Pakistan's Three ex-generals to face court martial

The services of three retired generals of the Pakistan Army have been restored for their court martial for having been involved in National Logistics Cell (NLC) scam. In a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, NAB officials briefed the body about the NLC scam involving corruption of billions of rupees. They said the NAB chairman has held three meetings with Chief of Army Staff about the matter. They said the army officers involved in the scandal were Lt General (r) Khalid Munir, Lt General (r) Afzal Muzaffar and Major General (r) Zaheer Akhtar. NAB said the army had assured that would inquire into the cases of three generals involved in the scandal, while NAB would hold civilian inquiries. They said the GHQ was not cooperating in the case in the beginning, but NAB then warned them of forcibly taking into custody all relevant record under the NAB ordinance. “Now the GHQ has agreed to cooperate,” they said. They added that they had been informed that the three generals had been restored on service for court martial. Audit officials said they had been informed that proceedings of court martial against three generals had already been initiated. PAC Chairman Nadeem Afal Gondal observed that these were delaying tactics and remarked that while action was taken immediately against post-office officials, there was a delay in cases of VIPs. The PAC asked the defense secretary to submit a report on progress in the case in fifteen days and asked NAB to provide the relevant record. NLC Director General Major General Junaid told the committee that the department had retrieved loan of Rs 9.5 billion and this year it earned a profit of Rs 6.5 billion. He said the NLC was no more transporting goods of Afghan transit trade, which was a business of Rs 100 billion. He said if the government so desired, they could get the contract once again. Member of the Committee Hamid Yar Hiraj said smuggling had increased after the Afghan Transit trade contract was given to the private sector. Planning Commission Secretary Javed Malik informed the PAC that 191 projects would be completed during the current financial year and it was the effort of the government that no new project was launched until December so that work was completed on the ongoing projects.