Director General NLC, General (Retd) Imtiaz, while appearing before the PAC, admitted that his organization invested Rs 4.3 billion in the stock market on orders of General Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz. Musharraf wanted to spur the stock market to prove efficacy of his policies. Thus, NLC invested and lost a substantial part of the Rs 2.4 billion that it invested in a fast-depleting stock market and the remaining amount, according to the DG, might have been lost too. A substantial portion of the invested amount the NLC had borrowed from commercial banks on commercial rate of mark-up. Musharraf recently said on camera that Shaukat Aziz had fled the country 'because he was a coward'. Billions belonging to a national organization have gone down the tube, while the brave Mr Musharraf plays tennis, smokes Havana cigars, and lives ostentatiously on taxpayers' expense. He is unlikely to face justice for his misdeeds as no one like him has ever been held accountable in the past. He is being rather brash in calling Shaukat Aziz a coward, though. Shaukat too would have lived in the country and enjoyed life, like his former master, if he had the all-powerful institution that backs Musharraf at his back. -DR A.P. SANGDIL, Oslo, Norway, via e-mail, February 24.