Two ex-ministers held in Pak crackdown on corruption

QUETTA (PAKISTAN), JUNE 15: Pakistani police have arrested two former provincial ministers as the Government of military ruler General Pervez Musharraf continues its crackdown on corruption, officials said on Thursday.

Behram Khan Achakzai, former Baluchistan Irrigation and Power minister, and Mir Faiq Ali Jamali, who served as Labour minister in the south western province, were arrested on Wednesday, the officials added. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which is headed by an Army General, said both had been booked on charges of corruption. They were members of Baluchistan’s coalition government from 1997 to 1998. Achakzai, who belongs to the religio-political Jamiat Ulemae Islam (JUI), is the first senior leader of an Islamic party detained for alleged corruption, sources here said. They said he was accused of involvement in the smuggling of timber. No comments were immediately available from the JUI, an influential fundamentalist party which has links with the ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan.

General Musharraf, who ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s government in a coup last October, has set up the NAB to deal with corruption. The arrests have raised the number of Baluchistan ministers detained over the past few months to five, the officials said. Three top bureaucrats facing similar charges had earlier been arrested, they said. Corruption has reportedly been rampant in the least-developed Baluchistan province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, with no major political party able to gain dominance.

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The ruling coalitions have mostly relied on support from tribal chiefs and smaller factions. Political bargaining and manouevring has plagued the province where more than 30 legislators in the 43-member provincial Assembly held ministerial slots before it was suspended following the coup.

Musharraf, who has cited bribery and financial mismanagement as one of the reasons for the military takeover, has also initiated cases of corruption against Sharif and other senior members of the previous administration.