Re: Core commanders rejected Musharraf desire to leave his both posts.
Well, some estimate that NS has robbed around 1.5 billion dollars (if not exactly, than after interest it should be 1.5 billion dollars today) :). Anyhow, the difference between NS and BB is like if one is 9 (NS) than other is 10 (BB). Anyhow, not everything is on net, still I believe if you do lot of search on net, you may find some article claiming NS corruption worth around 1.5 billion dollars.
Cowasjee is very responsible journalist and he does not write anything as propaganda, but most of what he writes has some truth behind it. Here is an article by Cowasjee written in Dec 2000, where he believes that BB is guilty of doing corruption worth 1.5 billion dollars and NS is guilty of doing corruption worth 1 billion dollars. So, if that article has any truth, after 7 to 8 years, NS corruption money must be worth more than 1.5 billion dollars today. Here is the article by Ardeshir Cowasjee on NS.
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20001217.htm
Nawaz speaks
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
17th Dec 2000
My fellow Pakistanis, that Sunday columnist of the Dawn newspaper, the Parsi, whose writings were printed on Fridays before I reconverted our weekly holiday to Sunday, for which act he said he would present me with a rusted brass medal, is completely incapable of understanding the Muslim mind. He has often repeated himself by writing and rewriting the same two paragraphs :
"Every citizen of this country who can read, write and think, can say without any fear of contradiction that it is, and always has been, the intent of all our leaders (barring the first), to enforce their will, to tailor the Constitution and all of the laws of the land and to interpret them to suit their own special needs so that they may remain in power for ever. During the early years, the leaders did make some sort of effort to pretend that they had the interests of the country and its people at heart, bogus though it may have been, but since 1971 even pretence has been discarded. Now, it is total blatant glasnost ; machinations, schemes and scams are publicly, fearlessly and contemptuously aired.
"The whole wise world knows that whatsoever be the foundation of a democratic government, whether it be the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, the Objectives Resolution, or whatever, the democratic grundnorm is firmly based on the belief expostulated by Jefferson: “that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
Cowasjee has consistently maintained that Mohammad Ali Jinnah was our sole statesman and every leader who has followed him has been a good-for-nothing selfish uneducated man, a robber and a crook. One cannot deny him his right to his opinion.
On the last of our Friday holidays , on February 21 1997, he wrote :
"As for the new ringmaster, Nawaz, by now he must find himself walking a slack rope without either a pole to balance him or anyone handy to take up the slack. The ordinary citizen cannot afford the luxury of being a party to what he is likely to do, but he could write for Nawaz the speech he might give at the inaugural session of our latest National Assembly :
" 'My dear countrymen, my fellow travellers, my brothers, my sisters, my supporters, my opponents : I stand before you as your leader. My aim is to save this country, bankrupted by the excesses of the last three democratic governments - two of Benazir and one of mine. The president said that Benazir and her husband have robbed you , the people, of $1.5 billion, of which there is no proof. I must declare that my family, my friends and myself have been accused of robbing you, the people, of the lesser sum of $1 billion, of which there is also no proof.
" 'However, I have vowed that my new government will not victimize anyone, friend or enemy, but, at the same time, will continue the process of accountability, barely started, and will spare no one, not even the president or my talented brother, Shahbaz. Cases in court against us and the Chaudhrys which have been adjourned for good reason will not be withdrawn.
" 'The president has committed a gross indiscretion. Knowing how broke we are, just before Eid this month, he chose to fly in a 200-seater Boeing 707 to perform Umra at your expense. Had he felt that it was below his dignity to travel by PIA, or Saudia as I did, he could have arranged to charter a Tiger Moth. Vain pomp and glory we can no longer afford. I hold him accountable and will be asking him to make good our loss. In the interests of open government I will make the issue public.
" 'Following Mr Jinnah, who said in his inaugural speech that his first priority was to maintain law and order, my government will ensure the safety of life and property and will take action against those responsible for political extra-judicial killings. The culprits will be found and punished, as will the killers of Editor Salahuddin, whose heirs suspect that it was the MQM that had him murdered, of Lawyer Nizam Ahmed and his son who it is suspected were murdered by the PPP, and the killers of Mir Murtaza the beloved brother of our former prime minister.
" 'Congratulating me in the assembly on February 17, Benazir seemingly said that the goose that lays the golden eggs is now on a life-support system, the eggs broken and scrambled. Let us now unscramble them. The task is onerous but with help I can succeed. To work is a basic human need, which maxim we must heed and work harder.
" 'Whatever I will do on the economic front will of necessity be harsh, stringent and incisive. The bitter pill will have to be swallowed for many a long year.
" ‘Not wishing to emulate Churchill, I offer you nothing but sweat, toil and tears. Again, not wishing to emulate Garibaldi, I say to anyone who loves his country - Follow me’."
Now today I speak to you from heaven on earth, the Kingdom of my Brothers of Saudi Arabia. I am at peace with the world and the world I now know is at peace with me.
I will soon be accommodated in my temporarily permanent abode, close to that of my Brother Field Marshal for Life Idi Amin Dada, VC, Iron Cross, Croix de Guerre, Purple Heart, who is in good health, well-fed and enjoying the company of his nineteen wives. Now, read on, and forgive me if you can.
I was happily spending my life as the son of a blacksmith when in 1981 I was picked up by none other than the Doon School educated General Ghulam Jilani, army dictator-general Zia-ul-Haq’s chief spymaster, and installed as the finance minister of Punjab. In 1985 I was made chief minister of my province and in 1990 prime minister of my country. Because of a silly misunderstanding I was removed from that position in 1993, but brought back again by the army in 1996. During each of my terms in office I made as much money as possible and to the best of my ability helped my family and friends follow suit.
After all, of what use was it being in power if I could not use it to my advantage ? Some termed this corruption, but most of my fellow travellers in Pakistan voiced no objections.
By picking me up in 1981 the army did not do anything which by their standards was unique. In the 1950s, President Colonel Iskander Mirza and Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army General Ayub Khan picked up a stray named Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. How much did he rob and plunder? And did he not lose half our country before he was hanged by General Zia-ul-Haq ? His legacy persists, and the present army is quite capable of making peace with his daughter, the incompetent and corrupt Benazir, and of installing her yet again as prime minister, of pardoning and freeing her husband and allowing her to have him by her side as her minister of plunder.
The third army pick-up was Altaf Hussain of the terrorist party, the MQM. How many people have suffered at its hands, how many has it killed and maimed, how much did it rob ?
Now, having been deprived of a lucrative job, arrested, tried, and imprisoned by the same army which picked me up, I have managed to extricate myself from my dire predicament. I have been sold by the generals for more than my weight in gold. The country will benefit from the gift of free oil from my Saudi brothers, oil which costs millions of dollars a day, which gift will continue to flow for as long as I am at liberty.
My brothers have also sent Ali Reza of HUBCO to strike a settlement of that ongoing bitter dispute. As you all know, apart from Benazir and a few Egyptians of the World Bank, I was also involved in the shady deal made between the government of Pakistan and HUBCO. However, now I will indirectly be the saviour in the matter.
I have aided in the destruction of my country, I have robbed the national till, but all has now been made good.
The moral of the story, my brothers and sisters, is that success and luck lies in the choice of one9s friends. Can Benazir, Asif or Altaf Bhai boast of friends who will pay billions to rescue them ? My friends from the Holy Land, God bless them, have prevailed upon General Pervez Musharraf to maintain my honour and not speak out about terms of the ransom agreed. As payment is being made by the day, I am worth more to my country alive than dead.
If Allah should will it, as said Colonel Douglas MacDonald of Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1942 when he was forced to leave Corregidor, “I shall return”. Until then, Pakistan Paindabad.