Rehman Malik sons brother in law and friends using ministry’s secret funds

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Rehman Malik squandered interior ministry’s secret funds
By Asad Kharal


LAHORE: Former interior minister Rehman Malik’s sons, brother-in-law, friends, personal staff and some functionaries of the interior ministry were using the ministry’s secret funds for personal expenses, as documents available with The Express Tribune reveal.

The documents, including invoices and letters of interior ministry, disclose that Rs12.26 million were incurred on boarding, lodging and dining charges of Rehman Malik and his coterie at five-star hotels.

Malik ordered payment of over Rs8.06 million for dining and lodging at an upscale hotel of Karachi from the head of Secret Service Expenditure (SSE) of National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) which works under interior ministry.

This amount tallies with 140 invoices charged to various individuals and paid from secret fund of NCMC.

Similarly, an amount of Rs3.78 million drawn from SSE was spent at a hotel in Lahore.

People named in the invoices of SSE include Malik’s two sons, Ali and Omar, brother-in-law, Malik’s personal staff including Abdul Hameed Awan, Javed Iqbal Raja, Safeer Nasir, Malik’s political buddy Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Waqas Malik and Hashmam Malik.

Other people enjoying the illegal facility include Javed Iqbal Raja, Safeer Nasir, Shahid Malik, Ahtesham Malik, Naveed Aassi, Khurshid Ahmed and the list goes on to mention over fifty people.

Apart from Malik, the then minister of state for interior also reimbursed Rs28,913 from SSE in term of POL charges for the vehicle having registration number GA 939. But the amount looks like loose change compared to Rs4.2 million that Malik spent at a hotel in Islamabad from SSE.

The Rs0.8 million spent on Malik’s farewell party was also claimed from SSE, documents revealed.

Apart from the documents mentioned above, which reveal misuse of secret funds worth of Rs12.26 million, the NCMC has spent more than Rs425 million from SSE during the years Malik was interior minister.

Rehman Malik’s version

It was a general practice that the expenditures of NCMC were charged from the SSE account, Malik said, adding that he preferred to continue this exercise.

Even salaries of employees working at NCMC, repairs of their vehicles, POL charges even their utility bills were taken from SSE, the ex-minister said, replying to queries of The Express Tribune.

Malik said he did not spend the amount of SSE, as mentioned, all by himself and some of it went to entertaining select religious personalities.

He did not reject the authenticity of documents however the ex-minister defended the utilisation of SSE.

He admitted that he used secret funds for his sons, relatives and friends but offered that if doing so was proved to be wrong he would pay back that amount from his own pocket.

When asked why his sons, relatives enjoyed hotel stays on public kitty, Malik replied that he often booked rooms with fake names due to security purposes. Nevertheless, several hotel booking invoices paid from SSE bear Rehman Malik’s name.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7th, 2013.

Rehman Malik squandered interior ministry