PML-N President Nawaz Sharif made financial gains of $418 million during his two stints as prime minister of the country, according to a book, Capitalism’s Achilles Heel, by Raymond W Baker.
The book by the American is a dossier on the corruption of most dominating political families in the history, including the Sharifs, and explains how they accumulated their properties, factories and enormous wealth. According to the book, at least $160 million were pocketed by Nawaz from a contract to build the Motorway from Lahore to Islamabad during his first stint as prime minister in 1990.
Baker states in his book that Nawaz made at least $140 million in unsecured loans from banks, more than $60 million from government rebates on sugar exported by mills controlled by him and his business associates, and at least $58 million from the import of wheat from the US and Canada. “In the wheat deal, Mr Sharif’s government paid prices far above the market value to a private company owned by a close associate of his in Washington,” the book states quoting records.
Falsely generated invoices for the wheat generated tens of millions of dollars in cash. The book review went on to state, “The extent and magnitude of this corruption is so staggering that it has put the very integrity of the country at stake.”
The lion that fed on public’s money
