Corruption charges against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari information
Corruption scandal in Pakistan
This article is part of a series about
Benazir Bhutto
Early life
Political career
Burial
Political views
Social democracy
Charter of Democracy
Elections
1988
1990
1993
1997
Prime Minister of Pakistan
Midnight Jackal
Mehrangate
Karachi affair
Repression in Karachi
Coup d'état attempt
Seventh Five-Year Plan
Murder of Murtaza Bhutto
Corruption scandals
Books written
Daughter of Destiny: An Autobiography
Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West
Assassination
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Benazir Bhutto, accompanied by her husband Zardari and son Bilawal, US visit in 1989, during Bhutto's government
After the dismissal of Benazir Bhutto's first government on 6 August 1990 by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on grounds of corruption, the government of Pakistan issued directives to its intelligence agencies to investigate the allegations. After the fourth national elections, Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister and intensified prosecution proceedings against Bhutto. Pakistani embassies through Western Europe—in France, Switzerland, Spain, Poland and Britain—were directed to investigate the matter. Bhutto and her husband faced a number of legal proceedings, including a charge of laundering money through Swiss banks. Though never convicted, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, spent eight years in prison on similar corruption charges. After being released on bail in 2004, Zardari suggested that his time in prison involved torture.[1]
A 1998 New York Times investigative report[2] claims that Pakistani investigators have documents that uncover a network of bank accounts, all linked to the family's lawyer in Switzerland, with Asif Zardari as the principal shareholder. According to the article, documents released by the French authorities indicated that Zardari offered exclusive rights to Dassault, a French aircraft manufacturer, to replace Pakistan's air force's fighter jets in exchange for a 5% commission to be paid to a Swiss corporation controlled by Zardari. The article also said a Dubai company received an exclusive licence to import gold into Pakistan for which Asif Zardari received payments of more than $10 million into his Dubai-based Citibank accounts. The owner of the company denied that he had made payments to Zardari and claims the documents were forged.
Bhutto maintained that the charges levelled against her and her husband were purely political.[3][4] In 2006, after 15 long years an Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) report was brought forward when then-President Pervez Musharraf was trying to gain support from Bhutto. According to this report, Benazir Bhutto was ousted from power in 1990 as a result of a witch hunt approved by then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan. The AGP report says Khan illegally paid legal advisers 28 million rupees to file 19 corruption cases against Bhutto and her husband in 1990–92.[5]
Yet the assets held by Bhutto and her husband continue to be scrutinised and speculated about. The prosecutors have alleged that their Swiss bank accounts contain £740 million.[6] Zardari also bought a neo-Tudor mansion and estate worth over £4 million in Surrey, England, UK.[7][8] The Pakistani investigations have tied other overseas properties to Zardari's family. These include a $2.5 million manor in Normandy owned by Zardari's parents, who had modest assets at the time of his marriage.[2] Bhutto denied holding substantive overseas assets.
^"C'wealth apprised of Asif's 'illegal' detention – Dawn Pakistan".
^ abBhutto Clan Leaves Trail of Corruption in Pakistan, by John F. Burns, The New York Times, 9 January 1998
^Bhutto's Husband Appeals 11 May 1999
^World News Briefs; Bhutto's Jailed Husband Sworn In as Senator 30 December 1997
^"The Bhutto saga takes a new turn". news.webindia123.com. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
^Corruption amnesty may release millions for Bhutto, The Sunday Times, 14 October 2007
^Asif Zardari lays claim to 4-mn-pound UK estate, The Times of India, 22 August 2004
^£4 m Surrey mansion in Bhutto 'corruption' row, The Sunday Times, 21 November 2004
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