This poor country has to pay $28.7 Million to a US firm Broadsheet LLC hired in 2000.
There is a legal requirement to conclude a contract signed with a foreign company in case the State does not intend to proceed further, especially after Musharraf decided to let the former PM go on exile and drop all charges. The government then had numerous legal advisors and others holding immense power, which places on them the responsibility for signing an agreement with Broadsheet LLC and not closing it with no financial repercussions. What is astonishing is that $5 million was paid to settle the matter but there are no receipts as evidence that such a payment was made.
This country has suffered because of the obsession of heads of state, to punish their political adversaries, and in the process, their mental faculties are so occupied that the affairs of the state suffer. There is a procedure laid down in the constitution to proceed against public officeholders. Public office holders accused of corruption should be proceeded against in accordance with laws in existence and the constitution.
A former Chairman FBR has stated that almost $120 to 150 billion belonging to Pakistanis is deposited in foreign bank accounts. He also stated that only 20% of this is corruption money and the rest 80% is institutionalized corruption consisting of commissions from state procurement deals and deposits by traders etc., through under or over-invoicing.
MALIK TARIQ ALI,
Lahore.