Sharif accused of graft worth $ 100 m

ISLAMABAD, Oct 20 (PTI, UNI) — The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan has initiated a probe into ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s alleged involvement in bank frauds and charged him with financial misdeeds amounting to over $ 100 million, a media report said here today.

In a report submitted to the military authorities, the FIA accused Sharif of money laundering to the tune of $ 40 million, tax evasion of over $ 60 million, bank fraud and forgery of over $ 10 million and an unspecified amount by misusing his office and public funds for personal benefits, the domestic PPI news agency said, quoting official sources.

The FIA report said the agency along with commercial banks of Karachi circle had also initiated a probe into the alleged involvement of Sharif and his Interior Minister Choudhury Shujaat Hussain in bank frauds.

The report, quoting sources, said Sharif’s first cousin and owner of Kashmir Sugar Mills Javed Shafi was sanctioned a bank loan of Rs 1 billion, while a close relative of Hussain who also owns a sugar mill, was sanctioned a loan of Rs 200 million.

Sharif’s family business concern — the Ittefaq group — and Hussain have major interest in the sugar business and they control more than 80 per cent of Pakistan’s sugar industry. Almost the entire lot of sugar exported to India recently was from these two business groups.

Former FIA Director-General Rehman Malik had earlier sent from London a 200-page report to President Muhammar Rafiq Tarar making almost similar allegations of money laundering by Sharif and his business group. But the President had ignored the report then.

Meanwhile, the report said the authorities had also finalised a list of nearly 400 major defaulter firms and companies owing more than Rs 70 billion to the public sector banks and about 2500 owners and partners of these firms have been barred from leaving the country.

Pursuant to Musharraf’s proclamation, the country’s main governing bank — the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) — has set a deadline of November 16 for banks to recover all their outstanding loans.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's new military ruler Gen Parvez Musharraf has released more than 100 Islamic militants whom Sharif’s government had arrested for protesting against the Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil in July.

According to Urdu daily Ausaf Islamabad, these Mujahideen (Islamic warriors) belong to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Harkatul Mujahideen and Tehrikul Mujahideen. The Sharif government had arrested them from Gujranwala, Muzaffargarh, Dera Ismail Khan, Sargodha, Karachi and other cities.

However, General Musharraf has shied away from putting a date on the country’s return to democracy.

Civil society representatives at the first meeting here to discuss the constitutional, economic and foreign fallout of the military takeover, ruled out an early return, saying the generals are here to stay longer than generally perceived.