CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

Dirty Money at Work 77
ing the national treasury and distorting economic policy for personal gain.
Bank loans are granted largely on the basis of status and connections. The
rich stash much of their money abroad in those willing western coffers,
while exhibiting little inclination to repay their rupee borrowings. Banks fail
and Pakistanis lose their meager savings. At the bottom, wretched and illiterate
masses seethe with discontent, a perfect nurturing ground for terrorism.
It started a long time ago:
In the distant past the East India Company used to siphon away a great
deal of the assets and treasures of the Indian subcontinent or buy them
at very low prices and send them abroad when the British ruled the
country.
But in recent decades it is the rich and crafty Pakistanis who have siphoned
away a large part of the resources of the country with unremitting
vigor. That began when a part of our export earnings was allowed
to be kept abroad, with the practice of under-invoicing the exports or
over-invoicing the imports. And that was followed by retaining abroad
an increasing part of the money obtained as kickbacks during the import
of machinery from the late 1950s.
Later, politicians in office, senior bureaucrats and top military commanders
joined them by sending their illegally earned money abroad.
Subsequently, obtaining large bribes abroad and putting them in their
bank accounts there became the fashion. Some of the top rulers too
joined them merrily. . . .
The total wealth siphoned away in this manner has been estimated
to be between 60 billion and 100 billion dollars. 51
Pakistan’s recent history has been dominated by two families—the
Bhuttos and the Sharifs—both merely tolerated by the military, the real
power in the country. When it comes to economic destruction, there’s not a
lot of difference among the three.
Benazir Bhutto. Born in Karachi in 1953 and educated in private
schools, Benazir Bhutto graduated from Radcliffe College at Harvard University
in 1973. Going on to Oxford for a master’s degree, she displayed her
budding political skills and was elected president of the Student Union in
1977. Meanwhile, her father had become prime minister of Pakistan in