Thread by @Champion___X

(1/21)
Generals in Suisse Leaks

(By Usman Manzoor)

The two Pakistan army generals named in the #SuisseSecrets were closely related to each other and were known as two important members of “the gang of four”.
General Akhtar Abdul Rehman and General Zahid Ali Akber were

(2/21) part of the infamous “The Jalandhar Group” or “The Gang of Four” which was also part of the coup which overthrew Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s democratic government and later hanged him through the judiciary to have smooth sailing.
The other two officers of this

(3/21) ‘The Gang of Four’ were General Zia ul Haq and General Rahimuddin. All these four were closely related through the marriages of their children. General Akhtar Abdul Rehman’s son Akber and General Zia’s son Ijaz ul Haq are married to the daughters of General Rahimuddin.

(4/21) General Rehman’s son Haroon Akhar is married to the daughter of  General Zahid Ali Akber.

Though mentioned as an isolated character in the #SuisseSecrets , General Zahid Ali Akber, is the father-in-law of Haroon Akhtar Khan (also mentioned in the #SuisseSecrets), whose

(5/21) father, General Akhtar Abdul Rehman was the Director-General of ISI. General Rehman handled the CIA money in 1980s and has been accused of siphoning money from Afghan War project of American CIA. In 1985, the bank accounts opened at Credit Suisse in Switzerland in the

(6/21) names of General Rahman’s three sons, Haroon, Akber, and Ghazi. Huge sums of money were stashed in those accounts while their father was the DG ISI.

The OCCRP’s #SuisseSecrets investigation has also verified the old US paper’s report that the “CIA’s covert Soviet war

(7/21) aid had made rich sugar daddies out of Pakistani generals.”
General Akhtar Abdul Rehman’s three sons have been named in the #SuisseSecrets for opening Swiss accounts during the Soviet-Afghan war in the mid-1980s. General Akhtar, besides heading ISI, also headed the

(8/21) five-member committee that directly dealt with the CIA’s money to supply weapons to the mujahideen fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

General Rehman assumed the office of DG ISI in June 1979, soon after the Afghan-Soviet war erupted. Coincidently his

(9/21) son, Haroon acquired the Canadian Nationality the same year. The dates of foreign nationalities acquired by other sons are not confirmed but according to the bank data, all the sons of General Rahman were Canadian nationals.
In the OCCRP Credit Suisse #SuisseSecrets

(10/21) investigation, General Akhtar’s two family accounts have been revealed, one of which was jointly held by General’s sons Akbar, Ghazi, and Haroon. This account was opened on July 1, 1985. “By 2003, this account was worth at least five million Swiss francs ($3.7 million

(11/21) at that time). A second account, opened in January 1986 in Akbar’s name alone, was worth more than 9 million Swiss francs by November 2010 ($9.2 million at the time)”, OCCRP’s report mentioned.
General Akhtar Abdul Rehman died along with General Zia-ul-Haq, the

(12/21) dictator, in a plane crash in August 1988.
The US media had been reporting in the late 1980s that Pakistani Generals were filling their own pockets from the American taxpayers’ money allocated for the Soviet-Afghan war. General Rehman was specifically mentioned by the

(13/21) Washington Post in a May 1987 report but neither did General Rehmannor any of his acquaintances face any inquiry over alleged swindling of CIA’s aid.
In a May 8, 1987 report by Washington Post, titled Afghan Rebel aid Enriches Generals, the authors Jack Anderson and

(14/21) Dale Van Atta mentioned, “The Central Intelligence Agency has spent $3 billion on arms for Afghan rebels — half of it put up by U.S. taxpayers. Yet not a single American decides who gets the weapons. The CIA leaves those decisions to a secret five-member directorate of

(15/21) top Pakistani officials, who have their own agenda. This means the CIA’s largest covert aid program since Vietnam has made rich sugar daddies out of Pakistani generals.”
‘For several years, those decisions were made by a five-member committee comprising of Maj. Gen.

(16/21) Akhtar Abdul Rahman, head of ISI; Gen. Rahimuddin, chairman of the Pakistani joint chiefs of staff; Gen. Fazal Haq, the former governor of Peshawar, and Foreign Minister Yaqub Khan’, the paper had pointed.
While quoting CIA sources the US paper wrote that Intelligence

(17/21) sources (including CIA officials) and Pakistani sources charge that some Pakistani soldiers have become rich in the process.
On the other hand in the 2000s National Accountability Bureau started investigating Gen Zahid Ali Akbar (father in law of Haroon Akhtar). The

(18/21) retired General opened an account with Credit Suisse during the investigation in 2004 and NAB remained unheard of it. The account was closed in 2006 and before its closure, the account held the maximum balance of 15,535,345 Swiss Francs. The NAB had dug out 77 accounts

(19/21) associated with Zahid Ali Akbar and multiple properties which were owned by him and the family members.
In response to questions by OCCRP, Zahid Ali Akbar confirmed he opened the account in that period but said the funds didn’t originate in that period. “All funds stand

(20/21) declared to the tax authorities in Pakistan and the tax stands duly paid there on as per law,” he said but didn’t respond when asked why NAB couldn’t trace this account then.
General Zahid oversaw the construction projects of Kahuta Research Laboratory and General

(21/21) Headquarters in the late 70s before he headed Water & Power Development Authority and Pakistan Cricket Board. Zahid Ali Akbar had struck a deal of plea bargain with NAB and paid Rs 200 million in 2015.