When will the Pakistan Government Prosecute Nasim Ashraf for

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When will the Pakistan Government Prosecute Nasim Ashraf for his
Corruption?

The Desperate Bid to Award Rs 874 Million to Nasim Ashraf

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=102338

http://groups.google.com/group/reportpress/t/aee097a2acba2445

Audit Reveals Over Rs 1.28 Billion Irregularities in NCHD

http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/20/nat8.htm

By BAKHTAWAR MIAN

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, 20 March 2008 (DAWN) - An audit report has
unearthed irregularities, unauthorized use of funds and unaccounted
for expenditures amounting to Rs 1,289.997 million by the National
Commission for Human Development (NCHD) [which is headed by its
Chairman Nasim Ashraf].

Findings of the Auditor General of Pakistan's report for 2005-06
highlight major issues like unauthorised utilisation of endowment
fund, unreliable accounting record, non-retrieval of costly assets
from various NGOs, irregular payment of salary and allowances to
officers working in the National Commission for Human Development
[NCHD] on deputation, and lack of internal controls in the
organisation.

The report says the Commission irresponsibly spent about Rs 1,250
million from the endowment fund; it has failed to retrieve about Rs
3.22 million from various civil society organisations after expiry/
cancellation of their contracts; an amount of Rs 22.1 million received
from telethon had not been accounted for; and unsecured advance
payment of Rs 14.677 million was made to a company for supply of 24
imported vehicles out of which 18 were not supplied.

Accounting record of the organisation has been declared unreliable.

Irregular appointments, inappropriate payment and allowances to
officers have also been reported. A large number of bank accounts for
different receipts were maintained without justification and foreign
aid has not been reported to the government.

During the audit of the NCHD accounts, it has been observed that
proper accounts of receipts and expenditures have not been maintained
in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles.

The Auditor General has also accused that complete record was not
provided to the audit team for inspection.

Similarly, the NCHD management also refused to produce the records
relating to provision of contracts to NGOs/CSOs and their terms and
conditions despite repeated requests from the audit department.

Furthermore, none of the CSOs could complete the tasks they had been
assigned and failed to fulfil the contractual clauses.

NCHD Chairman Dr. Nasim Ashraf was not available for comments. This
reporter repeatedly tried to contact him for his version, but the
office secretary said he (Dr. Ashraf) was busy in a meeting. A message
left with the secretary also went unresponded.

The Desperate Bid to Award Rs 874 Million to Nasim Ashraf

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=102338

By ANSAR ABBASI

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, 20 March 2008 (The News International) - In their
dying days, the caretakers are trying desperately to hand over Rs 874
million to the controversial project of Dr. Nasim Ashraf, the head of
the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), as a super-
urgent case.

Moved through the Finance Ministry, the caretaker Prime Minister
Muhammadmian Soomro is expected to approve this funding to the
Commission before the new Prime Minister [Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani]
takes over.

The NCHD, whose spending in the past and its output ever since its
commencement remained highly controversial, is being given this huge
amount at a time when the new elected government is all set to take
over in a few days.

In June 2007, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had demanded a thorough
probe and audit into the accounts of the NCHD. The first audit of the
NCHD, which was made public on 27 June 2007, exposed the misuse of the
Pakistan Human Development Fund (PHDF) to the tune of nearly 1.3
billion rupees and the missing 338 million rupees from the bank
accounts of the NCHD and PHDF.

"The revelations made in the special audit report on the accounts of
the Commission and the development fund of unauthorised utilisation of
nearly 1.3 billion rupees is a serious indictment of the Commission
that calls for probe and action," Senator Enver Baig of PPP was quoted
as saying in a statement issued at that time. Baig had also called
Nasim Ashraf and General (retired) Pervez Musharraf as business
partners.

Both the Secretary Cabinet, S.M. Alam Rizvi, and Secretary Finance Dr.
Waqar Masood don't see anything wrong with this allocation to an
organisation that is considered important more because of the
influence of its head, Dr. Nasim Ashraf, than the work it has
produced.

Rizvi, who was initially given one-year extension and later appointed
as member FPSC by the [unconstitutional and illegal] president
[Musharraf], said that a committee comprising secretary cabinet,
secretary finance, the then principal secretary to the Prime Minister
Khalid Saeed, whose appointment in the NEPRA has been questioned by no
less than the Senate, and Nasim Ashraf reviewed the work of the
Commission and expressed their satisfaction over the work done by the
body.

The otherwise undiscovered "magic" of the Commission has though amused
the Baboos, most of whom have been extraordinarily favoured by the
caretaker government, and no one deemed it fit to defer the case for
the new Parliament and its committees.

While a source said that a phone call from a powerful office did
wonders for the NCHD, the secretaries of the cabinet and finance
divisions said that in a presentation before the caretaker Prime
Minister in January [2008], the NCHD had demanded the provision of Rs
1.3 billion. In the same presentation, it was decided to provide Rs
874 million to the Commission, whose projects were not part of the
PSDP.

As against the normal practice where such cases are minutely
scrutinized and assessed by all the concerned officers, none of the
Cabinet Division officials reviewed the case.

It was only the secretary cabinet who forwarded the case to the
finance secretary through a special messenger and without getting any
input from the concerned joint secretary, deputy secretary, or section
officer.

The secretaries of both the finance and cabinet divisions, however,
insisted that there was nothing wrong in the case and that the
concerned financial advisor was involved in this.

Contrary to the claims of the top mandarins sitting in the Finance
Ministry and the Cabinet Division, an official source said that the
spending of the NCHD remained scandalous and there had been reports of
massive wastage of billions of rupees that were provided to this body
without any official oversight or accountability.

Although, the NCHD claims to be generating most part of its budget
from different foreign NGOs and donors, still billions have been doled
out to this body from the public kitty.

The money is claimed to have been spent in the name of the poor,
illiterate and deprived people of Pakistan, but even the government
departments have been raising their serious reservations over its
functioning and output. Government departments consider it a parallel
organisation in the fields of education and health. These departments
have been insisting that instead of creating new organisations like
the NCHD, the already existing departments should be upgraded and
financed.

The NCHD was created in July 2001 by General Musharraf through a
presidential ordinance and then smartly weaved into a privately-owned
Pakistan Human Development Fund (PHDF).

Dr. Nasim Ashraf, who is a known buddy of Musharraf, was appointed its
Chairman and he continues to hold this office despite his appointment
as Chairman, Pakistan Cricket Board.

It is interesting to note that the fresh injection of public money is
being made to this controversial organisation at a time when its fate
is in limbo as the new [PPP-PMLN-ANP-JUIF] government is expected to
wrap it up.

The secretary cabinet when told about these audit reports said that
all the audit objections were settled.

(1) Pakistani Senators Demand Accountability of Nasim Ashraf, NCHD,
PHDF and PCB

Pakistan's Senator Enver Baig Demands Probe into NCHD, PHDF and PCB
Corruption

Financial Crimes of the NCHD, PHDF and PCB Must NOT Go Unpunished

http://groups.google.com/group/reportpress/t/aee097a2acba2445

(2) Audit Exposes Misuse of Rs 1,290 Million by NCHD

http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/jun-2007/28/index9.php

(3) Where did they go?

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=102571

(4) Pervez Musharraf - A Symbol of Lawlessness, Tyranny and Barbarism

Cricket Star Shoaib Akhtar the Latest Victim of Musharraf's Hatred

http://www.pakistanweekly.com/Editorial.html

(5) PML-N MNA Hanif Abbasi Demands Removal of Nasim Ashraf from Office
of Chairman PCB

http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=126444

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- Newsletter Publication Date: Wednesday, 2 April 2008

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