Despite concrete evidence of huge financial corruption in PCB and NCHD General Musharraf is shamelessly continuing to protect his buddy and business partner Dr. Nasim Ashraf. The question is Why?
In March a huge financial scandal was uncovered by the Auditor general of Pakistan at NCHD an organization which is being run by Nasim Ashraf the details of the audit report are highlighted in the following report:
Furthermore the Senate’s Sub committee for sports has also several times recommended the accountability of Nasim Ashraf for his gross mismanagement and financial corruption being done at PCB. PCB was not to long ago being efficiently managed by a staff of 32 employees now the number of its employees is 756 most of whom are ex military officers who are close to Musharraf and are directly appointed by him to look after his interests in the organization.
Despite a huge public outcry for the accountability of Nasim Ashraf and multiple direct pleas made by Ex Cricketers to thePresident Nasim Ashraf is still controlling PCB.
WHY? We all know PCB is a cash rich organisation and the following article will explain in detail the hidden relationship between Musharraf and Nasim Ashraf. They are Business Partners billions have been looted from these two organisations and used to buy PSO (Pakistan State oil). The article is an eye opener for those who believe Musharraf has never indulged in a financial corruption.
March 20/ 2008 (DAWN) – An audit report has unearthed irregularities, unauthorized use of funds and unaccounted for expenditures amounting to Rs 1,289.997 million by the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) [which is headed by its Chairman Nasim Ashraf].
Findings of the Auditor General of Pakistan’s report for 2005-06 highlight major issues like unauthorized utilization of endowment fund, unreliable accounting record, non-retrieval of costly assets from various NGOs, irregular payment of salary and allowances to officers working in the NCHD on deputation, and lack of internal controls in the organisation.
The report says the Commission irresponsibly spent about Rs 1,250 million from the endowment fund; it has failed to retrieve about Rs 3.22 million from various civil society organisations after expiry/ cancellation of their contracts; an amount of Rs 22.1 million received from telethon had not been accounted for; and unsecured advance payment of Rs 14.677 million was made to a company for supply of 24 imported vehicles out of which 18 were not supplied.
Accounting record of the organisation has been declared unreliable. Irregular appointments, inappropriate payment and allowances to officers have also been reported. A large number of bank accounts for different receipts were maintained without justification and foreign aid has not been reported to the government.
During the audit of the NCHD accounts, it has been observed that proper accounts of receipts and expenditures have not been maintained in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles.
The Auditor General has also accused that complete record was not provided to the audit team for inspection.
Similarly, the NCHD management also refused to produce the records relating to provision of contracts to NGOs/CSOs and their terms and conditions despite repeated requests from the audit department.
Furthermore, none of the CSOs could complete the tasks they had been assigned and failed to fulfill the contractual clauses.
NCHD Chairman Dr. Nasim Ashraf was not available for comments. This reporter repeatedly tried to contact him for his version, but the office secretary said he (Dr. Ashraf) was busy in a meeting. A message left with the secretary also went unresponded.
The Desperate Bid to Award Rs 874 Million to Nasim Ashraf
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=102338
By ANSAR ABBASI
March 20/ 2008 (The News International) – In their dying days, the caretakers are trying desperately to hand over Rs 874 million to the controversial project of Dr. Nasim Ashraf, the head of the NCHD, as a super-urgent case.
Moved through the Finance Ministry, the caretaker Prime Minister Muhammad mian Soomro is expected to approve this funding to the Commission before the new Prime Minister [Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani] takes over.
The NCHD, whose spending in the past and its output ever since its commencement remained highly controversial, is being given this huge amount at a time when the new elected government is all set to take over in a few days.
In June 2007, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had demanded a thorough probe and audit into the accounts of the NCHD. The first audit of the NCHD, which was made public on 27 June 2007, exposed the misuse of the Pakistan Human Development Fund (PHDF) to the tune of nearly 1.3 billion rupees and the missing 338 million rupees from the bank
accounts of the NCHD and PHDF.
“The revelations made in the special audit report on the accounts of the Commission and the development fund of unauthorised utilisation of nearly 1.3 billion rupees is a serious indictment of the Commission that calls for probe and action,” Senator Enver Baig of PPP was quoted as saying in a statement issued at that time. Baig had also called Nasim Ashraf and General (retired) Pervez Musharraf as business
partners.
Both the Secretary Cabinet, S.M. Alam Rizvi, and Secretary Finance Dr. Waqar Masood don’t see anything wrong with this allocation to an organisation that is considered important more because of the influence of its head, Dr. Nasim Ashraf, than the work it has produced.
Rizvi, who was initially given one-year extension and later appointed as member FPSC by the [unconstitutional and illegal] president [Musharraf], said that a committee comprising secretary cabinet, secretary finance, the then principal secretary to the Prime Minister
Khalid Saeed, whose appointment in the NEPRA has been questioned by no less than the Senate, and Nasim Ashraf reviewed the work of the Commission and expressed their satisfaction over the work done by the body.
The otherwise undiscovered “magic” of the Commission has though amused the Baboos, most of whom have been extraordinarily favoured by the caretaker government, and no one deemed it fit to defer the case for the new Parliament and its committees.
While a source said that a phone call from a powerful office did wonders for the NCHD, the secretaries of the cabinet and finance divisions said that in a presentation before the caretaker Prime Minister in January [2008], the NCHD had demanded the provision of Rs
1.3 billion. In the same presentation, it was decided to provide Rs 874 million to the Commission, whose projects were not part of the PSDP.
As against the normal practice where such cases are minutely scrutinized and assessed by all the concerned officers, none of the Cabinet Division officials reviewed the case.
It was only the secretary cabinet who forwarded the case to the finance secretary through a special messenger and without getting any input from the concerned joint secretary, deputy secretary, or section officer.
The secretaries of both the finance and cabinet divisions, however, insisted that there was nothing wrong in the case and that the concerned financial advisor was involved in this.
Contrary to the claims of the top mandarins sitting in the Finance Ministry and the Cabinet Division, an official source said that the spending of the NCHD remained scandalous and there had been reports of massive wastage of billions of rupees that were provided to this body without any official oversight or accountability.
Although, the NCHD claims to be generating most part of its budget from different foreign NGOs and donors, still billions have been doled out to this body from the public kitty.
The money is claimed to have been spent in the name of the poor, illiterate and deprived people of Pakistan, but even the government departments have been raising their serious reservations over its functioning and output. Government departments consider it a parallel organisation in the fields of education and health. These departments
have been insisting that instead of creating new organisations like the NCHD, the already existing departments should be upgraded and financed.
The NCHD was created in July 2001 by General Musharraf through a presidential ordinance and then smartly weaved into a privately-owned Pakistan Human Development Fund (PHDF).
Dr. Nasim Ashraf, who is a known buddy of Musharraf, was appointed its Chairman and he continues to hold this office despite his appointment as Chairman, Pakistan Cricket Board.
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The following articles are a must read:
Pakistan Senators demand accountability of Nasim Ashraf
Sharjeel Khan welcome to cricketfiles:
Sharjeel nobody here has any personal animosity with Nasim Ashraf all the facts stated above are true and have been well researched and have been published in different leading newspapers of Pakistan and abroad.
Now if you do not want to agree with them because of your political or personal affiliations it’s your own choice.
It’s a fact that none of the cricket boards in the world has more than 100 employees, a decade ago PCB was just being managed by 36 employees and our ranking in the world was #2,
just before Mr Ashraf took over the employee strength of PCB was around 300 which ballooned to more than 700 during his tenure, is it a fact or not.
During his last 10 months PCB spent 1.8 billion RS and depleted the reserves of PCB. Figures have been drawn from PCB financial statements they are available on the internet so go check.
Nasim Ashraf continuously lied to various senate committees about the perks and salaries received by his executives, why?
Nobody said that all of the directors or majority of the directors were hired from army, 100′s of ex- army officials were given jobs in PCB under Musharraf regime what were their job responsibilities nobody knows, do you know all 700 employees of PCB and their job description.
His corruption scandal in HDF was well published in the media during his days in the office when he had no altercation with Saleem Altaf and the facts were reported in Auditor generals report over which Saleem Altaf has no control.
Nobody here is defending Saleem Altaf and Ejaz Butt who were also a part of Nasim Ashraf’s administration, but downsizing PCB in such a time of crisis is a step in the right direction. And don’t tell me you are so naive that you don’t understand why cases have not been brought up against Musharraf and Nasim Ashraf it was a part of Musharraf’s exit package.
Two wrongs never make a right the current administration may also prove to be a failure but is it a justification for Nasim Ashraf’s crimes,should he be absolved of every thing he did, I don’t think so.
His flip flop decisions on the disciplinary issues and the hiring of a dummy coach and a dummy captain has brought Pakistan cricket to its lowest level.
Can you tell me in 2006 and 2007 what portion of PCB’s budget was spent on the development of cricket? Don’t you think that despite spending billions our cricket infrastructure is still in deplorable condition, the clubs and associations which were the breeding ground for new talent were left dry of funds, the standard of domestic cricket has hit it’s lowest ebb, Mr Ashraf spent billions but our rankings have plummeted from #3 to #6 he failed to give a constitution to PCB for two years despite his several promises, Why? The constitution came only after he got grilled in the senate.
PCB’s job is to promote cricket in Pakistan and its spendings should reflect that, Pakistan was one of the foremost voices in International cricket during his tenure we lost our status of the International crickets leading voice.
I don’t think that Ejaz Butt will turn Pakistan cricket team overnight into a world beating force overnight but all these cricketers at the helm of PCB now will improve the team. Its important that the think tank of Pakistan cricket is no longer alienated from PCB and they will definitely make some improvements.
Most of the views i have read are nothing more than trash. My conclusion about above viewers is that they lack commonsense. For a moment you should think that PCB is now under control of Ijaz Butt ( a dummy chairman ), practically being mismanaged by Saleem Altaf who is doing all he can to further tarnish the image of Nasim Ashraf. If all these allegations on Dr Nasim had any weight in them, Salim Altaf would nt have waisted a minute in holding an inquiry. I wish new administration holds inquiries on everything , and you will see how they embarrass themselves. Being a media person, i intimately know structure of PCB of today and PCB of Nasim Ashraf’s time, and even before. None of the Director’s of PCB during DNA was an Army man. Only 1 GM Admin was ex Army man, he happended to be responsible for security. None of the Senior Managers or manager was from army. Mr Soulbary, 724 extra staff mainly army men, I pity your knowledge. Dr Nasim Sb, if you are reading, thanks for doing so much in so little time. Soon sense will prevail and everyone will remember you in good words.
Superb stuff wasim… just when we were wondering what this guy is doing as PCB chief.
Soulberry
There is a group of senators who is after him, so far he has been protected by the president but the recent Auditor General’s report has turned the heat on him and he is looking for ways to escape and there is a high possibility that he might abscond while on vacation.
Not really? Is Mr.Ashraf on his way out then?
It was in the news yesterday that Nasim Ashraf is leaving for a long vacation to America, and the probability is that he won’t return. His vacation is coinciding with the champion’s trophy schedule that is surprising because he normally is present at every overseas tournament, since their is no TADA involved in a domestic tournament he is not going to attend it.
Welcome back SB:
They are just having a long highly paid vacation.
The ease and audacity of it is mindboggling but unsurprising to those of us familiar with subcontinental “methods” of men in position of influence.
I’m wondering what 724 extra staff, mainly ex-army officers, could be doing?
UTP
Not only on blogs, but on any platform where ever you get the opportunity.
You must have heard that Hadith that “if you see an evil act try to stop it by force, if you are not strong enough then raise your voice against it, if you cant even do that then atleast condemn it in your heart.”
What troubles me the most is that our society somehow has compromised to live with corruption we don’t even want to condemn it in our heart.
Please do not take my views as criticism I am talking in general.
raise our voices where? on blogs?
Insenstivity of the younger generation toward corruption is the biggest cause of Pakistan’s downfall, It’s the worst form of frustration where you don’t bother anymore, but how can you hope the team to do good when there is so much corruption in selection and management, it’s just too wishfull thinking.
I am not asking to take on the streets but at least we should raise our voice.
I have stopped getting frustrated on news such as these…its a waste of time to get frustrated…
I just hope we play some good cricket to keep the name high that’s all…the rest of it has happened in the past and will continue to happen in the future…i m least bothered…
Great Article Wasim!
Nobody can deny that the whims of control of PCB are in the hands of Nasim Ashraf and his ultimate master Mushy, the whole country was expecting a change of captain and coach after the Asia Cup, the think tank of Pakistan cricket unanimously declared both of them incompetent but Nasim Ashraf again used his veto power in favor of Malik.
Malik is the same to him what he himself is to Mushy, a tale wagging dog.
PCB is no longer a national institution it has become a private ltd company ” Mushy & DNA (Pvt) Ltd” .
Malik has no political influence, he has chosen to become a puppet of Nasim Ashraf because that is the only way he can retain his place in the team, he has no uncle who is a senator as some people suggest.
There was a time that illegal activities in the team were master minded by some senior players now the board executives are controlling all those activities by unfair selection and by consistently playing unfit players and selecting from the same pool of under achieving players and ultimately reaping all the financial benefits.Nasim Ashraf protects these players just like a Mafia don protects his members as it’s hard to find new recruits.
I was reading somewhere that Nasim Ashraf openly admitted that once Musharraf will step down he will be the first one to leave the country, I hope and pray that day comes soon.
When this scandal was first uncovered 100 senators moved a motion to start accountability against Nasim Ashraf but the motion was killed by one telephone by Musharraf to Umar Ayub and no action was taken.
These so called refined and educated personalities,have been using their charm, eloquency and smooth talking abilities to loot the nation in reality they are nothing but petty thieves.
PCB was being managed by 32 people when we made to the WC final in 1999 and an ex-player was running it,I would prefer any ex Player over this corrupt bastard to run PCB.
The Aziz, Altaf and Musharraf Mafia and their team of smooth talkers have ruined the country almost every Single state enterprise or institution has been looted and plundered.
How low one’s character can be if you embezzle charity money.
Now everybody should understand why Musharraf didn’t accept DNA’s resignation.
SP
If they have any decency or self respect why would they indulge in such activities in the first place, they are administering like Mafia Dons.
if they have semblance of self respect left…they should f@ck off…but i even doubt on it…