Death
raises pressure on Zardari By
Syed Fazl-e-Haider
KARACHI - Less than 10
days after Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the
arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, it is
further bearing its teeth against the government
by launching an inquiry into the death of an
official who had been investigating the corruption
case that led to the arrest order.
Kamran
Faisal, an assistant director of the National
Accountability Bureau (NAB), was found hanging
from a ceiling fan in his Islamabad office on
January 18. His death came a day
after the NAB's chairman,
Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari, told the Supreme
Court it did not have enough evidence to arrest
the prime minister, following the court's January
15 arrest order over a US$5 billion rental power
projects (RPP) scandal.
Launching an
inquest into the death on Thursday, the Supreme
Court issued notices to Bokhari and other senior
officials. It also started gathering CCTV footage
from federal offices, Faisal's home and from an
unofficial NAB meeting that took place on January
17. The court has said "all indications and
evidence" suggest Faisal's death is linked to the
RPP controversy.
The Pakistani government,
which under President Asif Ali Zardari must face
elections by May 13, is increasingly at odds with
the judiciary. Last year, then prime minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani was disqualified from the post
for refusing court orders to write a request to
Swiss authorities to re-open corruption cases
against Zardari. The Supreme Court is led by Chief
Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, seen as a hero
when he stood up to the regime of former dictator
General Pervez Musharraf but now, according to a
Daily Star newspaper comment, "a threat to
democracy" as "his efforts to get Zardari out of
office ... complement the efforts of the army and
[leader of recent anti-government protests Tahir]
Quadri to push the government over the cliff."
Faisal's family disputes an autopsy report
that concluded that he committed suicide,
insisting he was murdered and calling for a
judicial probe. Police have not yet made any
headway, while the government has formed a
commission headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal to
investigate the death.
In a further
development, the Supreme Court on Thursday also
announced it was pursuing a a second criminal case
against the prime minister, relating to a former
head of the oil and gas regulatory authority,
Tauqir Sadiq. After being accused of embezzling 83
billion rupees (US$850 million) in kickbacks and
commissions, Sadiq in 2009 fled abroad. Following
an NAB investigation in 2011, the body said Sadiq
was appointed by Ashraf.
Political
pressure on Ashraf was intensified last week by a
mass protest in the capital led by pro-army Sufi
cleric Tahir Qadri, whose demands for electoral
reforms led to a pre-election deal last week with
the government.
Faisal's suspicious death
came as his investigation into the RPP scandal was
coming to a close. Bokhari and NAB director
general HR Kausar Malik reportedly held a meeting
with Faisal on the night of January 16 to discuss
the case.
In 2009, Ashraf, who was then
minister of water and power, promoted a plan to
install 14 temporary power plants (also known as
rental power plants, or RPPs) to generate 2,250 MW
of electricity. They were intended to alleviate
sever power shortages that for years have crippled
the country's industrial production.
The
Asian Development Bank, assigned by the government
to evaluate the RPP agreements, declined to
approve the plan as it could significantly
increase consumer tariffs and use up billions of
dollars of foreign exchange in as little as five
years. Instead of working out an alternative
strategy to deal with the energy shortages, the
RPP agreements were signed.
Nine firms
were reportedly given more than 22 billion rupees
(US$225 million) in down payments from the
government to commission the projects, Pakistan's
The Nation has reported that "most of them did not
set up their plants and a few of them installed
them but with inordinate delay".
According
to reports in The News, Faisal was under pressure
from his bosses to change his position in the RPP
case - which was in favor of the most influential
accused, Prime Minister Ashraf.
The
newspaper wrote:
Kamran [Faisal] was summoned by [NAB
director general] Kausar from his Rawalpindi
office. Kamran initially met Kausar Malik at the
Islamabad headquarters and was later taken by
Malik to the chairman's office. It was the same
night when Kamran Faisal sent an SMS to a
colleague, conveying, "DG HR WANT AFFIDAVIT IN
BACK DATE REGARDING CHANGE FROM CASE; KIA KAROON
(what should I do)". The colleague had advised
him not to do this. The colleague, who gave his
verbal account to the Islamabad police,
confirmed that there was pressure on Kamran to
change the report."
Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court Iftikhar Chaudhry on Wednesday
said influential figures were implicated on one
side in the case against an "honest" investigating
officer on the other. However, he said the court
did not know if Faisal was murdered or committed
suicide and that the probe should be carried out
on a neutral forum and justice be done.
The Express Tribune wrote in an editorial:
There can be little doubt that
Kamran Faisal must have been under a fair degree
of pressure, as are many NAB officials. However,
he had a fair amount of experience, having
joined the force in 2006, and it is not known
what kind of turmoil he may have been facing.
Right now, there are simply too many variables.
All we have is mere conjecture, and this too is
not healthy. Given the nature of the case and
the delicacy of the RPP issue, it is important
we get to the bottom of the matter. Otherwise
speculation will continue, adding not only to
the complications in this case but to the
troubled political scenario as a whole, at a
time when too many doubts waft through the air
keeping us all bound in an unsettling net of
uncertainty.
Many believe that
Faisal's mysterious death lends a new dimension to
the RPP case.
The Supreme Court in a
ruling last March declared RPPs as illegal and
ordered the related plants to be shut down. The
court said in its verdict that numerous rules and
regulations were violated in these projects, such
as the provision of 7% to 14% down payments, which
caused losses to the public exchequer running into
the billions of rupees. It was the court that
directed the NAB to investigate the case and the
alleged involvement of Ashraf.
The prime
minister's critics hold Ashraf responsible for the
country's energy woes - rolling blackouts began
nationwide in early 2008 and continue in 2013,
with an energy shortfall of around 5,000 megawatts
seeing the crisis intensify particularly in the
sweltering summer months of 2011 and 2012.
The News recently commented:
The emergence of a number of text
messages exchanged between the deceased and his
friends and colleagues provides strong
circumstantial evidence that he was being
harassed into making changes to the report he
was to present to the court, by his superiors
... Young officers of NAB are deeply troubled by
these events, and some have expressed a loss of
confidence in their senior management.
If it transpires that NAB was being
coerced - or merely asked - to dance to a
political master in order to protect a powerful
"influential" then its entire raison d'etre
disappears. The belated launching by NAB of
corruption cases against 15 ministers of the
ousted Raisani [chief minister Aslam Raisani]
cabinet in Balochistan lends strong weight to
the possibility that NAB is being used as a
political tool.
Where was it when
Raisani was in power? A body charged with
holding accountable to public scrutiny the
highest in the land has to be firewalled against
political interference. But if it proves to be
umbilically connected to the seats of power, and
a willing tool complicit in the misdeeds of the
high and mighty, then NAB is about as much use
or value as a square wheel. A big tool to beat
the opponents at best.
Faisal's
suspicious death exposes the pressures and dangers
investigators face in working on high-profile
graft cases in the current political climate. It
also sends a powerful message to all officers
investigating corruption scandals involving the
authorities.
Syed Fazl-e-Haider
( www.syedfazlehaider.com ) is a development
analyst in Pakistan. He is the author of many
books, including The Economic Development of
Balochistan, published in May 2004. E-mail,
sfazlehaider05@yahoo.com
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