CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

84 CAPITALISM’S ACHILLES HEEL
assassination attempt, after which he fled to London. The Malik report, five
years in the making, was released in 1998, with explosive revelations:
The records, including government documents, signed affidavits from
Pakistani officials, bank files and property records, detail deals that Mr.
Malik says benefited Mr. Sharif, his family and his political associates:
• At least $160 million pocketed from a contract to build a highway
from Lahore, his home town, to Islamabad, the nation’s capital.
• At least $140 million in unsecured loans from Pakistan’s state banks.
• More than $60 million generated from government rebates on
sugar exported by mills controlled by Mr. Sharif and his business
associates.
• At least $58 million skimmed from inflated prices paid for imported
wheat from the United States and Canada. In the wheat
deal, Mr. Sharif’s government paid prices far above market value
to a private company owned by a close associate of his in Washington,
the records show. Falsely inflated invoices for the wheat generated
tens of millions of dollars in cash. 71
The report went on to state that “The extent and magnitude of this corruption
is so staggering that it has put the very integrity of the country at
stake.” 72 In an interview, Malik added: “No other leader of Pakistan has
taken that much money from the banks. There is no rule of law in Pakistan.
It doesn’t exist.” 73
What brought Sharif down in his second term was his attempt to acquire
virtually dictatorial powers. In 1997 he rammed a bill through his
compliant parliament requiring legislators to vote as their party leaders directed.
In 1998 he introduced a bill to impose Sharia law (Muslim religious
law) across Pakistan, with himself empowered to issue unilateral directives in
the name of Islam. In 1999 he sought to sideline the army by replacing
Chief of Staff Pervez Musharraf with a more pliable crony. He forgot the
lessons he had learned in the 1980s: The army controls Pakistan and politicians
are a nuisance. As Musharraf was returning from Sri Lanka, Sharif
tried to sack him in midair and deny the Pakistan International Airways
flight with 200 civilians on board landing rights in Karachi. Musharraf radioed
from the aircraft through Dubai to his commander in Karachi, order-