3 ex-Musharraf-era Pak generals in soup over 4-billion-rupee stock exchange scam

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is likely to recommend extraordinary action against three former lieutenant generals, who have been accused of causing a loss of four billion rupees to the National Logistics Cell (NLC) by throwing money in the country’s volatile stock exchange during the Musharraf regime without any lawful authority.

After remaining frozen for nine months, the inquiry report against these Army generals is finally being brought before the PAC in its next meeting to decide their fate, The News reported.

The report contains documentary evidence of their involvement in the scam, it added.

As bosses of the NLC, they had even invested pension funds of the NLC employees in the volatile stock market, but the most shocking finding of the inquiry report is that they borrowed two billion rupees from four banks, and lost the entire amount of money with the collaboration of the stockbrokers. The cell is still paying commercial interest on these loans.

Presiding over the committee’s meeting yesterday, PAC Chairman Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan dropped a clear hint as to what was in store for the accused, when he announced his decision to finally bring the report on the agenda in the next meeting.

Nisar informed the meeting that the inquiry report had already been distributed among the PAC members.

“I have made up my mind what I am supposed to do on this issue (inquiry report into NLC scam). But first I want to seek your guidance before proceeding”, Nisar said to the Auditor General of Pakistan Tanveer Agha in the meeting.

The PAC chairman had earlier come under severe criticism for dumping the report sent to him nine months ago, but he had assured that it would be taken up for consideration as and when the audit reports of concerned ministry (Planning Division) would be brought before the committee. (ANI)