Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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I dunno, but Rs. 1.5bn sounds lot to me & he should pay back Rs227 that he spent on promoting his book in the US.

Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Thursday, April 24, 2008

By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf and his wife had spent Rs1.5 billion from national kitty on their foreign trips during the last five years, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi disclosed in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Qureshi also disclosed that the president took at least 1,325 visitors along with him in 37 trips since February 2003.** Musharraf’s visit to the USA to attend the book launching ceremony of his autobiography “In the Line of Fire” turned out be the most expensive trip, as it cost Rs227 million.**

Likewise, Musharraf’s desperate visit to Abu Dhabi to hold a historic meeting with the late Benazir Bhutto on July 26 2007 to seek her help after restoration of the chief justice of Pakistan on July 20, cost Rs15 million as the president took 43 people along with him.

Musharraf paid eight visits to Saudi Arabia in these five years, and Rs142 million were spent on his these trips where he also performed Umrah. The latest trip of Musharraf to the European countries cost the nation Rs146 million amid the confirmation of British foreign office that the president himself had expressed the wish to visit London as no official request was extended from the host country. In the same trip, Musharraf stayed at a hotel in London on Park Lane where one night room rent was Rs1.8 million.

In these five years, President Musharraf visited a total of 80 foreign countries and the USA, Saudi Arabia and the UK were the most visited destinations. The president paid six official visits to the USA which were made in the name of improving bilateral relationship between the two states.

The most expensive trip in the history of Pakistan was made to Belgium, Cuba, the USA and the UK where Musharraf along with 52 entourage spent Rs227 million within 16 days. Earlier, PML-N MNA Raja Mohammad Asad Khan had asked the foreign minister to give the details of President Musharraf’s visits abroad during the period from January 2003 to February 2008 along with the expenditures incurred and the names of entourage of those visits separately along with the reasons of nominations.

Talking to The News, MNA Raja Asad said that he was surprised to see the details of the foreign trips of Musharraf. He said this was the taxpayers money and was spent in such a manner which had greatly disappointed him.

The major beneficiary of these foreign trips after Musharraf were the personal staff of the president, who accompanied him almost on every visit. Personal and security staff always exceeded the official members of such trips.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmad accompanied Musharraf more than any minister as he was with him for eight times. Followed by the minister, Sumaira Malik went with Musharraf five times and Hina Rabbani Khar to four visits.

According to other details, Musharraf spent Rs21 million on his trip to Russia, Rs22 million to Malaysia, Rs7.4 million to Saudi Arabia, Rs17.2 million on the USA, UK, Germany and France, Rs28 million on Tunisia, Algeria, Rabat, Rs38 million to the USA, Canada, Rs33 million to Malaysia, Rs28 million to China, Korea, Rs29 million to Turkey, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Rs12 million to Sweden, Finland, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Rs31 million to USA, Netherlands, Italy, Rs60 million to UAE Rs5 million to Afghanistan, Rs90 million to Kyrgzsatan, Uzbekistan, Rs20 million to India, Indonesia, Philippines, Rs37 million to UAE and Qatar, Rs9 million to Australia and New Zealand, Rs40 million to New York Tampa, Rs53 million to Saudi Arabia, Rs11.4 million to Kuwait, Yeman, Saudi Arabia, Rs1 million to Switzerland, Norway, Dubai Rs45 million to China, Rs168 million to UAE, Rs0.3 million to Afghanistan Rs3.4 million to Belgium, Cuba, the USA, UK Rs227 million to Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia Rs54 million to Indonesia, Malaysia, Rs56 million to Iran and Turkey, Rs11 million to Spain, Poland, Bosnia and Turkey, Rs44 million to Saudi Arabia and UAE, Rs14 million to Afghanistan, and lately his trip to France, Switzerland, the UK and Belgium cost Rs146 million.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

I feel Rs 1.5 billion is underestimation.

He was paying 17thousand pounds just for one night stay in London.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

I love the guy, but man that book tour made Pakistan the laughing stock of the world. Which president not only manages to write a book WHILE he's in office but also has the balls not only to pull a publicity but also bill the country for it! If we paid for his book tour - does that mean we get a cut out of his book sales? Doubt it.

That stupid book tour lost Mush alot of respect.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Now that he is losing power, more facts about his looting of the country are coming out.

A corrupt dictator living the high life at the expense of the people.

Of course ‘some’ people will come up with excuses, compare Bush’s expenses, etc :rolleyes:

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Isn't that under $5M annually? sounds reasonable for President/CEO of a large country. In fact that sounds very under-counted given some expensive habits I have read of about him (eg the Dorchester bill).

Even ih spent 10 times the 1.5B rupees, that would still be nothing compared to what Pakistan lost due to misadventures such as Kargil, the military coup, the FATA action etc

what are the qualities of an 'Ideal Partner"(if there is sumtn like that)?
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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Pakistan is on the poorest countries in the world, with several benchmarks below Africa.

It's govt officials, esp the President, should not be living like they have the funds of a developed country.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

O prejudice kai maroo’n desion!

convert these 1.5 “BILLION” Rupees into POUNDS 1st, for 6 years it ill come down to £2.3MILLION. now google PRESIDENTIAL travel expenses for any country and compare it with them. no matter howmany bad things he has done, he still is a PRESIDENT, not a TUT PUNJIYA like some. :chai: here is the simple calculation for you .

Rs 1,500,000,000
129 ÷ (Rupee conversion rate in open market these days) (thats what I would choose, if I have to exaggerate it)

£ 11,627,906.976744186 =
5 ÷ (years)

£2,325,581.3953488372= £2.325m/anum

and for those who talk about his stay in london for £17k/night. I would LOVE to see that hotel.
here is London MOST expensive hotel.

London
Claridge’s
The Brook Penthouse/The Davies Penthouse
$5,482 per night
Claridge´s
Brook Street
London, England
Phone: 0044 20 7629 8860
Fax: 0044 20 7499 2210
E-mail: [email protected] (feel free to call and confirm)
SOURCE

it sickens me that how we forget all rationality when it comes to picking on some1 who we don’t like, and go to extra mile in believing whatever bad is associated with him/her.

btw £2.3m/anum also equals to 44.4** BILLION **Rupeah; sounds even more scandalous, in’t…go figure how.. :chai:.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Simple conversion that some people don't seem to understand

1.5 bn rupees is $23,288,209 Million US dollars. A huge amount for Pak govt.

Some people will start to make excuse for the 3rd private jet he bought last year as well.

Apparently two aren't enough!

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

of course 23.2 MILLION MILLION US dollars is HUGE amount even for US president, especialy when US presidential budget for 2007 was around 2.7 MILLION MILLION dollars.. :chai:

what you guys fail to understand, when you go to some other country, the hotel you are staying in or the companies providing services, they DON’T CHARGE you on the basis of the COUNTRY’s economy you came from. if you come to UK, a bed & breakfast will charge you £30-35/ night, converting it into Ruppes and then start comparing it with SHeraton Karachi or Avari Towers is utterly idiotic.

OR...
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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Brother, you are right though what you converted is not dollars but British pounds. Problem is that Pakistan is full of illitrate who do not know anything and get misguided by political goons easily.

Actually it was surprising that less than 25 million dollars was spent on Presidential visit world over in last eight years (what they are claiming 5 years is actually 8 years) and that comes to around 3 million a year. Reason is that President Musharraf takes few people when visiting abroad and travel plus live abroad modestly. As for BeNazir and Nawaz, they use to travel with army of goons and use to spend money like water.

Pakistan reaped many benefit of all President visits as Pakistan trade went up from 7.6 billion dollars in 1999 (similar to 1988) to over 18 billion dollars today, external debt that increased from 13 billion in 1988 (when BB and NS thug period started) to 38 billion dollars by 1999, and after 8 years of Musharrf rule it increased to only 40 billion dollars that in spite of Pakistan paid around 45 billion dollar interest on those 38 billion dollars in last 8 years and that means NS and BB goons debt in today’s dollars was over 83 billion (38 billon dollar capital plus 45 billion dollar interest) that got reduced to around 40 billion dollars today. Reserve also increased from less than 1 billion dollars to over 16 billion dollars.

In comparison, corrupt political thug prime ministers like Nawaz and BeNazir use to spend more than 5 million dollars of poor Pakistani money on their personal shopping every year when they use to go abroad each time and that is the reason plus many other reasons, like corruption, looting, mismanagement etc, that made Pakistan a basket case before Musharraf took over. If foreign trips of NS and BB get accounted than one would find that they might have spent billions of dollars on their trips with zero result.

As for Musharraf, he kept these thugs away from power and that was big service to poor Pakistan. Just imagine the wealth Pakistan saved by not having parliament from 1999 to 2002 and we had very few people running the country most effectively, saving Pakistan billions of dollars. For instance, during first three years we had no corrupt political choor parliamentarians, each of them used to steal more than 10 million dollars a year of poor Pakistani wealth whenever there is parliament.

Well, just two past choors, Nawaz and BeNazir stole 3500 to 4000 million dollars during 11 years they ruled together and if one adds interest on those looted money, it could be much over 8000 million dollars these two goons looted from Pakistan together, plus cost Pakistan another many thousand millions on wastages, personal luxury livings at government expense, and foreign trips, plus another many thousand millions looted and wasted by other of their political goons (chailay chamchays). Most likely during their corrupt period from 1988 to 1999, these two thugs (NS and BB) and their choor crook partners (chailay chamchays) looted, plundered, wasted and blown somewhere over 50000 million dollars (50 billion dollars) of poor Pakistanis money, making Pakistan a basket case begging from every country for survival and becoming jokers of the world.

Pakistan has seen days when both Pakistani crook Prime Ministers, NS and BB, were talk of the world as biggest corrupt thugs and cons in the history of world politics. Something no country could be proud of, that the country was so unfortunate that both Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1999 are world known corrupt thugs, liars, cons, and criminals whose name when taken anywhere in world, it is taken disgracefully. Now these two goons (NS and spouse Zardari of other corrupt BB known as big corrupt himself all over the world) have joined hands together to loot Pakistan again.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

yes you are right, the values are in £s. the other thing we CONVENIENTLY over see , is that these expenses are associated with presidential office, not with the person who is in the office, let it be Musharaf or some moron from PPP, PNL(N), PNL (Q) or GS. :chai:
as a president visiting a country, you go with the SUGGESTED security plans by HOSTING country. you are not SUPPOSED to stay in TRAVEL LODGE or PREMIER INN near a motorway; you are obliged to follow those plans. unfortunately after 9/11 THAT doesn’t come cheap, especially when you are 2nd on hate/hit list after Bush.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Saleem, K Khan: I understand what you are saying, may we should 've numbers for President/PM visits in 90s how much money was spent. Also, you guys seem to be okay with national money being spent to generate his personal money (book launch ceremony abroad), any comments?

please tell me how should i deal with this?
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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Well brother, first of all it is a lie (just like most of lies from NS and his teams plus media spin masters) that President was paying so much in London living at Doncaster hotel. Nevertheless, most of President Musharraf visits abroad was beneficial for Pakistan in developing relationship for Pakistan as well as increasing trade.

As for 25 million dollar expenditure in Presidential visits, it is really very little and these mentally retarded political goons did not realised that it is very prudent expense, just like liar Ishaq Daar did not realised that his lies about Pakistan economy during last 8 years would only expose him and his lies.

We should know that NS ordered a jumbo jet for his visits abroad that cost Pakistan many millions and when Musharraf came to power he gave that Jumbo Jet to PIA so that it could be used for commercial flights and Pakistan could recover some money spent on it. The cost of Jumbo and its depreciation itself cost Pakistan over 25 million dollars.

Further, Musharraf is the first Pakistani ‘head of state’ who started using military aircrafts to visit Arab and neighbouring countries saving huge money in fuel and other expenses. Most of the time he was accompanied with one to two people (and using as companion Pakistani embassy staffs in countries he use to visit) and keeping the visit business like and days to minimum, contrary to practice of past when not only Prime minister but Ministers and even parliamentarians visiting abroad use to take army of friends, relatives and officials with them making foreign visits as picnic.

You would be surprised that during 8 years, President Musharraf did not go abroad for single medical reasons or took for himself anything whatever presented to him during foreign visits (as he handed them all to treasury), contrary to practice in Pakistan where not only Prime Ministers and Ministers, but even Parliamentarians and head of public organisations keep going abroad on medical checkups at government expenses and spending millions of dollars, plus keeping whatever they were presented abroad when on official visits (though they should officially hand them over to treasury or buy them from treasury paying nominal value of the item).

Timepass
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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

the only place I can see 227million rupees mentioned in the article is for "Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia trip", but hey it is reported in a newspaper which reports VIRGIN atlantic ailines as VIRGINIA Airlines. ok lets say what the reporter is saying is correct, then instead of starting a media trial, why not bring it up in parliment and ask for an explanation, and if found guilty of using presidential resources for personal gain, impeach him like any other decent country would do.

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[QUOTE]
According to other details, Musharraf spent Rs21 million on his trip to Russia, Rs22 million to Malaysia, Rs7.4 million to Saudi Arabia, Rs17.2 million on the USA, UK, Germany and France, Rs28 million on Tunisia, Algeria, Rabat, Rs38 million to the USA, Canada, Rs33 million to Malaysia, Rs28 million to China, Korea, Rs29 million to Turkey, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Rs12 million to Sweden, Finland, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Rs31 million to USA, Netherlands, Italy, Rs60 million to UAE Rs5 million to Afghanistan, Rs90 million to Kyrgzsatan, Uzbekistan, Rs20 million to India, Indonesia, Philippines, Rs37 million to UAE and Qatar, Rs9 million to Australia and New Zealand, Rs40 million to New York Tampa, Rs53 million to Saudi Arabia, Rs11.4 million to Kuwait, Yeman, Saudi Arabia, Rs1 million to Switzerland, Norway, Dubai Rs45 million to China, Rs168 million to UAE, Rs0.3 million to Afghanistan Rs3.4 million to Belgium, Cuba, the USA, UK **Rs227 million to Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia **Rs54 million to Indonesia, Malaysia, Rs56 million to Iran and Turkey, Rs11 million to Spain, Poland, Bosnia and Turkey, Rs44 million to Saudi Arabia and UAE, Rs14 million to Afghanistan, and lately his trip to France, Switzerland, the UK and Belgium cost Rs146 million.
[/QUOTE]

Timepass
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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

You are looking at "According to other details" which is for information in addition to whats already said in the article:

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Host country provides 90% of teh security.

These trips last a few days only, yet cost millions.

Previous govts did not rob the exchequer as mush as the dictator, yet you attempt to defend it in your misplaced patriotism.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Was he "President" for all these 8 years? I thought he had some other title for first few years, like "Chief Executive"?

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told


please DON'T misquote.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

One more thing is that President Musharraf visited many countries where no past head of state would have liked to visit because they could not enjoy visits there. In Pakistan, crooks like NS and BeNazir use to visit only Western Capitals in 'style' or some Arab countries (especially Dubai for hiding their stolen money), spending fortunes of poor Pakistan money, where these crooks used to like shopping and outings, leaving third world and undesirable destinations to others (not even ministers use to visit such undesirable destinations).

For instance, Musharrf is the first head of state who visited Russia and also probably Cuba, Afghanistan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Poland, Bosnia and so on.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

during previous governments £ wasn't above 120 either. :) but who am I kidding, when prejudice kicks in, nothing seems right.