Fawad says Rs33bn recovered in case against Zardari
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ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday again hit out at the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and its government in Sindh over alleged corruption, claiming that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had so far recovered Rs33 billion in the fake accounts case against former president Asif Zardari.
This was said by the minister through a tweet which prompted an immediate reaction from PPP leaders, who refuted the minister’s claim and termed it “baseless.”
“NAB has so far recovered Rs33bn which is equivalent to $200m, in the Asif Zardari fake accounts case. The actual case is related to about Rs5,000bn. With this much recovery, one can imagine the level of corruption in the country and how the rulers had looted Sindh and Pakistan,” Mr Chaudhry tweeted.
When contacted, the minister said the amount had been recovered by NAB from various accused in the fake accounts case against Mr Zardari through plea bargains.
PPP leaders reject claim
Mr Chaudhry was referring to the last month’s hearing of the case in the Supreme Court where NAB had informed the court that it had entered into plea bargain or pardon agreements with several accused involved in the case for the surrender of illegal benefits worth Rs33.2bn. The bureau had explained that the present cases related to complicated financial crimes involving more than 10,000 banking transactions routed through various fake/benami accounts to conceal the origin of funds, aimed at breaking the money trail.
PPP information secretary and MNA Shazia Marri refuted the allegation also through her social media account on Twitter, saying Mr Chaudhry had been saying himself that not a single rupee of corruption had been proved against Mr Zardari.
Ms Marri said Mr Zardari, who had remained imprisoned for more than 11 years in the past and then for two years recently despite being not found guilty, would give a tough time to his opponents. She said the opponents of Mr Zardari had only been levelling baseless allegations while nothing had been proved against Mr Zardari.
 Imran Khan cannot spend even 11 days in jail.”
Saeed slams NAB
In a related development, Sindh Education Minister and PPP leader Saeed Ghani while addressing a news conference in Islamabad lashed out at the anti-graft watchdog for allegedly carrying out one-sided accountability and said NAB Chairman retd Justice Javed Iqbal was being “blackmailed because of his leaked video”.
Mr Ghani declared that he would go to the NAB office in Karachi on Monday (tomorrow) to offer himself for arrest and would not apply for a bail.
Mr Ghani was responding to a NAB statement through which the bureau had denied several allegations made by Mr Ghani against it and announced that it would soon send a legal notice to him for “misleading the public and trying to tarnish the image of NAB”.
Mr Ghani had recently criticised NAB for not investigating the corruption case against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and Opposition Leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh.
NAB clarified that its Karachi bureau was conducting an inquiry against Mr Sheikh.
Mr Ghani said so far he had not received any notice from NAB for speaking against its chairman.
The minister challenged NAB officials to arrest him and said he would go to the NAB office on Monday only with two pairs of clothes.
“What kind of magic Haleem Adil Sheikh has that NAB people get annoyed when I mention his name? Why NAB does not act against the people involved in the biggest wheat, sugar and medicine scandals in the country?” he asked.
“Why are the NAB people silent on government scandals? When we ask them to take action, they start filing cases against us,” Mr Ghani said.
He alleged that the government was blackmailing NAB and influencing every case taken up by it.
“After my statement, an investigation has been ordered against me,” he said.
Mr Ghani questioned as to why Mr Sheikh’s name was not being placed in the Exit Control List.
He said the biggest wheat scandal in the country had come to light. “Why are the NAB people silent on this wheat scandal? Wheat scandal report has not come yet and it seems that the government has suppressed this report. What have the NAB people done on the government’s mega corruption scandal, including drug prices, flour scandal and sugar scandal?” he kept on asking.
He said NAB Karachi had written a letter to the bureau’s headquarters in which there was an inquiry report on land grabbing by Mr Sheikh but no action was taken on this report. On the other hand, he said, the opposition members were caught merely on the basis of charges, which exposed “NAB-Niazi nexus”.
“I have been talking against NAB chairman for so long but no investigation has been ordered against me. However, when I talk about action against Haleem Adil Sheikh, NAB does not do anything against Sheikh but orders action against the claimant,” he said.
Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2021
