References/Complaints

REFERENCE/COMPLAINT NO. IX

Letter dated 18-6-2002 to CJ SCOP on Billion Rs defraud by ETPB / ISI Chief

August 26, 2002

Mr. Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmed
The Chief Justice
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Islamabad

Dear Mr. Chief Justice,

I am writing on behalf of the Pakistan Peoples Party requesting a suo moto inquiry by the Supreme Court against the National Accountability Bureau as well as former ETPB chief and ISI General Javed Nasir.

The NAB conducts politically motivated investigations to achieve political ends. It wastes state funds in the pursuit of a vendetta. Consequently corrupt elements get a free hand to carry on their corruption. The NAB has yet to investigate the corruption allegations against the Minister of Commerce, Minister of Petroleum or the embezzlement of one hundred million dollars from Pension funds known as the EOBI funds, the disappearance of two hundred million dollars of privitisation funds, the source of the four billion dollars which the State Bank bought by printing two hundred and forty billion rupees as well as many other scandals.

NAB is guilty of violating NAB laws the clauses of which include abuse of office and loss to national exchequer.

The NAB has caused a loss of billions of rupees in a six year witch hunt against the PPP leadership turning a blind eye to corruption within the regime itself or to those who support the regime.

The second matter that is raised relates to the corruption allegations relating to former ISI chief and subsequent Chairman of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), Lt Gen Javed Nasir.

General Nasir allegedly swindled Rs 3 billion according to published reports. According to these reports quoting a NAB official, the swindling matter was 'put off for "unknown reasons".

Recently the NAB prosecutor and the deputy prosecutor for Punjab both resigned. Their resignation becomes more significant against this background.

It may be mentioned that the PPP has long held that the NAB was a front for military officers who fought the Afghan Jihad under General Zia and saw the PPP as a threat to their militant geo strategic vision of the region. In this connection, retired military officers from the Zia era were hired on contract in key places including the NAB.

According to the report in the press on August 25 2002, NAB officials 'could not give any reason why the investigations against General Nasir had been put off and not pursued by the Accountability Bureau as it had been doing in the alleged cases of corruptions against opposition politicians particularly former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse'.

Gen. Nasir, following his army retirement, was appointed Chairman of Evacuee Trust Property Board where the controversial 20 land deals resulting in a loss of three billion rupees took place.

One deal involved land on main Ferozepur Road. The land was sold at Rs 348,000 against the market price of Rs4.5 million.

In another deal in Karachi, a plot of market value of Rs. 267m was sold at Rs5.6m. In a sale to 11 persons, another estimated loss of Rs. 243 million was caused. A plot on Super Highway Karachi was disposed of at Rs. 48m against its actual price of Rs. 240m. A plot on main Raiwind Road Lahore, was sold at Rs46m against market price of Rs90m.

Land between Lahore Airport and Defence Housing Society was sold for Rs8.01m against market price of Rs91.85m.

Further allegations relate to the leasing out of PASSCO godown in Lahore and construction of the ETPB complex and Trust Plaza in the federal capital. It is alleged that a loss of Rs320m was caused in the civil works alone.

According to a leading editorial in the Daily Times of August 25,2002 captioned "Another blot on the ISI". "Gen (Retd) Javed Nasir was a born-again Muslim who converted from a playboy to a "pious" man of the reactionary variety. He nursed a flowing beard and ran the biggest Deobandi congregation in Pakistan, the Tableeghi Jamaat annual "jalsa" at Raiwind. He was ... placed atop the ISI .on the request of another ISI officer, Imtiaz Billa, who was also later tried for building up a private empire of properties when in office. He was also the man who facilitated the likes of Osama bin Laden to build terrorist bases in Afghanistan.

Dear Chief Justice, the PPP believes that the false charges trumped up against its leadership were a smokescreen for the siphoning of the state funds by unscrupulous elements using the resources of Pakistan to finance their geo strategic vision instead of spending it on the welfare of the Pakistani people. I hope you will look into the matter with a view to provide relief to the Pakistani people from injustice, corruption and abuse of office by those who claim to be defenders of the law and the state.

Sincerely

Nayyer Bokhari, Advocate
On behalf of Pakistan Peoples Party

The Reference / Complaint is based on the source incorporated as under :

Another blot on the ISI

The Daily Times
August 25,2002

It transpires that an ex-ISI chief has fled the country after defrauding the country of about Rs 3 billion. We're talking about General (Retd) Javed Nasir who retired last as chairman of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (EPTB) amid rumours of corruption. We are now informed that NAB had taken note of his shenanigans at the EPTB but kept its inquiries under the bushel and did not put him on the exit control list. Two of the officers of the EPTB who had for years defrauded the state by formally underselling precious properties belonging to Hindu and Sikh charities have been picked up by NAB, but the family of one of them has been able to migrate to Canada. Apparently Gen Javed Nasir sold public properties in defiance of procedures and sanctioned leases at abysmally low rates compared to market prices. The EPTB complex that was built in Islamabad under his charge was also found to be of substandard quality.

Gen (retd) Javed Nasir was a born-again Muslim who converted from a playboy to a "pious" man of the reactionary variety. He nursed a flowing beard and ran the biggest Deobandi congregation in Pakistan, the Tableeghi Jamaat annual "jalsa" at Raiwind. He was a close "contact" of Nawaz Sharif's father, having been placed atop the ISI when Nawaz Sharif came to power in 1990 on the request of another ISI officer, Imtiaz Billa, who was later also tried for building up a private empire of properties when in office. He was also the man who facilitated the likes of Osama bin Laden to build terrorist bases in Afghanistan.

After Gen Javed Nasir was removed from the ISI in 1993, it was discovered that he had pared off big sums of money by buying property for the ISI at inflated rates. It was also discovered that he had taken the entire ISI foreign exchange budget and placed it in Mehran Bank, which later collapsed, compelling his successor at the ISI, General Javed Ashraf Qazi, to retrieve the money in a commando-type operation against Yunus Habib, the president of Mehran Bank. Despite this kind of odour of malpractice attached to him, however, Nawaz Sharif returned to power in 1997 and placed Javed Nasir in the EPTB. All the while, he wrote low IQ articles praising the Kargil Operation and urging General Musharraf to take on the Indians. Although he was an engineer in the army, he steadily advanced in career because of his "Islamic" guise.

The flight of Gen (retd) Javed Nasir is a big blow to the already maligned ISI in particular and to our intelligence institutions in general. One senior Intelligence Bureau operative, Brigadier Imtiaz Billa, is facing several trials for corruption. He was earlier dismissed for conspiring against his own prime minister, i.e., Benazir Bhutto. An FIA chief, Rehman Malik, is in exile spewing details of corruption in high places while several FIA officers, including a former provincial head who is in prison, are under inquiry. The last ISI chief, Gen Ziauddin Butt, is in the custody of the army for inciting the last prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to dismiss the present army chief and give the job to him. Another former ISI chief, Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, is implicated in the Mehran Bank scandal awaiting trial in the Supreme Court.

It was a bad idea to let the man go. General Musharraf should purge tainted institutions and stop protecting individuals simply because they have been high-echelon military officers.

The Reference / Complaint is based on the source incorporated as under :

NAB inquiry against former ETPB chief put off

The Dawn August 25, 2002

Islamabad: Aug 24: The investigations initiated by the National Accountability Bureau against the former chairman of Evacuee Trust Property Board, Lt Gen Javed Nasir, who has allegedly swindled Rs3 billion have lately been put off for "unknown reasons," a NAB official said.

"Yes investigations were going on against Mr Nasir but no case was pending against him," a colonel at NAB's office in Lahore told Dawn by phone.

The colonel did not comment on the reports that Mr Nasir had slipped out of the country after pocketing a sum of Rs3 billion in several shady land deals of EPTB. However, a NAB official at the headquarters here denied that Mr Nasir had left the country.

The official could not give any reason why the investigations against Mr Nasir had been put off and not pursued by the Accountability Bureau as it had been doing in the cases of corruptions against opposition politicians particularly former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse.

The NAB official also refused to disclose the nature of investigation pending against Lt Gen Javed Nasir who was also the head the country's prime intelligence agency during the tenure of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Political parties had expressed their condemnation over the government's attitude towards the corruption rampant in other state institutions. "This has shown once again that the serving and retired officers of army have been kept beyond the preview of accountability," PPP spokesman Farhatullah Baber said.

The reports that government was turning a blind eye towards the corruption of Mr Nasir in his capacity as the chairman of ETPB has exposed the accountability drive of the present government.

"It is now clear that the on-going process is political motivated aimed at keeping political opponents out of election contest," he added.

The PPP which had been facing brunt of accountability would lodge a formal complaint with the NAB chairman Munir Hafeez to investigate this scam and apprehend all those involved in it irrespective of their rank or position.

Mr Nasir who after his retirement from service had been appointed as the Chairman of Evacuee Trust Property Board reportedly made 20 land deals.

In one deal of five kanals and 16 marlas of land on main Ferozepur Road Mr Nasir siphoned off over Rs4 million as the land was sold at a throw away price of Rs348,000 against the market price of Rs4.5 million.

In another deal of land in Karachi, a plot of market value of Rs267m was sold at Rs5.6m.

Mr Nasir who had relinquished the charge of ETPB on July 16, 2001 on being denied the extension allotted 916 kanals of land in Lahore to 11 different persons causing an estimated loss of Rs243 million.

Another plot of 48 canals on Super Highway Karachi was disposed of by him at Rs48m against its actual price of Rs240m.

The saga of land deals of Mr Nasir did not end here, in yet another deal of 100 kanals on main Raiwind Road Lahore, he made over Rs40m as the plot was sold at Rs46m whereas it market price was Rs90m.

A piece of land between Lahore Airport and Defence Housing Society was sold for Rs8.01m. At the time of deal it carried a market price of Rs91.85m.

Mr Nasir also made huge amount of money in leasing out PASSCO godown in Lahore and in construction of ETPB complex and Trust Plaza here in the federal capital.

In serious misappropriation in the construction of ETPB complex the former chairman caused a loss of Rs320m in the civil works alone.

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