foreign cases not Pak responsibility 
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau’s most important but now abandoned files on the alleged corruption of Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari claim that Rs 90 billion was swindled and that the ex-ruling couple has dozens of offshore bank accounts, business interests and real estate.
But even those at the top in the NAB do not know today how this alleged amount – Rs 90 billion ($1.5 billion) – was calculated. Whether this is an exaggerated figure or real, the NAB and its forerunner the Ehtesab Bureau have been quoting this in the past as being the “stolen” money. However, both Benazir and Zardari never admitted to it. Rather they have been consistently pleading their innocence, claiming that the corruption cases against them were filed with malice to politically victimize them.
The NAB files on the ex-ruling couple are voluminous and in bundles. But to the good luck of the duo after early this year’s closure of the bureau’s special cell, which was probing the couple’s cases, these files are rarely touched.
Speaking informally and strictly off the record, NAB officials admit in their background interviews that the bureau’s special cell probing and pursuing the Benazir-Zardari corruption cases continues to be inactive.
An official has been assigned to look after Benazir-Zardari cases following the closure of the special cell but there are many, even within the bureau, who believe that the cases would not be seriously pursued. One of the top NAB officials, when contacted, denied having received instructions from the top rulers to become soft on Benazir-Zardari cases.
About the high-profile foreign cases in British, Swiss and Spanish courts against the couple, the NAB seems to have got cold feet. A senior NAB official did not hesitate in saying that the prosecution of these cases was the responsibility of the respective host countries and not that of the government of Pakistan. He said Pakistan would figure only when its legal aid was sought. He confirmed that in the case of Mardid, the NAB had already informed the foreign court in writing that it was no more a party to the case. Madrid has charged Benazir, Rehman Malik and a close relation of the PPP chairperson of serious corruption in the UN’s oil-for-food programme.
The Spanish government, the source however disclosed, is serious in pursuing the case and is not much bothered about the lack of interest by the government of Pakistan. While the NAB is giving confusing signals, the voluminous files on Benazir and Zardari talk of 11 frozen bank accounts in London, eight frozen bank accounts in Madrid, dozens of frozen bank accounts in Geneva and a long list of inland and foreign property business concerns. The couple is also said to have seven bank accounts in the US.
Benazir and Zardari, according to the NAB files, own eight properties in the UK, including the 131-hectare Rockwood estate in Surrey, eight properties in the US, including a country club in West Palm Beach, and a stud farm in Texas, four bank accounts and two properties including a lion home in the name of Zardari’s father and a lot more. The couple is also said to have properties and bank accounts in Dubai.
The couple has been accused of amassing a fortune in foreign banks and in foreign lands by taking kickbacks and commissions on government contracts, including SGS-Cotecna, ARY, Ursus Polish tractor deal, Swedish aircraft deal, Agosta submarine purchase, etc.
It was alleged that in a $4 billion 32 Mirage aircraft purchase deal, a document indicated that an agreement was reached to pay 5% “remuneration” – about $200 million to a foreign company owned by Zardari.
Two Swiss companies, the SGS and Cotecna, were implicated in $11.8m pay offs for a $131m contract to supervise Pakistan’s customs service. The amount was said to have been paid to an offshore company, owned by Zardari.
A letter of the-then managing director of Cotecna Robert M Massey, addressed to Zardari’s reported offshore Swiss company, also makes part of the NAB files. The letter confirms, “Should we receive, within six months from today, a contract from the Government of Pakistan for the inspection and the price verification of goods imported in Pakistan, we Cotecna Inspection SA, Geneva will pay you 6% (six percent) on the total amount invoked and paid to us by the Government of Pakistan for such a contract during the duration of that contract and its renewal. These payments will be made to you by us quarterly, on the basis of amounts effectively received by us in Geneva.”
These files also talk of bank transfer details of another pay-off from a Dubai-based gold dealer, who allegedly paid cash to Capricorn Trading, a Virgin Island firm controlled by Zardari in return for an exclusive license to import gold into Pakistan. The documents show two transfers of $5 million into Capricorn’s accounts from the Dubai-based Company’s account. The company, nevertheless, denied paying kickbacks and claimed that the documents were forgeries. These files speak of documentary evidence of pay-offs from Ursus, a Polish tractor company.
The NAB files also give details of foreign and local accounts and the properties they own, under their name or otherwise, both within Pakistan and outside.
According to a NAB source, the kind of evidence collected by the Bureau against Benazir and Zardari is exceptional and even appreciated by the foreign courts, which entertain such cases of corruption only on the basis of strong evidence.
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