Musharraf’s
Adviser Confirms Another Fishing Scandal
By
Maryam Hussain
ISLAMABAD:
While one reference has been filed against General Pervez Musharraf’s
Food and Agriculture Minister Khair Mohammed Junejo, documentary
evidence has now surfaced that he was involved in a number of
other scandals which were pointed out to President Musharraf by
his own adviser on agriculture, veteran M. Shafi Niaz.
In
one such scams, the Minister inaugurated a Rs 14 million hatchery
at Hawkesbay near Karachi, but when the Adviser visited it 3-4
weeks later, he found there was “nothing on the spot.”
“The
inauguration was done by getting post-larval shrimps from a private
individual. The hatchery was in bad shape and did not even have
an expert,” Mr Niaz, who is now about to retire at the ripe
age of about 85 years, said in a letter to General Musharraf on
Oct 21 Click
to view Letter Page1 | Page2
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“There
are other such cases in other than fisheries sector which might
not have pleased the Minister. I don’t want to mention them
here,” he wrote in what comes out as damning evidence against
Minister Junejo.
When
the last scandal of the Minister was exposed by South Asia Tribune,
the Pakistan People’s Party filed a reference against him
in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Nothing has yet been
done about the reference.
But
General Pervez Musharraf summoned the 85-year old Adviser recently
and gave him a good dressing down for exposing his minister and
defaming him. The Adviser was pressurized to admit that he had
committed a mistake by writing the letter to General Musharraf.
Instead
of taking action against the Minister who had been caught involved
in corruption by the Intelligence Agency of Pakistan Navy, General
Musharraf dissolved the entire National Fisheries Development
Board (NFDB) to protect the minister.
Adviser
Shafi Niaz strongly protested against this dissolution of the
NFDB in his letter to General Musharraf and accused the Minister
of Food and Agriculture of adopting “a vindictive behavior”
which he stated “was based on certain psychological problems,
i.e. inferiority complex and jealousy.”
The
Institution like NFDB should not suffer and should not be wound
up, the Adviser wrote to General Musharraf. A private sector chairman
be appointed and the Minister should not be made the Chairman
as he would not be effective, But his plea was not heard.
The
Adviser recalled that it was the NFDB which had raised the issue
of the 4 deep sea fishing licenses issued by the Agriculture Ministry
to firms which had been declared as corrupt by the Naval Intelligence.
