Motorway Scandal:
The Military Keeps it Alive
Special
SAT Report
LAHORE: The Lahore-Rawalpindi Motorway was one of the biggest
financial and political scandals of the Nawaz Sharif Government,
and so was the name of Daewoo, the Korean corporate giant.
With
the change of the government, instead of Daewoo being
asked about its alleged malpractices, the military government
joined hands with the giant to continue the loot and plunder which
had begun in the previous regime.
The
recurring losses on the big road project should have been cut
and no more throwing of good money after bad should have been
allowed. Not so.
The
Ministry being run by former ISI Chief and an active contributor
to Musharraf Government’s financial scams, Lt Gen. Javeed
Ashraf Qazi has now been officially accused of irregularities
of Rs 300 million, mostly in the management, or mismanagement,
of the Motorway.
Official
reports have accused Qazi of following practices which are “repugnant
to the interests of the State,” a very serious charge by
any account. View Report Page1 |
Page2 | Page3
The
report said the Motorway management, directly under the Communications
Ministry, entered into a contract in March 2000 with Daewoo for
supply of vehicles running on M-2, the nick name of the Motorway,
“without obtaining legal and financial approval from the
Ministry of Law and Justice and Finance Division, as required
under the Law.”
The
report goes on to list six very serious lapses in the contract,
against the interests of Pakistan and observes that “the
interests of the Government of Pakistan have not been safeguarded….”
The
report states that Qazi’s Ministry lost over Rs 152 million
in over payments. To whom and in what circumstances these over
payments have been made is a matter of detail but it is clear
that Rs 152 million has gone to favourites for kickbacks and favours
which are not just the work of some junior officials. Such huge
amounts of money show involvement of big fish into the scam.
Likewise
another over Rs 117 million were lost “for violation of
rules”. This also shows that illegal favours were done,
purchases may have been made without following procedures and
all kinds of free for all was going on to spend government money.
These
two figures alone account for almost Rs 270 million in wasted
government money.
Whoever
is responsible for these losses has not been apprehended or brought
to book by the “clean and efficient” military regime
of General Pervez Musharraf, at least not so far.
