(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) A key accused in the seven-billion-rupee financial scam in the trade development authority of pakistan (tdap) mohammed firdous has turned approver against former prime minister yousaf raza gilani and former federal minister makhdoom amin fahim.
in his confessional statement firdous has disclosed that he paid rs5 million to gilani at the prime minister house as the ‘first installment’ for the release of freight subsidy funds and prepared the freight subsidy corruption plan with the pm’s former jail-mate and friend faisal siddique khan a local daily reported on tuesday.
he said that 65 per cent of the money was taken by affiliates of gilani and fahim while the remaining 35 per cent was distributed among tdap officers. in his affidavit in front of the judicial magistrate firdous said that he had family relations with khan who visited him at the office of sky cargo in 2008. faisal told firdous that he was financially broke after several legal cases against him in islamabad.
when gilani became prime minister after the 2008 elections faisal visited firdous again and offered that he could arrange any favour the latter needed from the prime minister. firdous grabbing the opportunity said that some claims of the freight subsidy scheme 2002-03 were in the doldrums for want of funds. if the prime minister releases the funds quite a handsome amount of money can be made from exporters as ‘commission’.
faisal promised to help and explain that they both will visit the prime minister house to get this done and some amount will have to be handed over to the pm as the first installment. with the contributions from other exporters firdous accumulated rs5 million and went to the pm house along with faisal.
he paid the money to mohammed zubair the deputy secretary to the prime minister and also met gilani later. they had another meeting and — in exchange — rs436 million was released on the directives of the then-pm to be paid as freight subsidy.
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