- Says creating and using fake accounts, Asif Zardari bought an entire bank for himself
- Says Shehbaz’s assets in Pakistan are just tip of the iceberg
ISLAMABAD, April 14: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday held a detailed press conference in Islamabad during which he broke down the trail of corruption allegedly instigated by the two families who have always loomed large in Pakistan’s politics: the Sharifs and the Zardaris.
The information minister alleged that if there was one family that had marked the beginning of modern-day corruption in Pakistan, it was the Sharif family.
Chaudhry claimed that starting towards the end of 1988 up until the beginning of 1990, the Sharifs had accumulated a lot of wealth and were in a conundrum about “how to manage it and turn it white to use within Pakistan or anywhere else.”
“Therefore, in 1992, the Economic Reforms Act was introduced,
which had an apparently innocent provision which entailed that the source of money coming from abroad will not be questioned by the authorities,” he said.
“In 1996-97 and then 1997-98, the authorities noticed a very suspicious transaction and found that the company behind it was Hudaibiya Papers Mill, which had a total value of Rs95 million. All of a sudden Rs810m worth of foreign remittances were credited to the company’s accounts.”
An investigation was thus started and it was discovered that the owner of Hudaibiya Paper Mills was Mian Mohammad Sharif, the father of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Chaudhry claimed.
“When the case was torn open in earnest, it was found that an economic hitman, Ishaq Dar, was hired. Dar introduced a novel method for money laundering: fake accounts.
“Money was deposited in these fake accounts and then sent abroad through Hawala Hundi. Thereafter, the money arrived in Pakistan through TT (Telegraphic Transfer) to accounts of 40 individuals, all of whom were related to the Sharifs [including] some very distant relatives.
“All of this was described by Dar under oath to a magistrate in 2008, in a confession which outlined each and every detail,” said Chaudhry as he went over the origins of the alleged Sharif corruption trail.
“The period after that is before you. Musharraf’s investigation could not continue and the Sharifs were given an NRO,” the information minister continued.
“Now why I want to talk about Hudaibiya is because all subsequent cases of corruption followed the exact same scheme. Hill Metal Establishment followed the same method as in Hudaibiya Paper Mills,” he said.
“Hussain Nawaz sent around 126,768 euros […] the overall amount sent by him was around Rs1,165.6 million, through TT to Nawaz Sharif.
“Out of this amount, Nawaz Sharif then gave 820 million to Maryam Nawaz, who then bought agricultural land from the amount,” claimed Chaudhry.
Asif Zardari breathed new innovation into the whole exercise, said the information minister as he moved on to discuss the Federal Investigation Agency’s findings on the PPP co-chairman’s fake accounts case.
“Whereas here [in the case of the Sharifs], there was the creation of and use of fake accounts, Zardari sahab bought an entire bank for himself,” claimed Chaudhry.
Chaudhry alleged an entire network was created in Sindh where fake accounts were created and then money was transferred to people “such as the man who sold falooda (an ice cream dessert) in Faisalabad and saw millions of rupees transferred to his account”.
“In all the cases, money was transferred to insignificant people, such as gardeners, drivers, guards, etc. If a person so much as passed by these people (behind the transactions) from afar, their accounts would be targeted and used,” claimed the information minister.
“When an investigation began into those accounts, FIA unearthed the involvement of around 5000 accounts of which 32 accounts were the main accounts which branched out to the others,” he said.
“Everything was traced to these accounts: payment for Bilawal Bhutto’s aircraft expenditures, for Ayyan Ali’s tickets, and for the expenditures of Bilawal House. Moreover, Bakhtawar [Bhutto]’s birthday expenses were also paid through these accounts,” Chaudhry alleged.
The information minister then unveiled details regarding National Accountability Bureau’s investigation into Shahbaz Sharif holding assets beyond known means of income. – Agencies
