No Dr Asim-Zardari link found in corruption cases as yet

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which is presently questioning Dr Asim Hussain in alleged corruption cases, has not yet found anything concrete to establish any link between the former PPP petroleum minister and ex-president Asif Ali Zardari.
Sources claim that the NAB has a lot about the alleged corruption of Dr Asim but there is nothing tangible to get to Asif Ali Zardari.“Neither Dr Asim has implicated Zardari in any of the corruption cases nor there is any direct evidence available to establish the link,” a source said, adding that on the basis of mere hearsay and conjectures the PPP co-chairperson can’t be declared a beneficiary of Dr Asim’s alleged corruption.
The PPP co-chairperson is currently in a Middle Eastern country. He had gone abroad months back amid speculation that he had “fled” to avoid possible arrest in corruption cases after the military establishment launched a crackdown against the corruption mafia in Sindh.
Dr Asim’s high-profile arrest was made on August 26 by the Sindh Rangers when Asif Ali Zardari was already abroad. Instead of visiting Pakistan, the PPP co-chairperson is running the affairs of his party as well as the Sindh government from the Middle Eastern country.
Within days of making a controversial speech against the military generals, Asif Zardari had left for the Middle Eastern country on June 25. Since then he did not return to Pakistan. His June 25th departure from Karachi was not even known to key party leaders.
In its 12-page report shared with the NAB a few months backs on Dr Asim, the Rangers did talk about Asim’s alleged corruption link with the top party leadership but it did not name Asif Zardari.
The report had said: “Dr Asim has been found involved in various acts of corruption, corrupt practices and misuse of authority as public office holder… He is responsible for inflicting losses to the tune of billions of rupees on the national exchequer… Huge amounts so embezzled were provided to his political masters, which were subsequently used in terror financing and funding target killers.”
Within a few weeks of his arrest, the Sindh NAB completed its inquiry against Dr Asim Hussain in alleged illegal land allotment cases and found enough meat in the charge to seek from the NAB chairman investigation against the close aide of former President Asif Ali Zardari.
Sources said that the DG NAB Sindh had approached the NAB chairman in order to get permission for converting the inquiry into an investigation in land allotments cases against Dr Asim.
In September this year, three inquiries were authorised by the NAB chairman against Dr Asim’s role in alleged corruption cases relating to the affairs of Pakistan Medical Dental Council (PMDC), Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (SSGCL) and Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) dealings and illegal land allotments. An inquiry into Asim’s role in the LNG case was already with the NAB.
In the land allotment cases, the Rangers in its report sent to the NAB had alleged Dr Asim of getting allotted from the Sindh government at least nine pieces of land in Karachi for Dr Ziauddin Hospital Trust.
The Rangers in its report had termed these cases of allotments as crime relating to “land grabbing”. The NAB inquiry said that there was reasonable evidence available in the land-grabbing cases against Dr Asim to upgrade the probe and take it to formal investigation stage.