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| Musharraf got no cheap gifts for himself or his Mrs |
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Sunday, July 05, 2009
(Part-I)
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: Former president General Parvez Musharraf, following in the footsteps of his hand-picked prime minister Shaukat Aziz, has taken away 168 expensive gifts worth about Rs 40 million (at the pitifully low official price) given by top foreign dignitaries along with him (mostly free of cost) before leaving Pakistan to settle in London. These gifts include dozens of boxes of jewellery, necklaces, pearls, diamonds, four American revolvers, Rolex watches, gold, earrings and rings.
Interestingly, the former president insists that he has not moved abroad permanently and is only there for the convenience of his lecture tour.
The gift list is interesting once again but can you believe that former American president George Bush, who back slapped Musharraf just as he would any of his Texas buddies, gave a leather briefcase to his chum Musharraf which was valued at only Rs 100 (you read it right) and Musharraf kept it free of cost. Now where he put such a cheap gift in his multimillion pound flat in London is something surely all would like to know.
Gen (retd) Musharraf did not surrender even a single gift with the Toshakhana and kept all of them, irrespective of their value, after getting the expensive items underpriced. True to his famous zero-tolerance policy to many things and persons, the former dictator clearly had zero-tolerance also for the concept of letting the state keep the state gifts and either kept most free of cost or by paying laughable pittance prices.
Musharraf even set a new record by retaining a gift of only Rs 15 instead of depositing it with the Toshakhana. Thus, now Shaukat Aziz appears more respectable to us, who had priced a gift given by the governor of Nepal at Rs 25, and then retained it free of cost.
As it was not enough to enjoy the fruits of friendship with Bush by getting a hundred rupee bag free, Musharraf even got one jewellery box gifted by the US president at a shocking price of Rs 1,500 and retained it free of cost. Four revolvers Colt 44, cap and ball revolvers given by former US defence secretary Donald H Rumsfeld were taken by Musharraf after their cost was calculated at Rs 72,000 each.
The total official cost of these mind boggling gifts was estimated at only Rs 40 million and Musharraf was asked to pay only Rs 5.9 million to retain them despite being undervalued to very shameful extent at the Cabinet Division.
Even after paying Rs 5.9 million, Musharraf walked away from the presidency in August last year with gifts worth a minimum of Rs 34 million as free.
The gift list is expansive (but not expensive at all for our high and mighty rulers at least) but only some items are being reproduced for the sake of brevity and to show the low levels to which our lofty leaders fall, all for a few dollars more.
GIFTS: Gold sword given by Saudi Arabia valued at only Rs 10,250.
However, the Saudis turned out to be very generous in giving expensive gifts to Musharraf as every time he visited Saudi Arabia, he was given gifts worth millions of rupees although they were undervalued at the Cabinet Division so as Musharraf could retain them without much financial trouble.
The list of the gifts given to Musharraf revealed that he was the only ruler who was given one of the most expensive jewellery sets in gold and diamond (Rs 10.153 million), necklace (Rs 2,470,500), bracelet (Rs1,773,900) and a pair of ring (Rs 484,200) when he went to visit Saudi Arabia in 2007. He retained this expensive gift by paying Rs 2.2 million from his pocket. Saudis again gave him a jewellery set in gold diamonds and blue sapphire whose price was Rs 2.4 million. One necklace (Rs 0.8m), one bracelet (Rs 0.356m) and one pair of earrings (Rs 127,500) were also given to him. Musharraf paid Rs 560,025 from his pocket to retain gifts worth Rs 3.7 million.
The Saudi Arabian government gave the third such expensive gift to Musharraf when he was handed over a necklace made of gold worth Rs 2.9 million, gold bracelet with diamonds and Rubies Rs 1.4 million, pair of earrings in gold Rs 2.7 million, gold worth Rs 119,500 and ring in gold with diamonds and rubies Rs 17,000. Musharraf paid only Rs 709,512 to retain all these gifts.
The fourth Saudi gift to Musharraf in shape of a jewellery box, containing a necklace, a bracelet, ring and earrings in Platinum, was worth Rs 2.6 million. He only paid Rs 393,658 to retain these gifts after the actual cost of these items was kept considerably low.
The fifth such gift was presented by Saudis in shape of a jewellery set consisting of one necklace, one bracelet, earrings and one ring was valued at Rs 304,400 and Musharraf retained it by paying only Rs 44,000.
Thus Musharraf took home diamonds, gold, bracelets, jewellery box and rings worth Rs 26 million exclusively gifted by the Saudis.
The total cost of gifts Shaukat Aziz took away with him at the end of his term in office was calculated at Rs 25 million. Thus, Musharraf’s just five official visits to Saudi Arabia on state expenditure earned him more than in financial terms in the shape of necklaces, bracelets, diamonds, gold etc than what Aziz could manage to get in three years as prime minister.
This correspondent made repeated telephone calls to the spokesman for Musharraf in Pakistan, Major General (retd) Rashid Qureshi, but he refused to take the telephone call of this correspondent to give Musharraf’s side of the story.
A source, close to the former president, rejected the report of retaining cheap gifts by Musharraf as rubbish and without foundation. He said Musharraf followed the government rules in letter and spirit in this regard.
—The News will welcome and publish the viewpoint of Mr Musharraf or his appointed representative or spokesperson — Editor
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