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Archive for January, 2021

Court declares remand of British national by Delhi police unlawful by Sikh Federation

Court declares remand of British national by Delhi police unlawful

by

Sikh Federation

London – 17 January 2021

10 days earlier Delhi Police illegally took Jagtar Singh Johal from high security Tihar jail where he has been since May 2019 for 14 days of police interrogation that could have involved torture.

They took Jagtar for questioning in a new case over a fatal shooting over 200 miles away of Balwinder Singh Sandhu in Tarn Taran on 16 October 2020 although Jagtar has been in prison for more than 3 years awaiting trial in other cases. 

The security cover of Sandhu was removed by the state government a few months before his killing.

The Delhi police claim on 12 December 2020 Sukhmeet Pal Singh who was apprehended at Delhi airport upon his deportation from Dubai and in police custody disclosed that 5-6 months ago he came into contact with Jagtar Singh Johal.

 

 

Jagtar’s solicitor Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, asked how a person locked up in a high-security jail, with no visitors since the outbreak of Covid-19 can be involved in a killing in October 2020. Those held at Tihar jail are under strict surveillance 24-hours a day.

His family feared for his welfare in police custody as the Indian police have previously subjected Jagtar to third degree torture, including electrocution and had threatened to burn him alive.

Yesterday Jagtar made a personal appearance in court as correct procedures were not followed and it was declared he was unlawfully remanded by Delhi police for interrogation on 7 January 2021.  This was after his defence team submitted a petition against the 14-day remand.  The court ordered he be immediately returned from court to Tihar jail.

Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said:

“It is the norm in India is to file another case fearing the person may be granted bail or may be released.”

The Indian authorities have provided no evidence in court over the last three years of Jaggi’s involvement in any of the cases and are worried sooner or later he will need to be released.”

“Lodging another false case that is completely fabricated and illegally taking a person into police custody who has previously been tortured is also a form of mental torture for Jagtar and his family”.

“Jagtar’s legal team should be congratulated for challenging the 14-day police remand as being excessive and having the Delhi police actions declared unlawful due to procedural flaws.”

“The UK authorities need to wake up and make sure the Indian authorities are not able to continue to treat a British citizen in this totally unacceptable way.”

 

ENDS

Harnek Singh
National Press Secretary
Sikh Federation (UK)

www.sikhfeduk.com |[email protected] | facebook.com/Sikh Federation UK | twitter @Sikhfeduk

 

Note 1:

 

The Sikh Federation (UK) is by far the largest, most prominent and influential campaigning Sikh organisation in the UK that leads on political engagement for the British Sikh community.  The organisation is often referred to as the first and only Sikh political party.  The Sikh community in the UK and throughout the diaspora look to the organisation for leadership and direction.

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LETTER TO EDITOR January 17th, 2021 A Request to Chief Justice of Pakistan:

LETTER TO EDITOR

January 17th, 2021

A Request to Chief Justice of Pakistan

Col. Syed Riaz Jafri  (Retd)

 

Sir, your Lordship being the chief custodian of the law and the highest authority in the country to regulate the affairs of the bench and the bar, the following two instances, out of the umpteen, are brought to your kind notice for taking a Suomoto action against the performers:

 

  1. A day or two ago quite a many triumphant and jubilant black coats seemingly gone berserk were shown on TV firing small arms and automatics indiscriminately to celebrate their victory in the District Courts Bar Association elections at Faisalabad. One is simply dumbfounded to see such an unlawful display and the behaviour of the believers of the law!!
  2. A  video clip viral on the social media carrying a caption of “Senior Judge and  Supreme Court lawyers in Lahore” shows one of them dancing and moving his arms, body and hips in a typical professional female dancer style while others standing in a circle are thumping their feet and clapping around him. I earnestly pray that the dancing one is not the Judge!  Most disgusting to say the least for the august legal community to do so.  Where is the decorum, the dignity and the serenity warranted of their noble profession and high office?  

 

Only the CJP can take action because any other agency including the Govt. dare not touch them as it could invoke the wrath of the entire legal community who usually come forward in unison and force on such occasions to protect their fellow companions. Sir, someone bold enough has to put an end to such a lawlessness otherwise for how long we and our coming generations would have to suffer in silence such high handed nonsense. Sir, you owe it to the nation and the posterity to wrest such a dismal decline of our legal elite.

 

Col. Syed Riaz Jafri  (Retd)

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30 Westridge 1
Rawalpindi 46000
Pakistan
E.mail: [email protected]

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WHO HELPED IN PAYMENT OF $32 MILLION TO BROADSHEET? by Arshad Sharif,The Reporter’s Diary

WHO HELPED IN PAYMENT OF $32 MILLION TO BROADSHEET?

AN INSIDER’S CONMAN JOB!

By

\

ARSHAD SHARIF

 –

 January 15, 2021

The Reporter’s Diary

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Islamabad, January 15:  Successive governments and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) made questionable payments of atleast US $32 Million to different companies in Broadsheet scam from 2008 till now without challenging the re-instatement of companies which were dissolved in 2007. 

Government of Pakistan (GoP) also paid millions of dollars as fees to the lawyers in addition to the US$32 Million questionable payments to Broadsheet which had links to a few important people in Pakistani power corridors. How many million dollars have been paid to lawyers internationally and locally by GoP and NAB remains a well-guarded secret in the scam.

“I had been requesting the relevant people to challenge the re-instatement order of Broadsheet in Isle of Man but no one was interested,” said a well-placed source, adding, “unless the money is distributed, how will people get their share.”

Disbursement of atleast US $32 Million include payment of US $1.5 Million to Broadsheet, $2.2 to International Asset Recovery (IAR) and US$ 28 Million to reinstated Broadsheet.

“In addition to US$1,500,000 paid to or to order of Mr. James under the Settlement Agreement, NAB paid US$2,250,000 in settlement of the claims by IAR, also in about 2008,” reads an order of settlement in the case.

The first tranche of questionable payments were made when Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was in power, Navid Ahsan was Chairman NAB and Sardar Latif Khosa was Attorney General of Pakistan.

Sardar Latif Khosa later represented Broadsheet LLC in Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018 to seek access to Volume 10 of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report to be used to assess the quantum of damages sought in the international arbitration.

Who actually owns Broadsheet LLC, an offshore company, is a question which has baffled Pakistani officialdom. The multi-million dollar question finds mention in a communication sent by Broadsheet’s lawyers, Crowell & Moring LLP, to Pakistani authorities in March 2019 in the following words”

Zafar Ali, QC

“Mr. Ali informed Mr. Moussavi that people in Pakistan wanted to “know who he is” after dealing with him for years, and whether Broadsheet was being funded by Zardari and the Bhutto Family. Mr. Moussavi told Mr. Ali that was nonsense, that he had no connection whatsoever with Zardari, and never would, and that in his view Mr.Ali was being pushed aside by others in Pakistan eager to pursue the Sharif funds in Singapore for themselves.”

Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan

Prime Minister Imran Khan has recently ordered an investigation to find how the Broadsheet case was mishandled by previous governments resulting in penalty of millions of dollars against Pakistan.

It is surprising that settlement was made with Broadsheet without due diligence by GoP and NAB in 2008 despite the fact that the company was dissolved in April 2007. The fact finds mention in the settlement order in following words:

“In April 2007, when Broadsheet (IoM) was formally dissolved, negotiations were in progress between NAB, represented by their lawyer, Mr. Soofi, and Mr. James’s former associates representing another company, IAR, which had made an agreement similar to the ARA (but relating to other parts of the World) in 2000 at about the same time as he entered into the ARA on behalf of Broadsheet. 

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In addition, Mr. James began to negotiate a Settlement Agreement with NAB represented by Mr. Soofi representing that he, Mr. James, was authorised to represent Broadsheet, notwithstanding (and without disclosing) that the company was in liquidation and was recently formally dissolved.

His purpose in doing this can readily be inferred from the facts that at about this time he formed a new Colorado company, also called Broadsheet, which he represented was a successor to Broadsheet IoM. When the Settlement Agreement was signed on 20 May 2008 it provided that NAB would make payments totaling US$1,500,000, in settlement of claims made under the ARA, not to Broadsheet IoM or its Liquidator but to Broadsheet Colorado which Mr. James controlled and in effect to him personally. When these facts became known to Mr. Moussavi, he took steps to have the dissolution of Broadsheet set aside. A new Liquidator was appointed who has authorised these arbitration proceedings against NAB (Notice of Arbitration was given on 23 October 2009). 

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Naveed Ahsan, Former Chairman NABThe Settlement Agreement was authorised for NAB by an executive decision in which Mr. Soofi was not involved. There is no evidence as to who the decision makers were. The Governor of NAB at that time was Mr. Ahsan.”

The settlement order gives details about dissolution of Broadsheet, raising fundamental question why re-instatement was not challenged in Isle of Man either by GoP or NAB.

“When the ARA terminated in Oct./Dec.2003, Broadsheet was a trading company registered in the Isle of Man. Mr. James was its executive chairman and controlling shareholder. Mr. Tisdale was involved in its affairs by virtue of being Mr. James’s legal adviser, and Mr. Tariq Fawad Malik effectively was its local representative in Pakistan. On 19 May 2003, the company’s former legal adviser in Jersey obtained a default judgment for outstanding fees in the sum of about £29,000 (“the Sinel judgement”). On 1 April 2004 the Sinel judgment was registered against Broadsheet in the Isle of Man. Winding-up proceedings against the Company based on non-payment of the judgment debt were commenced in the Isle of Man in February 2005 and a Winding-up Order was made on 2-7 March 2005. On 2 April 2007 the company was formally dissolved. Meanwhile, Mr. James remained active in business and/or financial affairs in the USA. On 4 January 2005 he purported to assign to a Colorado company, Steeplechase Financial Services LLC, “all his right, title and interest in … connection with [the ARA]” signing the Assignment as chairman of Broadsheet and ‘Manager’ of Broadsheet. He did not notify NAB of the Assignment nor did he communicate with the Liquidator who was appointed in the Isle of Man shortly afterwards, in February/March 2005.”

Interestingly enough, when the questionable payments were made a year later to a company dissolved in 2007, the damage claims were again accepted in 2009. 

Second payment of atleast US $28 million was facilitated in December 2020 when Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf led by Prime Minister Imran Khan was in office.

A senior government official with knowledge of the case said a number of questions need to be answered as to who facilitated payments to Broadsheet once again in December 2020 when clear instructions were given by Attorney General office to keep “bare minimum” cash in accounts of Pakistani missions abroad.

Public Accounts Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee of National Assembly of Pakistan have ordered probe in the broadsheet scam.

Answers to a few of the following questions can expose a few characters who facilitated payment of atleast US $28 million to Broadsheet through Pakistan High Commission bank account in London:

 1. Why such a big amount was lying in Pakistan High Commission’s account when arbitration was ongoing and instructions were passed to keep bare minimum cash in bank accounts for official use?

2. When the amount of US $28 million was transferred to High Commission’s account and for what purpose? Who authorized transfer of funds to account of High Commission?

3. What had been the average Monthly balance in High Commission’s account during last 36 months?

4. How Broadsheet came to know about huge balance in High Commission’s account and specific account number to ensure implementation of damages claim?

5. Why diplomatic immunity was not invoked and if invoked at what stage and when?

6. Does it prima facie not seem an arranged and corroborative move to facilitate Broadsheet to recover the money?

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Good Riddance. Sheldon Adelson Dead at 87 By Moon Of Alabama

Good Riddance. Sheldon Adelson Dead at 87

By Moon Of Alabama

January 14, 2021

Sheldon Adelson, the casino oligarch who has financed far right causes as well as the political careers of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahoo, has died. In 2013 Adelson had called for nuking Tehran (vid).

Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson dies

The casino magnate donated massive sums to Republican candidates and various causes.

Good Riddance.

Unfortunately his money will continue to flow to the far right as his Israeli wife is the one who is now running the show.

In other news B’Tselem, the topmost Israeli human rights organization, finally describes both Israel and its control of the Palestinian territories as a single apartheid regime:

B’Tselem rejects the perception of Israel as a democracy (inside the Green Line) that simultaneously upholds a temporary military occupation (beyond it). B’Tselem reached the conclusion that the bar for defining the Israeli regime as an apartheid regime has been met after considering the accumulation of policies and laws that Israel devised to entrench its control over Palestinians.

Nothing really new there but it makes it official. 
With B’Tselem finally speaking out it is much easier to refute those who falsely denounce the much justified condemnation of Zionism and Israel as anti-semitic.
This comes at a time when Israel is scheming to derail the incoming Biden administration’s plan to return to the nuclear deal with Iran:

Israel Wants to Derail Biden’s Plan to Rejoin Iran Nuclear Deal

David Wainer,Ivan Levingston

Israel is already plotting how to derail one of Joe Biden’s signature foreign-policy promises.

Israel will start by sending a stream of envoys on visits to Washington, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss private deliberations. It’s stated publicly that it doesn’t want the U.S. to abandon sanctions on the Islamic Republic without a new deal, and that a tougher stance should be taken toward its nuclear project, ballistic missile program and regional proxy forces.That strategy runs against the Biden team’s willingness to re-enter the deal, then negotiate an expansion of its terms. It’s conditioned on Iran’s returning to compliance with the accord, whose limits it breached after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement in 2018.

Israel also has a higher-risk card up its sleeve: the potential to upend diplomatic efforts through covert operations against Iran.

Netanyahu has been open about his intention to thwart renewed U.S. participation. In a rare public split, he rebuked his envoy to Germany for supporting Berlin’s push to expand the deal.

“There should be no return to the Iran nuclear agreement of 2015 — a deal which is flawed to its foundations,” Netanyahu said.

With Biden being an arch-Zionist and with a team of Zionist Jews leading the State Department the chances of a fast return to the deal can be regarded as slim.

Reference

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America and Turbulent Democracy Look for Change Written by Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

America and Turbulent Democracy Look for Change

by

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

 

 

The Unthinkable Insurrection on America Powerhouse

America and its politics find itself at the tyranny of reason of which it appears to be unconscious either by design or by choice. The living thought of American political harmony does not seem to exhibit an ideal scenario of democracy as acclaimed by its political proponents. The perplexities and despotic character are rooted in the making of modern democracy. American constitutional sense of liberty, freedom and justice appear tainted and dislodged by individualistic Trump’s cult and the planned mob violence against the epicenter of political governance in Washington. D.C. on January 6 -Wednesday. It exposed an ugly and forbidden truth about the American political thought, values and plastic configuration of piety of democratic values. The gangsters upsurge denied the normal functional of the working seat of political governance to verify the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden. The seditious crowd chanted “Hang Pence” against the Vice President, “take hostage” the enemy of Trump victory, the election was “fraudulent” and “ Trump won” the election, the encompassing chaos echoes the worst upcoming epoch in contemporary American history. In all rational observations, it was an authoritarian sponsored coup against We, the People who had systematically elected Joe Biden- President Elect in November 2020. There were silenced pleas and indifference by Republican top leadership who shared the Trump belligerent stance on the outcomes of the presidential election. Is it a wake-up call for rethinking of the American emotional outburst or an opportunity to reflect intelligently as to what went wrong on that historic day? Rowan Wolf (https://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2021/01/06/if-you-think-that-trump-will-not-continue-to-push-a-coup-then-think-again.php: 1/06/21) highlights the following facts:

It is critical that we take seriously the impact of the lies, propaganda, and actual coup attempt that is occurring. Trump and the GOP have colluded in creating a narrative that has left a large portion of our population believing that 1) there has been significant fraud in the vote; 2) that the Biden win is illegitimate; 3) that the actions taken by Trump and the GOP are legal, legitimate, and “saving” our democracy. The truth is the obverse of this. In fact, we have a larger portion of the people and virtually the whole of the GOP throwing democracy and the Constitution into the ditch in order to establish an oligarchy, a dictatorship. They are attempting to throw out the votes of tens of millions of people in a coup.

The mob violence and killing of five American signaled deficient security arrangements to safeguard the sanctity of the Capitol complex, members of Congress and Senate who were discharging their legal duties to address the agenda of verification of the election results. It represented lack of planning and distorted image of American official planning on security and protection of human lives. If there were responsible and rational officials, the security plan should have met the challenge of the day but there was nothing to stabilize a trivial emerging security catastrophic emergency. Strangely enough, few weeks earlier, The Black Lives Matter protest was met with police brutality, rubber bullets and cordoned off the Capitol premise. President Trump incited the mob for an appalling way forward to undo the congressional verification of the President Elect, Joe Biden. Would President Trump be held accountable for his insurrection and violation of the tenets of the US Constitution? Or would he go unpunished for the next ten days?

Align

Link To

Responding to this formidable challenge, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House is calling for “impeachment” of President Trump and demands invocation of the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to dismiss Trump from his office. The time and opportunity for a reasoned dialogue was lost by Trump and the Republican Party leadership. The followers of Trump’s cult performed the stage the drama to appease the emperor and his complicit supporters. Cynicism about American politicians is endemic across the board. Could the present American leadership restore a sense of political normalcy in a highly turbulent crisis that engulfed the nation to greater risk of insecurity and survival for a sustainable political future? This author noted the following observations in “American Presidential Election and Democracy Look for Change, Moral and Intellectual Leadership.” (UncommonThought: 11/19/2020.): To glance ahead, America and its claim to a working democracy will haunt future generations with suspicion and extended discard. Trump and his coercive puppies could not think of America as part of the global community except as conforming to their own fantasies, phobias, prejudices, policies, practices and preferences, favoring Israel and Netanyahu and nothing else for the pandemic entrenched people of America. History will tell of this time when Trump plagued the body politic with the deliberate misinterpretation of the election and outrageous futuristic hypotheses leading nowhere in a civilized society. The sudden and inexplicable democratic plunge into self-geared wickedness must be catastrophic for future generations

Did America’s War Abroad Generate the Evolution of Domestic Terrorism?

Is there a connection to America’s global warmongering and the domestic “terrorism” advanced by the Trump cult? In every political culture there is peculiar psychology to see its own pros and nothing else. If America and its democracy will ignore the imperatives of living Time, its articulation of futuristic Time will be totally unlike its own – a contradiction covered by adroit instinct. Could America and its political leadership see the mirror and do some soul-searching? “There are the times that try men’s soul”, noted Thomas Paine in his famous “Common Sense”, the lifeline to American independence.

For two decades, the continued American led bogus War on Terrorism had wide ranging impacts on the America political and intellectual psyche. Americans are in the frontline of terrorizing the global mankind, not searching for strategic rethinking – what went wrong with one of the most cultured and intellectually enriched nations of the world. We the People continued to witness countless emerging catastrophic developments both man- made and natural to impact the Living Earth and human lives. According to Sherwood Ross: “US Sponsored Genocide against Iraq 1990-2012 killed 3.3 million including 750,000 children.” (Global Research: 12/06/2012). During The Bush-Obama administrations, US drone massacred some 25-30 thousand innocent Pakistani civilians in Northwest tribal belt of Pakistan adjacent to Afghanistan under a false pretext of “war on terrorism.” It is estimated that more than million Afghan civilians were killed and forcibly displaced enlarging the scope of forgotten graveyards.

If America cannot deal with its own domestic problems of unusual violence, killings of the innocents, and fear-mongering politics, how could it be helpful to others in the globe. One wonders, what went wrong with America? William Boardman (“A Country At War With An Illusion.” Information Clearing House), spells out that America is at war with itself: We are waging war on terrorism even as we embody terrorism. …No wonder we seem sometimes to be at war with ourselves, and have been for most of the 21st century….No American Under 12 Has Lived In A Country At Peace….America’s Main Enemy Is Nameless, Shapeless, “Associated Forces”… The American Enemies List Is Decided Anonymously and Secretly.

Could America Look for New Ideals in a Changing World?

True wisdom needs soul searching and tranquility of human behavior – the manifestations of true wisdom. If Americans are intelligent, they should listen to voices of Reason and Wisdom before it is too late. Its pains, horrors and cruelty are within itself. America and its democratic manifestations are prone to change under conditions of time, space and waking consciousness. The primacy of imperative is Reason. Those entrusted with power and responsibilities within the Republican Party echelon do not appear to understand the need of change, time and interest of the masses.View it aconjectural or cautious optimism, leadership in the Republican Party is exploited by Trump and his supporters and the powerhouse is closer to anarchy than reasoned dialogue.The Divine messages of the Qur’an and Holy Bible REMIND to Man – the Chief Creation of God on Earththat continuous wars, greed, killings and man-made disasters are prelude to staunch punishment from God – so be accountable and do not transgress in the lands. If you go thousands of miles away and commit massacres and destroy the God-given human habitats with your feeble minds and machinery, do you think, this trespassing will not usher dire consequences for you?

We reside on a living Earth that sustains life and a living Universe that takes account of all human deeds- our history making is intricately linked to our knowledge data and the Nature of Things – Man’s history and the Self, and be aware that in every ideal of the Self, there is both conjecture of man and his action and how all visible and invisible events shape our thoughts, wisdom or future in waiting. It is a time and an opportunity out of the American crises to look into the known and unknown conscious experience for a comprehensive picture in a mirror- who they were and where they are the underlying rational purpose for a navigational change to elucidate the path of fair and systematic change for We, the People future making.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2019.

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