NAB moves against Babar Ghauri to tame MQM

The top leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has taken the defiance by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) over Altaf Hussain’s refusal to meet President Asif Ali Zardari “very seriously”, and has decided to tighten the noose around the top MQM leaders, Pakistan Today has reliably learnt.
A top government official said that after the announcement by MQM Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar to go on a solo flight in the upcoming polls without allying with the PPP, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been activated to move against MQM leaders, with Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Senator Babar Khan Ghauri as the first apparent target.
“NAB Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bukhari has directed NAB to move against Babar Ghauri and all the misappropriations in the Ministry of Ports and Shipping would be brought to the fore and action would be taken against the accused,” said the source, adding that NAB had started gathering data regarding illegal appointments and encroachments and takeover of state property,” said the source.
The source said that action would soon be initiated against the land mafia involved in illegal takeover of state land and properties of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT). The source said the move was a message to the MQM leadership that if it did not behave, more such actions would be taken and more MQM leaders would be rounded up.
A NAB spokesman also issued a handout in this regard from NAB headquarters. “Despite delays and lack of cooperation by subject departments, NAB has been able to gather sufficient details for action to be initiated. Major illegal procurements were identified for action under enforcement. One case in point is the major violations by the KPT in awarding contract against the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority’s (PPRA) rules and laid down government policies for land-port strategy,” the spokesman said.
“The specific cases include inducting 75 tonnes-Bollard pull tugboats, non-enforcement of clauses in the contract with Chinese Works Engineering (CWE), the dredging contractor, mala fide decisions in the planning of deepwater port, and major shortfalls in its land allotment policies have been established,” the statement added.
The handout further said that despite repeated reminders, no action had been taken by the KPT nor any action has been initiated by the current KPT administration to prevent corruption and further losses.
“The NAB has therefore, decided that sufficient evidence is available against the KPT to proceed against the individuals responsible for causing massive loss to the state, and has decided to hand over these cases to its enforcement agency for further action,” it said. The statement added that following the approval of a plan under “Awareness and Prevention Framework” in May 2012 by NAB Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari, the accountability watchdog had redoubled efforts to prevent corruption.
“The idea of ‘Prevention of Corruption’ was a neglected aspect of NAB anti-corruption endeavours which has been given priority under the present chairman,” the statement said, adding that enforcement alone could not eliminate corruption from the society and that it required awareness, prevention and enforcement, giving priority to prevention.
“The NAB chairman accordingly empowered the Awareness and Prevention Division; which remained in constant liaison with various agencies under federal and provincial setups, especially the regulators for improvement in their existing framework,” the handout said.
It further said that regulators were also engaged to scrutinise the structural and resource mechanism of their setups to fight against prevalent challenges of corruption and for finding solutions to making them more robust, effective, transparent and contributing to anti-corruption drive.
“This regime has been effective in identifying misprocurements during planning, procurement contracting, and contract evaluation process. Under its prevention regime, NAB has been investigating mega projects amounting to over Rs 1.5 trillion under the directions of the NAB chairman. In this context mega projects under the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC), Capital Development Authority (CDA), National Highway Authority (NHA), Port Qasim Authority (PQA), Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) were identified and interaction between these departments and NAB covered presentation by each department to give their viewpoints. Following these presentations and considerable correspondence on the subject, numerous instances of misprocurement have come to light,” the handout said.
However, the NAB spokesman did not elaborate why only the KPT had been targeted out of the eight departments.