Cotecna, SGS, ARY gold cases: Former CBR official defends Zardari, Benazir

Mohammad Khalil says Zardari, Benazir never asked for a commission.

RAWALPINDI: A former senior official of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has defended President Asif Ali Zardari in an accountability court on Tuesday in three corruption references, including SGS, Cotecna and ARY gold cases.

Muhammad Khalil told the court that all contracts were awarded on merit. He defended all those nominated in the cases, including President Zardari, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, Principal Secretary to the President Salman Farooqi, former chairman CBR AR Siddiqi, former secretary trade Javed Talat, former chief secretary Punjab Brigadier (retd) Aslam Hayat Qureshi and 11 others.

Khalil, while recording his statement in court number 2 on Tuesday, said that the contract of the SGS company’s Kopri shipment was conducted in an extremely transparent manner. He claimed that there was no influence of any kind from the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto, her husband Asif Zardari or former CBR chairperson AR Siddiqi. “None of the three ever asked me or anyone for a commission or any bribes in this case,” Khalil said.

In fact when this contract was awarded, Zardari was not even heading any ministry, he said. He had no role whatsoever from start to finish in this affair. “All negotiations with the SGS company were done by me because I was a senior member of the CBR,” Khalil said.

He said the federal cabinet unanimously gave its consent based on his team’s recommendations.

He claimed that caretaker prime minister Moeen Qureshi had also agreed to award the contract to SGS, but he left the implementation to the upcoming government.

Khalil said he even told the Swiss courts where he asked to appear on special request that there was no corruption whatsoever in the SGS and Cotecna contracts and everything was done according to merit.

He also told the accountability court after this statement in the Swiss courts, the Swiss magistrate in consultation with the Swiss attorney general dismissed the inquiry into the SGS and Cotecna case for lack of evidence and solid witnesses.

After recording Khalil’s statement, the accountability court has called for other witnesses to appear before in the next hearing on January 4. The same court also adjourned till January 4 the ARY gold reference since no witnesses till now have appeared before it in the case and ordered NAB to produce the witnesses.

Court noumber 3 judge Najamul Hasan Bukhari also adjourned till January 4 the Cotecna reference.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2010.