Ishaq Dar had Ditched Nawaz Sharif

The Musharraf government prepared a money laundering reference against Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif in 2000 on the basis of a statement recorded by one of their trusted lieutenants, Senator Ishaq Dar. 

Senator Dar’s handwritten statement, given before a magistrate back on April 25, 2000, had alleged that Sharif brothers used the Hudaibya Paper Mills as cover for money laundering during the late 1990s. 

The reference was prepared on the orders of Musharraf, but it was shelved after the Sharif brothers went into exile in December 2000. 

The Musharraf government tried to reopen the reference in 2007 after Nawaz Sharif announced his return to the country.

The confessional statement of Senator Ishaq Dar was recorded before a district magistrate in Lahore. He was brought to the court from a jail by Basharat Shahzad, who was then serving as assistant director in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). 

According to legal experts, the senator’s deposition was an `irrevocable statement’ as had been recorded under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). 

Senator Ishaq Dar has always been regarded as one of the closest aides of the Sharif family, and is now also a relative as his son is married to Nawaz Sharif’s younger daughter. 

At one point in the 43-page statement, Mr Dar said that on the instructions of 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’. 

He 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 Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. 

‘The foreign currency accounts of Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi were opened in Bank of America by Naeem Mehmood under my instructions (based on instructions of Sharifs) by signing the same as Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi.’ 

The document shows Dar stated that besides these foreign currency accounts, a previously opened foreign currency account of Saeed Ahmed, a former director of First Hajvari Modaraba Co and close friend of Dar, 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. 

Senator Dar had 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 implicated himself by confessing in court that he — along with his friends Kamal Qureshi and Naeem Mehmood — had opened fake foreign currency accounts in different international banks. 

Mr Dar said 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. 

He said that the entire amount in these banks finally landed in the accounts of the paper mills. 

The Hudaibiya Paper Mills case is still pending in the NAB.

 If it is opened again, the Sharif brothers may be in for a rude shock: a confidant is to blame for the albatross around their necks.

8 Cases Against Zardari were Disposed of under the NRO

Eight cases against Asif Zardari were disposed of under the NRO.

The charges concerned kickbacks from SGS PSI company

Grant of licence to ARY Gold

Corruption in purchase of Ursus tractors under Awami Tractor Scheme

Award of pre-shipment contract to Cotecna

Assets beyond means

Kickbacks received from former Steel Mills chairman Sajjad Ahmed

Construction of a polo ground at the PM house 

Money laundering in SGS Swiss case

Washington Post Says Zardari May Go

Pamela Constable’s has written an article titled ‘For Pakistani president, goodbye to goodwill’ in the Washington Post (November 16, 2009). She is suggesting that the US-Zardari romance seems to be over.

According to Pamela, “military officials are unhappy over Zardari’s compliant relationship with Washington – while the poor and working-class Pakistanis blame government for protracted shortage of gas, electricity and staple food. They also feel increasingly unprotected, as suicide bombing has killed more than 350 people in the last two months.”

However, Pamela shy away from mentioning the close relations Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari and his interior minister Rehman Malik and Pakistan’s ambassador Haqqani has with the Jewish Lobby in the US.

The Pamela repeated the same old ‘democracy crap’, which has proved to be a sham after how Washington handled the democratic process in occupied Palestine, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, “Zardari’s deepening unpopularity has put Washington in a bind because of its avowed commitment to bolster democratic in Pakistan after a decade of military rule. If he is forced from power, either on old corruption charges or through a collapse of the ruling coalition, Washington might have to deal with new leaders who are less friendly and no better able to solve Pakistan’s problems.”

Pakistan’s all four military rulers (Ayub Khan, Zia-ul-Haq, Yahya Khan, and Pervez Musharraf) were supported and protected by Washington.

She, like Fareed Zakaria, and Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington (known as US ambassador in Washington), Husain Haqqani, is an ‘Islamophobe’.

Haqqani in his book ‘Pakistan Between Mosque and Military’, wrote: “From the point view of Islamists and their backers in ISI, Jihad is on hold but not yet over. Pakistan still have an agenda in Afghanistan and Kashmir.” I wonder why Haqqani forgot to mention India and Israel from his list? According to some government insiders, Haqqani is about to be replaced by princess Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, the former ambassador to Washington.

Fareed Zakria in an article for the Newsweek (May 2, 2009), titled ‘Change We Can’t Believe In’ had advised Washington: “If Washington hopes to change Pakistan’s world-view, it will have to take much tougher line with the military while supporting the country’s civilian leaders, whose vision of Pakistan’s national interests is broader and less paranoid, and envisioned more cooperation with its neighbors.”