To give an account of the money looted by (1) the elected representatives of the people of Pakistan (2) the civil servants whose job it is to ensure the money is not looted along with (3) associates consisting of their immediate family, relatives, friends, etc., enjoying the illegal wealth, it is necessary to list the major cases before NAB Punjab presently being actioned at Lahore; these include (1) “Management of Eden Housing & Developers” and others, Lahore, accused person Dr. Muhammad Amjad, amount involved approx. Rs.13000 Million (2) “DHA City’ scam, accused person Hammad Arshad, amount involved approx. Rs. 13000 Million (3) Management of “M/s MNM Motorcycles Pvt Ltd”, accused persons Ahmed Siyal, Muhammad Faisal, Muhammad Jahangir, Ateeq Ahmad, Naeem Khalid, amount involved approx. Rs.10711 Million (4) Management of “Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC)”, “M/s Lahore Casa Developers (J.V)” & Officers/ Officials of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) & Others, accused person Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Fawad Hassan Fawad & Ahad Khan Cheema, amount involved approx. Rs.3399 Million.
(5) Ex-Chairman Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), (illegal investment with M/s High Links Capital (Pvt) Ltd), accused person Asif Hashmi amount Rs.1321 Million (6) Fawad Hassan Fawad, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and others (Assets Beyond Known Source of Income), accused person Fawad Hassan Fawad amount involved approx. Rs.1000 Million (7) Management of “M/s Haq Bahu Sugar Mills (Pvt) Ltd”, accused person Riaz Qadeer Butt, amount involved approx. Rs.856 Million (8) “Muhammad lshaq Dar”, Senator & Ex-Federal Minister and others, accused person Muhammad lshaq Dar, amount involved approx. Rs.834 Million (9) Ex Chairman Evacuee Trust Property Board, accused person, Asif Hashmi amount Involved approx. Rs.774 million (10) “Ahad Khan Cheema” and others (Assets Beyond Known Source of Income), accused person Ahad Khan Cheema, amount involved approx. Rs.400 million
(12) Management/Officers, Officials of “Punjab Saaf Pani Company South”, accused persons Muhammad Saleem Akhtar, Zahir ur-din Khan & Engr. Qamar-ul-lslam Raja, amount involved approx. Rs.345 million (13) Management of “Mecca Sugar Mills (Pvt) Ltd”, accused person Riaz Qadeer Butt, amount involved approx. Rs.346 million (14) “M/s Capital Vision Securities (PVT) Ltd” Security Broker, accused persons Mirza Riaz Ullah Baig & Mirza Ejaz Ullah Baig, amount involved approx. Rs.210 million (15) Shuja Town Housing Society Sahiwal Scam, accused persons Sardar Zahid Shuja & Niaz Ahmad, amount involved approx. Rs.200 Million (16) “Pak Swedish Teachers Associations” Scam, accused persons Haroon Michael Yousaf, Muhammad Sameer Ilyas & Babu Abdul Quyyum, amount involved approx. Rs.105 million (17) Management of “Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation” & Parks Industrial “National Development”, accused persons Chadda, Khalid Mahmood Muhammad Mohsin Syed & amount Muhammad Zubair, involved approx. Rs.82 Million.
(18) Management/Officers, “Lahore Parking Officials of Company”, accused persons Hafiz Mian Numan, Taseer Ahmed & Muhammad Faisal Ahad, amount involved approx. Rs.80 million Company (19) Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Hussain Nawaz Sharif, Hassan Nawaz Sharif & Capt. (Retd) Muhammad Safdar, relating to Avenfield Properties (Flat # 16 ,16- A, 17 ,17-A, Avenfield house, Park Lane, London, United Kingdom), accused persons Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Hussain Nawaz Sharif, Hassan Nawaz Sharif & Capt. (Retd) Muhammad Safdar amount involved Rs.30000 million (20) “Paragon City Housing Society” Scam, accused person Nadeem Zia & Qaiser Amin Butt, Liability yet to be determined (21) “Aleem Khan”, of “Hexam Politician/Owner Investment Overseas Ltd” & others, accused person Aleem Khan, liability yet to be determined (22) “Moonis lllahi”, Ex MPA, Punjab Assembly and others, accused person Moonis Illahi liability yet to be determined.
The cases of politicians of some consequence which are under process include (1) Investigation-Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, family members (Acquired land through coercion in and around Raiwind) (2) Inquiry-Shahbaz Sharif, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, Suleman Shahbaz Shard (Assets Cases) (3) Inquiry-Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, (Misuse of Authority) (4) Inquiry-Rafique, Saad Khawaja of Pakistan Officers/Officials Railways (Misuse of Authority) (5) Inquiry-Aleem Khan (Assets Cases) (6) Inquiry-Moonis Illahi (Assets Cases) (7) Inquiry-Shahbaz Sharif , Concerned, Secretaries Management of Ramzan Sugar Mills Ltd. Chiniot (Misuse of Authority) (8) Inquiry-Mudassir Qayum Nahra, Azhar Qayum Nahra (MNA NA-100) (Assets Case) (9) Inquiry- Sohail Zaffar ,Rizwan Zaffar (Assets Cases) (10) Investigation against Shujaat Hussain & Ch. Pervaiz Ellahi Gujrat (Assets Cases).
From 2017 uptil date 1074 actual arrests have been made out of the 1533 arrest warrants issued. A total of 1754 inquiries have been disposed off from the 1958 authorized. 1064 investigations have been disposed off out of the 1125 authorized while 345 References have been decided from the 723 filed. The conviction ratio has been 74%, about Rs.3184 million have recovered in the last 2 years. This compares with Rs.1874.59 in the 16 years from 2000-2016.
If the fight against corruption is lost all hope for a better and more equitable Pakistan is lost as well. With a long history in our country corruption has reached into the highest spheres of society. When threatened by accountability drives against them the high-ups in corruption tend to go berserk. They will do everything and anything to prevent their corruption to be disclosed, making than public would disable them from taking political posts and destroy their capacity for “lucrative business” through corruption. Character assassination of the people who are investigating their cases is one of the preferred weapons. DG NAB Lahore Shahzad Saleem is such a case. His investigation of corruption charges against Shahbaz Sharif of PML(N) has driven the party management over the edge. With Nawaz Sharif gone PML (N) are now facing the distinct possibility that brother Shahbaz will also be lost for the party. So why not discredit the character of the investigator, a person of strong character with a record of determined struggle against corruption by constructing a case against him. Saleem now fighting for his survival and may be without strong enough connections to defend him went public as is his right as a citizen and spoke to several TV channels defending himself against the accusations. During the interviews he disclosed that Shahbaz was trying to influence the inquiries of NAB when making false accusations in the National Assembly, so privileged by the Constitution. He also said that the NAB had more than enough evidence to file a Reference against Shahbaz and will do so by the end of November.
Whatever the outcome of both corruption investigation Cases against Shahbaz Sharif and the investigation about the validity of Saleem’s degree all the accused have the right to defend themselves against undeserved accusations. They have the right to defend them- selves by going public. Since Shahbaz went public first in the NA, and this was widely accepted in the media, this paved the way for Saleem’s response. With more cases waiting to be investigated and then tried, the kind of mud-slinging that we are witnessing is only the beginning. It is extremely important to defend righteous investigators from being maligned. False accusations are punishable under the law of the land and according to Islamic law as well. Those committing perjury should be brought to book. Also, accusations by columnists under print must be taken under oath by a magistrate so that the perjury counts apply. People launching false accusations have to be brought to justice with the full weight of the law so as to defend the fight and the fighters against corruption.
The task of the Supreme Court is to protect the people of Pakistan from the Constitution being used by the elected representatives (of the people of Pakistan) to protect the corrupt from being held accountable for their amassing of illegal wealth derived from public money. This vast amount of illegal money is used to influence the media, good officials, politicians, etc. to evade accountability. Our Honourable Chief Justice SC, who deserves the greatest respect for his outstanding performance, and has my greatest respect also, talked about “respect” for the accused. Respectfully, I disagree. Those against whom a ‘prima facie” case has been established must not be kept out of the public eye and the information may not be made public so that others with similar grievances against those being investigated can come forward and give more evidence done illegally?
By hook or by crook the corrupt are using all means by to evade accountability, Shahzad Saleem is a symbol of why they must not be allowed to succeed.
