Benazir Bhutto...war hots up

ISLAMABAD, July 4: The Nawaz Sharif government has finalised a ``reference'' to be filed in a court shortly against former Premier Benazir Bhutto, her jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari and a leading business house for approving export of 50,000 tonnes of urea to India allegedly violating rules.

The accountability cell of the Prime Minister's office has found a letter by Nasir Hussain, chief of Schon group, written in October 1994 to the then Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, requesting for approval for export of urea to India, newspapers quoting official sources reported here today.

The request was approved despite the fact that Pakistan was facing acute shortage of urea during that period and actually had to import 162,400 tonnes of urea in 1995 and even more in the subsequent year, the dailies said. Nasir Hussain, whose name has been involved in various financial irregularities, was very close to Asif Ali Zardari which he had even confessed in a confessional statement shown on Pakistan TV earlier.

Benazir's principal secretary, Ahmed Sadiq, had also in his confessional statement, admitted that the export authorisation was granted to Nasir Hussain on the instruction of Benazir Bhutto.

The ehtesab (accountability) cell during the course of investigation has got hold of very important documents which confirms the involvement of Benazir Bhutto and Zardari in urea export to India and subsequently driving benefits from these transactions.

The reference against the persons involved in the case would be filed under the relevant sections of the Ehtesab(accountability) Act in the competent court within a few days, the official sources were quoted as saying.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.