By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: As if the generous writing off of loans worth Rs59.94billion during the General Pervez Musharraf reign wasn’t bad enough, now official documents show that hundreds of these borrowers were even given these loans with such casualness and deliberate neglect that not even the national identity cards of the borrowers were demanded by the banks, what to talk of other collateral and sureties.
The official record of these written off loans submitted to the National Assembly and available with The News revealed that in an unbelievable large number of cases the lending institutions, a bank and another (now defunct) financial entity, had issued huge loans to the individuals without even getting their National Identity Cards (NICs) as per prudential requirements.
The bank has not given any reason about how the loans were issued to these business parties and the individuals without getting their proper NICs as per requirements. One official has commented that this was not possible without the active collaboration of the bank officials as no bank could give loan to anyone without NICs.
The following cases reveal just another ugly aspect of this sordid plunder of national wealth where, barring a few genuine deserving cases, billions were siphoned away by hundreds of corrupt businessmen colluding with equally corrupt bankers. There were some genuine cases where loans were written off in accordance with the rules. In all cases listed below, none of the cited borrowers had been forced by the lending institutions to submit their ID cards, an otherwise basic requirement.
The ID cards of five directors of Ms Bawani Industries were missing. This loan was ultimately written off.
One foreign national Saral Dynamic Hardware Bobignv too managed to get a loan of Rs5.5million and later got his total outstanding Rs6.4million written off including the principal amount and Rs0.8million mark up. The loan was given in foreign currency to this foreign national.
The two banks wrote off billions of rupees during the Musharraf era and in one case, the defunct bank wrote off a loan of Rs137million outstanding against four individuals.
First Tawakal Modrab Karachi got Rs 628million written off while the borrowers—-Abdul Qadir Tawakal, Rafiq Tawakal,Ali Husasin Mooney and Abid Husain did not even bother submitting their NICs. Shahfa Corporation Lahore and its owners Saluddin Ahmed Sahaf, Wajiddin Mahmood Shaf also got Rs146million written off. Regnet Dyeing and Finishing Mills also got Rs 91million written including Rs50million principal loan. Fatima Foods Lahore also got Rs 80million written off with Rs 40million principal loan waived off. National Garments also got Rs 335million written off including Rs 140million principal amount. In Multan Mohib textile got Rs 1.17billion written off including principal amount of Rs546million. In Karachi Bawani Industries got Rs 70million written off including 11.3million principal amount. The names of the fathers of borrowers are not on official record of the bank who got this loan written off.
The papers show that even a London based n ex-employee of a bank, Abdul Haleem also got Rs 2.744million written off and now the bank says it did not have even the ID card of its own former employee available in record. His principal loan was Rs 2.7million which was written off.
Adamjee Industries also got Rs 48million written off including Rs168million principal amount. Farooq Sheikh, Mrs Shereen Farooq, Zafar Sheikh, Mumtaz Saleem, Tahir Sehikh got Rs 168million loan and got the whole principal wavied off. They also got the mark up of Rs225million written off too. Master Rubber Tyer owners Fayyaz Malik and Farooq Malik got 52m written off.
Even an industrial unit Ms Metropolitan National Textile Karachi owned by Sikandar Ali Jatoi, Mazhar Ali Jatoi, Jamal Hassan, SM Masood was given the loan without any NICs. A sum of Rs190million outstanding the Jaoti family was also written off.
The papers showed that even, the owners of Daweeo Corporation -Kim Woo Choong, Kim Joun Sung, Lee Woo Bok, Yoon Nuke Neon, Chug Myuong Kul did not submit their Ids at the time of obtaining Rs10.8million loan. Interestingly, the same amount was later written off by the bank. They got principal amount written off in addition to Rs2.3million mark up payable against this loan.
Even Ch Shujaat Hussain, Pervez Elahi and their family members who got Rs37.987 loan written off never produced their national identity cards.
Hearts International Rawalpindi got Rs0.9million written off while the bank did not have the IDs of Dr Major Gen retired Zulifkar Ali Khan, Dr Abdus Qudus Khan, Mohammad Rafi, Shamim Ashraf Khan, Naheed Mashud Kiani, Rahat Azfa. Johoson and Philips also got Rs 64 million loan written off and there is no record of NICs of the borrowers-Bilal Ahmed Qureshi, Raja Ahmed Khan, Habibulah Baig, Rasid Y Chinoy, Abdul Rehman Khan, Syed Abdul Noor. Johnson and Philips again got another loan of Rs26million written off and once again the same borrowers did not give their NICs. Ahmed Chemical limited owners Aftab Khan, Jehan Ara Khan, Mahjabeen Ahmed, Sabiuddin Ahmed, Iqbal Ahmed Khan, Iram Aftab, Aftab Ahmed Khan NICs are not available. They got Rs0.6million written off. Ksornos Corporation Lahore also got Rs 4.3million written off. Again NICs of Sh Abdul Hafeez, Sh Imran Hafeez, Sh Salman Hafeez, Sh Nauman Hafeez, Qari Khalid Mahmood, Shahbaz Murad and Zahida Hafeez are not available in the record. Zodesh Limited got Rs 40million written off. The borrowers Zoraia Lashari, Imrana Lashari, Ms Lubna Lashari and Hayat Khan did not give NICs.
GUJRAT: Mohammad Akram Rs 2.5m, Fazal Hussain Rs 0.6m, Malik Mohammad Akthar 0.5m, Yaqoob Brothers Rs 0.5m, Nisa Enterprise Rs 0.5m (Islamabad).
Mohammad Saleem Rs0.7m,
QUETTA: Abdul Qadir Rs 0.511m, Mohammad Alm Rs 0.4m, Haji Moula Dad Kalat Rs 0.5m, Mohammad Hassan Rs 0.5m, Mohammad Ramzan Rs 0.5m, Gul Mohammad Rs 0.5m,
KARACHI: Babar Rafiq Rs0/6, Mosar Ahmed Rs 0.5m, Qaisaurz Zaman Rs 0.6m, Sajid Husain Rs 0.570m, Nasir Rafique Rs 0.531m, Badar Ahmed Rs0.596m, Mazhar Fared Rs 0.683m, Khalid Mahmood Rs 0.653m, Saeed Ahmed 0.61m, Jawad Textile Industries 1m, Masnoor Yousuf Rs0.536m, Mohammad Ismail Rs0.595m, Amir Hashmi Rs0.5m, Sajid Ali Rs0.7m, Mushtaq Hussain Rs 0.579m, Tahir Ehtasham RS 0.6M, Mohammad Noman Bhatti Rs 0.54m, Saleemuddin Rs 0.522m, Anisuddin Rs 0.522m, Monbina Begum Rs0.639m, Miss Tabasum Shehnaz Rs 0.6m, Mohammad Yousuf Rs 0.665m, Mant Lal Mault Rs 0.674m, Athar Maqbool Rs 0.7m, Shahid Khan Rs 0.5m, Azaam Afridi Rs 0.633m, Syed Qasim Hussain Rs 0.539m, Abdul Qayyum Rs 0.681m, Mohammad Burhan Khan Rs0.825m, Syed Khurram Raza Naqvi Rs 0.543m, Hassan Shakeel Rs 0.825m, Ali Hassan Rs 0.534m, Mohammad Irfan Khan Rs 0.550m, Shafiq Ahmed RS 0.820M, Ali Hassan Hassan Rs 0.534m, Mohammad Irfan Khan Rs 0.550M, Khawaja Moin Hasan Rs 0.666m, Raza Hasan Rs0.528m, Syed Afaq Moid Rs 0.679m, Syed Mohammad Nasim Ali Rs0.680m, Syed Aslam Ali Rs0.67m, Asif Rehman Rs 0.665m, Asim Ilyas Rs 0.5m, Adnan Hassan Rs 0.820m, Syed Rasheed Ahmed Rs0.5m, Mobina Afzal Rs 0.7m, Kamran Rauf Rs 0.74m, Najma Akthar Rs0.825m, S Sharifuddin Rs 0.825m, Imtiaz Hussain Zaidi Rs 0.6m, Khalid Baig Rs 0.589m, Mohammad Awan RS 0.6M, Tariq Baloch Rs0.668m, Mohammad Mobin Sheikh Rs 0.614m, Ms Golden Paint industries Rs0.7m, Mohammad Arshad Shakeel Rs 1.441m, Altaf Hussain Shah Rs 0.5m, Mehmoodul Hassan Rs 0.548m, Mashuddin Rs0.9m, Atizaudin Rs 1.5m, Wajihuddin Rs1.5m, Ihtashamuddin Rs 0.557m, FS Aizauddin Rs 0.5m, FS Azauddin Rs 0.58m, Mrs Rubina Rs 0.655m, Abdul Azim RS 0.556M, Abdul Razakk Rs 0.5m, Akthar Hussain Rs 0.519m, Asif Soomro Rs 0.554m, Fayyaz Ahmed Rs 0.544m, M Saleem Rs 0.539m, Sadiq Bano Rs 0.54m, Moizudin Rs 0.562m, Abdul Haq Rs0.5m, Mrs Kasuar Perveen Rs0.514m, Mohammad Rafiq Rs 0.551m, Mohammad Saleem Rs 0.591, Rana Mohmmad Rs0.545m, Rukhsana Begum Rs0.504m, S. Rehan Shahid Rs0.560m. Hssan Khan Rs 0.503m, Kashan Ali Rs 0.624m, Saleem Medical Store Rs 1.5million, Ms Huma Electric Inds Nameem Ullsah Rs 1.4m, Ms Tariq Electric Inds Rs 3.2m, Ms New National Steel Inds Rs 2.5million, Ms Kashmir Industrial Corp Rs 1.1m,
Irfan Basharat Rs 2.1m, Jhangir Hadier Rs 6.5m, Mohammad Sadiq Rs 2.66m, Punjab Ceremaic owners Zahid Shkeel Rs 7.6million, Ms Gulberg Caters owned by Mohammad Aslam Rs0.9m.
Showing posts with label thenews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thenews. Show all posts
A Bhutto walks away with lucrative $20m deal
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: A first cousin of late Benazir Bhutto - Mehfooz Mustafa Bhutto - has emerged as a central figure in a brewing controversy surrounding the highly questionable contract of $20 million by the Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC). Mehfooz is the marketing director of the lucky USA-based firm M/s Valerus. Mehfooz Mustafa, reportedly, also shuttled recently between the US and Pakistan to secure this lucrative contract for his Houston-based company.
According to details, the OGDC awarded the contract to Valerus without floating open tenders. The tender was not even posted on the OGDC website and in a classic manner to favour its favourites, the OGDC management allegedly only invited hand-picked pre-selected firms as a formality.
Investigations carried out by The News revealed the OGDC had awarded the contract to Valerus for supply of compressors for the Qadirpur gas field as gas compression was required to stop the field from early depletion. Sources said the contract was given at the time when President Zardari’s close friend, Dr Asim was adviser on petroleum and the de facto federal petroleum minister.
The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules prohibit any public sector company to procure any material for any use without floating press tenders and also any tender valued over Rs2 million must be published in the national dailies to ensure transparency and fair play for all the stakeholders. The PPRA is responsible for prescribing regulations and procedures for public procurement.
Talking to The News, former adviser on petroleum Dr Asim Hussain said from Dubai that he had “heard” that the multi-million dollar contract was awarded to a USA-based company. He said he had also “heard” from officials about the cousin of late Benazir Bhutto working in the same US company, but he hastened to add he never met him one-on-one. “It is possible that Mustafa Bhutto might have met me with a large delegation of his company at Islamabad but I don’t remember meeting him one-on-one,” Dr Asim said.
However, Asim said this contract had nothing to do with him nor was he involved in any wrongdoings as far as this contract was concerned.
Basharat Mirza, General-Manager Projects, OGDC, confirmed to The News it was true that the multi-million dollar tender for the compressors was not invited through the press or the official website of the department. Mirza also confirmed it was true that this was the same US company which was given contract where the first cousin of late Benazir Bhutto — Mehfooz Mustafa — was working. To a question, he denied any wrongdoings in the whole process of award of the contract, as he claimed on paper everything was done correctly and since he took charge he did not see any irregularity in the award of the contract. He said the pre-qualified parties were invited to take part in the bidding and the lowest bidding firm was given the contract.
Meanwhile, this correspondent sent an email to Mehfooz Mustafa and his bosses last week, asking both the gentlemen to offer their replies to the attached questionnaire. Both gentlemen have opted not to respond. After a two-day wait, this correspondent repeated the email and waited for another three days before filing this story.
The following questions were forwarded to Mr Mustafa and his boss: 1) Please confirm that the OGDC awarded a contract to your company for $20 million for supply of compression equipment for the Qadirpur gas field. 2) Are you aware that there were no press tenders issued by the OGDC for the contract ultimately awarded to your company? 3) Mehfooz, is this true that you are the first cousin of late Benazir Bhutto and Director International Business Development of Valerus? 4) Please confirm that you are assigned to visit the OGDC for business promotion purposes and you visited Zahid Hussain, MD OGDC on several occasions. 5) Can you confirm that your company paid commission in favour of your local agent through their account outside Pakistan and 6) can you comment that your company is in this business for less than five years.
That Mehfooz and his company have opted to maintain silence over these straightforward questions, speaks volumes about the transparency of this multi-million dollar deal!
ISLAMABAD: A first cousin of late Benazir Bhutto - Mehfooz Mustafa Bhutto - has emerged as a central figure in a brewing controversy surrounding the highly questionable contract of $20 million by the Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC). Mehfooz is the marketing director of the lucky USA-based firm M/s Valerus. Mehfooz Mustafa, reportedly, also shuttled recently between the US and Pakistan to secure this lucrative contract for his Houston-based company.
According to details, the OGDC awarded the contract to Valerus without floating open tenders. The tender was not even posted on the OGDC website and in a classic manner to favour its favourites, the OGDC management allegedly only invited hand-picked pre-selected firms as a formality.
Investigations carried out by The News revealed the OGDC had awarded the contract to Valerus for supply of compressors for the Qadirpur gas field as gas compression was required to stop the field from early depletion. Sources said the contract was given at the time when President Zardari’s close friend, Dr Asim was adviser on petroleum and the de facto federal petroleum minister.
The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules prohibit any public sector company to procure any material for any use without floating press tenders and also any tender valued over Rs2 million must be published in the national dailies to ensure transparency and fair play for all the stakeholders. The PPRA is responsible for prescribing regulations and procedures for public procurement.
Talking to The News, former adviser on petroleum Dr Asim Hussain said from Dubai that he had “heard” that the multi-million dollar contract was awarded to a USA-based company. He said he had also “heard” from officials about the cousin of late Benazir Bhutto working in the same US company, but he hastened to add he never met him one-on-one. “It is possible that Mustafa Bhutto might have met me with a large delegation of his company at Islamabad but I don’t remember meeting him one-on-one,” Dr Asim said.
However, Asim said this contract had nothing to do with him nor was he involved in any wrongdoings as far as this contract was concerned.
Basharat Mirza, General-Manager Projects, OGDC, confirmed to The News it was true that the multi-million dollar tender for the compressors was not invited through the press or the official website of the department. Mirza also confirmed it was true that this was the same US company which was given contract where the first cousin of late Benazir Bhutto — Mehfooz Mustafa — was working. To a question, he denied any wrongdoings in the whole process of award of the contract, as he claimed on paper everything was done correctly and since he took charge he did not see any irregularity in the award of the contract. He said the pre-qualified parties were invited to take part in the bidding and the lowest bidding firm was given the contract.
Meanwhile, this correspondent sent an email to Mehfooz Mustafa and his bosses last week, asking both the gentlemen to offer their replies to the attached questionnaire. Both gentlemen have opted not to respond. After a two-day wait, this correspondent repeated the email and waited for another three days before filing this story.
The following questions were forwarded to Mr Mustafa and his boss: 1) Please confirm that the OGDC awarded a contract to your company for $20 million for supply of compression equipment for the Qadirpur gas field. 2) Are you aware that there were no press tenders issued by the OGDC for the contract ultimately awarded to your company? 3) Mehfooz, is this true that you are the first cousin of late Benazir Bhutto and Director International Business Development of Valerus? 4) Please confirm that you are assigned to visit the OGDC for business promotion purposes and you visited Zahid Hussain, MD OGDC on several occasions. 5) Can you confirm that your company paid commission in favour of your local agent through their account outside Pakistan and 6) can you comment that your company is in this business for less than five years.
That Mehfooz and his company have opted to maintain silence over these straightforward questions, speaks volumes about the transparency of this multi-million dollar deal!
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