Sarkozy named by inquiry into Pakistan submarine payments

PARIS: President Sarkozy was caught up in a long-simmering kickbacks scandal when police in Luxembourg named him as the creator of a company that handled tens of millions of pounds in illegal funds.

An inquiry appears to implicate Mr Sarkozy in a case involving the sale of French submarines to Pakistan in 1994. It will strengthen suspicions of French investigators that money from the contract was funneled to finance a 1995 presidential campaign managed by Mr Sarkozy, who was then Budget Minister.

Luxembourg police, working for the French judges, said that, in 1994, Mr Sarkozy “directly supervised” the creation of a Luxembourg offshore company called Heine. Its purpose was to channel the secret payments.

“Eventually, part of the funds that passed through Luxembourg came back to France to finance French political campaigns,” the police report said.

“In 1995, references lead us to believe in the existence of a form of retro-commission to pay for political campaigns in France.”

President Asif Zardari telephones Nawaz Sharif

Lahore, Pakistan news:- President Asif Ali Zardari telephoned PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and thanked him for not supporting Minus-One Formula but On the other hand, the presidential spokesman has denied the report.

He said that PPP supports politics of reconciliation. Sources told President Zardari telephoned Nawaz Sharif in which he said that PML-N’s positive politics will strengthen democracy.

Nawaz Sharif said that his party will not encourage any anti-democratic steps; however, implementation of Charter of Democracy (DoC) will actually consolidate democracy in the country. President Zardari assured Nawaz Sharif that elections in Gilgit-Baltistan would be clean and transparent.

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President Asif Zardari telephones Nawaz Sharif was first posted on November 11, 2009 at 10:28 pm.