but it is a matter of satisfaction that we are moving in the right direction, with its incidence reduced to a great extent,” he said.

“Cynics may say that corruption still exists, and I say yes, it is there, but its incidence is quite low.”

The president remarked that it is wrong to find fault with everything and always talk of despair and despondency. “As a nation we should be proud of ourselves and appreciate those doing well. The NAB has done well in combating corruption, and we should acknowledge it.”

“I pay tribute to the NAB for its success in the struggle against corruption and ask them to carry on with the same spirit.”

Appreciating the proposal of PCBL chairman Brig Farooq Maan (retired) to give 10 per cent of the proceeds of properties sold to people bringing these properties of cooperative societies to the notice of PCBL, the President asked the affected people to also play their role in this regard and help identify such properties.

He announced a grant of Rs650 million for payment to the victims of 20 small cooperative societies which have no property at all, as requested by the chairman PCBL.

The president said the country’s economy has been performing well with GDP growth recorded at 8 per cent and per capita income increased to $736 from $500.

He urged the participants to play their role in eliminating religious bigotry and extremism to ensure that country keeps on marching on the road to prosperity.

“You should yourselves work for promotion of amity and brotherhood in society and also ask others to stand up against those fanning sectarianism and extremism,” exhorted the president.

The president said the government has launched struggle against those indulging in extremism and using negative tactics to create hurdles.

The president said he was happy to note that people have rejected extremist elements’ call for strike and hoped that they would do so in future also.

Earlier, NAB chairman Lt-Gen Munir Hafeez and PCBL chairman briefly spoke on the occasion.

It was 24th cheque distribution ceremony and cheques worth Rs147.6 million were disbursed among 1,000 victims.

According to the NAB sources, Rs8.5 billion has so far been disbursed among the affected people.

Depositors of 10 defunct cooperative finance corporations were paid their entire deposited amount while depositors up to Rs500,000 of Services Credit Corporation Limited were paid their full amount.

Victims of remaining corporations were paid 50 per cent of their deposited amount which will be increased as amount recovered from these cooperative finance corporations.

The corporations whose victims were made complete repayments are: Mercantile Cooperative Finance Corporation Ltd, Qudratabad Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, Zamindara Cooperative Credit Corporation Ltd, The Gujar Khan Cooperative Urban Finance Corporation Ltd, National Industrial Cooperative Finance Corporation Ltd, National Industrial Cooperative Credit Corporation Ltd, Pasban Cooperative Finance Corporation Ltd, Pakistan Development Cooperative Corporation Ltd, United Development Cooperative Society Ltd and Prime Industrial Cooperative Development Society Ltd. — APP