The commission formed to probe the Broadsheet scandal has released its findings, with a key takeaway being that all institutions except for NAB were found to have resisted cooperating with the investigation.
Headed by retired Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, the commission has also stated in its report that Broadsheet’s records were missing from “nearly everywhere”, including the Pakistan mission in London.
Additionally, the report states that the chairman of the commission (Justice Saeed) did not think it necessary to record Tariq Fawad and Broadsheet CEO Kaveh Moussavi’s statements.
It said that the bureaucracy made every attempt to “hide records or make them disappear”, in moves that were in many instances “transcontinental”.
The report states that Moussavi levelled allegations against certain individuals but probing this matter did not fall under the terms of reference defined for the commission. It added that the government may probe the Broadsheet CEO’s allegations if it wishes to.
The Broadsheet LLC scandal
Broadsheet LLC was hired by the National Accountability Bureau during Pervez Musharraf’s government in 1999 to trace assets in the UK and USA belonging to more than 200 Pakistanis (called “targets” in the contract) including generals, politicians, and businessmen — Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, and Nawaz Sharif being among the chief targets.
After NAB abruptly ended its contract with Broadsheet in 2003, in violation of the terms and conditions, the asset recovery firm began pursuing legal action against the bureau. The bureau was subsequently ordered by a London court to pay for damages, liabilities, and interest accrued.
In this regard, the London High Court’s Financial Division issued on December 17, 2020, a Final Third Party Order for payment to Broadsheet by December 30, 2020 — drawing the curtains on a case that has cost Pakistani taxpayers billions of rupees.
Pakistan then made a payment of $28.706 million (Rs4.59 billion) to the British firm after losing long-running litigation at the London High Court.
