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http://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/nov/09/nickhopkins

Mr Bhutto, the builder and the bills

Nick
Hopkins

Tuesday 9 November 1999 01.58

GMT

The mansion on the brow of the hill looks a little shabby and overlooks a 355-acre estate that is overgrown and
unkempt. The rooms are bare, the indoor swimming pool dirty, the outhouses next to the proposed polo pitches
derelict.
Visitors would never know that Rockwood House, in the Surrey countryside near Brook, was being turned into a
palace, or that it is part of a corruption scandal that has been the downfall of successive administrations in
Pakistan.
Three years ago Benazir Bhutto's government was dismissed amid accusations that Rockwood was bought by
her husband Asif Ali Zardari with money made from illegal kickbacks he received on government contracts.
He denied the claims and investigators in Pakistan have tried without success to establish direct links between
him and the estate, which was bought by an offshore company, Romina Properties Ltd.
His story will come under intense scrutiny this week when the builder responsible for the multi-million pound
renovations at Rockwood goes to a civil court to claim 375,000 he claims is owed to him.
Speaking for the first time about his involvement with Rockwood, Paul Keating, 47, has given details of meetings
he had with the former prime minister's husband and how he referred to preparing the house for 'BB' - Mrs
Bhutto's nickname. She has always denied any knowledge of the property.
Mr Keating claims Mr Zardari was in overall charge of the renovations, approving designs and visiting the estate
to make sure the work was going according to schedule. He claims Mr Zardari stayed overnight on at least one
occasion, in April 1996.
"The project was supposed to be top secret, but I was never in any doubt that Rockwood was his property or that
he intended to move in at some stage," said Mr Keating. "Mr Zardari made that quite clear. I think he intended the
house to be their family home. The plan went wrong when he was arrested for corruption."
Mr Keating was also instrumental in the arrangements to air freight artefacts and furniture from Pakistan, including
items which are alleged to have come from the Bhutto's home in Karachi. The deliveries included rifles engraved
with Mr Zardari's name and antiques which Mrs Bhutto's successor, Nawaz Sharif, claimed might have been
stolen from a museum in Lahore. That claim has always been denied by Mr Zardari and Mrs Bhutto.
Mr Keating was one of a handful of people who knew about the shipments - Mrs Bhutto has denied knowing
anything about them. Mr Keating kept documents and photographs - seen by the Guardian - which show that
crates of furniture and other valuables were taken to Rockwood after they were flown to Heathrow. Months later,
shortly before Mrs Bhutto's government fell, they were packed up and taken away. Mr Keating has an inventory of
the items and is prepared to give a copy to Pakistani investigators if it helps establish where they came from.
Offshore company
Mr Keating described how he worked on Rockwood House from October 1995, shortly after it was bought by
Romina Properties with money provided by another offshore company, Olton Consolidated Ltd. He was asked to
get involved by Javaid Pasha, a friend of Mr Zardari, whom he had worked for before.
Mr Keating is suing Mr Pasha and his wife Shabnam, and their company FMS International Ltd, claiming they
were masterminding the renovation work on behalf of Mr Zardari. He says they owe his firm, Grantbridge Ltd,
375,000. The case will come before the Central London county court on Friday. Mr Pasha is defending the claim
on the basis that he was not acting as an agent for the company that commissioned the work.

Mr Keating's evidence includes minutes of meetings with Mr Pasha, invoices, photographs and architects
drawings. "We were told by Javaid we could not disclose to anyone who the house was for," he said.
"Unfortunately word soon got out, mainly because of Mr Zardari himself. He went to the local pub in Brook, the
Dog and Pheasant, and offered to buy the place. When he was told it wasn't for sale, we had to build a replica of
the bar in the basement of Rockwood House. I would say Mr Zardari was not the subtlest of men."
The landlord of the pub, who would not be named, confirmed the story yesterday.
Mr Keating said he met Mr Zardari in a London hotel in April 1996 to discuss the building work.
"Then we drove down to Surrey in a limousine. He did not stay overnight on that occasion, but I must have seen
him at Rockwood on three or four occasions. I also have photographs of Mr Zardari meeting one of the architects
in Lahore."
The work on the house, which cost more than 1.7 million, continued throughout the spring and summer. There
were plans for a stud, a helipad, a nine-hole golf course, an extension to the indoor swimming pool, and a
paddock for the polo ponies. A 70,000 security system was installed.
Curtains worth 50,000 were made for the bedrooms, the bathrooms were laid with marble, doors on the ground
floor were copper-plated and the master bedroom was reinforced with girders to make it effectively bomb-proof.
Mr Keating said the crates of artefacts, which weighed 7.5 tonnes, were delivered to Rockwood House in
February and March 1996. They contained 14 antique rifles, 19 bundles of carpets, furniture - including a 30ft cut
glass Italian table - a stuffed tiger, wood carvings, statues, and 16 oil paintings.
Mr Keating said Mr Pasha told him they were personal items owned by Mr Zardari and Mrs Bhutto. He took photos
of many of the items and has given copies of them and the inventory to the Guardian.
Mr Keating claims the building work stopped abruptly in October 1996 - a month before Mrs Bhutto's removal when he received a call from Mr Pasha ordering him to pack the furniture and artefacts immediately.
"We were told that they weren't needed in the house anymore," said Mr Keating.
Some of the artefacts were taken by Mr Keating to the Pakistani High Commission in London.
"We were told to make sure we weren't being followed. Javaid was worried that the couple's political enemies
were watching the house day and night." The bulk of the goods - Mr Keating estimates 90 per cent - were taken
off in lorries to a number of other destinations.
Some things were too big to move at short notice. Two 7ft-long root carvings which came from Pakistan were left
in a barn on the estate. They are still there. The Italian table is one of the few pieces of furniture which was not
removed from the house.
Mr Keating claims payments for the building work stopped after Mrs Bhutto's government was dismissed. "Mr
Pasha asked me to sign a confidentiality agreement after the government fell and told me to destroy all the
documents I had," said Mr Keating. "I said I would, but only when I was paid for the remainder of the work. I still
haven't been paid. I have kept quiet hoping to settle this amicably."
Mr Pasha confirmed yesterday he was a friend of Mr Zardari's and had worked with Mr Keating. He said he was
not responsible for organising the renovations at Rockwood House and he did not know who had bought it. He
added that any documents which linked him to Rockwood House had been forged. "I can't help you. I have never
been to Rockwood House. I don't know where it is. I have read about it in the newspapers: that's all. I didn't have
anything to do with it at all. I'm afraid I can't say anymore.
"This is in the hands of my lawyers."
Mrs Bhutto, whose government was dismissed for "corruption, misrule and nepotism", said she was aware of the
rumours about Rockwood House, but insisted she had nothing to do with the purchase or the shipment of

furniture. Speaking from her sister's flat in west London, where she lives in self-imposed exile, she said yesterday:
"I have never even been to Surrey.
"I don't know anything about this house. I have been told by people for a long time that my husband bought the
house. I have asked my husband on 10 occasions if this is true and he said it is not. I have never seen the
paperwork to prove it. I do not believe he had anything to do with it."
Smear claim
Supporters of Mrs Bhutto believe she and her husband, a former minister in her Cabinet, are the victims of a
smear campaign orchestrated by her successor Mr Sharif, who set up an accountability bureau to investigate their
alleged fleecing of the state.
Mr Sharif was deposed in the military coup led by General Pervez Musharraf, who has said he intends to root out
the "plunderers of national wealth".
The inquiry into the former prime minister and her husband, who is in jail in Pakistan, is likely to continue shortly.
Mrs Bhutto added: "The new government in Pakistan has promised to investigate all allegations of corruption and
I welcome the initiative."
In April the high court in Lahore found Mr Zardari and Mrs Bhutto guilty of corruption and sentenced each to five
years in jail and a fine of 5.3 million. Mr Zardari has been in jail since November 1996.