09 March 2012 By Saeed Qureshi
Can anyone, by any stretch
of imagination, establish a moral or legal connection
between late Benazir Bhutto's grave and the reopening
of the Swiss bank accounts allegedly maintained in her
and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari's name, now the
president of Pakistan, speculatively for laundering
the ill-gotten wealth?
My head starts spinning
while making a forced attempt to endorse the espoused
stance of the PPP leadership on this sordid issue,
hanging fire for a long time. It is exceedingly
onerous for me to agree with their contention that
reopening of the cases would to tantamount to the
trial of BB's grave.
It is perhaps for the first
time that I have heard the trial of a grave. I cannot
exonerate, even if I diligently want to, the holders
of these bank accounts with fabulous deposits of black
money stated to be as mammoth as $60 million or more.
By attempting to stall a
genuine judicial process under the specious plea of
terming it as a trial of BB's grave, the PPP leaders
are whipping up a sentimental exploitation of the
party' grass-root supporters and unswerving adherents
in order to gain popular support in favor of their
frivolous contention.
But by doing so, they are
making themselves a laughing stock and objects of
ridicule and derision. Besides, their flimsy escapism
would be viewed as a crude attempt to scuttle the due
process of law. Such elephantine cases of blatant and
naked abuse of authority for facilitating shady deals
and bilking the country cannot be pushed under the rug
or left undecided for all time to come.
There has never been a firm
denial of the existence of these dubious offshore
accounts that Asif Zardari and her deceased spouse
also twice the prime minister of Pakistan, maintained
in Swiss banks. The prosecuting Pakistani governments
had filed these cases against the couple with claims
that the money stashed in the Swiss banks was obtained
through clandestine kickbacks commissions in return
for sanctioning or facilitating mega contracts. These
uncanny deals have been in the limelight all along,
and reported and analyzed innumerable times in both
Pakistani and international media.
The National Reconciliation
Ordinance (NRO) inked on October 5 2005, between now
exiled president general Pervez Musharraf and late
Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto was laden with various
self-serving motives on part of both the signatories.
General Musharraf needed a political resuscitation for
his dwindling rule while the other party wanted to
whitewash their corruption cases and get a baptized
re-entry into Pakistan's political arena. It was
indeed an odious marriage of convenience between the
two parties.
The NRO granted blanket
amnesty inter-
alia
to politicians, political
workers, ambassadors, businessmen and bureaucrats who
were involved in
bribery scams,
terrorism,
embezzlements, money
laundering, and
assassinations between
January 1, 1986, and October 12, 1999: the period of
civilian government between two martial laws in
Pakistan. The Supreme
Court of Pakistan declared
NRO unconstitutional
on December 16, 2009.
But with the decline and
unceremonious (barring the military guard of honor)
departure of Pervez Musharraf from the pinnacle power
saddle and the demise of Benazir Bhutto in a terrorist
attack, the linchpin of this high profile corruption
saga Mr. Zardari, by a stroke of incredible luck,
replaced the outgoing president as the elected
president of Pakistan.
The cover up of the money
laundering cases was primarily to be ensured by the
ousted military president. But with the assumption of
the presidency by the main suspect, even the remotest
chance for reopening of these cases has been quashed.
Why would a suspected culprit hang unnecessary yet
avoidable stranglehold around his neck?
A total of 19 corruption
cases were instituted against Bhutto and her husband
during 1990–92 period. Some of the high profile
corruption cases include Zardari's offer of exclusive
rights to Dassault, a French aircraft manufacturer, to
replace the air force's fighter
jets in
exchange for a 5% commission to be paid to a Swiss
corporation controlled by Zardari. Another was the
purchase of 8000 tractors from Poland
for
launching "Awami tractor scheme" that brought a
windfall of $ 2 million in kickbacks.
It is also alleged that a
Dubai based company received an exclusive license to
import gold into Pakistan for which Asif Zardari
received payments of more than $10 million transferred
into his Dubai-based Citibank
accounts. The owner of the company denied that he had
made any payments to Zardari. He also vowed that in
this regard, the documents were forged.
After the return to power
of Pakistan
People's Party, the Swiss cases were withdrawn by the
government in August 2008.
Correspondingly, the Swiss
judicial authorities had closed the money-laundering
cases against Asif Ali Zardari and released $60
million frozen in Swiss accounts. According to certain
estimates the amount that was allegedly received by
the couple by way of bribe and commission and
misappropriation national exchequer during the PPP's
two stints in power could be as high as
$ 1.5
billion.
The supreme court of
Pakistan decreed that the letter earlier written to
the Swiss banking authorities for closing the money
laundering cases should be withdrawn. The purpose of
the Supreme Court was to find out through fresh
proceedings, if the allegations were false or factual.
Since prime minister of
Pakistan Yusuf Raza Gilani has dithered to execute the
Supreme Court orders, he has been arraigned for
contempt of court eclipsing his future and completing
tenure of office as the head of the government. It is
one of the worst crises for its survival that the
incumbent government of PPP is trapped in.
As such the lingering cases
of Swiss bank accounts of president Asif ali Zardari,
have assumed two-fold dimensions: one to decide about
the veracity or otherwise of the stupendous
allegations and the other that of contempt of court
against the prime minister for not complying with the
supreme court's orders.
In a recent interview with
the noted GEO TV anchor Hamid Mir, president Zardari
described the Swiss cases as part of history and
expressed a firm refusal of approaching the Swiss
banking or legal authorities to reopen the closed
cases.
He argued that his party
does not want such a letter to be written to the Swiss
banks since it would be tantamount to a trial of the
grave of the martyred PPP's chairperson. Nevertheless,
he opined that the next government that would be in
place in another 15 months or so could reopen these
cases by writing such a letter.
Such a deviant stand by the
president and his party echelons, defies the
commonsense and undermines a legal process that has
been geared to determine if such a huge money making
scam through foul means, had actually happened or not.
The verdict in favor of president Zardari would revive
and re-establish his tattered image of a corrupt
person.
Instead of terming it as a
trial of Benazir Bhutto's grave, the reopening of the
controversial cases should be rather welcomed by Mr.
Zardari and his party. BB's soul too would rest in
eternal peace if her spouse gets himself and her
exculpated by the court. Also thereafter Mr. Zardari
would be like a newborn child and be able to lead an
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