Finally, the Swiss Connection
In Sept 15, 1997 the Ehtesab Cell in the PM’s Secretariat announced that the Swiss Government had agreed to the freezing of accounts in the names of Ms Benazir Bhutto, Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Mr Asif Ali Zardari on the basis of credible evidence about transfer of ill-gotten wealth. Their accounts, vaults and lockers were in the Union Bank of Switzerland, the Barclays Bank, Citi Bank S.A. and the Contrade Ormond Burrus Banque Privee SA. Senator Saifur Rahman, Chairman of the Cell, who was flanked by the Federal Law Minister Khalid Anwar, disclosed that the seizure order, effective from Sept 8, 1997 was conveyed to the Cell by the Federal Office for Police Matters (FOP), Berne. The Swiss have given Government of Pakistan (GoP) three months until Dec 7 to come up with more evidence. With this seizure, the Bhutto/Zardari duo take their rightful place in the history of the infamous and the corrupt, along with the likes of Marcoses, the Shah of Iran, Rajiv Gandhi and Mobutu, leaders who looted wealth from the countries and the people they professed to love. For the record, Ms Benazir has denied these allegations, her defence is ingenious, “who doesn’t have accounts abroad?” One may well ask, why not declare them then? And also where did all the money come from?
Obviously someone close to the Bhutto/Zardari clan has squealed. The obvious suspicion falls on Javed Pasha who benefited most from Zardari’s largesse and had intimate knowledge of his dealings or it could be Hamid Asghar Kidwai who had a bone to pick. Whoever has turned State’s evidence to spare his own neck is not important, the fact is that for the first time in the history of Pakistan illegally held assets abroad have been disclosed. Their existence in actual fact should mean automatic disqualification for the royal duo and the Queen Mother from Parliament and public life since these were not declared in their assets. The filing of assets being done under oath, it amounts to also committing perjury. Since CBR and SBP laws have also been broken, at the very minimum all their local assets should be confiscated. If indeed these foreign accounts are not really the property of the accused, then let them certify that its contents should be handed over to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). On the other hand, if the threesome want to contest the ownership then there is the question of where they got the undisclosed sum, ranging between US $ 65-80 million? There is also the problem of justifying as to why they needed six offshore foreign firms; among them Bomer Finance Inc, Mariston Securities Inc, Capricorn Trading SA, Cotechna Inspection SA, etc. The disclosure of details of all the transactions would allow private investigators to trace back the umbrella tree identifying all those “holier than thou” foreign firms doing business in Pakistan who benefited by the support of the royal duo and for which in return they received this illegal largesse. There would also be a catalogue of a number of Pakistanis who have been paying money to the royal couple for unspecified favours. More than the treasure trove available on the accounts, these links should provide clues to a number of mysterious transactions, some of these may have also bordered on the fail-safe line of national security. Persons who loot the country at will, normally have no qualms about selling the country’s secrets to the highest bidder. It is upto the Chairman of the Ehtesab Cell to commission private investigative companies without delay to trace out the origins of each transaction. It would also be very interesting to clear the air about the purported cheque of US $ 5 million given to the Government of Pakistan (GoP) in 1972 by the Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, ostensibly to help Pakistan out in nuclear research. The cheque was supposedly in the name of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and he is supposed to have deposited it into his own personal account with Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in Geneva, purchasing (it is believed) about 10-12 tons of gold. Then there is the matter of the many boxes of Swat emeralds that disappeared without a trace from Pakistan in 1972, suppose they should turn up in some vaults?
