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Archive for category Corruption

War? With this Team?

 
Islamabad diary
 
 
 
Friday, January 24, 2014 

 
 
 

 

We are in a state of war, even if Punjab and the national leadership from Punjab find it excruciatingly difficult to recognise this reality. From 1947 onwards the land of the sacred rivers didn’t prove itself very good at nation-building. Now with a different set of problems facing the country it is proving even less good at nation-saving.

The forces of disorder and ‘Islamic’ conquest are on the march and the Punjab-led state of Pakistan has gone into a trance, fervently hoping that by itself, by some miracle of the heavens, the danger will pass…leaving its prosperous trader-leaders free to expand their business and industrial empires.

Trader-politicians exist but they are for normal times. Pakistan’s current paladins have been elected for sure and with a heavy mandate too, but the fact that despite this mandate they present a picture of utter confusion, only proves what is frequently said about them: that while smart enough in some things – business and trade, for instance – giving the nation leadership and a sense of direction in these trying times is not their cup of tea.

On a war footing we should be. This is what circumstances dictate but this is where our troubles start. For, in all honesty, with the Sharifs, Dar, Nisar, and Asif sitting around the table, is this anyone’s idea of a war cabinet? Would anyone have made Churchill war leader in 1940 if he had been a baron of trade and industry as our present leaders are?

Since this lot came to power seven months have gone by and the Taliban have recovered from the death of Hakeemullah Mehsud and are once again on the offensive. And we don’t know what to do. The realisation is gaining ground that, perhaps, there is no running away from this fight and that whether we like it or not we shall have to take a stand. But our hearts are not in this enterprise. You just have to look at Nawaz Sharif and company. Do they look as if they are leading a nation at war? 

Doing something is a long way off. They can’t even find the right words. So what is to be done? Or do we assume that history’s lessons are for others, not us? Don’t we remember Yugoslavia? Do we forget what happened to the Soviet Union? Don’t we have eyes to see what is happening across the Middle East, in Syria most notably where civil war rages and, but for Russian support and Bashar al-Assad’s determination, the country would long ago have splintered?

Excoriate Assad for other things as much as we may like but spirit and resolution even his detractors will have to grant him. He and his wife and children continue to stay in Damascus even as sections of the city have turned into battlefields.

Sooner or later fight we will have to. Even if we want to bury our heads in the sand the Taliban are pushing us so hard that our sleeping ghairat (honour) will have no choice but to wake up and do something. How strange the workings of this ghairat? On fire at the merest mention of drones, completely unmoved even as the Taliban make Christian martyrs of us by slapping one cheek, then the other, and from Nawaz Sharif downwards our leaders behaving like the best of Samaritans.

Incidentally, mark how diabolically clever our American friends are. All the while that the Taliban recharged under the leadership of Mullah Fazlullah are into their current offensive – striking here, there and everywhere – they haven’t carried out a single drone attack. If they had we would have forgotten the Taliban, raised the banner of Islam and rushed at the Americans, blaming them for our troubles. Since they have not, we stand deprived of our best excuse, so much so that the drone word these past couple of weeks seems to have disappeared altogether from the pulsating fury of our national discourse. Clever of our American friends. 

But the question remains, who leads the national effort? Those who can’t bring themselves even to say the right words? That’s our problem…a Mustafa Kemal situation but no Mustafa Kemal, a battle for survival without plan or resolve, leaders muttering pieties, wringing their hands, their confusion deepening by the day, their hearts not in this fight, their hearts elsewhere – the price of chicken and eggs (yes, poultry one of their latest preoccupations), private trade deals with Turkey and China. So it goes on.

The Punjab leadership is concerned only about Punjab…that too that sliver of middle, prosperous, motorway Punjab, while the rest of the country burns at the edges and for lack of leadership sinks deeper into listlessness and depression.

Therein the contradiction – a nation finally ready for taking this fight to the finish but a leadership without spirit or spine. It had to take some civilians injured in the RA Bazaar bomb blast to tell the prime minister and army chief in no uncertain terms when they came visiting the Military Hospital to teach the Taliban a lesson. One of the injured used the Punjabi language’s most endearing phrase about sister relationships to describe the Taliban. But again the old problem: if your forte is bank loans and factories, how do you become a war leader? There are no switches you can pull to bring about this transformation.

That’s why we are living in a dangerous moment because the leadership problem could bring the whole edifice of our shining democracy tumbling down. I hate saying this but where there is a vacuum – in this case a vacuum of leadership – something is bound to fill it. Or disorder reigns and things fall apart. Foreign examples are telling enough but our own history is also instructive. There were many causes for the breakup of Pakistan in 1971 but inadequate leadership was one of them. Yahya Khan was an intelligent man, in his day a brilliant staff officer. But the events he was called upon to deal with were too big for him.

Our present leaders graduated from the ISI’s school of political tactics way back in the 1980s and 1990s. The bible they were taught was anti-Bhuttoism at which they proved very good. These are different times. Only Kemalism, a firm turning away from the medievalism of the past 30 years, can save Pakistan. But of that there are few signs.

One notion we should disabuse ourselves of. All-out war does not mean hitting one’s head against a wall. It does not mean an assault on North Waziristan without adequate preparation. It means, first of all, a change of national attitude, a stiffening of national resolve, a focusing on the essential instead of the secondary (a dictum of Hitler’s which he forgot when he attacked Russia without finishing matters with Britain). It also means the army bidding farewell to the complicated scripture of good and bad Taliban.

Are the Taliban fighting for municipal autonomy that the bozos of this administration and Imran Khan want to negotiate with them? Do the Taliban want provincial status for Fata that the appeasement brigade wants to talk to them? They want not a piece, they want the whole, something our political geniuses find hard to understand.

We should be studying Munich and the history of the Second World War. Chamberlain was a better politician than anyone in our appeasement brigade. But he misjudged Hitler as Chamberlain’s Pakistani successors, none more so than the Punjab-centric leadership, misjudge the Taliban.

Is Pakistan’s cause hopeless? No, it can be redeemed provided we solve the riddle of leadership. As the French anthem, the Marseillaise, proclaims: to arms, citizens, form your battalions, let impure blood drench our plains. Who infuses the armies of the republic with this spirit?

Email: [email protected]

 
Comment 
 
Ayaz Amir has rightly pointed out that power today lies in the hand of those who believe in TAP SE TE THUSS KARSE ,
 
then how  can one expect out of this leadership of  these Jali Punjabis  to face the on slaught  of those who are out to die.
 
Prior to this Gohar Ayub has throughly exposed the  dirty face and cowardice  character of gang of corrupts  in his book Glimpses into the Corridors of Power.

You are right actually Punjab is breeding them that is why they never condemned them openly and sealed their dens. If I can point out where are they in Punjab then why not GOP. Jhang Dadu
 
Khairpur Tamewali Muree up north and other parts of the country.
 
It Is so well defined article by Ayaz. 
 
 

If you see history, every invader came from the north. Less the british.  So all threats come from khyber and move down through Punjab to Delhi. So what we call punjab is actually a

land of darbari folks.

Yes sir to every invader and please move on to delhi for better  rewards.

This time round , the new invader has already made inroads in punjab and thats why the punjabi leadership want to close its eyes and hope they will go away

Reference 

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In Corruption Dangal (Wrestling Match) Pakistani Parliamentarians Beat Filipino Parliamentarians 100 to 1:BY TONY LOPEZ, MANILA TIMES & COMMENTS BY PTT COMMENTATOR MAK

I am personally convinced that the Philippine Parliament is no match to the Pakistani Parliament. 
 
The Philippine Parliament cannot come any where near ours. Could somebody please give us the exact figures about the Pakistani Parliament ?
 
M.A.K
 
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Congress is the Philippines’ biggest criminal syndicate
 
August 20, 2013 
by TONY LOPEZ 
 
The biggest criminal syndicate in the Philippines is not any of those crime groups listed regularly by the Philippine National Police.  It is Congress (the Philippine Parliament). As a syndicate,Congress is really massive — 24 senators and 289 congressmen. This group of con men (confidence tricksters) and women help themselves with money called the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAP) to the tune of P25 billion, if not more, a year. The simple word for PDAF is pork barrel.
 
In ancient times, the term referred to a barrel of goodies larded with pork so it becomes greasy and difficult for those trying to grab itSlaves competed to get the barrel. I suppose applying lard around the barrel was the equivalent of leveling the playing field. In today’s parlance, pork barrel has become billions of pesos. It is grease money so that our congressmen and senators — our slaves or public servants — do their work. Instead, these senators and congressmen have become our masters — veritable Mafia bosses who keep driving the citizens (ghareeb awaam) to greaterpenury, misery and economic enslavement.
 
The senators and congressmen come from no more than 70 families — our dynasties and political elite. Since we have had a Congress for the past 83 years and nothing has happened to the Philippines — in terms of greater income equality, substantial job creation (12 million Filipinos today are either jobless or underemployed), massive reduction in poverty (China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Azerbaijan have proved that you can reduce poverty by 90 percent in just ten years), one can argue that you can eliminate our Congress (Parliament) and it won’t make a difference to the lives of ordinary Filipinos. In fact, my life, your life, our lives could be much better.
 
Imagine the savings if Congress did not exist. We already have more than 15,000 laws, anyway, one law for every active lawyer we have in this country. And more laws than we probably need in a lifetime. Any act of man, and sometimes, even acts of God, are already covered by an existing law. Our Congress (Parliament) is there just to pursue its criminal operation, a plunder of mind-boggling scale and gall. To paraphrase a famous quote of President BS Aquino in his last State of the Nation: “Where do these people get the thick skin of their faces?”
 
The rate of plunder is P200 million per year per senator, the pork barrel allowance. Multiply that by six years — the term of a senator, and the amount becomes truly gargantuan — Peso 1.2 billion. Multiply that by two — the allowable maximum terms of a senator and the amount becomes even more gargantuan, Peso 2.4 billion. There are 24 senators so the entire loot amounts to Peso 4.8 billion per year. Or Peso 28.8 billion in six years.
 
In some cases, there are siblings among the senators, so a single family — out of the 22 million (million) families in the Philippines — takes away Peso 5.8 billion in 12 years. This Peso 5.8 billion is an amount far more than what all of the more 300,000 small and medium enterprises can make in their entire corporate life. The rate per congressman is Peso 70 million per year or Peso 210 million in three years (the one term of a congressman). Congressmen are allowed three consecutive terms or nine years. So multiply Peso 70 million by nine years and you get Peso 630 million — per congressmen.
 
There are 289 congressmen so the total loot in a year is Peso 20.23 billion. Add the senators’ loot of Peso 4.8 billion and you get Peso 25.03 billion for the entire Congress per year. For the years 2007 to 2009, our Commission on Audit conducted an audit on the PDAF and so-called Various Infrastructures, including Local Projects (VILP). PDAF is for so-called “soft” projects like education, health, livelihood, social services, financial assistance to address pro-poor programs, peace and order, culture and the arts. VILP is the “hard” portion or public works. VILP is why it’s more fun — rather, fund — in Congress.
 
In the COA audit for 2007 to 2009, those who participated in the plunder involved three cabinet ministries — Department of Agriculture, Department of Public Works and Highways, and theDepartment of Social Welfare and Development. DA has become synonymous with hunger (4.9 million Filipino families or 25 million Filipinos had nothing to eat at one time in the last three months, according to the Social Weather Stations). DPWH has become synonymous with highway robbery — the kind perpetrated by our senators and congressmen. And the social welfare of DSWD could as well stand for “private welfare” of our 70 elite political families.
 
Aside from the three cabinet departments, also involved in the massive looting of taxpayers’ money were four government corporations—Technology and Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC), National Livelihood Development Corp. (NLDC), National Agribusiness Corp. (NABCor), and Zamboanga del Norte Agricultural College Rubber Estate Corp. (ZREC). Plus five provincial governments — Tarlac, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental; and eight city governments — Mandaluyong City, Manila (including 12 barangay), Las Piñas, Tabaco, Iriga, Naga, Panabo. Plus 94 barangay of Quezon City.
 
The COA audit for 2007 to 2009 validated Peso 101 billion in VILPs (infra funds) released by the Department of the Budget nationwide, Peso 12 billion in PDAF released to DA, DPWH and DSWD; and P2.36 billion from allocation for Financial Assistance to LGUs and budgetary support to GOCCs. An anonymous person, Luis Abalos, who was not a congressman in the 13th and 14th Congress, received Peso 20 million. I guess this is the equivalent of a ghost payroll, the kind of shenanigan only our Congress is capable of.
 
Of the Peso 12 billion PDAF released by DBM, only Peso 8.374 billion or 69 percent was audited. Of the Peso 101.6 billion in infra funds (VILPs) released, only Peso 32.66 billion (32 percent) was audited. In other words, the leakage or “bribe” is 30 percent for PDAF and 68 percent for infra funds of senators and congressmen. Three senators and six congressmen helped themselves with Peso 1.393 billion of infra funds. About Peso 6.156 billion was transferred by three Cabinet departments — DA, DPWH and DSWD — to 82 non-government organizations (NGOs). The Peso 6.156 billion came from the PDAFs of 12 senators and 180 congressmen.
 
Ten NGOs received a total of Peso 2.157 billion. All ten are linked to Janet Lim Napoles. Six other NGOs got Peso 189 million. These six included those owned by the legislators or with a relative as incorporator or officer. In other words, the senator or the congressmen gave the money to himself. The gall talaga.

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Hudabiya Corruption Indictee PM Nawaz Sharif Should Learn From Malaysia:Several agencies roped into graft probe against Chief Minister

Comment: Pakistan’s corrupt PM Nawaz Sharif should learn a lesson from Malaysia about combatting Corruption in his country. PM Nawaz Sharif should learn from a fellow Islamic nation.

 

Several agencies roped into graft probe against CM

By LEE YEN MUN 
[email protected]

 

 

Under watch: Taib’s corruption case became the focus of attention when a YouTube video titled ‘Inside Malaysia’s Shadow State’ went viral.Under watch: Taib’s corruption case became the focus of attention when a YouTube video titled ‘Inside Malaysia’s Shadow State’ went viral.

PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has set up a multi-agency task force to investigate allegations of graft against Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

The task force consists of representatives from agencies such as the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the MACC itself to “speed up” the investigations.

A report will be submitted to Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patailfor action after investigations are completed.

The MACC said that once the investigations are completed and the Deputy Public Prosecutor has made a decision, an operations evaluation panel will appraise the integrity and impartiality of the commission in handling the probe.

“The panel consists of individuals from various professional backgrounds. The MACC is also constantly monitored by the Special Committee on Corruption, which was formed under the legislation according to Section 12 of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act,” the commission said in a statement.

The MACC said the committee members comprised representatives from Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara from both sides of the political divide.

The statement was issued to dispel doubts on the integrity and the efficiency of the MACC in tackling graft, particularly in the case involving Taib. Taib has been chief minister since March 1981 and has delivered Sarawak to Barisan Nasional for six state elections between 1983 and 2011.

His corruption case became the focus of attention when a YouTube video by London-based non-governmental organisation Global Witness titled Inside Malaysia’s Shadow State went viral after it was released on March 18.

The video featured recorded conversations between Taib’s cousins and two lawyers on matters ranging from illegal means to circumvent the operations of Malaysian laws to allegations of kickbacks to high officials within the state administration.

MACC said that it had taken statements from more than 20 people believed to be involved in the case or mentioned in the YouTube video which had alleged corrupt dealings in the state implicating the chief minister.

It added: “Investigations started even before the video was exposed. As of now, the MACC has checked around 400 files to help in the investigations.”

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HAROON RASHID: PRO-TALIBAN NAWAZ SHARIF SHARIF RECEIVED NEARLY 2 BILLION RUPEES FROM OSAMA BIN LADIN

 

History of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif So Called Poltical Leader of Pakistan

 In 1995 when Mirza Iqbal Beg was imprisoned, Sohail Zia Butt took over his drug empire. It is at this time that he became one of the biggest drug and crime bosses in Pakistan and was nicknamed the “King of Hera Mandi” and at one time all six underworld gangs of Lahore were working under him.

In the early eighties, after that Nawaz Sharif had completed his education his father Mian Muhammad Sharif started him in the business. However, this proved a disaster. As a second option Mian Muhammad Sharif set him up with Pakistani actor Saeed Khan Rangeela to get him into acting (something which Nawaz Sharif wanted).

A few days later Saeed Khan Rangeela sent his regrets to Mian Muhammad Sharif saying that his son was too dumb for acting and movie industry. Mian Muhammad Sharif then a cricket coaches to train his son for cricket, but his physical fitness was too low for the sport. It is rumored that by mid-day on his first day at training Nawaz Sharif threw the bat down and left the stadium saying, “This is too tough for me.”  As a last resort he paid General Ghulam Jilani Khan a considerable sum of monies to introduce Nawaz Sharif to General Zia-ul-Haq recommending him for a political post, who in turn made Nawaz Sharif the Finance Minister of Punjab. This was the day when the street thugs of Mohni Road had stepped on to becoming the national thugs of Pakistan.

The day Nawaz Sharif had become Finance Minister, the entire family’s earnings were few million rupees and had only one refinery. From there they went on to: Ittefaq Sugar Mills was set up in 1982, Brothers steel in 1983, Brother’s Textile Mills in 1986, Brothers Sugar Mills Ltd in 1986, Ittefaq Textile units in 2-3 in 1987, Khalid Siraj Textile Mills in 1988, Ramzan Buksh Textiles in 1987, Farooq Barkat (pvt) Ltd in 1985. By the time of Zia ul Haq’s fateful plane crash, Mian Muhammad Sharif’s family was earning a net profit of US$ 3 million, up from a few million rupees. By the end of the decade their net assets were worth more than 6 billion rupees, according to their own admission, nearly US$ 350 million at the time. But this turned out to be small-change when Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister.

When Nawaz Sharif became prime minister, the group took a decision to secure project loans from the foreign banks and only working capital were taken from the nationalized commercial banks. The project financing from foreign banks was ostensibly secured against the foreign currency deposits, a number of which were held in benamee accounts, as repeatedly claimed by Interior Minister Naseer Ullah Babar at his press conferences. In 1992 Salman Taseer released an account of Nawaz Sharif’s corruption stating that the family had taken loans of up to 12 billion rupees, which were never paid back. On March 2, 1994, Khalid Siraj, a cousin of Nawaz Sharif claimed that the assets of the seven brothers were valued at Rs 21 billion.

These were the accounts of profits and companies which were openly known to public. However, the family kept their side business going all the while ” the gambling dens and heroin control in Lahore ” and along with their industry the side business also mushroomed.

During the Afghan-Soviet War Nawaz Sharif’s cousin Sohail Zia Butt started working under the drug baron Mirza Iqbal Beg, then Pakistan’s second biggest drug lord after Ayub Afridi. Mian Muhammad Sharif and his sons had a permanent share in his gambling and heroin business. In 1990 Suhail Butt won a seat on the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad ticket in the Punjab Assembly. It was through Sohail Butt’s association that Nawaz Sharif became a close associate of Mirza Iqbal Beg. It was through him that Nawaz Sharif became benami owner of many of the privatized government entities, such as Muslim Commercial Bank. Sohail Zia Butt other than getting involved in the drug business made billions in the co-operative societies’ collapse, mainly through the National Industrial Credit and Finance Corporation. It was Nawaz Sharif’s share in his cousin’s drug business which he used to buy off the generals thereby delaying the inevitable dismissal of his government.

In 1995 when Mirza Iqbal Beg was imprisoned, Sohail Zia Butt took over his drug empire. It is at this time that he became one of the biggest drug and crime bosses in Pakistan and was nicknamed the “King of Hera Mandi” and at one time all six underworld gangs of Lahore were working under him.

By 1995 family’s declared annual profits from industrial units had increased 1500% from US$ 30 million to staggering US$ 400 million.

This is the short version of how in mere 15 years small street thugs running gambling dens became leaders of a country running narcotics, underworld and smuggling empires, untouched by everyone.

Short URLhttp://www.daily.pk/?p=10179

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WEALTHY ARABS & THEIR MOCKERY OF ISLAM


MUSLIMS ARE THEIR OWN BIGGEST ENEMIES IN THE WORLD PART 4 REMOVING CURTAINS OF ARAB HAREMS – III

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