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Archive for May, 2013

NO DUE PROCESS: Guantanamo is a Blot on the Glorious Face of America By Amb. Saeed Qureshi

Guantanamo is a Blot on the Glorious Face of America

 

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By Saeed Qureshi

In his press conference on April 30 president Obama reaffirmed his resolve to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp by repatriating the left over detainees to their respective countries or to other destinations.

The president’s press conference was in response to the grave situation propped up following the hunger strike by 100 detainees out of 166 since February this year to protest against their several years in detention without trial or charge.

The Guantanamo camp was opened by President George W. Bush, to hold foreign terrorism suspects captured overseas after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. The maximum number of detainees at the facility brought from various countries has been 779.

These wretched individuals were picked up at random from various destinations around the world without any foolproof system to establish if they had any connection with terrorism. They have been languishing in this camp under most horrifying conditions without any proper trial or review of their cases for years.

The forced feeding of detainees now on hunger strike has generated concerns from international human right organizations including the Amnesty International. While welcoming president Obama’s latest initiative to close the prison camp, these groups have urged him to take action on his own if the Congress still does not support him in moving ahead on this extremely distasteful denial of justice to the inmates or freeing them.

The president who appeared genuinely distressed by the agonizing situation pointed out that the “situation at Guantanamo was not sustainable and the he did not want these people to die”. “The idea that we would still maintain forever a group of individuals who have not been tried, that is contrary to who we are,” —it is contrary to our interests, and it needs to stop.”, he emphatically observed.

Obama asserted that he would examine every option available to close the camp, including actions he can take independently of Congress, which could be using his executive powers to get out of this quagmire.

During his first term president Obama transferred many prisoners from Guantanamo to other countries. He also tried in 2008 to repatriate the remaining detainees to maximum security facilities in the United States. Buy his initiative to move the inmates from the Bay to the mainland, was blocked by the lawmakers, mostly Republican.

He announced to appoint a senior diplomat for handling the onerous task of closing the notorious prison camp at Guantanamo bay overlooking Cuba. Expressing his determination to cut this vexatious guardian knot he intends to persuade Congress to “end restrictions that have prevented him from closing the facility”.

The white house press secretary Jay Carney told reporters during a briefing that apart from undertaking the main task of repatriation, the “Obama administration also wants to speed up a process for reviewing the cases of the detainees”.

It would be a feather in the cap of president Obama and his administration if they close the dreaded Guantanamo concentration prison as soon as possible. The closure would be an overdue step but in such situation it is never too late to right a wrong. Since these unfortunate inmates have been denied the due process of law in order to establish their culpability or otherwise, their incarceration without any cogent reasons, does not seem to be justified.

 Guantanamo is like a moral milestone around the neck of America, a country reputed to be an abode of galore of human rights, liberties and dignity for human beings. Its justice system is a marvel and a praiseworthy model for the rest of the world. The denial or disinclination to apply this immaculate justice system to the Guantanamo suspects is tantamount to smearing our civil society and sidetracking the constitution. The dispensation of justice and application of laws ought not to be selective by categorizing the suspects on the basis of unproven charges.

The Congress consists of noble, conscientious, prudent and pragmatic members. If they do not join president Obama to close this notorious prison, then they are treading a wrong path for the reasons beyond the comprehension of the judicious Americans and the world beyond. Why the Republicans are so touchy and even impervious to take up this thorny issue and resolve it once and for all. Keeping these condemned prisoners in captivity, for no reasons because “we must do it because we want it as such” is a blatant travesty of justice.

Why should we look at the miserable plight of these prisoners with callous indifference as if they are not human being but mere cattle? So much so that they were left with no option but to go on hunger strike unto to death. Sadly the law makers, the legal minds and the administration have been apathetic to a group of individuals who deserve a due process of law to be adjudged innocent or guilty.

This is not the medieval age that one would be left to rot and die in the dark and dingy dungeons of jail. Nor are we Nazis that we should watch them going through an incessant process of torture, indignity and inhuman conditions.

 Let me finish this write-up by projecting the reaction of the American press to the Guantanamo impasse. On the whole one may have a feel that the press seems to be in favor of untangling the deadlock that has been hanging fire for over a decade now. I shall reproduce two excerpts from the New York Times and the Washington Post: the two outstanding and cherished dailies in the United States.

The New York Times in its editorial made the following observation on Guantanamo.

“It mocks American standards of justice by keeping people imprisoned without charges. It has actually hindered the imprisonment of dangerous terrorists. Even if Guantánamo seemed justified to some people in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, those justifications are wearing thin. It is unsustainable and should be closed”

The Washington Times’ editorial assesses the Guantanamo deadlock in the following comment.

“The Pentagon has failed to set up a promised new system for reviewing the cases of prisoners that Mr. Obama ordered established more than a year ago, which means that Guantánamo inmates are receiving less review of their cases than they did during the Bush administration. It’s little wonder that many have grown desperate enough to try starving themselves to death.”

The writer is a senior journalist and a former diplomat

You can also read this and other articles on www.uprightopinion.com.


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SAY “NO” TO NAWAZ SHARIF

 SAY “NO” TO NAWAZ SHARIF

Apr
28
2012

Documents Point To Sharifs $32 Million Corruption Scandal

Following documents have been placed before the Supreme Court and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) alleging Nawaz Sharif involvement in $32 millions corruption scandal.

 

Feb
22
2012

NAB may open more cases against Sharifs

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is preparing to take up cases against PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

According to sources, the cases relate to default of Rs4.9 billion loans obtained from nine banks in 1994-95.

“Cases against Sharif brothers were to be approved in a recent NAB board meeting but were deferred on the directives of the Chairman, Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari,” an official of the bureau said on Monday.

The chairman is reported to have said that all pending cases about politicians would be taken up soon.

The NAB spokesman was not available for comment.

The bureau had earlier frozen some assets of the Sharif family against which the loans had been taken.

The Supreme Court upheld in January a judgment of the Lahore High Court asking NAB to release the assets of the Sharif family. It dismissed an appeal by NAB Prosecutor General K.K. Agha against LHC’s Oct 4, 2011, directive to the bureau to return Rs115 million and property of Hudabiya Paper Mills lying with the National Bank, Islamabad.

The sources said the assets had not been released so far.

The prosecutor general had told the Supreme Court that before heading to Saudi Arabia in December 2002, Nawaz Sharif had consented to return money to NAB under an agreement.

When contacted, PML-N spokesman Mushahidullah said the party’s chief and his family were not defaulters of any bank loan. “That was the reason Nawaz Sharif demanded of the government to make public details of all bank loans not repaid by politicians,” he said.

Replying to a question, he said the value of the frozen assets was far higher than the amount of loans obtained. “Once their assets are released, they will pay the loans,” he said.

The loans were taken from the NBP, Habib Bank, United Bank, Muslim Commercial Bank, Punjab Mudaraba, Bank of Punjab, Agriculture Development Bank, Pakistan Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation and ICP Bank.

During the proceedings in the Supreme Court, the NAB prosecutor general submitted an agreement signed by Nawaz Sharif and the Musharraf government.

The LHC had declared the taking over of property of the petitioners as unconstitutional, ultra vires under NAO, 1999, and without lawful authority. It had also ordered payment of compensatory cost of Rs150,000 per petition to Hudabiya mills, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and Mian Mohammad Abbas Sharif.

 

Jan
31
2012

Expensive govt land on Murree Road allotted illegally

ISLAMABAD: Government land costing billions of rupees on the Murree Road has allegedly been allotted.

While widening the Murree Road in 1998-99, the then Punjab chief minister, who also holds the post now [Shahbaz Sharif], had decided to allot alternate land instead of financial compensation to some of the affected persons.

Working swiftly, the Highways Department first got transferred six acres of land on the main Murree Road owned by the Agriculture Department in their own names and then transferred it illegally to fake victims.

The Revenue department had also declared the allotment illegal six years back. After probe, it was learnt that land was provided to Raja Abdul Latif without any legal justification ignoring the legal claimant Zia Rashid.

Likewise, Raja Shafqat, son of Raja Mohammad Siddiq, was also allotted land while the actual claimant, Mohammad Hashim Khan, son of Haji Manzoor Hussain, was ignored. Two other real claimants Mohammad Usman and Jamila Akhtar were also not included in the list.

A six-member committee consisting of officials of the Revenue and Highways departments in the light of a detailed report of tehsildar Rawalpindi had ruled that all bogus allotments may be cancelled and the land illegally allotted maybe got vacated. The committee had also ruled that the genuine affected persons may be given alternate lands elsewhere.

source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=12142&Cat=13

 

Nov
14
2011

The Punjabi Taliban

Rana Sanullah and Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi of Sipah-e-Sabah

Punjab, with Lahore as its bustling capital, contains half of Pakistan’s population. The provincial government is in the hands of the conservative, mildly Islamist party of a former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. In a speech in March his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who is chief minister, pleaded with the Taliban to leave Punjab alone as his administration shared their ideology of keeping out “foreign dictation” (ie, Americans). Officials bristle at comparisons between Punjab, which is moderately well run, and the lawless tribal areas.

It is correct to say that there has been no territorial takeover by extremists in any part of the province, nor any enforcement of Islamic law. However, Punjab functions as an ideological nursery and recruiting ground for militants throughout the country. Distinctions between the Taliban in the north-west and older jihadi groups in Punjab have broken down. The federal government says Punjabi groups have been responsible for most of the big terrorist attacks in the province.

Punjab’s minister of law, Rana Sanaullah, went on the campaign trail in February with the reputed head of Sipah-e-Sahaba, for a by-election in the southern town of Jhang. The two rode through the streets in an open-top vehicle. The minister says that he was just trying to bring the group into the mainstream. Jhang is Sipah-e-Sahaba’s headquarters; the group makes little effort to hide its presence there.

Another outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed, is based in Bahawalpur, also in southern Punjab, where it has a huge seminary. Former members of both organisations are integral parts of the Pakistani Taliban. Another group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the devastating attack on Mumbai in 2008, also has Punjab as its home. “The Punjab government is not only complacent, there is a certain ambivalence in their attitude” towards extremists, says Arif Nizami, a political analyst based in Lahore. “They compete for the religious vote bank.”

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/16281220

 

Oct
27
2011

Will Nawaz Answer Why PML-N Lawyer Garlanded a Confessed Murderer?

 

Mr Falur Rehman Niazi sahib, who is president of PML-N lawyers wing federal capital Islamabad and is a lawyer himself and has been president for many years, he garlanded a self confessed murderer. Please answer Nawaz Sharif

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Oct
24
2011

Students Protest Corruption of Sharifs

Students protest corruption of Sharifs

Recent agitation against the Punjab government on the intermediate result fiasco, underscores the growing wedge between the youth and a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) desperate to woe the younger generation. The protests could not have come at a worse time for the Sharif’s, who are trying to mobilise the public against the federal government. Following the cancellation of the intermediate exams at four Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) centres in Punjab, students and the youth have raised fingers at the credentials of the Punjab Chief Minister (CM) to mount an anti-corruption campaign against the federal government. The failure of the online examination system across Punjab has sparked anger that now risks the 28 October rally by the Sharif brothers against the federal government, Pakistan Today learnt on Sunday.

Students have asked on what grounds are the Sharif brothers taking out a rally against corruption when the education boards in their own province had become the hub of corruption. While the Punjab CM was visiting education institutes to garner support, the cancellation of Inter-1 result at four BISE boards, including Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan and Faisalabad, sparked rage amongst students who chanted slogans against Shahbaz and Nawaz Sharif and set Punjab government advertisements on fire. After his Inter result was cancelled, student Wasif Ali said,

“Everytime I find the Punjab CM criticising corruption by the federal government, I want to ask him: what happened at the four BISE boards, Mr CM?”
– Wasif Ali

“Is it because of his love for education that no permanent education minister has been appointed in Punjab,” he said, “the education ministry has failed due to its incompetence and the CM should not expect the youth to turn up at his rally.”

“The parents of female students are sitting on roads and chanting slogans against the Punjab government but his government has ordered police to beat up students protesting for their rights. Why should we join him in the rally?” Kashif asked. Another intermediate student, Adeel Ahmad said it was ironic the PML-N was holding a rally against corruption when the CM himself was supervising corruption in Punjab. “While Shahbaz has rightly suspended the BISE Chairman and Controller, no action has been initiated against the man behind the fiasco, BISE It Consultant Dr Majid Naeem, who is related to a PML-leader,” Adeel said.

He said it was common knowledge that Dr Majid had corruptions cases registered against Majid, who had been terminated from Punjab University on corruption charges. He said the fact that the PML-N was turning a blind eye to Majid’s corruption, showed their hypocrisy.
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/10/%E2%80%98clean-up-your-own-house-first%E2%80%99/

 

Oct
24
2011

PML-N polluting the Mall with banners

PML-N PTI banners polluting mall

As Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) battle through banners, Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) is unable to regulate the display of banners which has officially been banned on the Mall and other major roads of the city, Pakistan Today has learnt. The Mall is heavily polluted by an array of banners that have been put up to advertise the PML-N rally on October 28, from Nasir Bagh to Bhatti Chowk, and the PTI rally on October 30 in Minar-e-Pakistan, following a lack of implementation of the ban. A senior official of PHA said it appeared as if political parties were questing to achieve political glory by attracting people to join their causes but neither did they consider the ban nor did they consider how adversely it polluted the road. He said some of the banners hanged through electric poles and traffic signals after last night’s windstorm. Some had fallen on the road, dirtying it while most poles displayed three to four banners which looked unsightly, he added.

In front of the Punjab Assembly, PML-N banners with pictures of Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz bearing political slogans were seen. On the other stretch of the road, PTI banners could be sighted in the proximity of the Governor House.

Javed Jabbar, a resident of lower Mall, told Pakistan Today that the unsightly banners were a cause of concern for citizens. He also noted that the government’s promise to keep the Mall free from banners had not been fulfilled.

Source: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/10/pha-helpless-against-pti-pml-n-%E2%80%98war-of-banners%E2%80%99/

 

Oct
14
2011

Nawaz’s secret dash to Dubai

PML-N President, Mian Nawaz Sharif, made an unannounced dash to Dubai Thursday afternoon and returned to Pakistan the same evening. The visit was kept completely under wraps and even the senior most party leaders had no idea that their leader had gone missing from the country for a few hours.

According to a source, Mr. Sharif also held an “important meeting lasting a couple of hours” with some undisclosed individuals; however no further details were available on this count and could not be confirmed by another independent source.

According to details, Nawaz Sharif landed in Dubai late afternoon and drove straight to the residence of Senator Ishaq Dar, whose son is married to Nawaz Sharif’s daughter. When contacted, Senator Pervez Rashid (PML-N) insisted that there was nothing unusual or “mysterious” about the visit and that Mr. Sharif had gone to Dubai to meet his daughter and to deal with some family matters.

Responding to another query he said, “Mian sahib had planned this private visit for a while but we (party leadership) had asked him to postpone it because of the evolving political situation here at home. Now he felt that he could afford to take out a few hours for this visit,” adding, “Please do not read anything into a simple private family visit”. When asked about the need to keep the visit a secret, Senator Rashid shrugged off the assertion by saying, “It was a private visit, that’s why”.

It may be recalled that in the past however, every time Mr. Sharif went on a ‘private’ visit either to the UK or the UAE, maximum media coverage was always ensured by his political aides and respectable sized reception parties were assembled at the destination airports. Why this past tradition was suddenly abandoned and a blanket of secrecy thrown over the visit, only time will tell.

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=9538&Cat=13

 

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Imran Khan’s Latest Tweets: A Fresh Wind is Blowing in Pakistan

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