Confiscated assets made public

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, DEC. 11 In a bid to limit the damage to the Government's credibility caused by its deal with the former Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, the military regime has made public the assets, property and bank deposits confiscated by authorities.

The value of the surrendered assets would be used to pay the fines imposed by courts on Mr. Sharif in various cases. Clemency is confined to Mr. Sharif's jail term.

The confiscated assets include bank deposits to the tune of Rs. 300 million, five industrial units, seven pieces of residential property and 60 acres of agricultural land.

``The liabilities/encumbrances of any of these assets/property will be cleared by the Sharif family before the takeover by the Government'', an official announcement said.

The fines imposed on Mr. Sharif include Rs. 5,00,000 and forfeiture of property worth Rs. 5,00,000,000 in the plane hijack case. He was also disqualified from holding any public office for 21 years.

The Director-General of the Inter-Services Public Relations, Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, who is also the Press Secretary to Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been at pains to emphasise that the President, Mr. Rafiq Tarar, has granted clemency to Mr. Sharif on merit, keeping in view legal procedures. ``The pardon granted by the President was within the law in an individual case''.

He has said Mr. Sharif filed the mercy petition on grounds of failing health and the exile of his family is for an indefinite period. ``Nawaz Sharif's imprisonment is converted into exile and in the meantime Saudi Arabia offered to accept the Sharif family'', Maj. Gen. Qureshi said.

The President had acted on the advice of the Chief Executive. This went to prove that Gen. Musharraf was not vindictive, he added.

The decision prompted questions whether the Government would consider similar requests from the family of Ms. Benazir Bhutto, who has been on a self-imposed exile in Dubai (though she spends most of her time in London) for the past two years since a court convicted her in a corruption case.

Her husband, Mr. Asif Zardari, has been behind the bars for the past five years. The Interior Minister, Lt. Gen. (retd) Moinuddin Haider, told correspondents here that the Government could consider amnesty to all those who were prepared to surrender their `ill-gotten wealth'.

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Section  : International
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