For Peter Eigen, Chairman Transparency International

Dear Peter,

You may remember me from our many years togethr at the World Bank. I have great memories of our work on several projects in Africa and Asia. I also remember our many cups of coffee at the World Bank cafeteria.

I feel proud that you have gone on to help establish a needed and respected organization i.e. Transparency International. The whole world is proud of your organization. I hope and pray that you all will soon receive a Nobel Prize for your efforts.

I write to you today to talk about Pakistan. As you may recall, it is place of my origin and very dear to me. It is a rich land with much potential. However, it has been continually robbed. I believe that our army generals starting with General Ayub Khan have played a major role in fostering culture of corruption. General Ayub set a very bad example in sixties by openly favoring his son Captain Gohar Ayub. Ayub got him General Motors assembly lines at a throw away price. Since then, practically every general has become multi millionaire on a salary of less than thousand dollars a month. Sons of General Zia and general Akhtar are billionaires in dollar terms. Both notorious sons are currently ministers in General Musharaff's cabinet and may be even elevated to become Prime Ministers.

Our current general Musharaff's colleagues are reportedly getting rich with wide spread knowledge and international protection. All this is happening while based on Asian Development Bank report, over 30% of Pakistanis live below poverty line. In provinces of Sindh and Baloachistan, more than 50% people live below povery. Peter, people of Pakistan feel helpless. The public robbery has become so common that people just watch. Lack of democracy and manipulated elections are routine. Under these circumstances, I hope that Transparency will be able to do something about this.

I am going to undrtake a small campaign. I am going to start forwarding you stories of corruption that come to my attention. I am going to request my friends to start doing the same. Ofcourse, Transparency International must verify the truthfulness of the stories. I hope that TI will act and help to save people of Pakistan from this culture of corruption.

Kind regards, Ali Nawaz Memon
Senior Financial and Institutional Development Consultant
7204 Antares Drive,
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20879
Phone 301-869-5447
Fax 301-869-3124