Our Announcements

Not Found

Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.

Archive for category Pakistan’s Hall of Shame

New Prime Minister: Insult to Injury

New Prime Minister: Insult to Injury
By Saeed Qureshi

The appointment of Raja Pervez Ashraf as a new prime minister of Pakistan is like adding insult to injury or rubbing salt on the inflicted wound. If the previously proposed Prime Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin was a felon so is Raja Pervez Ashraf notoriously known as Raja rental? One wonders as to why the PPP’s incumbent government is so barren of the individuals with fair name and good reputation!
President Zardari, like a smart chessboard king retreats and advances his foot soldiers as the situation demands. In his latest move, in order to succeed the ousted prime minster Gillani, he has brought to the fore another person who is up to neck in kickback scams. There is no dearth of corrupt and greedy individuals in the hierarchy of the Pakistan People’s Party. President Zardari would not like an honest and principled person to be his associate in power either as minister or in the party office.
The outgoing Prime Minister Gillani was corrupt yet was as much docile and subservient to the whims and prerogatives of the president as the newly elected prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf would be. President Zardari wants rubber stamp persons, who with closed eyes should dance to his tunes like puppets and follow his decisions and dictates with unquestionable subservience.
There cannot be a better person than Raja Ashraf for the kind of slavish mentality because of his sycophantic disposition and low lying temperament.  But his most strident qualification is his unstinted and unconditional loyalty to the party.
Now when he stand elected and sworn in as the 17th prime minister of Pakistan, Prime Minister Raja would find a myriad of horrendous problems staring in his face. To be in power for PPP as the majority party in these turbulent times is becoming a colossal challenge for their loathsome mode of governance tarred with an abundance of abominable scams and lurid scandals revolving around gross misuse of power and money grabbing by every conceivable mean.
There are grave corruption allegations pending against Raja Pervez Ashraf for receiving kickbacks in rental power projects and buying properties in London. The Supreme Court of Pakistan is hearing cases pertaining to these charges. Beucase of these cases, he resigned his ministerial position under public and judicial pressure. 
Interestingly, the identical petitions were filed by the then a cabinet colleague the Housing Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat as well as PML-N MNA Khawaja Asif on deliberate favoritism in giving contracts for rental power projects.
In compliance with a decision of the Supreme Court, the National Accountability Bureau placed the names of 19 accused in the exit control list (ECL) for alleged irregularities and non-transparency in rental power projects (RPPs). That list includes four ministers including Raja Pervez Ashraf and four former secretaries.
While the court rescinded the RPPs, it also directed NAB Chairman Admiral (Retd) Fasih Bokhari to proceed with corruption references against the culprits of this huge scam. The NAB also seized property of 12 RPPs and asked the district coordination officers and deputy commissioners concerned to take action if their owners tried to transfer the property
The most daring and daunting challenge for Raja Sahib would be to write to the Swiss courts for reopening the pending money laundering cases against president Zardari. If Somehow Raja complies with the verdict of the Supreme Court, he will earn the ire of his powerful and crafty boss and might be replaced by someone else. If he ignores Supreme Court’s directives, the impasse and collision with the judiciary would remain as rife as it has been all along since the handing out of the verdict by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The cases against Zardari date to the 1990s, when he and Benazir Bhutto were alleged to have laundered $60 million of graft money in Swiss banks, paid by companies seeking lucrative contracts. The Swiss shelved the cases in 2008 after Zardari became the president of Pakistan.
One would wonder how the incumbent prime minister whose role is to fill the interim period till elections to be held February 2013, deal with that guardian knot. His evasion, delay or refusal to write might entail a similar action from the Supreme Court and the resultant disqualification. To repeat the same argument, if per say, he writes a letter howsoever diluted, it would have to be done with the express consent of the principal accused president Zardari. On the contrary, in case of any ambivalence exhibited by Raja Ashraf like his predecessor, he may also be disqualified and shown the way-out.
But perhaps the PPP government wants to buy time till the next elections so that it can proudly claim the completion of full five years’ term in office. But does president Zardari stand a chance to be reelected on the expiry of his term? If he is not reelected because of the defeat of PPP in the general elections, what could be his reaction or strategy to counter that situation?
Understandably the other party would prefer to bring a head of state of their own choice. If president cannot return to the presidency, his privilege or exemptions from legal actions would also be lifted. Will he flee to the foreign sanctuaries or fight the legal battle.
So the coming few months seem to be strewn with events that could be chaotic and extension of the ongoing political turbulence and standoff on one side between the superior judiciary and the government and between the parties in power and those in opposition on the other. With the elections season drawing near, there cannot be any possibility of a political truce or lull between the colliding parties until the announcement of the elections dates.
The writer is a senior journalist and a former diplomat

No Comments

I. The son also rises. II., Case of CJP’s son to be part of charge sheet. III.,Defenders turn detractors., IV.Analysis: Arsalan’s Heel

1.Ref

I. The son also rises

 June 15, 2012
When former president General Pervez Musharraf decided to embark upon his politically suicidal path in March 2007, the first step was the production of a reference against the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry — a fatal move. The first item of the reference concerned the CJP’s son, Arsalan Iftikhar, a doctor, who since then has now come somewhat full circle.
Justice Chaudhry was charged with having influenced the upward mobility of his son’s career. In 1996, the son of a judge of the Balochistan High Court managed a ‘C’ grade in his intermediate examination. This being insufficient for him to gain admission to the Bolan Medical College, Quetta, the judge allegedly approached the Balochistan chief minister with the request that the son be admitted to the college, regardless of his grade and given a special or vacant seat. Apparently this was done.
Nine years later, in June 2005 (his father, by then on the Bench of the Supreme Court), the young doctor was appointed as a medical officer in Quetta’s Institute of Public Health. In July, a short time following this appointment (by this time Justice Chaudhry was chief justice of Pakistan) the Balochistan chief minister again allegedly came to the aid of Arsalan Iftikhar, ordering his promotion as a section officer in the health department.
According to the reference, in that same year, August 2005, the young man decided to redirect his career. A letter was sent by the interior ministry to the Balochistan chief secretary informing him that theFIA wished to acquire the services of Dr Iftikhar. By September 2005, the doctor had a job as an assistant director in the FIA. This was followed up in April 2006 by his promotion to the position ofdeputy director.
Then, Arsalan, as claimed the reference, decided he would prefer a career in the police service. So, the ministry of the interior acted again, allowing him to bypass the necessary competitive services examination and the commandant of the National Police Academy was instructed to take him and put him through a course of field training, usually exclusive to Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) officers, after which, he was scheduled to move over to the Punjab Police.
But it was not that simple. For the doctor to be admitted as a permanent employee of the PSP, an amendment would have to be made in the Police Service of Pakistan Rules, which requiredpresidential assent, the reference alleged. The prime minister’s secretariat was requested to do the needful but apparently the desired amendment did not materialise. The reference claimed further that in October 2006, he was nominated as a non-PSP officer to attend a training course in Istanbul, interestingly enough on the subject of Combating International Terrorism and Organised crime, the only non-PSP and sole under training individual to do the course.
Well, if our press and Dr Iftikhar are to be believed, the young man has moved on considerably and is now involved in business. He has also done quite a bit of travelling — regularly to Europe, London and Monaco, that we know of. It would seem that he is either naïve or forgetful when it comes down to brass tacks. In his statement dated June 6, made in the Supreme Court, referring to his 2011 visit to London, he stated: “I do not know from whose credit card the rent of the flat, which I remotely remember was around 3,200 pounds sterling per week, was paid. Perhaps I stayed for four weeks…”
All highly unfortunate — a bit of a thorn in the flesh would one not say? The country and his father could well have done without the innuendos and conjecture now being bandied — or with the flashes of truth.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2012.

II., Case of CJP’s son to be part of charge sheet.

 
ISLAMABAD: March 10, 2007
The government had gone an extra mile to facilitate the appointment of the son of deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the police department — the issue that is likely to form part of the charge sheet for his ouster. Different federal and provincial authorities have been formally issuing orders during the past one and a half year to favour Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, the deposed CJ’s son, in a manner that is unique in the history of the country. If Arsalan’s case is probed, it gives a much more serious charge sheet against the government authorities than the already charge sheeted Justice Iftikhar.
 
On the official files, there is no evidence of any formal request from the deposed CJ seeking any favours from the government for his son or that Justice Iftikhar in any way had pressurized the authorities to do the ‘undoables’ for his son-Dr Arsalan Iftikhar. The facts of the deposed CJ’s son case show that the government extra-ordinarily and unprecedently facilitated Dr Arsalan for his training in the police department. As far as the documentary evidence is concerned Justice Iftikhar comes in the picture only for being the father of Dr Arsalan. There is nothing in the files to prove that Justice Iftikhar had written or verbally requested the authorities to favour Dr Arsalan.
 
The Arsalan case was first reported by The News last year despite government pressure at that time that the issue should not be highlighted. Justice Iftikhar’s son as already reported had flunked thrice in the Central Superior Services (CSS). He had challenged in the Balochistan High Court the marking of his English paper in his last CSS written test. The Federal Public Service Commission presented the paper for the first time before the high court, which showed that Dr Arsalan got only 16 out of 100 in English, therefore, could not pass the CSS written.
 
Dr Arsalan is a Balochistan health department employee, who in 2005 joined the federal investigation agency (FIA) on deputation from where he was immediately sent to National Police Academy to undergo specialized police training along with the CSS recruited probationer ASPs. Presently Dr Arsalan is serving as an under-training superintendent of police in Lahore. Last year, as already reported, he sought his regular induction into the police service of Pakistan from the prime minister. The PM’s secretariat referred his case to the Establishment Division to see if rules could be relaxed. But before any decision could be taken, this newspaper reported the matter in August last year that compelled the government to shelve the case.
 
In the light of the official documents, the following is the presentation of the case:
 
Fact 1. On September 5, 2005, Interior Ministry through an official notification placed the services of Dr Arsalan Iftikhar (Health/B-17), Section Officer Health Department Balochistan, at the disposal of Ministry of Interior for his posting as an assistant director FIA on deputation basis for a period of three year.
 
Fact 2. On September 18, 2005 Chief Secretary Balochistan K B Rind through an official notification referred to the Interior Ministry’s Sept 5 notification announces to relieve Dr Arsalan of his duties from the province with immediate affect.
 
Fact 3. On October 1st, 2005, the ministry issued yet another order to the commandant National Police Academy, Islamabad saying: “Dr Arsalan Iftikhar (Health/BS-17) Government of Balochistan, posted in FIA vide Notification No.3/1/2002-Estb (FIA) dated 5.9.2005 is hereby attached with the National Police Academy to undergo training with the C.T.P Batch for the period of nine (09) months w.e.f. 3.10.2005.”
 
Fact 4. On May 24, 2006, the ministry issued an order to allow Dr Arsalan for completion of remaining (field) training programme alongwith the 32nd batch of the PSP probationers.
 
Fact 5. On June 27th 2006, the National Police Academy issued an order saying, “Vide Govt. of Pakistan, Ministry of Interior letter No. 3/4/2006/Estb/(FIA), dated 24.05.2006, Dr Arsalan Iftikhar (DD FIA), is hereby relieved on 27th June, 2006 (A.N) for completion of remaining training programme of 32nd CTP, and directed to report to Elite Police Training School, Bedian Lahore on 02.07.2006 for six weeks Orientation Course. After completion of the said course he will report to CPO Punjab, Lahore for Phase-III part of training which is six month Field Attachment.
 
Fact 6. On 19.08.2006, the Inspector General of Police Punjab issued order for Dr Arsalan’s attachment with Superintendent of Police Cantt. Division, Capital City District, Lahore for field training phase-III.
 
Fact 7. On 30.08.2006, the police department Punjab issued Dr Arsalan’s detailed schedule attachment for 24 weeks.
 
Fact 8. On October 19, 2006, Punjab Police issued yet another order announcing that along with seven other regular serving police officers, Arsalan Iftikhar is nominated for a foreign short training course in combating international terrorism and organised crime. The same order added: “Ministry of Interior, National Police Bureau, Islamabad has approved the nomination of following officers (that include Dr Arsalan) for the subject course scheduled to be held from 30-10-2006 to 03-11-2006 in Istanbul.”
 
None of the notified facts, reflected above, referred to the deposed CJ in any case. The man treated in a unique fashion is Dr Arsalan Iftikhar and the authorities that have extended police training opportunities to a non-police officer are the federal and provincial offices.
 
The issue of Dr Arsalan was “forbidden” for the media almost a year back but in the recent weeks media houses in Pakistan were fed with contemptuous material against the deposed chief justice, and the journalists were encouraged even by certain official circles to write on the issues that were blocked in the past.
 
It was evident from the vilification campaign launched against Justice Iftikhar by latent forces that there is a serious move afoot to besmear the name of the country’s top judge.

III.,Defenders turn detractors

March 11, 2007
ISLAMABAD: As is the culture, it is now time to spill the beans. Those in the government who until recently have been facilitating the son of the deposed chief justice of Pakistan in his pursuit of a police career are now ready to speak against Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
 
They were tight-lipped in the past, defending Dr Arsalan’s police training despite his not being a police officer. But today the situation has changed. Seeing the man falling, those who were silent in the past have started speaking out. Interior minister Aftab Sherpao, whose ministry had issued repeated orders to treat Dr Arsalan extraordinarily, right from his posting from Balochistan to the FIA, and then allowing him to get police training along with the probationers of the Police Service of Pakistan, said that the junior VVIP got special treatment because of his father.
 
“How would have we known Arsalan had he not been the son of the (deposed) CJ?” said Sherpao when asked by The News here Saturday if Justice Iftikhar had ever used his influence to get extraordinary treatment for his son. Without commenting on the question if the interior ministry is not required to be charge-sheeted for doing the undoable for the CJ’s son, he said that his ministry did not violate any law as Arsalan was never inducted into the Police Service of Pakistan.
 
Sherpao said that Justice Iftikhar was in full knowledge of what the government was doing for his son. To a question, the minister said that both the father and the son asked the government for the favour. “We had made it clear that Dr Arsalan could not be inducted into the police service,” the minister said, perhaps without recalling that the prime minister’s secretariat had entertained Arsalan’s request for his induction into the police service. However, it was not done as the PM secretariat’s move was reported by The News on August 10, 2006.
 
Secretary interior Maj (retd) Syed Kamal Shah when approached was cautious about speaking on the matter. He said that the matter is subjudice so he should not speak until the case has been heard by the Supreme Judicial Council. Shah said that the Dr Arsalan case is one of the charges against Justice Iftikhar so it has become subjudice. When asked why the interior ministry should not be charge-sheeted for doing the undoable for Arsalan, he said that in every case (charge) there is a provider. When again probed on the dubious role of the interior ministry in Arsalan’s case and if Justice Iftikhar had exerted any pressure on the government in this respect, he said, “Things don’t happen without any reason. Obviously it has a background.”
 
The secretary interior was also reminded of this correspondent’s discussion with him on the same subject more than a year back when Dr Arsalan had just joined the National Police Academy. Shah said that he would speak in detail on the issue once the case is disposed of by the Supreme Judicial Council. Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah when approached last year had said that Arsalan was appointed in the FIA on deputation after seeking the consent of the DG FIA. About the young man’s training in the National Police Academy (NPA), he had said, “I have always been pro-training even if it is offered to deputationists.”
 
Justifying Dr Iftikhar’s training with the ASPs, Shah had said that training for deputationists is far more important for efficiency. He had also admitted that deputationists are being trained in the NPA on the interior ministry’s order, disclosing that the officer himself had volunteered for the training. The FIA Director General Tariq Pervaiz when contacted last year by this correspondent, was of the view that it was the interior ministry’s initiative that led to the appointment of the Balochistan official as assistant director in the FIA. About the deputationist’s training in the NPA, he said that it was also done on the written orders of the interior ministry.
 
The then National Police Academy Commandant Asif Ali Shah, when contacted had confirmed to The News that the FIA official was being trained along with 21 police officers at the academy. He had disclosed that the 21 police officials included 16 ASPs belonging to the Police Service of Pakistan and five police officers from the Maldives. Shah was of the view that he did not know about Dr Arsalan’s background and whether or not he was a deputationist in the FIA.
 
It should be mentioned here that in the evening of the same day when this correspondent had talked to the secretary interior, the DG FIA and commandant police academy on Dr Arsalan’s issue more than a year back, the then press information officer (PIO) approached this correspondent with a request that I should not file the story. The PIO did not share how he came to know about the story that was not even written by its author, but nevertheless he insisted that it must not be filed. The request was turned down but the story got stuck in the then editor’s desk.
 
Meanwhile in the Geo Capital Talk show, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem said on Friday evening that the allegations levelled against Justice Iftikhar included his son’s case as well as the use of Mercedes and BMW cars by the deposed CJ. He proposed that if the federal and provincial authorities had violated the law of the land to favour Dr Arsalan they should also be taken to task. On the cars’ issue, Azeem said that under the law the CJ was authorized a 1600cc car. However, he did not elaborate on why the government provided the CJ the staff cars which were beyond the top judge’s entitlement.

IV.Analysis: Arsalan’s Heel 

June 13, 2012
How a trained medical doctor of modest financial background, unemployed as recently as 2008, landed himself with a net worth of Rs900 million is a question which we cannot wish away.
Public confidence in the judiciary is under threat. Public confidence in the superior courts is the foundation of any society sought to be established on the basis of rule of law. Malik Riaz and Arsalan Iftikhar have both, albeit with different motives, shaken such foundation to its very core. The charges leveled against Arsalan Iftikhar, at least to the extent of enjoying extravagant hospitality of the Bahria Town magnate seem difficult to now deny. How a trained medical doctor of modest financial background, unemployed as recently as 2008, landed himself with a net worth of Rs900 million is a question which we cannot wish away. The devastating pain such knowledge must cause his family is unimaginable.
However, there is a much larger danger. Arsalan’s bleeding heel is being malevolently used to damage Pakistan’s judiciary. Malik Riaz, who travelled back to Pakistan against his doctor’s advice did not appear the least unfit in his boisterous press conference. In sharp contrast to the statement filed in court a few hours earlier where he hailed the integrity of the Supreme Court, Malik Riaz, launched a frontal attack on Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in his press conference. The allegations do not require repetition here – it will fill the spaces of many newspaper columns – but the purpose and the consequence requires understanding.
Not unlike General Musharraf’s predicament in 2007, Justice Chaudhry is perceived as a threat which is likely to cut short the political career of Prime Minister Gilani. Last month’s conviction of Premier Gilani for contempt will inevitably lead to his disqualification from not only the current office but also from the next general election. President Zardari’s grievance against Justice Chaudhry is no secret. Chaudhry Shujaat is unlikely to have forgotten the humiliation of seeing his nephew behind bars in the NICL scam nor Rehman Malik the embarrassment of being compelled to renounce his British citizenship. Grievances within the ruling coalition are legendary. However, these are mere conjecture and there is no evidence, thus far, of a larger conspiracy.
Malik Riaz has had his press conference but has no intention to hold his peace. He has promised to repeat this scandal show in the coming days. Spare a thought here for the chief justice and other judges of the Supreme Court who can hold no press conference but only speak through their judgments.
“Achilles in Greek mythology was a baby and it was foretold that he would die in battle. To prevent his death, his mother Thetis took Achilles to the River Styx which was supposed to offer powers of invincibility and dipped his body into the water. But as Thetis held Achilles by the heel, his heel was not washed over by the water of the magical river. Achilles grew up to be a man of war who survived many great battles. But one day, a poisonous arrow shot at him was lodged in his heel, killing him shortly after. Still, Achilles is remembered as one of the greatest fighters who ever lived.”
Malik Riaz’s press conference is a poisonous arrow aimed at the heart of the Supreme Court. Irrespective of the failings of Arsalan, we cannot let the Supreme Court bleed. This may not be the greatest Supreme Court which ever lived, but it certainly does not deserve to be maligned by the indiscretion of one lone individual.
Naeem Bokhari’s letter to the chief justice
  
March 10, 2007
Islamabad: The following is the open letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry from Supreme Court advocate Naeem Bokhari.
 
Mr. Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry
Chief Justice
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Islamabad
 
Subject: Open letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan
 
My Lord,
 
I write this letter as an Officer of the Supreme Court, as an Advocate enrolled in the apex court since 1984 and in the High Courts since 1972, as an Attorney who has paid more income tax from his earnings in the legal profession than many of my friends, colleagues and seniors elevated to the Bench and as a stake holder in the dispensation of justice, intimately and vitally interested in the functioning of the Supreme Court.
 
Many judges who adorn the Bench in the Supreme Court and the High Court know me over decades, as a person endowed by nature with a pleasant disposition and acceptance of human failings. Towards the courts, my approach has always been of consistent and continuous display of respect and humility. I bow out of conviction, not compulsion. I use the words “My Lords”, because I want to, not because I have to. As an Attorney, I look up to the court and want to see it on a high pedestal of dignity, compassion and justice, tempered with mercy.
 
I have seen my Supreme Court headed by Justice Hamood-ur-Rehman, Justice Yaqoob Ali Khan, Justice S. Anwar-ul-Haq, Justice Haleem Ahmed and how the court functioned under them in the seventies / eighties.
 
I witnessed the proceedings for the ouster of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, became aware that the then Prime Minister of Pakistan had ‘worked’ on some judges of the Supreme Court and saw the physical assault on the court.
 
I was appalled at the manner in which Justice Irshad Hasan Khan led the Supreme Court and pained at the insinuations against Justice Sheikh Riaz, when he was the Chief Justice.
 
I was horrified by the establishment of a Bench of five judges constituted by Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui to determine whether reduction in the retirement age for judges was constitutional or not. This was clearly designed to block your appointment. I was against the idea of Mr. Amirul Mulk Mengal being made the Chief Justice before you. Within the limits of my influence (which I readily admit to be very limited), I was totally for you to become the Chief Justice. Justice Javed Buttar is aware of my position, as is the Attorney General for Pakistan. The accelerated issue of the notification appointing you the Chief Justice put Justice Siddiqui’s move to rest.
 
I believed that you were vigorous, capable of lifting up the Supreme Court, creating an espirit-de-corps among your brother judges, restoring the dignity and grandeur of the apex court, particularly considering the long tenure before you.
 
Alas this has not come about.
 
I am not perturbed by your insistence on protocol (despite my belief that the Chief Justice would rise in the eyes of everybody if he walked from his residence to the court and hooters, police escort, flags is just fluff not the substance of an office).
 
I am mildly amused at your desire to be presented a guard of honour in Peshawar. I am titillated by the appropriation of Mercedes Benz car or is it cars, the use of the Government of the Punjab’s plane to offer Fateha in Multan, to Sheikhupura for Fateha on a Government of the Punjab helicopter, to Hyderabad on a Government of the Sind’s plane for attending a High Court function, the huge amount spent in refurbishing the chamber and residence of the Chief Justice, the reservation for yourself of a wing in Supreme Court Judges guest house in Lahore, the permanent occupation by the Supreme Court of the official residence of the Chief Justice of Sind, who per force lives in the basement of his father’s house. As his class fellow in the Government College, Lahore, I can vouch that living in the basement will do him no harm.
 
I am not perturbed that Dr. Arsalaan (your son) secured 16/100 in the English paper for the Civil Services Examination, that there is some case against him in some court in Baluchistan, that from the Health Department in Baluchistan he has shifted to FIA, that he has obtained training in the Police Academy, that he reportedly drives a BMW 7-Series car, that there is a complaint against him with the National Accountability Bureau.
 
My grievances and protests are different.
 
I am perturbed that the Supreme Court should issue a clarificatory statement on his behalf. I am perturbed that Justice (Retd.) Wajihuddin Ahmed should be constrained to advise you on television that “people who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others”. I am perturbed that the Chief Justice should summon Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman to his chambers on Dr. Arsalaan’s account.
 
I am appalled that you announce decisions in Court, while in the written judgment an opposite conclusion is recorded.
 
In the Petition for leave to appeal filed by Dr Sher Afghan Niazi, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (in which Respondent’s Counsel were Mr Khalid Anwar and Mr Qadir Saeed), you refused to grant leave in open Court and yet in the written order, leave was granted to Dr Sher Afghan Niazi.
 
On 15.2.2007, Mr Fakurddin G. Ebrahim complained that, in open Court you had accepted his appeal but dismissed the same in the judgement, subsequently recorded.
 
If Mr Khalid Anwar, a former Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Mr Fakrhuddin, Senior Counsel are treated in this manner, the fate of lesser known lawyers would certainly be far worse.
 
My grievances also concern the manner in which the last and highest court of appeal is dispensing justice, under your leadership.
 
My Lord, the dignity of lawyers is consistently being violated by you. We are treated harshly, rudely, brusquely and nastily. We are not heard. We are not allowed to present our case. There is little scope for advocacy. The words used in the Bar Room for Court No. 1 are “the slaughter house”. We are cowed down by aggression from the Bench, led by you. All we receive from you is arrogance, aggression and belligerence. You also throw away the file, while contemptuously announcing “This is dismissed”.
 
Yet this aggression is not for everyone. When Mr. Sharifuddin Pirzada appears, your Lordship’s demeanour and appearance is not just sugar and honey. You are obsequious to the point of meekness. So apart from violating our dignity, which the constitution commands to be inviolable, we suffer discrimination in your court.
 
I am not raising the issue of verbal onslaughts and threats to Police Officers and other Civil Servants, who have the misfortune to be summoned, degraded and reminded that “This is the Supreme Court”.
 
The way in which My Lord conducts proceedings is not conducive to the process of justice. In fact, it obstructs due process and constitutes contempt of the Supreme Court itself.
 
I am pained at the wide publicity to cases taken up by My Lord in the Supreme Court under the banner of Fundamental Rights. The proceedings before the Supreme Court can conveniently and easily be referred to the District and Sessions Judges. I am further pained by the media coverage of the Supreme Court on the recovery of a female. In the bar room, this is referred to as a “Media Circus”.
 
My Lord, this communication may anger you and you are in any case prone to get angry in a flash, but do reflect upon it. Perhaps you are not cognizant of what your brother judges feel and say about you.
 
My Lord, before a rebellion arises among your brother judges (as in the case of Mr Justice Sajjad Ali Shah), before the Bar stands up collectively and before the entire matter is placed before the Supreme Judicial Council, there may be time to change and make amends.
 
I hope you have the wisdom and courage to make these amends and restore serenity, calm, compassion, patience and justice tempered with mercy to my Supreme Court.
 
My Lord, we all live in the womb of time and are judged, both by the present and by history. The judgement about you, being rendered in the present, is adverse in the extreme.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Naeem Bokhari
 
Advocate
 
Supreme Court of Pakistan


No Comments

Story of How Malik Riaz Captured Pakistan-Father & Son Absconders

 

This is an amazing expose but by no means is it surprising.. That
Malik Riaz Hussain and Zardari are business partners in the ICON Tower
being built at Clifton, Karachi, was well known–this is a building
whose 7-basement parking facility is already complete, and it is
slated to go up 60 stories. Malik Riaz’s huge financial “contribution”
to Shahbaz Sharif’s pet ‘Aashiana’ project was also well known, as was
his ingress into the very senior ranks of the army and the
bureaucracy. And he often boasted of the many judges he had in his
pocket, as well as the journalists who were in his pay, with all these assets, all that was needed for the knaves and cutthroats to get an unbreakable stranglehold on the country, the
Chief Justice had to be subverted. It was in 2010 that a number of
serious fraud cases against Bahria Town began being heard by the
supreme court. At about that time, according to very credible sources,
Malik Riaz began the exercise to suborn Arslan Iftikhar. The latter
was given two confidential tours of Bahria properties, to choose from,
when his father was hearing cases against this organization. Whether
the young Chaudhry choose any property or not is not known, but Malik
Riaz lost no time in spreading the word among his inner circle that
the Chief Justice had been taken on board.
From then to the present denouement, the course that events have taken
is a very natural one, and could have been predicted. Malik Riaz was
becoming more and more confident and arrogant with each new
‘conquest’. The scurrilous epithets he started to use for the senior
army generals brought this once august rank to a new low of
debasement–unfortunately though, let it be said, that not a few
generals were willingly led to the water, and drank of it.
And now that Malik Riaz Hussain insists in private that he has taken
the Chief Justice to the same well and made him drink, the ultimate
decision time seems to have come. Our media persons are already
showing their stripes. Most of the politicians seem to be cut from the
same cloth, and are playing possum. The Chief Justice, no matter what
one thinks of him, has again come out roaring. It is now left for the
army to show its colors.
 
PS : Apparently too many people have been sleeping at the
wheel for too long. And this sleep seems to have been induced either
by bribes, or through sheer cowardice and a deliberate effort not to
see their country being sold down the drain.

Bahria Icon Tower

 

Bahria Icon Tower karachi

Close

Karachi Pakistan

Status: under construction
Construction Dates
Began 2008
Will finish 2015
Floor Count 60
Building Uses
– mixed use
Structural Types
– highrise

Malik Riaz, son ‘fugitives’ in land scam case

Real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain and his son Ahmed Ali Riaz Malik, chief executive officer of Bahria Town, are absconders in a land scam case before the Supreme Court. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

LAHORE:

Real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain and his son Ahmed Ali Riaz Malik, chief executive officer of Bahria Town, are absconders in a land scam case before the Supreme Court and have been evading arrest since December last year, according to officials.

The Anti Corruption Establishment registered a case against Hussain, Malik and four others at its police station in Rawalpindi on November 4, 2009.

They were accused of bribing revenue officials to get 1,401 kanals of ‘shamilat’ or community land transferred to their names. The two had obtained interim bail in the case but it expired in December 2011.

Punjab Prosecutor General Sadaqat Ali Khan said that both father and son were “fugitives from the law” and legally could not even give a letter of attorney to a lawyer. To do so, they would first have to surrender or obtain bail, he said.

Asked why they had not been arrested, he said that the police were conducting raids for their arrests. “They must be arrested to complete the challan for court proceedings,” he said.

Nida Zahoor, spokeswoman for Bahria Town, said she had no comment on the subject.

Land transfer

An ACE official said that after an initial inquiry, a case had been registered on November 4, 2009, against five people, including former patwari Muhammad Rizwan, for fraudulently claiming ownership of the land in Malikpur Azizwal tehsil by forging the record, and then transferring the land to other beneficiaries.

The case was registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and 471 (using a forged document) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). On December 12, 2010, Justice Ijaz Ahmed of the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench directed ACE to conduct a more comprehensive inquiry. ACE investigators then found 18 mutations or transfers in the land record including one in favour of Malik Riaz, two for Ali Malik, 11 for Muhammad Iqbal, an employee of Bahria Town, two for Sheikh Sajidur Rehman, and one each for Nasirul Haq and Dildar Hussain.

Bahria Town General Manager Akhtar Saeed told investigators that the land developers had paid Rs50 million to buy the land, the ACE official said, but it was actually worth billions of rupees. Saeed was accused of handing out bribes on Bahria Town’s behalf to Naib Tehsildar Adnan Bashir Kiyani, Girdawar Muhammad Hussain and Girdawar Nazir Hussain to get the land records changed and to skip verification procedures.

On October 12 last year, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry while hearing the bail applications in the land scam case, questioned ACE officials as to whether Malik Riaz Hussain and his son had been arrested. ACE Director General Abid Javed told the court that several raids had been conducted to arrest Hussain and his son, but they had gone underground. He said seven of the total 16 accused had been arrested.

The Home Department, on the ACE director general’s instructions, sent a request to the Interior Ministry to put the names of the accused on the Exit Control List so they could not flee the country. The request was rejected, said ACE officials. Malik Riaz Hussain and his son got interim bail from the Supreme Court in November, but the bail period ended in December 2011.

Ali Malik was also summoned twice by the Supreme Court in the Dr Arsalan Iftikhar case, but did not turn up until his father returned to the country for the hearing last Tuesday. ACE officials said that the two could not have been arrested from the Supreme Court on Tuesday “because there would have been chaos”.

Reference

 

No Comments

Pakistanis blame CIA for fresh polio cases

Pakistanis blame CIA for fresh polio cases

PESHAWAR – Pakistan’s efforts to contain polio in areas bordering Afghanistan may have been setback following the conviction of a doctor who allegedly ran a fake vaccine program to locate al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. 

Dr Shakil Afridi, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison on May 23 on charges of treason, is said to have helped the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States track down bin Laden by collecting DNA samples from selected residents in the cantonment town of Abbottabad. Bin Laden was killed in a US raid on his secret residence in Abbottabad in May 2011. Afridi was arrested by Pakistani authorities three weeks later, leading to friction between Islamabad and Washington. 

Medecins Sans Frontieres, the international medical aid charity, had then warned that the CIA’s alleged use of a vaccination

program as cover to spy on bin Laden threatened immunization work around the world. 

Afridi’s role appears to have exacerbated suspicions among people in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) that polio vaccinations are part of a US conspiracy to render their children infertile. 

“The problem of refusing vaccination is not new but Afridi’s fake vaccination campaign has proved to be a setback to our efforts to popularize immunization,” Dr Rekhanullah Khan, a polio officer in the FATA, told IPS. 

This year, Pakistan has already recorded 22 cases of polio with 10 of them from the FATA, a territory consisting of seven tribal agencies. 

“In the FATA, authorities are facing difficulties reaching children of immunizable age,” said Dr Javid Khan of the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

“In the Khyber Agency of the FATA, which recorded its eighth case last week, oral polio vaccines have not been administered since October 2009, leaving some 150,000 children vulnerable,” Javid Khan told IPS. 

“This is a program by the US to cut the population of the Muslims and weaken them to a point that they become incapacitated to defend Islam,” Qari Mohammad Akram, a resident of FATA’s Bajaur agency, told IPS over telephone. 

“People here don’t want any treatment for a disease that has not affected them. We need to follow teachings of Islam and heed the Prophet,” he argued. 

Refusal to cooperate with health authorities is also because FATA residents are demanding a better deal from the central government. 

“Last week, parents refused to allow vaccination in South Waziristan agency, saying they would prefer to have electricity, paved roads and clean drinking water first,” Dr Muhammad Khalid of the expanded program on immunization (EPI) in the FATA, told IPS. 

The Dawn English language daily, published from Karachi, quoted Dr Elia Curry, leader of the WHO’s polio eradication section in Pakistan, as saying on June 9 that the virus will continue to circulate as long as anti-polio drives miss significant numbers of children. 

Curry told Dawn that environmental surveillance, covering sewer systems, had proved persistent circulation of wild poliovirus in cities like Lahore and Rawalpindi with children in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa particularly vulnerable. 

According to WHO’s website, the Khyber Agency is the only area in Asia having both the wild poliovirus-1 and wild poliovirus-3 types and this poses a threat to efforts at polio eradication in the country as well as globally. 

WHO officials said there was added risk of the virus spreading from the FATA to other parts of the country because of the ongoing large-scale population migration to other parts of the country. 

An immunization drive begun in selected areas of Pakistan on June 4 is expected to reach at least 17 million children, but would still miss children in the FATA because of military operations against the Taliban in several areas, particularly the Khyber Agency. 

Some parents are convinced that unsettled conditions in the FATA are mainly responsible for polio continuing to threaten their children. 

“Both the army and Taliban are responsible for making my daughter crippled,” says Allah Noor, whose 21-month-old daughter, Salma, was diagnosed with polio on June 1. 

“Obviously vaccinations cannot be carried out when fighting is in progress and the health facilities are closed,” Noor, a resident of Usai Khula village of the Khyber Agency, said. “I want to tell all parents to cooperate and save their children from vaccine-preventable ailments,” he told IPS. 

In early April, the WHO had requested Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s provincial government to carry out mass immunizations in the Jalozai refugee camp, home to 40,000 children uprooted by military operations in the FATA. 

On WHO’s request, Dost Muhammad Khan, chief justice of the Peshawar High Court, ordered the setting up of transit points to vaccinate children fleeing military operations in the FATA’s Khyber Agency and reaching the Jalozai camp. 

“We established 48 vaccination points where children coming in from the Khyber Agency are being vaccinated,” Dr Jan Baz Afridi, who heads the EPI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said. 

In 2011, Pakistan emerged as the worst polio-infected country in the world with 198 cases and this year will be no different if urgent measures for mass immunization are not taken, according to WHO officials. 

(Inter Press Service)

No Comments

LIARS OUT IN FULL FORCE TO DO DAMAGE CONTROL & PPP IMAGE RESTORATION-THE MUBASHER LUQMAN, MALIK RIAZ, MAHER BUKHARI DHAMAKA

LIARS OUT IN FULL FORCE TO DO DAMAGE CONTROL-THE MUBASHER LUQMAN, MALIK RIAZ, MAHER BUKHARI DHAMAKA

GET RID OF SANA BUCH, ANOTHER OF ZARDARIS STEALTH DRONE

Please watch the video on Mubasher Luqman spewing venom against CJ

Zardari also will hire a marketing Firm to Reinvent the Image these characters and PPP before the elections. He will use Pakistani Treasury money out of the President’s discretionary funds.

There is a famous Urdu Kahawat or saying, “Bhus Bhuss main chingi daal jamaalo dur khari,” which mean applies in the current situation. Zardari is the one who used stupid Malik Riaz to get CJ, while he sits in President’s House enjoying chivas Regal and amply endowed jiyalis.

In next few days Sohail Wariach, Sharmila Farooqi, Faisal Reza Abidi, and newly rejuvented Fauzia Wahab will be our in full force on their croonies TV stations trying to do damage control on behalf of Zardaris friend Malik Riaz.  they will use very calculated and subtle language and portray Malik Riaz as a victim

You will also see a stealth campaign in the media to restore Mubasher Luqman and Meher Bukhar, the latter is the wife of Kashif Abbasi to the good books of the public.

Pakistanis may forgive, but we do not forget. and now we are on to your game. 

On Pakistan Think Tank for the last ten years, we have been crying hoase against a coterie of jagirdars, zamindars, Khubza Groups a al Malik Riaz,  Morrosi siyasat of Shariff family, Bhutto Family, Chaudhry Family, Soomro Family, Bacha Khan Family, Bugti-Marri-Raisani Families, Legari Family, the Khar Family, Haswani Family, the Dawood Family, the Adamjee Family, the Valika Family, the Saigol Family, the Kayani Family, the Jamote Family, the Jatoi Family, the MQM Mafia Family ad infinitum

Wake up Pakistanis, Motherland has been hijacked by Luteras, Waderas, and International Pimps, and Prostituted Souls.

STOP THIS EFFORT TO DO DAMAGE CONTROL AND BE A SHINING SHIELD IN PROTECTING PAKISTAN’S LAST HOPE. 

OUR SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN, LAWYERS, DOCTORS, ENGINEERS, TEACHERS, BUSINESSMEN, MAZDOOR, BEWAS, YATEEMS, BUREUCRATS, CLERKS, COOLIES, REHRIWALLAHS, HO– — USEWIVES, COLLEGE STUDENTS,IN SUM ALL THE INHABITANTS OF SOHNI DHARTI RISE AND DEFEAT THESE SOLDIERS OF EVIL STARTING WITH ZARDARI’S EVIL MINIONS.

 

The cat is out of the bag. Now, come the clowns, the jokers, the bhands, the khusraas, the makaars, the kameens, the ghadaars, and the whole army of Shaitans.  Once a Shaitan of their kind is caught with his pants down, the whole community of beyimaan goes into high gear. They will furiously work the system to portray Malik Riaz, as an honest business man, who does so much for the poor, the tired, the hungry.  At the same time his stealth supporters will try to cover his tracks, because they may lead to their door also.  In TV talk shows, they will give all sorts of excuses and extenuating circumstances. they will divert attention to side-issues. they will create divergences, like planting fase stories. He may even commit a murder or two, just to get the heat off his back. Malik Riaz, is a cobra, who has gone into a defensive mood. He will lie low in his hell hole, plan, connive, and muster forces and come out both guns blasting. 

The whole sordid of Mubasher Luqman-Malik Riaz-Maher Bukhari is in a “wash-cycle.” These are powerful and well connected people. As you could see in the video, how chummy Mubasher Luqman was to Abdul Qadir gilani, at the same time, it was garayeen guthi, between Malik Riaz and narco Abdul Qadir Gilani. Yeh loog Pakistaniyoon key aankhoon mayn dhool jhook rahen hain.  the owner of Pakistani Tv houses are either in the pocket of Zardari combine or in the pocket of Americans. Malik Riaz is a consigliere of  Don Zardari and a financier of Black OPS conducted by Rehman Malik on behalf of his Master, Zardari.

 

DOES MALIK RIAZ HAS FOREIGN CONNECTIONS LIKE ADNAN KHASSOGGI

No one in Pakistan has probed this connection. Was Malik Riaz, Zardari’s front man, who establish his bank accounts in Cayman Island and Luxembourg, and moved the money from Swiss Banks to caribbean and Isle of White, and Jersey Islands. Movers and shakers like Malik Riaz remind us an Arab Tycoon named Adnan Khashoggi, who had global connections from the President of the US, CIA, MI6, columbian Cartels to Madams in whore houses of Lebanon.  But, his biggest connections were in Arabia, run by the Saud family. (ref)

 

Even Khashoggi’s guru has CIA connections, we learned: the vastly rich swami has been under official suspicion in the assassination of Indian Premier Rajiv Ghandi, and was even arrested by Indian police for currency fraud.

Adnan Khashoggi revealed: He is wanted in Thailand, where he was convicted for fraud in absentia; is currently being sued, in a major and well-publicized case in Federal Court in Minneapolis for what may turn out to be criminal fraud; reportedly, he is also currently the subject of a massive investigation being conducted by the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles.

Add to that the recently declassified American intelligence report from 1991 listing the top 100 drug traffickers and associates. It included lawyers, right-wing paramilitary fighters, a Peruvian rebel commander, a Colombian singer, a pre-dead Pablo Escobar, a pre-jailbird Manuel Noriega… and Adnan Khashoggi.”

Malik Riaz could finance disturbances and create chaos in Pakistan, He already has three murders under his belt.  He is the type of Pakistani, who would sell his mother for money as US Attorney General Horan derisively said about our people. 

PPP CONSPIRACY AGAINST CJ-EYE FOR AN EYE-MOOSA GILANI FOR ARSLAN

Another game PPP is playing to indict Arsalan Iftikhar in court of public opinion, as revenge against the ephedrine-heroin don Narco Moosa Gilani. This PPP is using as a quid pro quo for CJ, to go easy on Moosa Gilani. But, there is one big difference, even if Arsalan was involved in receiving money fro Malik Riaz, he did not harm a whole nation by producing heroin from ephedrine!

 

No Comments