London-based investigative journalist and consultant James D Crickton has made a startling revelation based on in-depth research that both former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and that country’s former army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani have bank accounts in Switzerland with several million US dollars stashed in them.
Writing in his blog on World Press Platform, Crickton said, “I tumbled upon this information accidentally as I was trying to find out how and why Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who hails from a rich business family, has allowed himself to be embroiled in the Panama Leaks controversy unearthed by intrepid international investigative journalists. The charge is that his family members had deposited money in shell companies located in Panama, and used that money to buy properties. It is also said that his daughter Maryam Nawaz owns properties in Peru and Singapore. Sharif critics have not proved thus far that these assets have been acquired with ill-gotten wealth.”
During the course of his investigations into Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s illegal accounts, Crickton claimed that former president Musharraf and former army chief Kayani are holding separate accounts in the Swiss bank, Julius Baer.
Musharraf’s account, according to Crickton, is maintained by the Star Trust Company. It had several million dollars around the time he was briefly arrested in October 2013 for the operation he had ordered as the President in 2007 on Islamabad’s famous Red Mosque that had left one cleric and more than 100 others dead. Presently, the balance in the account is USD two million, it is said. Well, it raises the question: why did he join the ranks of Third World leaders with secret bank accounts in Switzerland? asks Crickton.
When he took over the reins in a bloodless coup in October 1999, Musharraf had promised a clean-up. Throughout his innings, the garrulous general kept on reiterating the promise. But analysts aver that the level of corruption did not diminish throughout his time. The numbered Swiss account lends credence to the assertion.
Former army chief General Kayani, writes Crickton, has been maintaining a deafening silence ever since his retirement, but rumor mills in Islamabad, which churn out conspiracy theories by the dozen, were agog last November- December that he was put under house arrest and was slapped with a gag order.
This phase coincided with incumbent Army Chief General Raheel Sharif’s decision to cancel the allotment of prime land that he had managed for himself shortly before he was set to retire. This piece of land originally belonged to Army Selection and Recruitment Center. Located close to the Fortress Stadium, it is the most expensive defence area in Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan.
