Posted on 30 January 2012 by Tea Server
PT Report Gilgit, January 29: Rehman Malik’s statement in which he termed the Karachi based people of Gilgit – Baltistan responsible for terrorism is misleading and a conspiracy against the region. The Interior Minister should withdraw his statement and apologize from the people of Gilgit – Baltistan. These views were expressed by APML Chief Organizer, [...]
Posted on 26 January 2012 by Tea Server
http://www.awaztoday.com/playshow/19453/Islamabad-Tonight-25h-January-2012.aspx
http://www.zemtv.com/2012/01/25/islamabad-tonight-mohammad-hafiz-25th-january-2012/
http://www.friendskorner.com/forum/f247/video-islamabad-tonight-nadeem-malik-25th-january-2011-hafiz-muhammad-saeed-261629/
http://www.pakistanherald.com/Program/Islamabad-Tonight-January-25-2012-Nadeem-Malik-9483
ISLAMABAD TONIGHT
WITH NADEEM MALIK
25-01-2012
TOPIC- JIHADI GROUPS IN PAKISTAN
GUEST- HAFIZ SAEED AHMED
HAFIZ SAEED AHMED OF JAMAT DAWA was the only guest on the show he said that the situation of the world has been changed but the reality is unchanged. He said that West is even targeting Islamic welfare organizations of their propaganda. He said that America is trying to control the world with might after 9/11. He said that Jamat-e- dawa helped people in earth quake hit areas. He said that even UNO handed over aid goods to Jamat-e-Dawa to deliver in earthquake hit areas. He said that his organization has been banned despite its outstanding social and welfare work for people.
He said that SC and LHC have given their verdict that his organization is not involved in Mumbai attacks. He said that India always continues its propaganda against his organization. He said that Ajmal Qasab has changed his statement many times. He said that he has offered to India that if they do not trust Pakistani courts let take the matter to international court.
He said that he condemns the killing of innocent people in suicide attacks. He said that India accused his organization for Mumbai attacks just after two hours of the incident. He said that his organization is only operating inside Pakistan only and not out side of the country.
He said that his organization is helping refugees and doing welfare work in Afghanistan. He said that he met Abdullah Izam only once in his life. He said that he has delivered edict against suicide attacks that they are against the Sharia law.
He said that the strategy of drone attacks was to pave the way for suicide attacks. He said that tribal people are lured in to suicide attacks saying that Pakistani government and military is helping America to attack on them. He said that if drone attacks stop suicide attacks stop with it. He said that drone attacks are going on at a well though strategy. He said that vast majority of seventy thousand people killed in drone attacks in tribal areas is common people. He said that people who attacked on GHQ and Mehran base are not the friends of Pakistan.
He said that his organization has a regular movement to educate people against suicide attacks.
He said that state is responsible for defense of the country but our government is helpless. He said that our roads have been used to transport American ammunition used against Afghanistan. He said that it is a torment of Allah that same ammunition is being used against our own country now.
He said that any terrorist attack takes place Taliban are accused for that with out confirmation. He said that it is commandment of Allah that confirm before telling any thing to others. He said that India is involved in terrorist attacks against Pakistan and that is why Indian terrorist Sarbasjeet Singh is in jail in Pakistan. He said that our interior minister accuses Lashker-e-Jhangvi for terrorism and later on release their accused people from jail.
He said that he admits that negligence on human rights is being committed. He said that he admits that religious Madrassa are getting foreign aid but he does not believe that the Madrassa are involved in terrorism. He said that India is giving training to the people for terrorist attacks against Pakistan inside Afghanistan. He said that he has been accused for many things but none has been proved against him.
He said that America malign same people it work with. He said that America is working in our area with the help of ISI and at the same time maligning it in the name of his organization.
He said that people who earned dollars during the war against Russia to train people were wrong and people making dollars today are wrong too. He said that he meets general (R) Hammed Gul pretty much every day now a days but he never met him when he was DGISI.
He said that it is a right of Afghan people to fight for their freedom. He said that Afghan Mujahideen do not need the help of Pakistani people and it is the propaganda against our country. He said that the terms of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Punjabi Taliban are different forms of propaganda against Pakistan.
He said that he advises America to quit attacks against Pakistan and Afghanistan and go back. He said that America must stop to try to give a role to India to play in Afghanistan. He said that peace can not be restored in our region as long America is present here. He said that America should go back and India should stay within its limits and do not interfere in Afghanistan. He said that Pakistani people should not get involved in militancy but both sides have to share responsibility.
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Filed under: CURRENT AFFAIRS
Posted on 17 January 2012 by Tea Server
By Alex Rodriguez for The Los Angeles Times
Dealing a heavy blow to Pakistan’s embattled government, the Supreme Court on Monday initiated contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for refusing to revive a long-standing corruption case against the nation’s president.
Gilani, a top ally of President Asif Ali Zardari in the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, must appear before the court Thursday, when the justices will listen to his explanation for not going ahead with the case.
If the court moves forward with the contempt proceedings and Gilani is convicted, he could be disqualified from office and forced to step down. He also could be forced to serve up to six months in jail.
Zardari’s government is locked in battles with the Supreme Court and Pakistan’s powerful military, both of which have had an acrimonious relationship with the president since he took office in 2008. The crisis has stirred talk of the government’s possible ouster, though experts say it probably would happen through legal action taken by the high court rather than a military coup.
The military has ousted civilian leaders in coups four times in Pakistan’s 65-year history, but military generals have said they have no plans to mount a takeover.
Nevertheless, they were deeply angered by an unsigned memo that a Pakistani American businessman contends was engineered by a top Zardari ally to seek Washington’s help in preventing a military coup last spring. In exchange, the memo offered several concessions, including the elimination of a wing of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency that maintains links with Afghan insurgent groups.
The businessman, Mansoor Ijaz, says the then-ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, approached him with the idea. Haqqani, who was forced to resign after the allegations surfaced, denies any involvement in the creation or conveyance of the memo. A Supreme Court commission is investigating the case, and on Monday it ordered Ijaz to come to Pakistan and appear before the panel Jan. 24.
The high court’s move to start contempt proceedings against Gilani involves money-laundering charges in Switzerland that Zardari was convicted of in absentia in 2003. The case was appealed by Zardari and his late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and was later dropped at the request of the Pakistani government in 2008.
Since 2009, Pakistan’s high court has repeatedly ordered the government to write a letter to Swiss authorities asking that the case be reopened. Gilani and government lawyers have refused, arguing that as president, Zardari enjoys constitutional immunity from prosecution.
Last week, the court warned Gilani that it could remove him from office if he did not abide by its demand. Government lawyers were supposed to appear in court Monday and explain why Gilani’s administration had ignored the court.
Instead, Atty. Gen. Maulvi Anwarul Haq appeared before a packed courtroom and told a high court panel that the government had not given him any instructions about what to say in court. The head of the panel, Justice Nasir Mulk, said Gilani’s inaction gave the court no recourse but to pursue a contempt case against him.
Outside the courtroom, Haq said that if the court eventually issues a contempt finding against Gilani, “this conviction has ramifications…. Under the constitution, with a conviction it’s disqualification from office.”
Before the court issues its findings, it probably would hold evidentiary hearings, Haq said. If Gilani on Thursday tells the court he will ask Swiss authorities to reopen the corruption case, the justices probably would consider dropping the contempt proceeding, said Tariq Mehmood, a lawyer and retired judge.
Gilani has given no indication he plans to give in. He will, however, appear in court Thursday to explain the government’s rationale, he told parliament late Monday. “We have always respected the courts,” he said. “The court has summoned me, and in respect of the court I will go there on Jan. 19.”
Zardari’s administration hopes to become the first civilian government to finish out its term, which ends in 2013. The political turmoil may thwart that plan, as opposition leaders increasingly push harder for early elections. Though Zardari is widely criticized in Pakistan for failing to revive the country’s moribund economy and tackle corruption, his party remains confident that it can weather the storm and retain power for a second term.
Even if Gilani is removed from office, Zardari continues to hold together a coalition that controls parliament’s lower house, which elects the prime minister. On Monday, however, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, a staunch ally of the president, doubted it would come to that.
“The prime minister will stay,” Malik told reporters outside parliament. “The government is in command. Our flight may be a little bumpy, but God willing, we will have a smooth landing in 2013.”
Filed under: Afghanistan, Democracy, Pakistan, Pakistan Army, Pakistanis Tagged: Asif Ali Zardari, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Husain Haqqani, Mansoor Ijaz, Pakistan, Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Supreme Court, PPP, Yousuf Raza Gilani
Posted on 02 January 2012 by Tea Server
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Governor Salman Taseer died at the hands of a religious fanatic on January 4 last year. Fearlessly championing a deeply unpopular cause, this brave man had sought to revisit the country’s blasphemy law which, as he saw it, was yet another means of intimidating Pakistan’s embattled religious minorities. This law – which is unique in having death as the minimum penalty – would have sent to the gallows an illiterate Christian peasant woman, Aasia Bibi, who stood accused by her Muslim neighbours after a noisy dispute. Taseer’s publically voiced concern for human life earned him 26 high-velocity bullets from one of his security guards, Malik Mumtaz Qadri. The other guards watched silently.
In the long sad year, more was to come. Justice Pervez Ali Shah, the brave judge who ultimately sentenced Taseer’s murderer in spite of receiving death threats, has fled the country. Aasia Bibi is rotting away in jail, reportedly in solitary confinement and in acute psychological distress. Shahbaz Taseer, the governor’s son, was abducted in late August – presumably by Qadri’s sympathizers. He remains untraceable. Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian member of the parliament and another vocal voice against the blasphemy law, was assassinated weeks later on March 2.
Political assassinations occur everywhere. But the Pakistani public reaction to Taseer’s assassination horrified the world. As the news hit the national media, spontaneous celebrations erupted in places; a murderous unrepentant mutineer had been instantly transformed into a national hero. Glib tongued television anchors sought to convince viewers that Taseer had brought ill unto himself. Religious political parties did not conceal their satisfaction, and the imam of Lahore’s Badshahi Masjid declined the government’s request to lead the funeral prayers. Rahman Malik, the interior minister, sought to curry favor with religious forces
by declaring that, if need be, he would “kill a blasphemer with my own hands”.
In psychological terms, the reaction of a substantial part of Pakistan’s lawyers’ community was still more disturbing. Once again, they made history. Earlier it had been for their Black Coat Revolution, apparently welcome evidence that Pakistani civil society was well and thriving. But this time it was for something far less positive. Television screens around the world showed the nauseating spectacle of hundreds of lawyers feting a murderer, showering rose petals upon him, and pledging to defend him pro-bono.
Another phalanx of lawyers, headed by Khawaja Asif, former Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, rose up to constitute Qadri’s defence team. In his court testimony, a smugly defiant assassin declared that he had executed Allah’s will. Justice Asif agreed, saying that Qadri had “merely done his duty as a security guard”. He said it was actually Taseer who had broken the law of the land by attempting to defend a person convicted of blasphemy and, in doing so, had “hurt the feelings of crores of Muslims”.
Taseer’s was a high profile episode, but there are countless other equally tragic ones which receive little public attention. Surely it is time to reflect on what makes so many Pakistanis disposed towards celebrating murder, lawlessness, and intolerance. To understand the kind of psychological conditioning that has turned us into nasty brutes, cruel both to ourselves and to others, I suggest that the reader sample some of the Friday khutbas (sermons) delivered across the country’s estimated 250,000 mosques.
It is surely impossible to hear all khutbas, but a few hundred ones have been recorded on tape by researchers, transcribed into Urdu, translated into English, and categorized by subject at www.mashalbooks.org. Since there was no conscious bias in selecting the mosques, they can be reasonably assumed to be representative examples.
Often using abusive language, the mullahs excoriate their enemies: America, India, Israel, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Shias, and Qadianis. Before appreciative crowds, they breathe fire against the enemies of Islam and modernity. Music is condemned to be evil, together with life insurance and bank interest. In frenzied speeches they put women at the centre of all ills, demand that they be confined to the home, covered in purdah, and forbidden to use lipstick or go to beauty parlors.
But the harshest words are reserved for the countless “deviant” Muslims. Governor Taseer was considered one. The former minister for foreign affairs, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, is another. In a foul-mouthed speech that the reader can hear on the above website, Qureshi is denounced as “haramzada” by Maulana Altafur Rehman Shah of Muhammadi Masjid in Gujrat and described as a “keeper [mujawar] of graves”. Quoting Nawa-e-Waqt, this maulana of the Ahl-e-Hadith school calls Qureshi a lap dog who stands with his “cheek on the cheek of Hilary Clinton”. What, he asks, could be a matter of greater shame? Parliamentarian Jamshed Dasti, also accused of grave worship, is harshly condemned for being unable to name the first five verses of the Holy Quran.
One presumes that most listeners have enough intelligence to ignore such violent fulminations. But at times their effects are deadly. One such sermon, according to Qadri’s recorded testimony, was the turning point for him. He had heard a fiery cleric, Qari Haneef, at a religious gathering in his neighborhood, Colonel Yousuf Colony, on 31 December 2010. It is then, says Qadri, that he made up his mind to kill his boss. Qadri had participated in the gathering in his official uniform, reciting the naat in praise of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). His official gun had been slung around his shoulder at the meeting. Four days later, he fulfilled his goal.
To be sure, not all khutbas are ugly and violent. But even if ten percent are – and the data suggests this is an underestimate – that still makes for roughly 25,000 dangerous ones every week. A civilized society cannot sustain this for too long. Surely, the Pakistani state will sooner or later have to come up with a mechanism for regulating what can be said at religious gatherings. A possible model might be that of Egypt, where khutbas are pre-recorded and approved by the ulema of Jamia Al-Azhar. Without some agreed form of control, Pakistan shall sink ever deeper into religious anarchy and fanaticism.
(Published on 2 Dec 2012 in the Express Tribune. http://tribune.com.pk/story/315079/remembering-salmaan-taseer/#comments)
© 2012, Pervez Hoodbhoy. This article may not be reproduced in any form without providing an active attribution link/ reference to The Pakistan Forum. All attribution links within the article must also be retained.
Posted on 31 December 2011 by Tea Server
Be it Veena Malik, Shoaib Malik, or Rehman Malik, there is one thing I have realized; it’s not easy being a Malik in Pakistan.
The Maliks of Pakistan are forever surrounded by controversies. Despite stiff competition amongst politicians and artists who struggled to top the “hall of shame, 2011,” guess who has managed to secure the first position once again? Our very own, very dear, very entertaining, Dr Abdul Rehman Malik. To acknowledge his outstanding performance, he has even been awarded a PhD degree by the Syndicate of Karachi University in recognition of his “matchless services to the country.”
Some of his golden words uttered during the year 2011, that range from outlandish to hilarious, are listed as follows:
1) Statement: “If someone insulted Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), I, too, would shoot him”.
Event: On the assassination of Salmaan Taseer. The government responds in a way the authorities are supposed to: by promising the laws would stand, but Rehman Malik comes up with this bizarre statement instead.
Look my dear friend, who knows one fine day some Qadri pops out of my convoy and kill me for XYZ reason under the garb of blasphemy law, would any media man come to rescue me?
2) Statement: “I am thankful to the Taliban who did not carry out any attack on Shia Muslims and showed respect to their rituals.”
Event: During the event of Ashura, Rehman Malik passed another shocking statement to the media. He actually thanked the Taliban for not attacking Shia processions! And no, he did not stop there. Rehman went on to say that he had appealed to the Taliban, asking them to spare the processions of Shia Muslims, and that he was grateful that they responded positively to his appeal.
My friend, we must not pass sweeping statements on Taleban, like us they are human too. Shouldn’t we thank them for sparing us for at least one day, isn’t it a good deed?
3) Statement: ”The Tablighi missionary centre in Raiwaind is the breeding ground for extremism and terrorism in Pakistan as the centre has a major role in brainwashing the extremists.”
Event: Rehman Malik made this statement to the audience at the security think-tank International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) while speaking on the topic of ”Countering Extremism in South Asia’.
You need to watch movie “Khuda Kay Liye” and listen to Naseeruddin Shah closely, he says “Islam main Darhi hai, Darhi main Islam nahin”, now try to figure out what I mean.
4) Statement: ”If Google and Youtube do not help the Pakistan government, then Pakistan reserves the right to block these services to prevent terrorists from using it”.
Event: The Interior Minister when talking to the media at the FIA headquarters, urged the internet service providers to extend their help to the government for exterminating the menace of terrorism from the country.
I have warned Government of Googlistan and Republic of Youtube to cooperate with Pakistan at their best and they have agreed to keep a strict eye on terrorists using their web space to disrupt Pakistani soil. We will not spare them.
5) Statement: ”I had given a warning yesterday that there should be no match-fixing. This time I am watching it very closely. If any such thing happens we will take action”.
Event: Before the World Cup semi-final against India, Pakistani cricketers were warned beforehand not to indulge in any match-fixing by the Interior Minister Rehman Malik who said he was keeping a “close watch” on their activities.
My every statement has a philosophy behind it; we kept a close eye to watch players and didn’t let them match fix. They win, lose or even play under pressure due to my policing is not my headache. I want results.
6) Statement: “PML-N had embraced Osama bin Laden and was responsible for bringing Osama bin Laden from Egypt to Pakistan for his treatment”.
Event: Speaking at the National Assembly, Malik denied opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar’s claim that the government was sleeping while the US operation was carried out. He lashed out at PML-N for bringing Bin Laden to Pakistan.
All of you talk about 100 suitcases Nawaz Shareef brought to Saudi Arabia but forgets what he brought from there; Osama Bin Laden was packed in one of those suitcases, I will tell you the whole story at the “right time”.
7) Statement: ”Extortionists should quit extorting and leave the city”.
Event: Talking to the media after addressing a ceremony held at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce, Interior Minister Rehman Malik warned the extortionists and target killers to quit and leave Karachi else stern action will be taken against them. I bet they were scared.
Stupid warnings always work in my case; good extortionists would listen to me and leave the city, while “bad apples” will be left with no option but to disappear as well.
Statement: ”When it is reported that 100 people were killed due to target killing, investigations reveal that only 30 were its victims while 70 others died at the hands of their wives or girlfriends.”
Event: During the press conference in Quetta, when target killings were on an all time high in Karachi, the Interior Minister said that the reported figure of deaths due to target killing were not accurate because half the men were killed by the women in their lives. Now that’s some imagination Mr Malik has there. Too many action-thriller films I would say.
Along with Interior ministry I am given a task to handle “internal affair ministry” as well.
9) Statement: “They were wearing black clothes like in Star Wars movies, (one) with (a) suicide vest. They had small beards and two of them were between 20-22 years old while the third who blew himself up was about 25.”
Event: This classic comment erupted from Malik’s mouth when he was talking to the media after the PNS Mehran attack. Our dear Interior Minister came up with another bizarre analogy and compared terrorists’ outfits to Star Wars characters. Told you he was into action flicks and stuff.
One of your private Tv channels portrays me as Chulbul Malik but I proved them I am a Starwars Freak.
10) Statement: “All ground intelligence shows that Ilyas Kashmiri is dead. What I can say is that there is a 98 % chance he is dead”.
Event: Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the media that although he had no physical proof, he was ’98 % sure’ that senior al Qaeda operative Ilyas Kashmiri was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan. Let’s add clairvoyance to his list of countless other outstanding traits, shall we?
You won’t ever see me boasting about percentages or issuing loose statements.Can’t do much about this, I am a Maths Man too.
Posted on 28 December 2011 by Tea Server
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ISLAMABAD: In an intriguing political development, PPP leader and former president Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan, is being tipped as the likely replacement of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Highly informed sources close to President Asif Ali Zardari told The News that barring certain procedural hiccups, the decision to bring in Aitzaz may be as good as final.
Whatever else may be said about President Zardari, one thing is for certain: the co-chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party has a special knack for surprising his friends and foes alike. This Tuesday, addressing crowds at Garhi Khuda Bux on the fourth death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, President Zardari left political observers perplexed once more with his garrulous eulogising of Aitzaz Ahsan.
The president thanked Aitzaz for coming to Naudero and, in an unprecedented move, announced that Aitzaz’s speech was next, after the president’s. Indeed, Aitzaz Ahsan appeared to be the keynote speaker at the event.
According to a source extremely close to the president, it seems that serious discussions are underway about replacing Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani with Aitzaz. “It is a fact that this option is being considered,” the source told The News. “Gilani may go. It’s a serious option. We can say with certitude that Aitzaz as prime minister is becoming a bigger and bigger possibility everyday.”
Aitzaz has been sidelined by the PPP in recent years because of his leading role in the lawyers’ movement for the restoration of deposed judges. His membership of the central executive committee of the party was also suspended early in 2009 and he has since been excluded from important party activities. Aitzaz has, however, insisted he would not quit the party that he had invested decades of his political career in and made sacrifices for. These investments and sacrifices may just have paid off now as well placed sources reveal that PM Gilani may be asked to resign, with Aitzaz coming in to take his place.
According to a highly placed source, Monday night, before the public gathering in Naudero, Aitzaz received fawning calls from Qamar Zaman Kaira, Fauzia Wahab, Sherry Rheman, Raja Pervaiz and other PPP leaders. “Aitzaz was a little taken aback by this,” the source said. “Zardari has been making hour-long calls to Aitzaz almost every day now, even prior to Dec 6 [when the president left for Dubai for medical treatment]. The president has been telling Aitzaz he wants to reward him and be friends again like they used to be.”
The News spoke to Aitzaz briefly while he was boarding a plane back home from Naudero and asked him if he were being considered for the PM’s slot, which he categorically denied. “You have to be an MNA to be prime minister,” Aitzaz told this correspondent. When asked if, hypothetically speaking, he were seriously considered for the slot, would it be a possibility under the constitution, Aitzaz said: “Sure, you can do it through a bye-election, but why would you for such a short term?”
A constitutional lawyer confirmed: “If the PPP wants to go the PM route with Aitzaz, it can get him elected through a bye-election in 30 days. It’s very much possible.”
Ever since the memo controversy first erupted on the political scene, observers and sources in the know of things have suggested the names of several PPP leaders that the army chief has personally asked Zardari to act against. The names of interior minister Rehman Malik and minister for petroleum and natural resources Dr Asim Hussain have come up again and again but sources now suggest PM Gilani is at the top of the list of those whose backs the army wants to see.
The tension is also clear from Gilani’s unusual outburst before the National Assembly last week when he warned of conspiracies against the civilian government, accusing army generals of acting as a ‘state within a state’ and reminding them that they were accountable to Parliament. “Gilani has turned the tone to defiant mode and has been busy raising alarm,” said a commentator. “That is not the language or the way of Zardari.”
Most importantly, say observers, replacing Gilani may have become inevitable from the point of view of a president who is interested only in his and his government’s survival. “It’s clear the army doesn’t want to intervene directly and has thus thrown the PPP to the courts,” explained an insider. “But if Aitzaz enters the picture, the Supreme Court will have little incentive to knock out the government. In this way, Zardari would neutralise his two biggest threats: the army and the courts. It’s a pitch-perfect move and almost assures that elections will be held as planned in 2013.”
Observers also suggest that this move would make sense as the PPP begins to lay down the planks of its electoral campaigns. “Aitzaz is a great strategist and he’s won the hearts and minds of the people as the leader of the lawyers’ movement,” said an insider. “For a party so inextricably associated with corruption, who better than the clean Aitzaz to lead the election campaign? It’s an intriguing move that could pay off.”
A frazzled PM Gilani may have also given the game away at the hurriedly-called press conference on Monday when he said whether or not he stayed prime minister, the government, and parliament, would complete their term. “The Gilani presser yesterday and Zardari’s unprecedented praise in Naudero; sounds like they’re setting the scene for something. Gilani has said himself: whether he is PM or not, the PPP will complete five years. And so the best person for the remaining time is none other than Aitzaz.”
Sources say Aitzaz was offered the governorship of Punjab this year after the assassination of Salman Taseer and after Sardar Latif Khosa had already been appointed. He was also offered the chairmanship of the Pakistan cricket board later. A source very close to the president said Zardari didn’t appoint Aitzaz as Punjab governor in January because his psychic told him he would double-cross him.
But today, from the point of view of Zardari the grandmaster at political chess, Gilani’s removal and Aitzaz’s entry seem like just the kind of gamble the president is known for taking. As one insider confirmed: “It’s safe to say that PPP’s 2013 re-election campaign will be led by Aitzaz Ahsan and Aseefa Bhutto Zardari.”
© 2011, Mehreen Zahra-Malik. This article may not be reproduced in any form without providing an active attribution link/ reference to The Pakistan Forum. All attribution links within the article must also be retained.
Posted on 23 December 2011 by Tea Server
Mehran bank scandal also known as “Mehrangate” was a major political scandal in Pakistan between 1990-1994 in which senior politicians and political parties were found to have been bribed by military and intelligence officers to prevent the re-election and destabilize the government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Initiated by Chief of Army Staff Mirza Aslam Beg with the alleged support of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan payments of up to 140 million Rupees were done by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Asad Durrani and Javed Nasir via the owner of Mehran Bank Yunus Habib. Intelligence funds were deposited in Mehran bank in 1992 propping up what was an insolvent bank as a favour for its owners help in loaning money to the Inter-Services Intelligence in 1990 that was used in the creation of the right wing alliance Islami Jamhoori-Ittehad and bankrolling the campaigns of many opponents of the PPP.
The scandal subsequently broke after the new ISI Chief Lt. Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi decided to transfer the intelligence fund back to state owned banks as per official rules. Mehran Bank was unable to return the money due to its poor financial state and collapsed. It was later discovered that large sums had been siphoned of to 39 fictitious parties.
In 1995, Mehran Bank was amalgamated with the National Bank of Pakistan and in 1996 the NBP had to make full provision for Mehran’s liabilities which resulted in a net loss that year to the bank of Rs 1.260 billion. .
A Supreme Court Petition was lodged by Air Marshal Asghar Khan with the bank transfer details. I wonder as to if Chief Justice of Pakistan could actually take up the case or not?
On April 20, 1994, giving details about the payments made by Mr Habib to generals, politicians and political parties, the then Interior Minister, Naseerullah Babar, told the National Assembly that the main beneficiary of his largesse was former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg who received Rs140 million.
Key politicians named as recipients of ISI funds included Jam Sadiq Ali (Rs70 million from Habib Bank and Rs150 million from Mehran Bank), Journalist Altaf Hussein Qureshi (Rs.20 million); Yousuf Memon for Ijaz-ul Haq and Javed Hashmi (Rs.50 million); Nawaz Sharif (Rs6 million); former Sindh chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Shah through his secretary (Rs13 million), MQM Haqiqi (Rs5 million), former Sports Minister Ajmal Khan (Rs1.4 million), Jam Mashooq Ali (Rs3.5 million), Liaqat Jatoi (Rs1 million), Dost Mohammad Faizi (Rs1 million), and Jam Haider (Rs 2 million).
Yunus Habib was arrested on April 7, 1994 for misappropriation in the sale proceeds of the Dollar Bearer Certificates. On Dec 14, 1995, Younus Habib was convicted of fraud and embezzlement and given a sentence of 10 years rigorous imprisonment by the Special Court for Offences in Banks in Sindh.
Posted on 20 December 2011 by Tea Server
Yet again the Interior Minister gets in action. This times constituted a committee to examine draft bill regarding misuse of electronic equipment i.e. emails, SMS, MMS in anti-state activities detrimental to the national security. This comes in wake of the recent change in political winds and anti-state messages been floated on emails, mobile phones etc.. As reported by the APP:
The committee headed by Secretary Interior would brief the Minister within one week regarding the proposed legislation. He was chairing a meeting on the subject of “misuse of electronic equipments, i.e. internet, email, SMS/MMS and to take remedial measures to curb the menace of such illegal activities with iron hands.
Secretary Interior, Secretary, Information Technology,Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Inspector General Sindh, Members FBR and Representatives of Intelligence Agencies attended the meeting.
Once again the Multiple and illegal SIMs got under the gun:
It was observed that the criminals are still using unauthorized mobile SIMS for their criminal activities and terrorists’ acts, bank robbery, target killings and other heinous crimes.
The Minister directed Chairman PTA to revisit the whole system and ensure that all those illegal SIMS which are being used on stolen identity shall be blocked.
Mobile number portability (MNP) was also discussed to be banned in wake of misuse associated with them. Any kind of misuse to be booked under Anti-Terrorism Act.
The meeting decided that in view of the grave complaints, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) by the service providers is banned in future and anybody found violating should be booked under Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 as it is against the national security.
Anybody misusing, sending threatening emails or tampering with email address, mobile phone via SMS, MMS etc shall be dealt with under ATA and other relevant sections of law.
Chairman PTA and Secretary IT have been directed to immediately hold a meeting with service providers and convey the concerns of the government and ensure that their services are not misused by anti-slate and anti-social elements, putting the security of the country in danger.
The SMS filtering policy was also discussed.
The meeting also decided that the service providers shall have to have their own monitoring system to block such detrimental communication as mentioned above in coordination with the PTA.
The meeting decided to identify “obscene words” or anti state wordings, being used by anti-social elements and they shall be entered in the system to be blocked.
The service providers would ensure that they will not advertise anything against social norms and customs and they will not support any media programme with content that brings government into disrepute, scandalizes it or is against the national honour and security.
The Minister also directed PTA and other authorities that while taking such remedial measures, it would be ensured that general public may not face any problem and no site would be blocked.
All those who receive threatening messages or anti state messages,the same should be brought to the notice of Ministry of Interior through the following email and telephone numbers for taking legal action against the senders under ATA, 1997 & other sections of law.
via Associated Press of Pakistan
Update
Other point of views on the minister’s nonsense:
Posted on 17 December 2011 by Tea Server
Arshad Arbab / EPA
Pakistani security officials in Peshawar on Oct. 21 carry the coffins of paramilitary Frontier Constabulary members who were killed in an attack in the Shalobar area of Bara Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. At least 34 alleged militants and three soldiers were killed during a clash along the Afghan border in northwestern Pakistan. The fighting occurred in a stronghold of the Lashkar-e-Islam militant group.
Matiullah Achakzai / EPA
Arshad Butt / AP
People mourn next to the body of a relative at a hospital in Quetta, Oct. 4. Suspected Sunni extremists opened fire on Shiite Muslims traveling through southwestern Pakistan.
K.m. Chaudary / AP
A supporter holds a poster of Mumtaz Qadri, the confessed killer of a liberal Pakistani governor, during a rally to condemn the court decision against Qadri on Oct. 1 in Lahore. A Pakistani court convicted and sentenced Qadri to death for the killing of Salman Taseer, a murder that led to fears the country was buckling under the weight of extremism. Taseer was an outspoken critic of the country’s “blasphemy laws.”
Angry demonstrations broke out in Pakistan after a court on Saturday convicted and sentenced a police officer to death for the killing of a liberal governor.
Aamir Qureshi / AFP – Getty Images
Residents gather at the site of a blast in Islamabad, Sept. 29, that ripped through the top floor of a hotel building in Islamabad, injuring at least six people. City police chief Bani Amin said the cause of the blast appeared “to be a gas cylinder” that was still leaking at the Citi Hotel in the Blue Area, a bustling district of shops and restaurants.
Athar Hussain / Reuters
Supporters of the Pakistan People’s Party wave flags during an anti-American rally near the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Sept. 27. Pakistan, facing a crisis in relations with the United States, appears to be seeking more support from China.
Banaras Khan / AFP – Getty Images
Shiite Muslims shout slogans as they carry coffins during a funeral ceremony for those killed in an attack in Quetta on Sept. 21. Gunmen shot dead 26 Pakistani Shiite pilgrims traveling to Iran on Sept. 20, the deadliest attack on the minority community in Pakistan for more than a year. In a brutal assault, gunmen ordered pilgrims off their bus, lined them up and shot them. Two weeks later, a similar incident left 13 dead.
Suspected Sunni extremists shot 13 Shiite Muslims to death execution-style after ordering them off a bus and lining them up Tuesday in southwestern Pakistan, ramping up a campaign of sectarian violence that has exposed Islamabad’s inability to protect minorities.
Pervez Masih / AP
Displaced Pakistanis try to hand over their identity cards to get permits for relief at an office in Tando Mohammad Khan near Hyderabad, Sept, 29. Flooding killed scores of people, destroyed some 665,000 homes and displaced nearly 1.8 million people in Sindh province.
Athar Hussain / Reuters
Residents peer past a cloth barrier raised to cordon off the scene of a suicide bomb attack in Karachi on Sept. 19. At least eight people were killed, including six policemen, after a Taliban suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into the home of a senior police official in Pakistan’s commercial center, Karachi.
At least eight people were killed, including six policemen, after a Taliban suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into the home of a senior police official in Pakistan’s commercial hub Karachi on Monday.
A. Majeed / AFP – Getty Images
Pakistani firefighters attempt to extinguish a fire after a bomb blast at a market in Peshawar on Sept. 19. The bomb killed at least five people and wounded 28 others at a market selling CDs.
Posted on 07 December 2011 by Tea Server
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari was hospitalised in Dubai for medical checkups, complaining of heart pains on Tuesday.
According to the sources, doctors have advised the President to remain in the hospital for a night.
President Zardari went to Dubai along with the team of his family physicians for extensive medical checkups.
Earlier, presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar had told media that the president had gone to Dubai along with his team of doctors for an extensive medical examination.
He added that before his departure, President Zardari on Tuesday had separate meetings with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Chairman Senate Farooq H Naik, and Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
Posted on 25 November 2011 by Tea Server
by Ali K.Chishti
Husain Haqqani has resigned as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, but will that be the only casualty of what is being seen as the most critical crisis to hit Islamabad this year.
Allegations that he had conspired with influential American businessman Mansoor Ijaz to send a secret memo to US officials asking them to prevent a likely military coup in Pakistan may even result in the overthrowing of the government.
Explaining what it called a “tug of war between military and civilian sectors”, the memo said: “Civilians cannot withstand much more of the hard pressure being delivered from the Army to succumb to wholesale changes. If civilians are forced from power, Pakistan becomes a sanctuary for OBL’s legacy and potentially the platform for far more rapid spread of Al Qaeda’s brand of fanaticism and terror. A unique window of opportunity exists for the civilians to gain the upper hand over army and intelligence directorates due to their complicity in the OBL matter.”
The author of the memo seeks US intervention in the form of “conveying a strong, urgent and direct message to Gen Kayani that delivers Washington’s demand for him and Gen Pasha to end their brinkmanship aimed at bringing down the civilian apparatus”, and goes on to offer to abandon the policies that Pakistan has pursued so far vis-a-vis the war on terror, Afghanistan and even India. By replacing the national security structure with trusted advisers having historical links to the US, the memo promises to “eliminate Section S of the ISI charged with maintaining relations with the Taliban, the Haqqani network, etc.”
Mansoor Ijaz, known to be close to the Pentagon, claims he had drafted the memo after consultation with Husain Haqqani. Haqqani denies that.
“I had provided detail forensic evidence and detailed memo’s to an intelligence chief in London,” Ijaz told The Friday Times. There have been reports that Ijaz had met ISI chief Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha.
A source privy to the developments said Gen Pasha had persuaded army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani to meet President Asif Zardari and ask him to call Haqqani back to Pakistan. “The General was aggressive,” he said, “after a long time.” Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also attended the meeting. The source said he looked “shocked”.
This is not the first such stand-off between Zardari and Kayani. The military had been unhappy in 2009 with some conditions in an aid bill against a possible military rule in Pakistan, and Husain Haqqani had been severely criticised.
Zardari, who had initially miscalculated the extent of the crisis, is now doing damage control. Ijaz Haroon has withdrawn the allegation that the memo was sent with the president’s approval. “Neither the president nor anyone else from the government asked anyone to draft such a memo,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. Former army chief Jehangir Karamat and former national security adviser and ambassador Maj Gen Mahmud Durrani denied claims by Mansoor Ijaz that they were on board.
A Pentagon official said the US “never considered such a proposal seriously” because practically, a number of key decisions – from the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons to the behaviour of the ISI – were already in the military’s domain.
In a press briefing by an intelligence agency, Husain Haqqani was viewed with suspicion. Asked if Haqqani would be arrested, officials said candidly: “We seriously hope he will be arrested and given a fair chance to prove his loyalty.”
A presidential aide said the military was “taking down the horses” in a lead-up to a checkmate. Husain Haqqani has decided to stick to his stance and is ready to face an enquiry. Brig (r) Shaukat Qadir, who is close to army officials in the GHQ, says the military “are being stretched to the limit. I hope nothing snaps”.
Ali Chishti is a TFT reporter based in Karachi. He can be reached at akchishti@hotmail.com
Posted on 17 November 2011 by Tea Server
Oxford University Pakistan Society holds talk almost twice a month and this evening they arranged a talk by Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza (Ex Home Minister of Sindh, Pakistan). if you have seen the news than you must know that there was a fuss created during his talk, when he said that he came to UK with some concrete proves against Altaf Hussain. However, Organizers jumped in and controled the situation, the president of the society at that stage took the stage and tried to make the audience realise that where they are sitting and what they are representing.
Video below is the exclusive footage of what was going on there and what Ayyaz Malick (President Oxford University Pakistan Society) said. In case you want to know more about the issue see the other two videos (here, and here)that I am sharing below.
And here are rest of the video clips from the event: