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Posted by razahamad in Corruption, Defense, Looters and Scam Artists, PAKISTAN & FRANCE, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan's Hall of Shame on May 28th, 2013
By Zafar Masud, 26 May, 2013
When the shocking news came in from Karachi on May 8, 2002, of the bombing of a bus carrying employees of DCN, the French directorate of naval construction, killing 11 of them, it was naturally taken here as the work of religious extremists. After all, this was so close to the New York 9/11 attacks and the decapitation of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl on Feb 1 the same year in the same city.
However, not very long after the tragedy, the French public had to change this perspective as further details were brought home by the media, one after the other in quick succession, of what was quickly baptised here as l’Affaire Karachi. Today, 11 years later, the Karachi affair continues to be hot news in France and the revelations are as fascinating as they are mind-boggling in the sense that they bring in a seemingly endless list of names and events with each revelation.
So complicated in fact that the newsweekly l’Express published an article sometime ago on the subject with the headline, ‘Seven questions to ask to understand the Karachi Affair’. The daily le Monde on its part posted on its site a video entitled “Three minutes to know all about the Karachi affair”. But what on earth is the Karachi affair? Simply stated, it goes something like this:
In 1994 France sold three Agosta military submarines to Pakistan for, to put it roundly, one billion euros. Fifty million of these euros were set aside as ‘gift’ to be shared by some ofPakistan’s politically powerful figures of the time as well as military officers who had, one way or the other, thrown in their weight to make the deal see the light of day.
So far so good! But things started getting somewhat murky when it was discovered by the French media that an infinitesimal part of this sum, about two million euros, had trickled back to France, all in accordance with a preconceived deal, to finance the campaign of the then prime minister Edouard Balladur, who was a candidate and rival to Jacques Chirac in the presidential election of 1995.
Chirac, a rightist like Balladur himself, won the election and became the President of France. But only two years later he had to enter into an uneasy coexistence arrangement with the opposition leftist leader Lionel Jospin whom he was forced to appoint, according to the French constitution, as prime minister because of the Socialist majority in the National Assembly following the 1997 parliamentary elections.
It was only in 2002 when Chirac was re-elected and his party was enjoying a comfortable majority in the National Assembly that he had time, and powers enough, to have a closer look at the Karachi affair files. On learning that all the kickbacks had not yet been fully paid to the Pakistani collaborators, and not forgetting the fact that part of the money had financed the campaign of his rival, he took action and signed a law making the practice of paying sweeteners to foreigners on arms deals illegal.
The tirade of accusations, counter accusations and the list of the names of businessmen and politicians involved, or supposedly involved in the deal assumed unprecedented proportions when a French intelligence agency report suggested the terrorist attack in front of the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi was in fact in retaliation for the decision by Jacques Chirac to abruptly suspend further payments of commissions to Pakistanis who were involved in the sale of Agosta submarines.
Experts today describe the Karachi affair as a cobra with multiple heads. Going through all these intricate details will take up a lot of space in this column and could prove confusing to the reader, but two points remain at the focus of French newspaper, radio or television stories that recur regularly after an interval of every two or three days. One involves a possible connection with former presidentNicolas Sarkozy who had played an important role during the failed election campaign of Edouard Balladur. Sarkozy’s home and offices were recently raided by the investigation forces in an effort to recover some documentary evidence. Whether they succeeded in this was not made public.
The other element has to do with a lawsuit against Jacques Chirac on behalf of the families of the victims of Karachi bombing. They accuse the former president, who is 81 today by the way, of involuntarily being the principal cause of the deaths of DCN employees by his decision to cancel the Agosta submarines commissions to Pakistanis.
The writer is a journalist based in Paris. ([email protected])
Posted by mirfanud in Asif Zardari Crook Par Excellance, Foreign Policy, History, Law, Looters and Scam Artists, Pakistan's Hall of Shame on May 18th, 2013
May 16, 2013
Veteran politician and former Pakistan Air Force Chief Air Marshal (R) Muhammad Asghar Khan had attempted to seek justice in 1996 from the court of law against the alleged riggings committed by his rival rightist political alliance IJI by engineering the results of 1990 general elections under the canopy of the establishment of Pakistan.
Since the leftist alliance, under the title PDA and led by Benazir Bhutto, had high anticipations with regards to its success in the elections that had been held in the wake of the pre-mature dismissal of Benazir government in August 1990, the election results appeared to be far beyond their expectations. Though PDA had raised several questions about the transparency of the Elections 1990, the then Pakistan President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Army Chief General Mirza Aslam Beg refuted the possibility of any rigging in election results altogether. Nevertheless, the
history proved both Ghulam Ishaq and Aslam Beg completely responsible for their condemnable role in respect of crushing the hopes of the Pakistan subjects by making explicit alterations in the election results.
Though Air Marshal Asghar Khan had sought the judicial support for unveiling the tricks played by the Establishment of Pakistan “in the best interest of the country”, by changing the election results, yet he had to wait for sixteen long years in order to seek justice from the apex court. However, in the light of the sound evidences produced by the petitioner in support of his very claim, the three member bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan observed on October 19, 2012 that the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Army Chief Aslam Beg, ISI Chief Asad Durrani and their aides were responsible for facilitating the politicians of their choice i.e. Nawaz Sharif led IJI against Benazir Bhutto led PDA in the general elections held in 1990.
The rigging in the elections, aptly declared to be engineered and bogus one by the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, decided the fate of the entire nation for the future decades to come. It not only created an insurmountable gulf between the people of Pakistan and establishment, but also paved the way towards bringing another coup d’etat in October 12, 1999, warmly welcomed by the masses all over the country. Thus, the serious injustice exercised by the members of civil and military bureaucracy in 1990 against the whims and wishes of the people of Pakistan, was perhaps revenged by throwing the head of the government established in the aftermath of massive rigging, behind the bars, and then his long exile from the country ultimately.
On the one side, the Supreme Court takes notice of all the matters related to the public interest, and does not hesitate in taking sue motto actions against the irregularities observed by the parliamentarians, ministers and prime ministers even, belonging to one specific political party; and on the other side, the chief justice does not bother to decree an order with regards to trying the accused and offenders responsible for ruining the wishes of millions of Pakistanis at the court of law, and putting them behind the bars for the crimes they had committed while compiling the Elections 1990 results. Such a mysterious silence and absolute apathy observed by the chief justice not only create suspicion in the minds of the masses, but also the aggrieved political groups look justified in declaring the court as displaying partiality towards them. Moreover, the unnecessary delays made by the court in respect of getting its orders implemented in Asghar Khan case look increasing hatred between the communities belonging to divergent regions of the country.
The writer has also participated as a lawyer in the movement launched by the lawyers for the restoration of chief justice, who was made dysfunctional by the then President General Pervez Musharraf in the wake of the alleged allegations of exploiting his influence as the chief justice in respect of the appointment of his son Dr. Arslan Iftikhar Chaudhary against some prestigious position in the civil service. Like the majority of lawyers’ fraternity, I also stood against the method President Musharraf had applied in suspending the chief justice. Thus, the fraternity had demonstrated unity against an illegal action taken by the then President. However, silence of judiciary on several matters related to PML-N irregularities, including the Asghar Khan case, may drift the lawyers away from the bench responsible for neglecting the cases in which the PML-N (then IJI) leadership has been declared responsible for forming a government in the wake of alleged rigging exercised by the establishment.
The question appears here whether or not the court should have decided the legal status of the government formed after the rigged and engineered elections of 1990. If that government enjoyed the legal status even created in the aftermath of illegalities, how could any court apply a barricade on the way to rigging in the future elections? Eventually, anyone could repeat the same act of rigging and altering the election results “in the best interest of the country” in the wake of the courage the silence of apex court offers to the nation at large.
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Pakistan’s Columnist Rauf Klasra: Akhir Kyun-Well Done Kehna Bunta Hai,Boss!
Posted by Fawad Mir in ADHD NAWAZ SHARIF, BOOT THE SCOUNDRELS OR SHOWDAZ, BUNGLER NAWAZ SHARIF, CIA AGENT NAWAZ SHARIF, Commentary, CONF-- -- USED, Corruption, INDOPHILE NAWAZ SHARIF, INEPT, LIAR POLITICIANS, Looters and Scam Artists, Morally corrupt Thieves of PML(N), Morosi Siyasat & Political Crooks, NAWAZ SHARIF, Pakistan's Hall of Shame on May 28th, 2013
Anti-Army Nawaz Sharif Bros, dynastic Politics, Kashmiri Biradari, Nawaz Sharif Looter, nawaz Sharif's Looting Starts, Scammer
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