The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) on Saturday demanded the arrest of the top government officials and powerful brokers allegedly involved in the March 2005 stock market crash and placing their names in the exit control list (ECL).
"After the stunning disclosures of involvement of state functionaries in the mega robbery of Rs 800 billion of ordinary investors, it will be even a greater scandal if the regime looked the other way and took no action", said a spokesman for the party in a statement.
Former Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SCEP) chairman Tariq Hassan disclosed before the NA standing committee on finance and revenue in Islamabad on Friday that both the Adviser on finance Dr Salman Shah and Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub had close links with the powerful brokers involved in the scam and pressurised him not to take action against them.
He also said he had reached a 'few big fish' but could not net them because the powerful brokers had access to the prime minister through the adviser and the minister of state.
The disclosures made by the former SECP chief were the clearest evidence of corruption at the top, the spokesman said adding: "The PPP is shocked at the incontrovertible evidence of link between mega financial scandals and the high and mighty."
The PPP spokesman said that trails in the scams of Steel Mill sale, the purchase of Chinese locomotives, the doling out of human rights funds only to the constituents of one federal minister, manipulation of sugar prices, fixation of oil prices, the sale of Khosgi Sugar Mill by the Fauji Foundation and the Tawana Pakistan project all passed through the corridors of power.
It is a dubious distinction of the Musharraf regime that the footprints of mega corruption invariably lead to the top leadership, he said, adding the code of conduct demanded that both the adviser and the state minister named in the scam must immediately cease to hold offices until they cleared their names.
The spokesman said since the powerful people protected the brokers involved in the March market crash, they were emboldened to cause another crash recently wiping out billions of ordinary investors, adding poor people will continue to be robbed if no action was taken against them.
"Never before, there was so much of stinking corruption at the top on the one hand and the pathetic helplessness of the so-called accountability body called NAB on the other". Both NAB and the government should stop fooling the people by incessantly talking of eradicating corruption, the PPP spokesman said.
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