The Sharif Family Saga of Corruption
There is no probing required by any military court. NAB, under Gen Amjad and Gen Khalid Maqbool has already done a lot of probing into the money laundering case by Sharif family from 2000 to 2002. I wonder why NAB is silent and why it is sitting over all that evidence?The entire details of money laundering and money trail during the 1990s, which was also used to buy off the Avenfield House apartments, has been confessed by Ishaq Dar, Saeed ahmed ( present deputy governor, Haroon Pasha and Kamal Qureshi of Ittefaq/ Sharif Group and a Money Exchange operated by Zaigham, in April 2000 in the interim Hudabiya Paper Mills Reference.Later in Sept 2001,a supplementary Reference by the name of Hudabiya Paper Volume two, was filed with irrefuteable evidence showing receipt of transactions and statements of money changers, implicating the sharif family in money laundering.Ishaq Dars statement’s in this money laundering case is an ‘irrevocable statement’ as it has been recorded under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
In his statement, Ishaq Dar accused Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif of money laundering in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case. At one point in the 43-page statement, Dar said that on the instructions of Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, “I opened two foreign currency accounts in the name of Sikandara Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi with the foreign currency funds provided by the Sharif family in the Bank of America by signing as Sikandara Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi”.Qazis are a Pakistani family settled in London, with whom Ishaq Dar was lodged up as a paying guest while he was doing his Chartered Accountancy. He somehow managed to get hold of copies of their passports which he used for opening fake accounts. Dar himself used to sign all cheques on behalf of the Qazis. This is all confessed by Dar while he was lodged at Chamba House ( NABs temporary HQs in Lahore) from Jan to April 2000. Haroon, Kamal Qureshi, Dar, Naeem and a Lahore money changer- Zaigham were all produced before the court at Circuit House Lahore in April 2000 after the completeion of their 90 days detention, when the Hudabiya Reference was filed. Dar advised to the others in the court that they should fully cooperate with NAB as the game is over. He however feigned that he had been beaten up severely during his detention and needed assistance while walking.Some of the Qazis have shifted to the U.S after the NAB Reference was filed as they felt insecure in Britain.Dar said that all instructions to the bank in the name of these two persons were signed by him under the orders of “original depositors”, namely Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif.Dar further states “The foreign currency accounts of Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi were opened in Bank of America by Naeem Mehmood ( Dars office assistant) under my instructions (based on instructions of Sharifs) by signing the same as Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi.”Dar stated that besides these foreign currency accounts, a previously opened foreign currency account of Saeed Ahmed, (present Deputy Governor state bank and a former director of First Hajvari Modaraba Co and close friend of Dar from his student days) and of Mussa Ghani, the nephew of Dar’s wife, were also used to deposit huge foreign currency funds provided by “the Sharif family” to offer them as collateral to obtain different direct and indirect credit lines.Dar has disclosed that the Bank of America, Citibank, Atlas Investment Bank, Al Barka Bank and Al Towfeeq Investment Bank were used under the instructions of the Sharif family.Interestingly enough, Ishaq Dar also implicates himself by confessing in court that he along with Haroon Pasha and Kamal Qureshi of Sharif group and Naeem Mehmood (Dars office boy) had opened fake foreign currency accounts in different international banks.Dar states that an amount of $3.725 million in Emirates Bank, $ 8.539 million in Al Faysal Bank and $2.622 million were later transferred in the accounts of the accounts Hudaibya Paper Mills.The Qazi family upon coming into knowledge that millions of dollars are lying in their accounts in various banks lodged a complaint to the police in London in 1998.Dar updated the P.M of the situation and as a result the entire 7 member Qazi family was invited over to Lahore as State guests by the prime minister, and pacified!Where are those files? The last time I saw them were at the office of Maj Farooq Adam, the Prosecutor General of NAB during the initial years. No further probe is required. Only a verdict needs to be awarded!By the way, one of the co-accusseds later read out both volumes of the Reference to the Sharifs at Saroor Palace. They were not satisfied with the amount of wealth they had and raised eyebrows at each other in suspicion.
