Secrecy for Sale
©2013 Center for Public Integrity
party needed seats in the national assembly and save Moonis Elahi from the corruption charges. “Although it sounds flattering that this was all done for me, it’s absolutely not true,” said Moonis Elahi in his email to ICIJ. “We joined the government because there was a lot of pressure from parliamentarians within our party. We took the step to stop them from leaving and joining other parties.” In July 2011, the Supreme Court accused the Pakistani government of “political interference.” The justices ordered an inquiry into the matter, saying that the corruption probe had been “badly hampered” to the point that “no progress has been made and looted money, which has been taken outside the country, is not likely to come back.” The inquiry corroborated the justices’ earlier findings of political meddling in the case. Qureshi retired from the FIA in September 2011. During Elahi’s trial, the investigator who replaced Qureshi said the government had found no evidence against him. The judge who exonerated Elahi in October 2011 said in his ruling that the prosecution had “half-heartedly” pursued the case. “The entire government stood alongside the accused throughout
3 PREVIOUS ARTICLE
158
the investigation,” Qureshi told ICIJ in a recent interview. He said he received death threats during the probe. Police still stand guard outside his home in a newly developed neighborhood in Lahore. Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik, has strenuously denied that the government interfered in Elahi’s prosecution. The cases against the others accused in the alleged land scam are still in progress. In an email to ICIJ, Elahi said he was innocent and that the FIA’s “purpose was to arrest me and not investigate.” He said during the trial the judge and the prosecutors took long leaves. “I don’t blame the Supreme Court, but some influential people were definitely trying to delay my case.” Experts say that money siphoned out of Pakistan and stashed in offshore accounts has a direct impact on average Pakistanis who can’t use offshore accounting to get ahead. “Just imagine, our people are reeling from poverty and unemployment, and our politicians and businessmen have billions of dollars rotting in offshore accounts,” Siddiqui, the economist, said. “This money could have changed the country’s economic dimensions if it had been utilized here.” n
SHOW CONTENTS
NEXT ARTICLE 4