Pakistan Rounds Up The Rich
The military government rounded up hundreds of Pakistan's most powerful and wealthy people Wednesday, making good on its promise to try and rid the country's political ranks of rampant corruption.
The raids -- which brought in landowners, industrialists, athletes and politicians from all parties -- began hours after a deadline expired for debtors to repay loans or face criminal charges.
According to Pakistan television, $138 million had been recovered when the deadline expired -- just 3 percent of the estimated $4 billion outstanding.
Soldiers in green army jeeps roared up to the palatial home of Nawaz Kokhar, a member of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's party, on the outskirts of Islamabad to arrest him.
"We hope we will get justice. We are not going to run," said Kokhar, who reportedly owes about $2 million.
He was just one of hundreds taken in during army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on corruption, which he promised to carry out last month after seizing power in a bloodless coup.
There were conflicting reports on the exact number of arrests, but police and intelligence officials said the nationwide raids brought in as many as 450 people. An official statement named 21 people who were arrested.
Deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, were among those charged, though the family reportedly repaid nearly $6 million in loans by the Tuesday deadline.
The former prime minister, who has been in army custody since his Oct. 12 ouster, had earlier been accused of treason and hijacking. He was handed over to police late Wednesday, and within 24 hours was due in court to be formally charged. If convicted of either charge, he would face the death penalty or life in prison.
The charges stem from an incident in which an aircraft returning Musharraf to Pakistan was refused permission to land in Karachi on Oct. 12. The army seized control of the country, allowed the plane to land, and took Sharif into custody.
On Wednesday, the army interrupted television programming to name some of those arrested, including Manzoor Wattoo, a former chief minister of Punjab; Akhtar Rasool, former captain of Pakistan's national field hockey team; retired Air Marshal Waqar Azim; and Anwar Saifullah, a leading politician and industrialist.
"They have committed crimes against this nation," Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said on state television. "We have to be tough."
The TV report also called Bhutto a "proclaimed offender," and said she was still wanted for arrest on corruption charges.
Bhutto, who lives in Britain, earlier was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to five years in jail. But she refused to return to Pakistan, saying the trial had been unfair and she was innocent. She has appealed her conviction.
The television report also said Bhutto's jailed husband, Asif Ali Zardari, faces new charges.
Wednesday's arrests followed the enactment of a law, pomulgated by President Rafiq Tarar, barring politicians from holding office for 21 years if they were found guilty of corruption or of defaulting on loans.
The law makes corruption a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison, whereas a corruption conviction previously carried a maximum five-year prison term and kept politicians from office for seven years.
Banks, which were nationalized and taken over by the government in the 1970s, had been coerced into giving the loans to the powerful regardless of whether they could provide sufficient collateral, officials said.
Aside from increasing the punishments for corruption and loan defaulting, the new law establishes special courts to conduct trials within 30 days, and allows for just one appeal.
The law also gives the army-established National Accountability Bureau sweeping powers of investigation and the authority to seek help from police and intelligence agencies.
And it allows the state to confiscate property owned by loan defaulters, and bars anyone found guilty of corruption from taking out another loan for 10 years, according to Pakistan's state-run news agency.