REFERENCE / COMPLAINT NO. IX

Reference dated August 11,  2005 – SAF Games

The Chairman
National Accountability Bureau
Islamabad.

Pakistan Peoples Party    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - COMPLAINANT

                                                         VS.

1.      Lt. Gen. Arif Hasan
Chairman SAF Games
 

2.      Brig. Amjad Javaid
Chief Of Staff and Chief Coordinating Officer

3.      Lt. Col. Syed Mujtaba Tirmizi
Information and Media Director

4.      Brig. Ahmed Riza Siddiqi
Administration Director

5.      Brig. Abid Hussain Bhatti
Communication Director

6.      Lt. Col. (Retd) Muhammad Yahya
Technical Director

7.      Lt. Col. Mansoor Abbas
Procurement Director

8.      Lt. Col. Umer Farooq
Information Technology Director

9.      Lt. Col. Azhar Deen
Finance & Marketing Director

10.  Brig.  Arif Rasul Qureshi
Ceremonies Director

11. Brig. Khalid Rasheed Lodhi
Protocol Director  

12.  Lt. Col. Usman Saeed
Chief Engineer  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ACCUSED / RESPONDENTS

Subject: COMPLAINT UNDER SECTION 5 AND 18 (B) SUB SECTION-II OF THE NATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY BUREAU (NAB) ORDINANACE 1999, AGAINST THE HOLDERS OF PUBLIC OFFICE FOR PUNISHMENT UNDER SECTION 10 OF NAB ORDINANCE FOR CAUSING HUGE FINANCIAL LOSS TO THE NATIONAL EXCHEQUER BY CORRUPTION AND CORRUPT PRACTICES.

1.    The respondents in this complaint do fall within the ambit of NAB Ordinance 1999 for the purposes of investigation, trial and punishment.

2.    The respondents are reportedly guilty of corruption and corrupt practices as defined in Section 9 of the Ordinance and as such are subject to punishment under Section 10 of the Ordinance in the capacity of officials of SAF Games and not as Military officials based upon the following facts and grounds:

Facts and Grounds:

1. That as reported in the daily “The Dawn” dated 27-3-2005, “The Law” dated 1-6-2005 (Copies of Press Clippings enclosed) & Audit Report on Accounts of Federal Government – (Civil) Audit Year 2003-2004 Vol - B from Page 21 to 26 issued from the office of the Auditor General of Pakistan, Islamabad claimed that Respondents were deeply involved in corruption of Millions Rupees in SAF Games. (Photocopy attached) 

2. That the respondents gave underhand benefits to private organizations through verbal agreements as revealed in Audit Report of the Auditor General of Pakistan.  

3. That the respondents accepted that they failed to recover Rs 9.45 millions from ARY in violation of an amendment in contract clauses and some clauses of previous contracts were not implemented. 

4. That according to article 3.17 and 504 (h) of principle agreement entered into by Chairman 9^th SAF Games with M/s Interflow Communications ( Private) Limited, and 30% of the sale proceeds of Hero Cards Scheme was required to be credited into SAF Special Bank Account, but a sum of Rs 16.98 million was yet to be realized by the respondents according to para 2.2 page 22 of Audit Report 2003-2004.     

5. That according to para 2.4 page 23 of Audit Report 2003-2004, the Sponsorship Agreement was granted to M/s Pakistan Moblink Communication Company Limited on 31-8-2001 for setting up the Gun Club for Rifle Shooting . Under this agreement M/s Moblink were declared as official sponsors of the 9^th SAF Games and the whole project to promote their business through advertisements, promotional signboards & banners. They were to pay Rs 3.5, 1.5 and 7.0 million respectively. The payment was made only for advertisements and promotional signboard. However Rs. 7.0 million was not paid.  

6. That failure to return loan of Rs 150.0 Million to the Ministry of Minorities, Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs that was released from SAVER Fund by the Ministry for the preparation of 9^th SAF Games vide para 205 on page 24 of the Audit Report. 

7. That loss of Rs 220,150 due to embezzlement of 22,015 post cards (Rs 10 per card) was found  in the inventory of post cards vide para 2.7 on page 25 in the Audit Report of 2003-2004.   

The above facts have been taken from following references (Copies enclosed) : 

1. The daily “The Dawn” dated 27-3-2005

2. The "South Asia Tribune" dated 29-4-2005

3. The fortnightly Journal “The Law” dated 1-6-2005 – “SAF SCAM”

4. Audit Report on Accounts of Federal Government – (Civil) Audit year 2003-2004 Vol - B from Page 21 to 26, issued from the Office of the Auditor General of Pakistan, Islamabad

Conclusion: 

Based on the above facts and grounds, respondents have shown willful indulgence in corrupt practices under Section 9 of the NAB Ordinance 1999. Such persons are subject to punishment under Section 10 of the NAB Ordinance 1999.

As such the Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau is called upon to initiate investigation in connection with matters set out herein above and further proceed to file a Reference against respondents for violating the provisions of Section 9 of the NAB Ordinance 1999 punishable under Section 10 of the NAB Ordinance in competent court of law and proceed against those concerned for violating Section 9 of the NAB Ordinance 1999.

Complainant :

Pakistan Peoples Party

Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, MNA
Advocate High Court

Islamabad : 11 August 2005

Corrupt Musharraf's Generals, Exposed by Musharraf's Generals

The South Asia Tribune
By Shaheen Sehbai

WASHINGTON, April 29: General Pervez Musharraf cannot, and does not, publicly claim that he has eliminated corruption altogether in Pakistan but he frequently boasts about cleaning up the top levels of his military cum civil administration.

Now his own trusted men are exposing these tall claims     by pointing fingers and naming the military regime’s big guns who are turning out to be the really big thieves. A few most glaring examples:

When a prominent cabinet minister who was visiting Washington a few months back, revealed quietly to me and a friend, the horrifyingly ugly scale of land grabbing and fake land sale scams going on in Pakistan, especially in Punjab, we frankly did not believe him.

We thought the minister was trying to get even with his uniformed masters for not fulfilling the tall political promises made to him. But the magnitude of the scams was such that the minister genuinely felt concerned and wanted us to write about them, although as a politician he was not going to raise his voice publicly and was prepared to serve those very Generals in every top position.

The minister has now been proved right. Thanks to one of the more upright Generals in the present lot, the Corps Commander of Lahore, Lt. General Shahid Aziz, details of the massive land scams are emerging.

Our ministerial source says Corps Commander Aziz, has started a serious investigation against his predecessor, the last Corps Commander of Lahore, currently posted in the GHQ, Lt. General Zarrar Azim, known in the real estate world of Lahore as General Zarrar Zamin (land).

Early results of this fight between the top military bulls has revealed that General Zarrar was so deeply involved in the scam of Lahore Defence Society that in the price of every plot of land allotted in the society, a fee of Rs 600,000 (US$10,000) had to be built-in, almost automatically, meant for the Corps Commander’s office.

In this scam, it is now being found by the detectives of the new Corps Commander, that not only the out-going CC was involved, he was using a junior officer, Major Lodhi as a front man. This major is related to General Musharraf’s coup partner and now retired General Aziz of Kargil fame.

The details of these Defence Society scams are mind boggling. Thousands of plots of lands are designated in official files as Defence Society land and these plots are then sold and re-sold on files. More paper Housing Societies are registered and approved and they claim vast tracts of land without owning a square yard.

According to our source, in Lahore alone there are 12,000 files of plots for Sectors 7, 8, 9 and 10 for which there is no land actually available on the ground. How many thousands of more such plots have been sold is not yet known but the probe ordered by Lt. Gen. Aziz will bring out some facts.

According to a going joke in the Army Mess Circuit, the last request General Musharraf made to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi was to give him 8,000 acres of land from the Indian territory across the Wagah-Atari border, 30 miles from Lahore, in return for Kashmir and Siachin, because “my boys have already sold this land in the files.”

Lahore is not the only Land of Land Scams. What has happened in Gwadar and Rawalpindi is of no less import.

The ministerial source said in the Bahria Town of Rawalpindi and Lahore, thousands of non-existent plots have been sold by the scheme managers. In Bahria Town of Lahore for 7,000 available plots 28,000 applications were accepted with deposits. But in Bahria Town Islamabad/Rawalpindi 77,000 plots have been sold which require land equivalent to 16 built-up sectors of Islamabad.

“What we are getting into is the Mother of all Scams because billions upon billions of people’s money has been collected by these project sponsors while there is no land to be allotted. How many of these buyers get back their deposits and when, is the 50 billion rupees question,” the source said.

Incidentally official records of the Ministry of Defence presented before the National Assembly show that Pakistan Army has Defence Housing Societies in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on an area of only 179,308 Kanals, or 22,500 acres. Pakistan Navy and Air Force have two housing societies each covering an area of 712 and 536 acres of land respectively.

Another of Musharraf’s top commanders, Lt Gen. Tariq Wasim Ghazi, former Corps Commander of Karachi became notoriously famous in Karachi for similar land scams in Defence Society, Karachi, including Creek City and allotment to two special people, Humayun Butt and Fareed Veerani. Who are these specials and what is their involvement is being investigated by South Asia Tribune and will be revealed soon.

The Gwadar land scam has already infuriated the Baloch leadership and one reason why they are so violent and non-compromising is how their mother land is being sold and resold to outsiders after it was fraudulently bought from them for peanuts. In Gwadar the Generals and their front men were quietly told to buy the land from locals much in advance of announcement of mega projects. Once this mopping up operation was completed, the projects were announced and trading of this real estate began, multiplying the prices by 20 or even 40 times.

The ministerial source said the bigger scandal in Gwadar has started just recently when Government has ordered all its banks and State-owned Corporations to buy land in Gwadar at market prices. Middlemen have already sold and resold these plots many times over to different parties to perk up the market price. “The tax payer will now end up paying the premium to these land mafias,” the source said.

In a much quieter operation in Lahore the City Government of Nazim (Mayor) Mian Amer Mahmood claimed on Sunday, April 24, that it had succeeded in vacating 3,000 kanals (375 acres) of land belonging to schools from a land mafia, but interestingly he did not name the mafia. Most of those who read the small story or who were present when the announcement was made understood who was involved.

While Corps Commanders of Musharraf are involved in perpetuating or dismantling these land scams, one of his pillars of accountability, the former head of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Lt. General (Retd) Amjad Hussain was himself accused of massive corruption in the corporation he has been heading.

This charge of corruption was leveled in the National Assembly of Pakistan and involved the Fauji Foundation, undeniably the largest corporate body of Pakistan, now waiting to take over the largest public sector company, Pakistan State Oil.

The National Assembly was told last week that a high-level inquiry had been ordered against the management of the Fauji Foundation after detection of huge financial bunglings. General Amjad was facing the inquiry for selling a sugar mills in a non-transparent manner at less than the highest bid to a business enterprise which did not even participate in the bidding process.

The Assembly was told that the Khoski Sugar Mills was sold at Rs300 million against a previous bid of Rs387 million offered by a private party. Defence Minister Rao Sikandar ordered the inquiry to fix responsibility on those who violated the financial procedures and rules by going out of the way to benefit a favorite firm.

While the above details show that in-service Generals and Corps Commanders were being investigated for corruption, another officially announced corruption case was against the management of the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games, interestingly consisting of all military officers headed by Lt. General Arif Hassan.

The management of SAF Games has been found involved in financial irregularities to the tune of Rs201 million, which among other charges, include giving undue benefit to private organizations through "verbal agreements," Daily Dawn said quoting an audit report .

The ninth SAF Games management included Chairman Lt. Gen. Arif Hassan, Chief of staff and chief coordinating officer Brig. Amjad Javaid, Information and media director Lt. Col. Syed Mujtaba Tirmizi, Administration Director Brig. Ahmad Riza Siddiqi, Communications Director Brig Abid Hussain Bhatti, Technical Director Lt. Col. (retired) Muhammad Yahya, Procurement Director Lt. Col. Mansoor Abbas, Information Technology Director Lt. Col. Umer Farooq, Finance and Marketing Director Lt. Col. Azhar Dean, Ceremonies Director Brig. Arif Rasul Qureshi, Protocol Director Brig. Khalid Rasheed Lodhi and Chief Engineer Lt. Col. Usman Saeed.

The question being asked in all relevant circles was that even to organize an sporting event, none of the very well qualified civilians was found to be suitable and from top to bottom all army men had been inducted as if it SAF Games were military exercises. And now these sacred cows have been found to be involved in irregularities and corruption.

In a military regime, obviously the Corps Commanders and senior Generals are the top level of Government and if scams and scandals involving these top men are officially exposed, some in the National Assembly and others by leaks to the media by his own people, how would General Musharraf explain his claims of eliminating top level corruption.

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