Two Pakistan Army generals caught in Rs.75 mn loan scam

Islamabad, Nov 3 (IANS) Two Pakistan Army generals have been found to be involved in a Rs.75 million scam, a parliamentary committee was told. The top army officers gave a huge loan to a power company without any guarantees.

The Public Accounts Committee meeting Tuesday was informed that the two top army generals, who were with the National Logistics Cell (NLC), gave the massive loan without guarantees. The firm never returned the money, the Express Tribune reported Wednesday.

The loan was given to the company which was payable by Dec 31, 2007. But the loan was never returned.

The two army generals, both of whom have now retired - Lt.Gen. Muhammad Afzal and Maj.Gen. Khalid Zaheer Akhtar - were held responsible by the auditor general.

General Junaid Rehmat, a top NLC official who appeared before the committee, admitted that the actions of his predecessors were not defensible.

The PAC members were also told that 88 vehicles, including seven luxury Prado cruiser, were imported duty-free by the NLC’s top officials by using fake certificates that testified that they were being imported for “defence purposes”.

The media report said that the luxury SUVs were actually being used by junior officers, mostly from the army.

The PAC chairman Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said that the once profitable organisation has become bankrupt as army officers who were running it played havoc with its financial health.

This is the second scam to hit the NLC that was troubled with a Rs.1.8 billion scam involving three military officers. The three officers were found guilty of making investment in the nation’s volatile bourses after borrowing cash from the banks. They eventually lost it.