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Posted by admin in CRUSHING OF PAK AWAM BY PML(N) & NAWAZ SHARIF, Nawaz Sharif & Kashmiri Biradari, Nawaz Sharif Dangerous Man, NAWAZ SHARIF DICTATOR, NAWAZ SHARIF FAMILY TURPITUDE, NAWAZ SHARIF LOAN SCAM, Nawaz Sharif Massive Corruption, NAWAZ SHARIF MUZZLES PRESS, NAWAZ SHARIF SAGA OF ABSOLUTE & CHRONIC CORRUPTION on January 12th, 2014
(1) Nawaz Sharif is a pathological liar who tells lies to Pakistani people
(2) In his last stint,Nawaz Sharif dipped his fingers and tampered with government funds, using PAF transport to fly to Lahore to buy Badami Lassi and Phajay Day Paway.
(3) Nawaz Sharif & His Kashmiri Birder Toola (Ishaq Dar, Saad Rafiq, Khawaja Asif, Babar Butt,)travels abroad all the time in the guise of looking for “foreign investor” only to end up buying properties in major cities of the world is very corrupt
(4) Nawaz Sharif who signs “memorandum of understanding” with a non-existent foreign company for the establishment of a foundry in his constituency is corrupt.
(5) Nawaz Sharif who promotes anti-people’s policies is corrupt.
(6) Nawaz Sharif who finds pleasure in using funds meant for the development of his people to buy mansions and duplexes for his girlfriends and mistresses in Dubai and London.
(7) Nawaz Sharif who invites other leaders to come and commission projects executed by his predecessor while claiming that he built them is very corrupt.
(8) Nawaz Sharif who allows people of questionable characters to head government Agencies and Ministries is very corrupt.
Federal ministers
Khawaja Saad Rafique
Sikandar Bosan
Abdul Qadir Baloch
Zahid Hamid
Rana Tanveer
Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi
Chaudhry Barjees Tahir
Pervez Rashid
Kamran Michael
Pir Saddurddin Rashdi
Riaz Pirzada
Sardar Yusuf
State ministers
Mian Baleeghur Rehman
Barrister Usman Ibrahim
Pir Aminul Hasnat
Khurram Dastgir Khan
Sheikh Aftab
Jam Kamal
Abdul Hakim Baloch
Anusha Rehman
Saira Afzal Tarar
(9) Nawaz Sharif promotes people Fake Degree Holders:
Rashid Shahzad
Apr 5, 1:01 AM
Fake degree holder. Read more…
Rashid Shahzad
Apr 5, 12:55 AM
Fake Degree holder. Read more…
Rashid Shahzad
Apr 5, 12:46 AM
Fake degree holder Read more…
Rashid Shahzad
Apr 5, 12:39 AM
Fake Degree holder. Read more…
Rashid Shahzad
Apr 5, 12:31 AM
fake degree holder Read more…
Rashid Shahzad
Apr 5, 12:26 AM
Fake Degree holder Read more…
Syed Muhammad Salman Mohsin Gillani (PMLN) NA-165
Rashid Shahzad
Apr 5, 12:11 AM
Fake Degree holder Name: Syed Salman Mohsin Gilani Address: Qaboola Sharif,Tehsil Arifwala,Distt,Pakpattan Source of News: http://tribune.com.pk/story/26741/fake-degrees-13-and-counting/ Read more…
(10) Nawaz Sharif promotes anti-people policy or the other just to make sure that the poor masses remain suppressed is corrupt.
1. 1. CORRUPTION CASES Nawaz Sharif and his cronies have always been working to plunder Pakistan’s wealth as their sole agenda. He expanded his business empire by misusing his authority as Chief Minister Punjab and Prime Minister Pakistan. And in order to gain financial benefits, he manipulated laws and changed policies. Likewise, in a bid to avoid accountability, the Nawaz Sharif Government amended “The Ehtasaab Act” and made it effective from “1990” instead of “1985” as proposed in the original text of the “Ehtasaab Act” prepared by the interim government of caretaker Prime Minister (Late) Mairaj Khalid (1996-97). And by bringing this change he cunningly saved his tenure of Chief Minister Punjab (1985-88) from accountability. Despite all maneuvering following references were filed against the Sharifs: –
1.Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and others misused official resources causing a loss to the national exchequer of Rs 620million by developing 1800 acres of land in Raiwind at state expense.
1.2. FINANCIAL GAINS BY USING HIS AUTHORITY AS PRIME MINISTER
The first tenure of Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister in the year 1990 saw another reign of loot and plunder. During this period Mian Nawaz Shairif obtained loans amounting to more than Rs.614 billion from Banks through his influence against inadequate guarantees. According to the details of loans obtained by Sharifs include Rs.1556 million for Ittefaq Foundries, Rs. 543 million for Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills, Rs.455 million for Mehran Ramzan Textile Mills, Rs.373 million for Ramzan Bukhsh Textile Mills, Rs.339 millions for Ch. Sugar Mills, Rs.226 millions for Ittefaq brothers, Rs. 205 million for Sandalbar Textile Mills, Rs.182 million for Hudaibiya Engineering Mills, Rs.153 million for Hamza Board Mills Ltd, Rs.134 million for Hudaibiya paper Mills, Rs.351 Million for Brothers Sugar Mills, Rs.174 million for Brothers Textile Mills, Rs.159 million for Brothers Steel Mills, Rs.623 million for Ramzan Sugar Mills, Rs. 191 million Khalid Siraj Textiles, Rs.313 million for Ittefaq Sugar Mills, Rs.164 million for Ittefaq Textile Mills, and Rs.239 million were obtained for Ittefaq Brothers. Due to the malpractice the national wealth was used for establishing personal empire while the country’s economy was facing disaster. This loan was equivalent to the total internal loan obtained by the government of Pakistan! These so called patriotic politicians ruthlessly plundered the national exchequer and used national wealth for personal financial gains. In addition money laundering worth billions of dollars through illegal means, wheat import scam, awarding motorway’s contract to an internationally black listed company, receiving heavy loans despite of being defaulter, secret businesses in UK (Evidence attached), Sugar mills in Kenya and four flats in the most expensive area of London and huge commissions in privatization of Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) are also a few “achievements” of Nawaz Sharif and family.
1.3. THE AUDITOR GENERAL REPORT
The Auditor General Report released in the year 1988-89 reported that Nawaz Sharif, misusing his authority as Chief Minister Punjab, issued directives which resulted into direct malpractice of Rs. 35 billion. The report said that the Chief Minister Secretariat had been turned into a hub of corrupt practices and Nawaz Sharif used public money like an emperor that resulted into huge fiscal deficit of the province. The Auditor General Report released in the year 1986-87 said that the then Chief Minister Nawaz Sharif had used Rs. 1200 million for malpractices in only one year. Nawaz Sharif allotted 3000 precious Lahore Development Authority (LDA) plots among his favourites due to which the province suffered loss of billions of rupees. Nawaz Sharif was the lead character of the Cooperative and Financial Institutions Scam, which deprived the retired employees, orphans, widows, and poor of their total assets amounting to Rs. 17 billion. Nawaz Sharif released Rs. 1200 million from his discretionary grant in the year 1985-86 while Rs. 1895 million were released in 1986-87, Rs. 1899 million were used in 1987-88 while another Rs. 1887 million were distributed among his cronies.
1.4. RELATIONS WITH THE TERRORISTS
Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and other party leaders practically share and proudly identify commonalities between PML-N and Taliban and they have very close ties and cordial relations with terrorists and banned terrorist outfits. In early 90s Nawaz Sharif received huge sums of money from Osama Bin Laden to overthrow former Prime Minister of Pakistan Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s Government. Even now PML-N’s cabinet members and spokespersons are commonly seen hanging around with members of those banned outfits, reportedly involved in managing terrorist attacks on thousands of innocent Pakistanis including soldiers, police officials and members of other law enforcement agencies. Due to compromising attitude of PML-N’s leadership and their mild will to fight against the menace of terrorism the members of law enforcement agencies are completely demoralized. That is one of the reasons that the investigations against terrorists are not carried out in a proper manner and proof against arrested terrorists usually is not available. Due to the incapability of the Punjab Government terrible terrorist attacks took place in the province including suicide attack on Police Training School Bedian Road, blast in Moon Market Lahore, car bomb blast in the Rescue 15 building, car bomb blast in F.I.A building, suicide attack on Munawan Police Training Center, Model Town link road bomb blast, suicide attack on Jamia Naemia, terrorist attack on Ahmedi’s worship places, blasts in Imam Bargahs including Karbla Gammay Shah and suicide bomb blasts in the sacred shrine of Hazrat Data Gunj Buksh along with many others. After these attacks PML-N has morally lost its right of government in Punjab. Further, it was Shahbaz Sharif, who instead of showing courage and political and moral will to fight against the enemies of Pakistan, in his speech in Jamia Naemia Lahore, begged for mercy from the terrorists. He, in a very disgraceful manner, requested them not to attack Punjab as they are likeminded and standing on the same side. This statement of Shahbaz Sharif reflects his mindset!
1.5. CONSPIRACIES AGAINST DEMOCRACY
Nawaz Sharif and Co. has always been involved in destabilizing the democratic system by one way or the other and did not even hesitate to take bribes to grab power. Lt. General (R) Naseerullah Babar, the former Interior Minister had disclosed in the National Assembly in 1994, that the ISI had disbursed money to purchase the loyalty of various right wing politicians, including that of Nawaz Sharif, in order to manipulate the 1990 elections, for the Islamic Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI- Pakistan democratic alliance), and bring about the defeat of the PPP. As proof Lt. General (R) Naseerullah Babar, Lt. General (R) Asad Durrani and others have filed affidavits supported by copies of various documents. In Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s human rights petition (HRC 19/96) in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the former Chief of Army Staff Mirza Aslam Baig and the former Chief of the ISI and a banker concerning the criminal distribution of the people’s money for political purposes. The case is pending adjudication in the Supreme Court of Pakistan for the last 14 years. 1. 6. DECEIT AND LYING Nawaz Sharif’s politics is based on the philosophy “lie repeatedly till it seems as the truth”. He has based his politics on deceit and lies. Nawaz Sharif and his “chellaz” believe in lying repeatedly and religiously follow their convictions in this regard. They are masters in the art of manipulation and alteration and use their wealth to achieve their goals. One example is enough to expose their hideous character. After conviction in the hijacking case, Nawaz Sharif and his family approached foreign friends who persuaded President Pervez Musharraf to have mercy and forgive them. Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and family sought pardon and signed agreements including a commitment not to participate in politics for a period of ten years but they kept lying and hid the existence of these agreements from the nation until the head of Saudi Arabian Secret Agency, Prince Miqran Bin Abdul Aziz and Prime Minister of Lebanon Mr. Saad Hariri’s unveiled the existence of these agreements and Ch. Nisar had to admit the existence of these agreements during the press conference of Javed Hashmi. Sharif brothers in return of Pervez Musharraf’s “Ehsaan” (generosity) have not only crossed all limits of hostility but also lied to the nation. Would Nawaz Sharif and his “chellaz” ever tender apology to the Pakistani Nation, for lying to them for so many years?
1.7. POLICE STATE
Under the horrible times of Shahbaz Sharif’s Government the Punjab province has been virtually converted in to a “Badmaash” (rogue) province. Here police officials get involved in heinous and brutal criminal activities like one in Sialkot. The administration did not take any action against the shameful and atrocious lynching of two young brothers until the footage was telecast on electronic channels. It is believed that only in Gujranwala Division, where a brother of PML (N) MNA was deputed as head of police department, more than two hundred extra judicial killings have taken place. The record shows that in Punjab, police force has been continuously used to harass and insult political rivals. An endless campaign of lodging false FIRs against political opponents has also been initiated. Use of brutal police force and baton-charge has become a routine. Every segment of society including journalists, doctors, teachers, students, nurses, Government employees, semi Government and private institutions and lawyers have faced the brutality of police while protesting for their demands.
1.8. POOR GOVERNANCE & MALADMINISTRATION
It is a hard fact that poor governance & maladministration is trademark of Sharif brothers. Shahbaz Sharif is an attention-seeker and likes to show off. For the sake of “cheap publicity” he has started calling himself “Khadam-e-Ala” but miserably failed to meet the challenges of governance and administration. It’s a harsh reality that during his tenure in Punjab all institutions deteriorated conspicuously. In order to achieve their motives, Sharifs always appoint their blue-eyed personnel on key posts by completely ignoring merit. Almost all districts of Punjab are being run by grade 19 officers who are incapable hence a basic reason for poor governance. Due to his dictatorial approach Shahbaz Sharif himself heads 12 provincial ministries and he seldom holds cabinet meeting. He takes decisions over ruling, the cabinet. His obstinate behavior is the prime reason for the maladministration in the province. It would be just and appropriate to suggest that Sharifs have failed to establish a democratic spirit in their government and have completely overlooked the norms of democratic political setups.
1.9. CRIMINAL ASSAULT ON THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN
In order to consolidate and attain more power, ‘the champion of democracy and independent judiciary’, Nawaz Sharif attacked every individual and institution; he felt could get in the way and challenge his authority. In order to get rid of Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who Nawaz Sharif despised, the latter created divisions amongst the judges using the humble services of a former judge, Rafique Tarrar (later President of Pakistan) to make life difficult for the Chief Justice. A group of judges refused to acknowledge CJ Sajjad Ali Shah as the Chief Justice and things got so bad that a number of junior judges made it difficult for him to carry out his duties. Eventually, Sharif ordered his thugs to attack the Supreme Court in order to prevent the Chief Justice from giving a ruling against him. The police did nothing to stop Sharif’s thugs as they attacked and entered the Supreme Court premises. The judges inside the building barely managed to escape. The thugs, led by Sajjad Naseem and Mushtaq Tahir Kheli, Nawaz Sharif’s political secretaries, entered the court chanting anti-CJ Sajjad slogans and destroyed the Court Room. 1. 10. CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE PRESS AND JOURNALISTS A number of incidents during 1998-99 indicated a pattern of harassment and intimidation of individual journalists as the government was increasingly becoming intolerant. Imtiaz Alam, a Lahore-based journalist, complains of threats over the telephone and then of his car being set on fire in a mysterious manner the next day. Another Lahore journalist, Mahmud Lodhi, was picked up and held in illegal custody for two days. He was questioned about his involvement with a BBC team filming a documentary on the rise and wealth of the Sharif family. Present Pakistani ambassador in USA Mr. Hussain Haqqani was picked up in a cloak-and-dagger fashion and interrogated at a FIA Center for money embezzlement while he held government office. The residence of Idrees Bakhtiar, a senior staff reporter of monthly Herald and BBC correspondent in Karachi was raided by CIA police on Nov. 26, 1998. The police harassed the family and also arrested his 28-year old son, Moonis, who was later released. On Feb. 13, 1999, three persons, including Senator Abdul Hayee Baloch and a lady worker from Lahore, were injured when the police baton-charged, used water cannons and threw bricks on a peaceful procession of the Pakistan Awami Ittehad in front of the parliament house in Islamabad. The march, organized by the PAI for the freedom of the press, was led by PAI president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan (late), the then opposition leader Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and secretary general of the alliance Hamid Nasir Chatta, besides a number of sitting and former PPP MNAs and senators. The owner of the Frontier Post, Rehmat Shah Afridi, was arrested in Lahore on April 2, 1999, by the Anti-narcotics Force. The Peshawar-based Frontier Post was critical of government policies. Afridi’s arrest was seen by journalists and others as another attempt to gag the Press. On May 8, 1999, Najam Sethi, Editor of The Friday Times, was arrested on the orders of Nawaz Sharif. Police stormed into his house in Lahore and dragged him out of his bedroom. After brutal torture and breaking furniture of the house he was shifted to some unknown place. And before leaving the house with Mr. Sethi, they tied his wife Jugnoo’s hands with a rope and locked her up in a dressing room. Later, Nawaz Sharif asked COAS Gen. Musharraf to charge Mr. Sethi under the Pakistan Army Act for being a traitor and gives him maximum punishment (maximum punishment is death!). The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a press freedom organization, said on June 1, 1999 that it was conducting an investigation into a “hit list” prepared by the Pakistan government that contains 35 prominent journalists of Pakistan. According to reports received by the CPJ, the federal government had decided to establish a special media cell comprising officials from the police, Intelligence Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency to punish the journalists, who had been writing against the government. Ehtesab Bureau Chairman, Senator Saifur Rehman Khan was to head this cell which would function from Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar with its head office in Islamabad. According to the CPJ, the journalists were: Irshad Ahmed Haqqani (late), Rehmat Ali Razi, Anjum Rasheed, (writer and anchor person) Suhail Warraich, Sohaib Marghoob and (late) Roman Ehsan (Jang Lahore), M. Ziauddin (Dawn Islamabad), Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Javed Jaidi, Nusrat Javeed, Mariana Babar and Ansaar Abbassi (The News, Islamabad), Rehana Hakeem and Zahid Hussain (Newsline), Ejaz Haider, Khalid Ahmed, Jugnu Mohsin and Adnan Adil (The Friday Times, Lahore), Mahmood Sham (Jang, Karachi), Rashed Rehman (The Nation, Lahore), Amir Ahmed Khan (Herald, Karachi), Imtiaz Aalam, Beena Sarwar, Shafiq Awan, Kamila Hyat and Amir Mir (The News Lahore), Abbas Athar (Nawa-e-Waqt, Lahore), Kamran Khan and Shehzad Amjad (The News Karachi), Azam Khalil (Pulse), Mohammad Malik (Tribune), Imtiaz Ahmed (The Frontier Post, Peshawar), Ilyas Chaudhry (Jang Rawalpindi), Naveed Meraj (The Frontier Post, Islamabad) and Syed Talat Hussain (The Nation, Islamabad). The Government of Nawaz Sharif started a campaign against the Jang group in July 1998 when it refused to sack a number of journalists critical of Government policies. The government objected to the Jang group newspapers’ reporting about the law and order situation in the country and put a ban on advertisement. On August 13, a report was published about non-payment of Rs. 700 million to farmers by the sugar mills owned by the Nawaz Sharif family. Three days later, the government sent notices to Jang for non-payment of taxes and the case was shifted to the Ehtesab cell. On September 27, 1998, the Government asked the Jang group not to publish a report of ‘The Observer London’ that Nawaz Sharif had siphoned off millions of rupees. The report was not published by the Jang but it was published by its sister English newspaper The News. On November 5, bank accounts of the Jang group were frozen and FIA raided the Jang and the News offices in Rawalpindi and customs authorities stopped delivery of newsprint to the Jang. On Jan 28 1999, a sedition case was registered against Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman for publishing an advertisement of Muttahida’s Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation on January 1, which according to the police, was aimed at inciting people against the state. Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman revealed that Senator Saif-ur-Rehman asked him to sack a number of Jang employees who should be replaced in consultation with the Government. He released to the press audiotapes of conversation with Saif-ur-Rehman on this issue. Saif-ur-Rehman accused Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman for evading tax and customs duty to the tune of Rs. 2.6 billion. The hostility of Sharifs towards media is also evident from the fact that in the parliamentary history of Pakistan for the first time a resolution, condemning the media, was tabled (by a group of MPAs belonging to Nawaz League) and passed in the Punjab Assembly. 1. 11. DESTABILIZATION OF INSTITUTIONS There is probably no institution in Pakistan, which Nawaz Sharif did not aggressively confront in order to make them comply with his wishes. Besides picking a fight with the President, the Judiciary and the restricted/limited media of that time, Sharif also decided to have a confrontation with the army, the only viable institution left in Pakistan. Due to his hostile and dumb approach in Nawaz Sharif’s first term as prime minister, he fell out with three successive army chiefs: General Mirza Aslam Beg, General Asif Nawaz and General Abdul Waheed Kakar. During his second tenure, he fell out with two other Generals, General Karamat and later with General Pervez Musharraf. General Karamat became the first Chief of Army Staff in the history of Pakistan to have been prematurely retired! One by one all challenges and potential obstacles to his dictatorial mindset were removed from his way by Nawaz Sharif. Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Farooq Leghari, Sajjad Ali Shah, and General Jehangir Karamat were all removed from the scene by Nawaz Sharif. 1. 12. Ill-CONSIDERED ECONOMIC DECISIONS Nawaz Sharif’s ill-considered economic decisions cost Pakistan dearly! But the Sharif family’s personal business empire grew exponentially through questionable means. Nawaz Sharif, during his tenure as Chief Minister Punjab from 1988-90, deprived the provincial departments of Rs. 15.35 billion. In addition in 1997-99 he caused huge loss amounting in 11 billion US dollars to private account holders by freezing foreign currency accounts contrary to the law and constitution wherein he and his cronies managed to get away with huge sums even after the freeze. Billions of dollars were removed from the banks without the permission/consent of the account holders but the accounts of common Pakistanis were withheld. In last two and half years, Shahbaz Sharif wasted more than 40 billion rupees in “Sasti Roti” and other subsidized food schemes that had been initiated to earn cheap popularity and to benefit their political supporters. Admittedly these funds have been distributed amongst their own supporters without any audit just to gain political mileage. A huge chunk of these funds has been disbursed by the ghost “Tandurs” (burners) owners. Inflation and un-employment is rocketing day by day due to the ill-conceived decisions of the provincial government. This is one of the reasons that Punjab could not help flood victims at the time because they had utilized their funds in senseless politically motivated schemes and now have an overdraft amounting Rs. 80 billion.
1.13. SELLING KASHMIR CA– — USE TO VAJPAYEE IN 1999 AND HUMILATING ARMED FORCES IN USA, DURING KARGIL
The so-called son of soil Nawaz Sharif virtually sold Kashmir in 1999 during Indian PM’s visit to Lahore. Nawaz Sharif deleted the word Kashmir from the joint declaration to please Indian counterpart. By crossing all the limits of treachery and falsehood Nawaz Sharif and his cronies claim that Pakistan armed forces lost the Kargil war. In fact, due to the decisions of Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan lost this war in the drawing room of the American President after wining it in the battlefield. 1. 14. ATOMIC EXPLOSIONS It is a proven fact that in 1998 Nawaz Sharif was double-minded about the atomic explosions. While the nation waited breathlessly for a befitting reply to India, Nawaz Sharif was busy in negotiating economic packages with US Government. Gohar Ayub Khan, who was foreign minister at that time, has also corroborated this fact in his book. (Courtesy: http://jhootaylog.wordpress.com/nawaz-sharifs-corruption/)
(11) Nawaz Sharif imposes his relative, as leaders in the government in his “constituency” are very corrupt.
Courtesy: PKPolitics
Nawaz Sharif’s Son in Law Investing Billions in UAE
1.Dubai: HDS Tower in Cluster F of Jumeirah Lakes Tower is only one of the 34 story buildings that belong to the mighty HDS Group. The News Tribe learnt that several other buildings in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Business Bay and International City, like the HDS Sunstar Towers, are also owned by the millionaire brothers, surprisingly Pakistanis. The owners of HDS Group, Ali Dar and Hasnain Dar, are none other than the sons of former finance minister of Pakistan, Senator Ishaq Dar. It’s worth mentioning here that the elder son Ali Dar is also the son-in-law of Pakistan Muslim League’s leader Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. Apart from several real estate ventures, The HDS Group also launched HDS Rent a Car, JLT a month back in July 2012. Senator Ishaq Dar’s son Ali Dar takes the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 for the inaugural run. The uniqueness of the car rental company lies in its array of niche car manufacturers and models of cars unavailable to the market. HDS Rent a Car owns the 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, Mercedes Benz SLS 63 AMG Gullwing, apart from the more economy cars such as Peugeots and Renaults. Some of the many exotic, luxury and SUVs in the lineup are the Ferrari Berlinetta F12 and the McLaren F1, and you can do the numbers yourself! The owners from a ‘poor and starving’ country Pakistan, where the average monthly income for an individual is $41, are offering such exotic services in Dubai, which even the local Emiratis fail to afford. Madhu Bhindari, the Indian Billionaire who invested money in Dubai with Pakistani politicians. Sources further told The News Tribe that the story does not end here; another Finance Minister from the Nawaz Sharif Government, made hundreds of real estate transactions with Madhu Bhindari, an Indian billionaire entrepreneur, who is on a run-away from Dubai, after losing 150 million dirhams in the 2008 crisis. However, the finance minister’s buildings and investments are still there, earning a hefty income. A Pakistani real estate agent, who claimed to carry out transactions for a serving government officer in Sindh Government, told The News Tribe that a lot of Pakistani bureaucrats and politicians have properties worth millions in Dubai. “The son of a serving government officer from Sindh government invested a huge amount of money in real estate here in 2008, and I carried out transactions for him,” the agent claimed. “Where are these politicians getting the money from?” asked a frustrated Pakistani in Dubai, who came to know that the building he lived in is owned by Ali and Hasnain Dar’s HDS Group. “If they have billions of dollars and so much money, why is it not in Pakistan? These politicians talk about the welfare of Pakistani people, but all they can think about is themselves!” Previously, Director Swiss Bank had stated that Pakistan has around 97 billion dollars only in Swiss Banks. But, it seems that Pakistani politicians and businessmen have more than 97 billion dollars outside Swiss Banks, invested in various countries and financial hubs like Dubai. According to the Swiss Bank director, if the money is utilized for the welfare of Pakistan and its people, then Pakistan can make tax free budget for next 30 years, can create 60 million jobs, can carpet four lanes road from any village to Islamabad, provide endless power supply, every citizen can earn Rs. 20,000 salary for the next 60 years and there is no need to take loans from IMF or World Bank. http://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/08/11/we-are-billionaires-let-pakistanis-suffer/#.UChcB6CuV06
Nawaz Sharif who awards road contract at five times the actual cost and yet the roads are never completed is very corrupt like the Rawalpindi -Peshawar Motorway.
$418m corruption by Nawaz during his stints as PM: Book
ONLINESunday, 1 Jul 2012 1:31 pm )
ISLAMABAD – PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif made financial gains of $418 million during his twice stints as Prime Minister of the country, according to a book entitled Capitalism’s Achilles Heel by Raymond W Baker. The book is a dossier on the corruption of most dominated political families in the history including Nawaz Sharif and how they accumulated their properties, factories and enormous wealth. According to the book, at least $160 million were pocketed by Nawaz Sharif during his first stint as the Prime Minister in the 1990, from a contract to build a highway from Lahore, his home town, to Islamabad, the nation’s capital. At least $140 million in unsecured loans from Pakistan’s state banks. More than $60 million generated from government rebates on sugar exported by mills controlled by Mr. Sharif and his business associates. At least $58 million skimmed from prices paid for imported wheat from the United States and Canada. In the wheat deal, Mr. Sharif’s government paid prices far above market value to a private company owned by a close associate of his in Washington, the records show. Falsely inflated invoices for the wheat generated tens of millions of dollars in cash. The book review went on to state “The extent and magnitude of this corruption is so staggering that it has put the very integrity of the country at stake.” Under Sharif, unpaid bank loans and massive tax evasion remained the favorite ways to get rich. Upon his loss of power the usurping government published a list of 322 of the largest loan defaulters, representing almost $3 billion out of $4 billion owed to banks. Sharif and his family were tagged for $60 million. Like Bhutto, offshore companies have been linked to Sharif, three in the British Virgin Islands by the names of Nescoll, Nielson, and Shamrock and another in the Channel Islands known as Chandron Jersey Pvt. Ltd. Some of these entities allegedly were used to facilitate purchase of four rather grand flats on Park Lane in London, at various times occupied by Sharif family members. In 1999 Musharraf had Sharif probed, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, but then in 2000 exiled him to Saudi Arabia. Twenty-two containers of carpets and furniture followed, and, of course, his foreign accounts remained mostly intact. Ensconced in a glittering palace in Jeddah, he is described as looking “corpulent” amidst “opulent” surroundings.
Nawaz Sharif rules his constituency only on the pages of newspapers with propaganda when in actual fact there is really nothing on ground.
He intimidates the local press and threatens them with closure if they report true events about his corruption. He offers Board Chairmanship of Agencies of Public companies to his Cronies.
Targeting critics
The Nawaz Sharif Government’s continuing crackdown on journalists comes in for strong criticism inside and outside Pakistan.
AMIT BARUAH in Islamabad
THE crackdown on the press by the Nawaz Sharif Government does not come as a surprise. It has been in the making for several months now. The first indication came when the Government targeted the Jang group of newspapers – starving it of newsprint and launching an investigation into alleged income tax violations by its proprietor Mir Shakilur Rehman.
More recently, on April 1, the Sharif Government got Rehmat Shah Afridi, the Editor of The Frontier Post, arrested on charges of smuggling narcotics; on May 4, Hussain Haqqani, a leading columnist and politician, on charges of corruption; and on May 8, Najam Sethi, the Editor of The Friday Times, for his alleged links with the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency. In an effort to diminish these developments, the Government claims that Afridi, Haqqani and Sethi were arrested not for their writings, but for specific offences that are unrelated to their professional status.
In other instances of harassment and intimidation, M.A.K. Lodhi, the Lahore-based head of the investigative bureau of The News, was detained for 48 hours for “providing help” to a BBC team that was making a film on the alleged corruption of Nawaz Sharif’s family.
Imtiaz Alam, Editor (Current Affairs), The News, who organized a meeting of parliamentarians from India and Pakistan in Islamabad, had his car torched by unidentified persons who entered his house in the early hours of the day.
Sethi was “arrested” by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the “disparaging comments” he made about an “all-round crisis” in Pakistan, at the India International Centre in New Delhi on April 30. His comments were used to label him as a person who had “links” with RAW, and he was accused of undermining the foundations of Pakistan as an Islamic state.
A damning report submitted by Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India (he was present at the conference Sethi addressed) was used to justify Sethi’s “arrest”. Around 2-30 a.m. on May 8, several armed men forced their way into Sethi’s house in Lahore, beat up two armed guards, and entered his bedroom. Sethi’s wife Jugnu Mohsin alleged that they beat him with clubs and the chain attached to the handcuffs they carried. She further alleged that Sethi was whisked away without being allowed to put on his spectacles and wear his shoes. She said that when she asked the armed men whether they had an arrest warrant, she was told that she would get her husband’s “body”. Jugnu alleged that she was tied up and locked up in the dressing room.
A statement issued by the Government on May 8 said: “It is suspected that the journalist has some nexus/connection with the RAW. He has projected a dismal picture of Pakistan at their behest to create despondency and doubts in the minds of Pakistanis. In order to unearth such links, it was considered necessary to investigate him on matters of national security.”
However, it is widely believed that Sethi was arrested not for what he said in India, but for his outspoken criticism of the Nawaz Sharif Government. The tone and tenor of his weekly editorials in The Friday Times are biting, and they often mock the Government. It is widely believed that the Government had been waiting for an opportunity to strike.
K.M. CHOUDARY/ AP
Najam Sethi addressing a news conference in Lahore on May 5, where he expressed his fear of being put under arrest. He was detained on May 8.
Sethi began his lecture at the India International Centre by referring to the multiple crises gripping Pakistan. “The crisis of identity and ideology refers to the fact that after 50 years (of Independence), Pakistanis are still unable to collectively agree upon who we are as a nation, where we belong, what we believe in and where we want to go…” He had used these very words in an editorial titled “What is to be done?” in The Friday Times of January 1-7, 1999. The editorial and the lecture he gave are similar in content.
The Government said that critical remarks about the country could be made on Pakistani soil, but not in India. Obviously, the Lahore Declaration does not extend to individuals or the right to criticize each other’s government or society. A ‘fact sheet’ released by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N) on May 13 makes the same point: “There is enough material to show that he (Sethi) vehemently questioned the very basis of the creation of Pakistan. No doubt many others in Pakistan hold similar views, but most of them follow the ethical principle that one does not denigrate or ridicule one’s own country when visiting foreign lands, particularly before an audience known to be opposed to the existence of the country.” (Obviously, the fact that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee referred to Pakistan and India as “separate nations” – an acknowledgment of Partition – during his visit to the Minar-i-Pakistan is not enough to convince Sharif’s Muslim League that India does not oppose Pakistan’s existence.) The ‘fact sheet’ further states that Sethi started his career as a “book seller” and a “gun-runner”, and that he has been dabbling in politics, having been a Minister in Farooq Leghari’s caretaker government (November 1996-February 1997). “He is still known to have close links with Mr. Leghari and his recently launched Millat Party,” it states, “…but his detention is related neither to his being an editor, nor a politician from an Opposition party. The immediate reason officially stated is the speech he made recently at a seminar in New Delhi. But his alleged links with the Indian intelligence agency RAW were under investigation for long.”
APART from being criticised by independent journalists, human rights organizations and a host of other groups for its actions, the Sharif Government has been strongly criticised by the United States, the European Union and Canada.
Interestingly, this is the first time since Sharif assumed power that the U.S. has expressed such categorical views on what is obviously Pakistan’s “internal” issue. The U.S. maintained a studied silence and refused to comment on the dispute between Sharif and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah in 1997 and on the confrontation between Sharif and the Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. Jehangir Karamat, in 1998.
CLEARLY, a battle is on to safeguard the independent press in Pakistan. Najam Sethi’s case could well become a test case. If the Government gets away with putting one of Pakistan’s best-known journalists behind bars and the courts remain silent spectators (the Lahore High Court rejected a habeas corpus petition in this regard), all the writers who are critical of the Government would be easy game for the Government. The saving grace is that a small but vocal section of Pakistani society is committed to defending the freedom of the press and the right to expression from attacks by the Government.
(16) A leader who recently immortalized a man who conducted the worst election in Nigeria (as have proved by the upturning and mollification of result) with the renaming of a popular road in his constituency after him is very corrupt.
(17) Nawaz Sharif’s Kashmiri Mafia has become the biggest Qabza Group in Pakistan. This Qabza Group has takeover properties on Hall Road, Beadon Road, Mall Road, Model Town, Raiwind, Kala Shah Kaku and most suburbia of Lahore.
In his last term, Nawaz Sharifs rate of acquisition of personal properties was inversely proportional to the rate of development of Pakistan.
When Nawaz Sharif became prime minister, the group took a decision to secure project loans from the foreign banks and only working capital was 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. During the Afghan-Soviet War Nawaz Sharif’s cousin and brother-in-law, 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 was at this time that he became one of the biggest drug and crime bosses in Pakistan and was nicknamed the “King of Heera 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.
Nawaz Sharif awards contracts only roughly to companies he has interest in including that of Malik Riaz, Babar Butt, Mirza Iqbal, and a convicted heroin smuggler.
URDU SPEAKER MUSHAHIDULLAH, A NAWAZ SHARIF JIYALA, BLACKBALLED: A TYPICAL NAWAZ SHARIF UMBURSARI KASHMIRI RACISM
Nawaz Sharif is a Racist Bigot. He discarded like a wet rag and blackballed his biggest Urdu Speaking Jiyala Mushahid Ullah Khan, because, Mushahid Ullah hailed from UP India, from District Bijnor, City of Najibabad.
Nawaz Sharif threatens social critics, public opinion analysts, media personalities like Mubasher Lucman and social crusaders with death threats through PML (N) Jiyalas and jail terms if they continue to criticize and expose his government is corrupt.
Nawaz Sharif’s Budget 2013-2014 allocation meant for development of Pakistan is directed towards the pockets of rich in the society and members of the legislatures who are absolutely corrupt.
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(1) Nawaz Sharif is a pathological liar who tells lies to Pakistani people
(2) Nawaz Sharif dips his fingers and tampers with local government funds is corrupt.
(3) Nawaz Sharif & His Kashmiri Biradari Toola(Ishaq Dar, Saad Rafiq, Khwaja Asif, Babar Butt, travels abroad all the time in the guise of looking for “foreign investor” only to end up buying properties in major cities of the world is very corrupt
(4) Nawaz Sharif who signs “memorandum of understanding” with a non existent foreign company for the establishment of a foundary in his constituency is corrupt.
(5) Nawaz Sharif who promotes anti-people’s policies is corrupt.
(6) Nawaz Sharif who finds pleasure in using funds meant for the development of his people to buy mansions and duplexes
for his girlfriends and mistresses is corrupt.
(7) Nawaz Sharif who invites other leaders to come and commission projects executed by his predecessor while claiming that he built them is very corrupt.
(8) Nawaz Sharif who allows people of questionable characters to head government Agencies and Ministries is very corrupt.
Federal ministers
Khawaja Saad Rafique
Sikandar Bosan
Abdul Qadir Baloch
Zahid Hamid
Rana Tanveer
Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi
Chaudhry Barjees Tahir
Pervez Rashid
Kamran Michael
Pir Saddurddin Rashdi
Riaz Pirzada
Sardar Yusuf
State ministers
Mian Baleeghur Rehman
Barrister Usman Ibrahim
Pir Aminul Hasnat
Khurram Dastgir Khan
Sheikh Aftab
Jam Kamal
Abdul Hakim Baloch
Anusha Rehman
Saira Afzal Tarar
(9) Nawa Sharif promotes people Fake Degree Holders:
(10) Nawaz Sharif promotes anti-people policy or the other just to make sure that the poor masses remain suppressed is corrupt.
1. 1. CORRUPTION CASES
Nawaz Sharif and his cronies have always been working to plunder Pakistan’s wealth as their sole agenda. He expanded his business empire by misusing his authority as Chief Minister Punjab and Prime Minister Pakistan. And in order to gain financial benefits, he manipulated laws and changed policies. Likewise, in a bid to avoid accountability, the Nawaz Sharif Government amended “The Ehtasaab Act” and made it effective from “1990” instead of “1985” as proposed in the original text of the “Ehtasaab Act” prepared by the interim government of caretaker Prime Minister (Late) Mairaj Khalid (1996-97). And by bringing this change he cunningly saved his tenure of Chief Minister Punjab (1985-88) from accountability.
Despite all maneuvering following references were filed against the Sharifs:-
The first tenure of Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister in the year 1990 saw another reign of loot and plunder. During this period Mian Nawaz Shairf obtained loans amounting to more than Rs.614 billion from Banks through his influence against inadequate guarantees. According to the details of loans obtained by Sharifs include Rs.1556 million for Ittefaq Foundries, Rs. 543 million for Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills, Rs.455 million for Mehran Ramzan Textile Mills, Rs.373 million for Ramzan Bukhsh Textile Mills, Rs.339 millions for Ch. Sugar Mills, Rs.226 millions for Ittefaq brothers, Rs. 205 million for Sandalbar Textile Mills, Rs.182 million for Hudaibiya Engineering Mills, Rs.153 million for Hamza Board Mills Ltd, Rs.134 million for Hudaibiya paper Mills, Rs.351 Million for Brothers Sugar Mills, Rs.174 million for Brothers Textile Mills, Rs.159 million for Brothers Steel Mills, Rs.623 million for Ramzan Sugar Mills, Rs. 191 million Khalid Siraj Textiles, Rs.313 million for Ittefaq Sugar Mills, Rs.164 million for Ittefaq Textile Mills, and Rs.239 million were obtained for Ittefaq Brothers. Due to the malpractice the national wealth was used for establishing personal empire while the country’s economy was facing disaster. This loan was equivalent to the total internal loan obtained by the government of Pakistan! These so called patriotic politicians ruthlessly plundered the national exchequer and used national wealth for personal financial gains. In addition money laundering worth billions of dollars through illegal means, wheat import scam, awarding motorway’s contract to an internationally black listed company, receiving heavy loans despite of being defaulter, secret businesses in UK (Evidence attached), Sugar mills in Kenya and four flats in the most expensive area of London and huge commissions in privatization of Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) are also a few “achievements” of Nawaz Sharif and family.
The Auditor General Report released in the year 1988-89 reported that Nawaz Sharif, misusing his authority as Chief Minister Punjab, issued directives which resulted into direct malpractice of Rs. 35 billion.
The report said that the Chief Minister Secretariat had been turned into a hub of corrupt practices and Nawaz Sharif used public money like an emperor that resulted into huge fiscal deficit of the province.
The Auditor General Report released in the year 1986-87 said that the then Chief Minister Nawaz Sharif had used Rs. 1200 million for malpractices in only one year.
Nawaz Sharif allotted 3000 precious Lahore Development Authority (LDA) plots among his favourites due to which the province suffered loss of billions of rupees.
Nawaz Sharif was the lead character of the Cooperative and Financial Institutions Scam, which deprived the retired employees, orphans, widows, and poor of their total assets amounting to Rs. 17 billion.
Nawaz Sharif released Rs. 1200 million from his discretionary grant in the year 1985-86 while Rs. 1895 million were released in 1986-87, Rs. 1899 million were used in 1987-88 while another Rs. 1887 million were distributed among his cronies.
Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and other party leaders practically share and proudly identify commonalities between PML-N and Taliban and they have very close ties and cordial relations with terrorists and banned terrorist outfits. In early 90s Nawaz Sharif received huge sums of money from Osama Bin Laden to overthrow former Prime Minister of Pakistan Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s Government. Even now PML-N’s cabinet members and spokespersons are commonly seen hanging around with members of those banned outfits, reportedly involved in managing terrorist attacks on thousands of innocent Pakistanis including soldiers, police officials and members of other law enforcement agencies.
Due to compromising attitude of PML-N’s leadership and their mild will to fight against the menace of terrorism the members of law enforcement agencies are completely demoralized. That is one of the reasons that the investigations against terrorists are not carried out in a proper manner and proof against arrested terrorists usually is not available. Due to the incapability of the Punjab Government terrible terrorist attacks took place in the province including suicide attack on Police Training School Bedian Road, blast in Moon Market Lahore, car bomb blast in the Rescue 15 building, car bomb blast in F.I.A building, suicide attack on Munawan Police Training Center, Model Town link road bomb blast, suicide attack on Jamia Naemia, terrorist attack on Ahmedi’s worship places, blasts in Imam Bargahs including Karbla Gammay Shah and suicide bomb blasts in the sacred shrine of Hazrat Data Gunj Buksh along with many others. After these attacks PML-N has morally lost its right of government in Punjab.
Further, it was Shahbaz Sharif, who instead of showing courage and political and moral will to fight against the enemies of Pakistan, in his speech in Jamia Naemia Lahore, begged for mercy from the terrorists. He, in a very disgraceful manner, requested them not to attack Punjab as they are likeminded and standing on the same side. This statement of Shahbaz Sharif reflects his mindset !
Nawaz Sharif and Co. has always been involved in destabilizing the democratic system by one way or the other and did not even hesitate to take bribes to grab power. Lt. General (R) Naseerullah Babar, the former Interior Minister had disclosed in the National Assembly in 1994, that the ISI had disbursed money to purchase the loyalty of various right wing politicians, including that of Nawaz Sharif, in order to manipulate the 1990 elections, for the Islamic Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI- Pakistan democratic alliance), and bring about the defeat of the PPP. As proof Lt. General (R) Naseerullah Babar, Lt. General (R) Asad Durrani and others have filed affidavits supported by copies of various documents. In Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s human rights petition (HRC 19/96) in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the former Chief of Army Staff Mirza Aslam Baig and the former Chief of the ISI and a banker concerning the criminal distribution of the people’s money for political purposes. The case is pending adjudication in the Supreme Court of Pakistan for the last 14 years.
1. 6. DECEIT AND LYING
Nawaz Sharif’s politics is based on the philosophy “lie repeatedly till it seems as the truth”. He has based his politics on deceit and lies. Nawaz Sharif and his “chellaz” believe in lying repeatedly and religiously follow their convictions in this regard. They are masters in the art of manipulation and alteration and use their wealth to achieve their goals. One example is enough to expose their hideous character. After conviction in the hijacking case, Nawaz Sharif and his family approached foreign friends who persuaded President Pervez Musharraf to have mercy and forgive them. Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and family sought pardon and signed agreements including a commitment not to participate in politics for a period of ten years but they kept lying and hid the existence of these agreements from the nation until the head of Saudi Arabian Secret Agency, Prince Miqran Bin Abdul Aziz and Prime Minister of Lebanon Mr. Saad Hariri’s unveiled the existence of these agreements and Ch. Nisar had to admit the existence of these agreements during the press conference of Javed Hashmi. Sharif brothers in return of Pervez Musharraf’s “Ehsaan” (generosity) have not only crossed all limits of hostility but also lied to the nation. Would Nawaz Sharif and his “chellaz” ever tender apology to the Pakistani Nation, for lying to them for so many years?
Under the horrible times of Shahbaz Sharif’s Government the Punjab province has been virtually converted in to a “Badmaash” (rogue) province. Here police officials get involved in heinous and brutal criminal activities like one in Sialkot. The administration did not take any action against the shameful and atrocious lynching of two young brothers until the footage was telecast on electronic channels. It is believed that only in Gujranwala Division, where a brother of PML (N) MNA was deputed as head of police department, more than two hundredextra judicial killings have taken place. The record shows that in Punjab, police force has been continuously used to harass and insult political rivals. An endless campaign of lodging false FIRs against political opponents has also been initiated. Use of brutal police force and baton-charge has become a routine. Every segment of society including journalists, doctors, teachers, students, nurses, Government employees, semi Government and private institutions and lawyers have faced the brutality of police while protesting for their demands.
It is a hard fact that poor governance & maladministration is trade mark of Sharif brothers. Shahbaz Sharif is an attention-seeker and likes to show off. For the sake of “cheap publicity” he has started calling himself “Khadam-e-Ala” but miserably failed to meet the challenges of governance and administration. It’s a harsh reality that during his tenure in Punjab all institutions deteriorated conspicuously. In order to achieve their motives, Sharifs always appoint their blue eyed personnel on key posts by completely ignoring merit. Almost all districts of Punjab are being run by grade 19 officers who are incapable hence a basic reason for poor governance. Due to his dictatorial approach Shahbaz Sharif himself heads 12 provincial ministries and he seldom holds cabinet meeting. He takes decisions over ruling, the cabinet. His obstinate behavior is the prime reason for the maladministration in the province. It would be just and appropriate to suggest that Sharifs have failed to establish a democratic spirit in their government and have completely overlooked the norms of democratic political setups.
In order to consolidate and attain more power, ‘the champion of democracy and independent judiciary’, Nawaz Sharif attacked every individual and institution, he felt could get in the way and challenge his authority. In order to get rid of Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who Nawaz Sharif despised, the latter created divisions amongst the judges using the humble services of a former judge, Rafique Tarrar (later President of Pakistan) to make life difficult for the Chief Justice. A group of judges refused to acknowledge CJ Sajjad Ali Shah as the Chief Justice and things got so bad that a number of junior judges made it difficult for him to carry out his duties. Eventually, Sharif ordered his thugs to attack the Supreme Court in order to prevent the Chief Justice from giving a ruling against him.
The police did nothing to stop Sharif’s thugs as they attacked and entered the Supreme Court premises. The judges inside the building barely managed to escape. The thugs, led by Sajjad Naseem and Mushtaq Tahir Kheli, Nawaz Sharif’s political secretaries, entered the court chanting anti-CJ Sajjad slogans and destroyed the Court Room.
1. 10. CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE PRESS AND JOURNALISTS
A number of incidents during 1998-99 indicated a pattern of harassment and intimidation of individual journalists as the government was increasingly becoming intolerant. Imtiaz Alam, a Lahore-based journalist, complains of threats over the telephone and then of his car being set on fire in a mysterious manner the next day. Another Lahore journalist, Mahmud Lodhi, was picked up and held in illegal custody for two days. He was questioned about his involvement with a BBC team filming a documentary on the rise and wealth of the Sharif family. Present Pakistani ambassador in USA Mr. Hussain Haqqani was picked up in a cloak-and-dagger fashion and interrogated at a FIA Center for money embezzlement while he held government office.
The residence of Idrees Bakhtiar, a senior staff reporter of monthly Herald and BBC correspondent in Karachi was raided by CIA police on Nov. 26, 1998. The police harassed the family and also arrested his 28-year old son, Moonis, who was later released. On Feb. 13, 1999, three persons, including Senator Abdul Hayee Baloch and a lady worker from Lahore, were injured when the police baton-charged, used water cannons and threw bricks on a peaceful procession of the Pakistan Awami Ittehad in front of the parliament house in Islamabad. The march, organized by the PAI for the freedom of the press, was led by PAI president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan (late), the then opposition leader Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and secretary general of the alliance Hamid Nasir Chatta, besides a number of sitting and former PPP MNAs and senators.
The owner of the Frontier Post, Rehmat Shah Afridi, was arrested in Lahore on April 2, 1999, by the Anti-narcotics Force. The Peshawar-based Frontier Post was critical of government policies. Afridi’s arrest was seen by journalists and others as another attempt to gag the Press. On May 8, 1999, Najam Sethi, Editor of The Friday Times, was arrested on the orders of Nawaz Sharif. Police stormed into his house in Lahore and dragged him out of his bed room. After brutal torture and breaking furniture of the house he was shifted to some unknown place. And before leaving the house with Mr. Sethi, they tied his wife Jugnoo’s hands with a rope and locked her up in a dressing room. Later, Nawaz Sharif asked COAS Gen. Musharraf to charge Mr. Sethi under the Pakistan Army Act for being a traitor and give him maximum punishment (maximum punishment is death!).
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a press freedom organization, said on June 1, 1999 that it was conducting an investigation into a “hit list” prepared by the Pakistan government that contains 35 prominent journalists of Pakistan. According to reports received by the CPJ, the federal government had decided to establish a special media cell comprising officials from the police, Intelligence Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency to punish the journalists, who had been writing against the government. Ehtesab Bureau Chairman, Senator Saifur Rehman Khan was to head this cell which would function from Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar with its head office in Islamabad.
According to the CPJ, the journalists were: Irshad Ahmed Haqqani (late), Rehmat Ali Razi, Anjum Rasheed, (writer and anchor person) Suhail Warraich, Sohaib Marghoob and (late) Roman Ehsan (Jang Lahore), M. Ziauddin (Dawn Islamabad), Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Javed Jaidi, Nusrat Javeed, Mariana Babar and Ansaar Abbassi (The News, Islamabad), Rehana Hakeem and Zahid Hussain (Newsline), Ejaz Haider, Khalid Ahmed, Jugnu Mohsin and Adnan Adil (The Friday Times, Lahore), Mahmood Sham (Jang, Karachi), Rashed Rehman (The Nation, Lahore), Amir Ahmed Khan (Herald, Karachi), Imtiaz Aalam, Beena Sarwar, Shafiq Awan, Kamila Hyat and Amir Mir (The News Lahore), Abbas Athar (Nawa-e-Waqt, Lahore), Kamran Khan and Shehzad Amjad (The News Karachi), Azam Khalil (Pulse), Mohammad Malik (Tribune), Imtiaz Ahmed (The Frontier Post, Peshawar), Ilyas Chaudhry (Jang Rawalpindi), Naveed Meraj (The Frontier Post, Islamabad) and Syed Talat Hussain (The Nation, Islamabad).
The Government of Nawaz Sharif started a campaign against the Jang group in July 1998 when it refused to sack a number of journalists critical of Government policies. The government objected to the Jang group newspapers’ reporting about the law and order situation in the country and put a ban on advertisement. On August 13, a report was published about non-payment of Rs. 700 million to farmers by the sugar mills owned by the Nawaz Sharif family. Three days later, the government sent notices to Jang for non payment of taxes and the case was shifted to the Ehtesab cell. On September 27, 1998, the Government asked the Jang group not to publish a report of ‘The Observer London’ that Nawaz Sharif had siphoned off millions of rupees. The report was not published by the Jang but it was published by its sister English newspaper The News. On November 5, bank accounts of the Jang group were frozen and FIA raided the Jang and the News offices in Rawalpindi and customs authorities stopped delivery of newsprint to the Jang.
On Jan 28 1999, a sedition case was registered against Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman for publishing an advertisement of Muttahida’s Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation on January 1, which according to the police, was aimed at inciting people against the state.
Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman revealed that Senator Saif-ur-Rehman asked him to sack a number of Jang employees who should be replaced in consultation with the Government. He released to the press audio-tapes of conversation with Saif-ur-Rehman on this issue. Saif-ur-Rehman accused Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman for evading tax and customs duty to the tune of Rs. 2.6 billion.
The hostility of Sharifs towards media is also evident from the fact that in the parliamentary history of Pakistan for the first time a resolution, condemning the media, was tabled (by a group of MPAs belonging to Nawaz League) and passed in the Punjab Assembly.
1. 11. DESTABILIZATION OF INSTITUTIONS
There is probably no institution in Pakistan which Nawaz Sharif did not aggressively confront in order to make them comply with his wishes. Besides picking a fight with the President, the Judiciary and the restricted/limited media of that time, Sharif also decided to have a confrontation with the army, the only viable institution left in Pakistan. Due to his hostile and dumb approach in Nawaz Sharif’s first term as prime minister, he fell out with three successive army chiefs: General Mirza Aslam Beg, General Asif Nawaz and General Abdul Waheed Kakar. During his second tenure, he fell out with two other Generals, General Karamat and later with General Pervez Musharraf. General Karamat became the first Chief of Army Staff in the history of Pakistan to have been prematurely retired!
One by one all challenges and potential obstacles to his dictatorial mindset were removed from his way by Nawaz Sharif. Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Farooq Leghari, Sajjad Ali Shah, and General Jehangir Karamat were all removed from the scene by Nawaz Sharif.
1. 12. Ill-CONSIDERED ECONOMIC DECISIONS
Nawaz Sharif’s ill-considered economic decisions cost Pakistan dearly! But the Sharif family’s personal business empire grew exponentially through questionable means.
Nawaz Sharif, during his tenure as Chief Minister Punjab from 1988-90, deprived the provincial departments of Rs. 15.35 billion. In addition in 1997-99 he caused huge loss amounting in 11 billion US dollars to private account holders by freezing foreign currency accounts contrary to the law and constitution wherein he and his cronies managed to get away with huge sums even after the freeze. Billions of dollars were removed from the banks without the permission/consent of the account holders but the accounts of common Pakistanis were withheld.
In last two and half years, Shahbaz Sharif wasted more than 40 billion rupees in “Sasti Roti” and other subsidized food schemes that had been initiated to earn cheap popularity and to benefit their political supporters. Admittedly these funds have been distributed amongst their own supporters without any audit just to gain political mileage. A huge chunk of these funds has been disbursed by the ghost “Tandurs” (burners) owners. Inflation and un-employment is rocketing day by day due to the ill-conceived decisions of the provincial government. This is one of the reasons that Punjab could not help flood victims at the time because they had utilized their funds in senseless politically motivated schemes and now have an overdraft amounting Rs. 80 billion.
The so called son of soil Nawaz Sharif virtually sold Kashmir in 1999 during Indian PM’s visit to Lahore. Nawaz Sharif deleted the word Kashmir from the joint declaration to please Indian counterpart. By crossing all the limits of treachery and falsehood Nawaz Sharif and his cronies claim that Pakistan armed forces lost the Kargil war. In fact, due to the decisions of Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan lost this war in the drawing room of the American President after wining it in the battlefield.
1. 14. ATOMIC EXPLOSIONS
It is a proven fact that in 1998 Nawaz Sharif was double-minded about the atomic explosions. While the nation waited breathlessly for a befitting reply to India, Nawaz Sharif was busy in negotiating economic packages with US Government. Gohar Ayub Khan, who was foreign minister at that time, has also corroborated this fact in his book. (Courtesy: http://jhootaylog.wordpress.com/nawaz-sharifs-corruption/)
(11) Nawaz Sharif imposes his relative as leaders in the government in his “constituency” is very corrupt.
Dubai: HDS Tower in Cluster F of Jumeirah Lakes Tower is only one of the 34 story buildings that belong to the mighty HDS Group. The News Tribe learnt that several other buildings in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Business Bay and International City, like the HDS Sunstar Towers, are also owned by the millionaire brothers, surprisingly Pakistanis.
The owners of HDS Group, Ali Dar and Hasnain Dar, are none other than the sons of former finance minister of Pakistan, Senator Ishaq Dar. It’s worth mentioning here that the elder son Ali Dar is also the son-in-law of Pakistan Muslim League’s leader Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif.
Apart from several real estate ventures, The HDS Group also launched HDS Rent a Car, JLT a month back in July 2012.
Senator Ishaq Dar’s son Ali Dar takes the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 for the inaugural run.
The uniqueness of the car rental company lies in its array of niche car manufacturers and models of cars unavailable to the market. HDS Rent a Car owns the 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, Mercedes Benz SLS 63 AMG Gullwing, apart from the more economy cars such as Peugeots and Renaults. Some of the many exotic, luxury and SUVs in the lineup are the the Ferrari Berlinetta F12 and the McLaren F1, and you can do the numbers yourself!
The owners from a ‘poor and starving’ country Pakistan, where the average monthly income for an individual is $41, are offering such exotic services in Dubai, which even the local Emiratis fail to afford.
Madhu Bhindari, the Indian Billionaire who invested money in Dubai with Pakistani politicians.
Sources further told The News Tribe that the story does not end here; another Finance Minister from the Nawaz Sharif Government, made hundreds of real estate transactions with Madhu Bhindari, an Indian billionaire entrepreneur, who is on a run-away from Dubai, after losing 150 million dirhams in the 2008 crisis. However, the finance minister’s buildings and investments are still there, earning a hefty income.
A Pakistani real estate agent, who claimed to carry out transactions for a serving government officer in Sindh Government, told The News Tribe that a lot of Pakistani bureaucrats and politicians have properties worth millions in Dubai.
“The son of a serving government officer from Sindh government invested a huge amount of money in real estate here in 2008, and I carried out transactions for him,” the agent claimed.
“Where are these politicians getting the money from?” asked a frustrated Pakistani in Dubai, who came to know that the building he lived in is owned by Ali and Hasnain Dar’s HDS Group.
“If they have billions of dollars and so much money, why is it not in Pakistan? These politicians talk about the welfare of Pakistani people, but all they can think about is themselves!”
Previously, Director Swiss Bank had stated that Pakistan has around 97 billion dollars only in Swiss Banks. But, it seems that Pakistani politicians and businessmen have more than 97 billion dollars outside Swiss Banks, invested in various countries and financial hubs like Dubai.
According to the Swiss Bank director, if the money is utilized for the welfare of Pakistan and its people, then Pakistan can make tax free budget for next 30 years, can create 60 million jobs, can carpet four lanes road from any village to Islamabad, provide endless power supply, every citizen can earn Rs. 20,000 salary for the next 60 years and there is no need to take loans from IMF or World Bank.
http://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/08/11/we-are-billionaires-let-pakistanis-suffer/#.UChcB6CuV06
Nawaz Sharif who awards road contract at five times the actual cost and yet the roads are never completed is very corrupt like the Rawalpindi -Peshawar Motorway.
ISLAMABAD – PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif made financial gains of $418 million during his twice stints as Prime Minister of the country, according to a book entitled Capitalism’s Achilles Heel by Raymond W Baker.
The book is a dossier on the corruption of most dominated political families in the history including Nawaz Sharif and how they accumulated their properties, factories and enormous wealth.
According to the book, at least $160 million were pocketed by Nawaz Sharif during his first stint as the Prime Minister in the 1990, from a contract to build a highway from Lahore, his home town, to Islamabad, the nation’s capital.
At least $140 million in unsecured loans from Pakistan’s state banks. More than $60 million generated from government rebates on sugar exported by mills controlled by Mr. Sharif and his business associates.
At least $58 million skimmed from prices paid for imported wheat from the United States and Canada. In the wheat deal, Mr. Sharif’s government paid prices far above market value to a private company owned by a close associate of his in Washington, the records show. Falsely in?ated invoices for the wheat generated tens of millions of dollars in cash.
The book review went on to state that “The extent and magnitude of this corruption is so staggering that it has put the very integrity of the country at stake.”
Under Sharif, unpaid bank loans and massive tax evasion remained the favorite ways to get rich.
Upon his loss of power the usurping government published a list of 322 of the largest loan defaulters, representing almost $3 billion out of $4 billion owed to banks. Sharif and his family were tagged for $60 million.
Like Bhutto, offshore companies have been linked to Sharif, three in the British Virgin Islands by the names of Nescoll, Nielson, and Shamrock and another in the Channel Islands known as Chandron Jersey Pvt. Ltd. Some of these entities allegedly were used to facilitate purchase of four rather grand flats on Park Lane in London, at various times occupied by Sharif family members.
In 1999 Musharraf had Sharif probed, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, but then in 2000 exiled him to Saudi Arabia. Twenty-two containers of carpets and furniture followed, and, of course, his foreign accounts remained mostly intact. Ensconced in a glittering palace in Jeddah, he is described as looking “corpulent” amidst “opulent” surroundings.
Nawaz Sharif rules his constituency only on the pages of newspapers with propaganda when in actual fact there is really nothing on ground.
He intimidates the local press and threatens them with closure if they report true events about his corruption. He offers Board Chairmanship of Agencies of Public companies to his Croonies.
AMIT BARUAH
in Islamabad
THE crackdown on the press by the Nawaz Sharif Government does not come as a surprise. It has been in the making for several months now. The first indication came when the Government targeted the Jang group of newspapers – starving it of newsprint and launching an investigation into alleged income tax violations by its proprietor Mir Shakilur Rehman.
More recently, on April 1, the Sharif Government got Rehmat Shah Afridi, the Editor of The Frontier Post, arrested on charges of smuggling narcotics; on May 4, Hussain Haqqani, a leading columnist and politician, on charges of corruption; and on May 8, Najam Sethi, the Editor of The Friday Times, for his alleged links with the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency. In an effort to diminish these developments, the Government claims that Afridi, Haqqani and Sethi were arrested not for their writings, but for specific offences that are unrelated to their professional status.
In other instances of harassment and intimidation, M.A.K. Lodhi, the Lahore-based head of the investigative bureau of The News, was detained for 48 hours for “providing help” to a BBC team that was making a film on the alleged corruption of Nawaz Sharif’s family.
Imtiaz Alam, Editor (Current Affairs), The News, who organised a meeting of parliamentarians from India and Pakistan in Islamabad, had his car torched by unidentified persons who entered his house in the early hours of the day.
Sethi was “arrested” by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the “disparaging comments” he made about an “all-round crisis” in Pakistan, at the India International Centre in New Delhi on April 30. His comments were used to label him as a person who had “links” with RAW, and he was accused of undermining the foundations of Pakistan as an Islamic state.
A damning report submitted by Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India (he was present at the conference Sethi addressed), was used to justify Sethi’s “arrest”. Around 2-30 a.m. on May 8, several armed men forced their way into Sethi’s house in Lahore, beat up two armed guards, and entered his bedroom. Sethi’s wife Jugnu Mohsin alleged that they beat him with clubs and the chain attached to the hand-cuffs they carried. She further alleged that Sethi was whisked away without being allowed to put on his spectacles and wear his shoes. She said that when she asked the armed men whether they had an arrest warrant, she was told that she would get her husband’s “body”. Jugnu alleged that she was tied up and locked up in the dressing room.
A statement issued by the Government on May 8 said: “It is suspected that the journalist has some nexus/connection with the RAW. He has projected a dismal picture of Pakistan at their behest to create despondency and doubts in the minds of Pakistanis. In order to unearth such links, it was considered necessary to investigate him on matters of national security.”
However, it is widely believed that Sethi was arrested not for what he said in India, but for his outspoken criticism of the Nawaz Sharif Government. The tone and tenor of his weekly editorials in The Friday Times are biting, and they often mock the Government. It is widely believed that the Government had been waiting for an opportunity to strike.
K.M. CHOUDARY/ AP
Najam Sethi addressing a news conference in Lahore on May 5, where he expressed his fear of being put under arrest. He was detained on
May 8.
Sethi began his lecture at the India International Centre by referring to the multiple crises gripping Pakistan. “The crisis of identity and ideology refers to the fact that after 50 years (of Independence), Pakistanis are still unable to collectively agree upon who we are as a nation, where we belong, what we believe in and where we want to go…” He had used these very words in an editorial titled “What is to be done?” in The Friday Times of January 1-7, 1999. The editorial and the lecture he gave are similar in content.
The Government said that critical remarks about the country could be made on Pakistani soil, but not in India. Obviously, the Lahore Declaration does not extend to individuals or the right to criticise each other’s government or society. A ‘fact sheet’ released by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N) on May 13 makes the same point: “There is enough material to show that he (Sethi) vehemently questioned the very basis of the creation of Pakistan. No doubt many others in Pakistan hold similar views, but most of them follow the ethical principle that one does not denigrate or ridicule one’s own country when visiting foreign lands, particularly before an audience known to be opposed to the existence of the country.” (Obviously, the fact that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee referred to Pakistan and India as “separate nations” – an acknowledgment of Partition – during his visit to the Minar-i-Pakistan is not enough to convince Sharif’s Muslim League that India does not oppose Pakistan’s existence.) The ‘fact sheet’ further states that Sethi started his career as a “book seller” and a “gun-runner”, and that he has been dabbling in politics, having been a Minister in Farooq Leghari’s caretaker government (November 1996-February 1997). “He is still known to have close links with Mr. Leghari and his recently launched Millat Party,” it states, “…but his detention is related neither to his being an editor, nor a politician from an Opposition party. The immediate reason officially stated is the speech he made recently at a seminar in New Delhi. But his alleged links with the Indian intelligence agency RAW were under investigation for long.”
APART from being criticised by independent journalists, human rights organisations and a host of other groups for its actions, the Sharif Government has been strongly criticised by the United States, the European Union and Canada.
Interestingly, this is the first time since Sharif assumed power that the U.S. has expressed such categorical views on what is obviously Pakistan’s “internal” issue. The U.S. maintained a studied silence and refused to comment on the dispute between Sharif and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah in 1997 and on the confrontation between Sharif and the Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. Jehangir Karamat, in 1998.
CLEARLY, a battle is on to safeguard the independent press in Pakistan. Najam Sethi’s case could well become a test case. If the Government gets away with putting one of Pakistan’s best-known journalists behind bars and the courts remain silent spectators (the Lahore High Court rejected a habeas corpus petition in this regard), all the writers who are critical of the Government would be easy game for the Government. The saving grace is that a small but vocal section of Pakistani society is committed to defending the freedom of the press and the right to expression from attacks by the Government.
(16) A leader who recently immortalized a man who conducted the worst election in Nigeria (as have proved by the upturning and mollification of result) with the renaming of a popular road in his constituency after him is very corrupt.
(17) Nawaz Sharif’s Kashmiri Mafia has become the biggest Qabza Group in Pakistan. This Qabza Group has takenover properties on Hall Road, Beadon Road, Mall Road, Model Town, Raiwind, Kala Shah Kakur and most suburbia of Lahore.
In his last term, Nawaz Sharifs rate of acquisition of personal properties was inversely proportional to the rate of development of Pakistan.
When Nawaz Sharif became prime minister, the group took a decision to secure project loans from the foreign banks and only working capital was 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.
During the Afghan-Soviet War Nawaz Sharif’s cousin and brother-in-law, 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 was at this time that he became one of the biggest drug and crime bosses in Pakistan and was nicknamed the “King of Heera 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.
Nawaz Sharif awards contracts only roughly to companies he has interest in including that of Malik Riaz, Babar Butt, Mirza Iqbal, a convicted heroin smuggler.
URDU SPEAKING MUSHAHIDULLAH KHAN, A NAWAZ SHARIF JIYALA, BLACKBALLED: A TYPICAL NAWAZ SHARIF UMBURSARI KASHMIRI RACISM
Nawaz Sharif is a Racist Bigot. He discarded like a wet rag and blackballed his biggest Urdu Speaking JIyala Mushahidullah Khan, because, Mushahid Ullah hailed from UP India, from District Bijnor, City of Najibabad. who forcefully changed his female appointee in his cabinet just because she refused to approve a large sum of money for unusual “purpose” is very corrupt.
Nawaz Sharif threatens social critics, public opinion analysts, media personalities like Mubasher Lucman and social crusaders with death threats through PML(N) Jiyalas and jail terms if they continue to criticize and expose his government is corrupt.
Nawaz Sharif’s Budget 2013-2014 allocation meant for development of Pakistan is directed towards the pockets of rich in the society and members of the legislatures who are absolutely corrupt.
Posted by admin in Nawaz 's Dauphin, Nawaz Dangerous, Nawaz Sharif & Kashmiri Biradari, Nawaz Sharif Dangerous Man, NAWAZ SHARIF DICTATOR, NAWAZ SHARIF FAMILY TURPITUDE, NAWAZ SHARIF LOAN SCAM, Nawaz Sharif Massive Corruption, NAWAZ SHARIF MUZZLES PRESS, NAWAZ SHARIF US CIA ASSET IN PAKISTAN, Nawaz Sharif-The Prime Minister from Hell, NAWAZ SHARIF: THE LOOTER on January 4th, 2014
“Voter Hadi Buksh, son of Khanpur district resident Saki Jatoi, voted 310 times for the women’s only polling station No. 209,” read the tribunal’s report. PHOTO: APP/FILE
ISLAMABAD: While the government has been accusing the opposition of needlessly creating controversy over magnetic ink, it seems the issue is much larger than previously thought.
Despite doubts over the effectiveness of the magnetic ink and whether the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) was capable of verifying thumb impressions, the ink has yielded results according to an election tribunal’s report.
The tribunal, which had been tasked with probing irregularities in NA-202 Shikarpur-I, discovered that one voter in the constituency had cast votes a staggering 310 times.
“Voter Hadi Buksh, son of Khanpur district resident Saki Jatoi, voted 310 times for the women’s only polling station No. 209,” read the tribunal’s report, removing doubt over NADRA’s ability to verify thumb impressions on votes.
“There is no doubt this revelation was made possible due to the use of magnetic ink,” a senior official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told The Express Tribune. “The credit goes to the ECP, NADRA and the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) for coming up with the idea,” he said. PCSIR had prepared the special ink on the request of the ECP. The request was made on the basis of a suggestion by NADRA. The ink was approved by NADRA after several tests, but their results were never disclosed.
According to sources, NADRA has also developed a system to verify thumb impressions on as many as 100,000 votes a day. They said the authority had set up a special cell in this regard, which comprises 150 employees who are under oath to abstain from any interaction with the media or anyone else.
The cell, the sources added, will continue its work even if incumbent chairman Tariq Malik – whose removal by the government has been stayed by the Islamabad High Court – is forced to leave the office.
“The ECP is happy with the discovery and is waiting for the election tribunal to decide the fate of the person identified [as responsible for the multiple votes],” the ECP official said. “A person involved in voting irregularities has been caught for the first time and should receive exemplary punishment.”
He added that if the ECP found the punishment awarded by the tribunal as lacking, it would take “suo motu notice and award punishment which will set a precedent.”
“Although the matter is sub judice and we don’t want to put pressure on the election tribunals, we ask them to award exemplary punishment in such cases.”
Responding to a question, he said that while the use of magnetic ink has become controversial, the commission has found a direction and is moving on the right path.
“We should not overlook the positive aspect that we have developed a system… a deterrent which will make people think twice before carrying out any foul play in elections,” he said. The official added that the magnetic ink would be standardised for the upcoming local government elections in three provinces.
But as optimism prevails in the ECP, the Lahore High Court has barred NADRA from verifying thumb impressions in NA-118 Lahore. The authority had been asked to carry out the process by the election tribunal set up for the constituency. The court stayed the process after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker Riaz Malik – who secured victory in the constituency – contended that there was no legal provision for verifying votes through thumbprints.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2013.
Posted by admin in Nawaz 's Dauphin, Nawaz Sharif Dangerous Man, NAWAZ SHARIF DICTATOR, NAWAZ SHARIF FAMILY TURPITUDE, NAWAZ SHARIF LOAN SCAM, Nawaz Sharif Massive Corruption on December 29th, 2013
Posted by admin in Nawaz Sharif & Kashmiri Biradari, Nawaz Sharif Dangerous Man, NAWAZ SHARIF DICTATOR, NAWAZ SHARIF FAMILY TURPITUDE, NAWAZ SHARIF LOAN SCAM, Nawaz Sharif Massive Corruption, NAWAZ SHARIF MUZZLES PRESS, NAWAZ SHARIF SAGA OF ABSOLUTE & CHRONIC CORRUPTION, Nawaz Sharif-The Prime Minister from Hell, NAWAZ SHARIF: THE LOOTER, Nawaz US Agent on December 26th, 2013
Recent statements by PML-N leaders show their complete lack of self-confidence regarding how they have governed Pakistan in a little over six months. Despite acquiring the mandate to govern the federation and the country’s largest province, statements by the Interior Minister regarding the Opposition’s so-called plans for precipitating “mid-term” elections – especially when the incumbent government has more than four years left in its tenure, and when local bodies elections are just around the corner – are nothing but the party’s own acknowledgment that it has fallen short of its pre-election commitments and that their government has not been able to deliver in terms of alleviating the daily problems of the masses, controlling inflation, providing jobs, sustaining the economy, and providing good governance by rooting out corruption and nepotism (something the PML-N is notorious for itself). Statements to this effect – especially when they have been categorically rejected by the two main Opposition parties in the National Assembly, the PPP and the PTI – only betray the PML-N’s paranoia (rather than its “pareshani” or worries) and lack of self-confidence regarding their own performance in government.
Even to the naked eye untrained in the peculiarities of Pakistan’s national and provincial politics, it is obvious that the PML-N has been elected with a much “heavier” mandate than its predecessor PPP government: it has a much stronger presence in the National Assembly than the PPP did between 2007 and 2013, when it had to form a minority government with the backing of various other coalition partners. On the very night of the May 2013 general elections, with less than 2% of the polls counted, the PML-N chief (and now Prime Minister) declared his party victorious and “prayed to the Almighty” that the party does not have to form a coalition government supported by political partners that would extract heavy concessions and effectively disable the PML-N from following its own path of governance (and essentially “going it alone” when it came to running the government of Pakistan). Despite this overt strength of numbers that the PML-N enjoys in the National Assembly – a quality that the party has historically used to convert Parliament into a rubber stamp for the Cabinet (or rather, the Prime Minister) – and the fact that there is no cohesive, coherent, unified, focused or combined political opposition to the PML-N for miles around, the party is still paranoid about parties with a handful of seats in the NA (relative to the Treasury benches) trying to overturn the government using “extra-Constitutional” measures. In this scenario, there is no other explanation for the statement of the Interior Minister (which has been rejected by the main Opposition parties) and the general sentiment within the PML-N (as well as the general public sentiment towards the new, post-May 2013 government) except that they are paranoid about their ineffective governance of the country, the faltering indicators and statistics, the worsening living condition of the average Pakistani and especially the poor, and the continuing nose-dive of the economy and the security/law and order situation. The defensive attitude of the PML-N’s own parliamentarians and spokespersons, along with bursts of verbal retaliation every now and then, continue to betray the party’s paranoia and self-perception of weakness and failure, despite the obvious strength of its Constitutional position as the rightfully mandated government of Pakistan. Perhaps the party, its senior office-bearers and elected cadres realize this early that they have not been able to live up to the expectations that they had created in the hearts and minds of the Pakistani people during 2012 and the early period of 2013. While it is hoped that the PML-N government does not continue to exhibit this defeatist and defensive attitude, and actually refines its governance methodology so as to fix its mistakes and improve the way the state of Pakistan provides general services and a livable environment for its citizens of all classes and creeds, the strengths of the PML-N – as apparent since their ascent to power after May 2013 – actually cause concern and raise many an eyebrow when they themselves interpret and express their position of power to be one of helplessness and ready defeat, of a morose and moribund condition which cannot be improved in the coming years (especially before 2018, which is quite possible to do so, but the PML-N’s behaviour and attitude makes experts and analysts think otherwise). One wonders if this is a political ploy, or a governance tactic that will continue for the coming five years of the incumbent parliamentary tenure, or an actual helplessness on part of the governing administration to fix the country’s problems and provide a better economy, society, security environment, governance policy, implementation mechanism and living standard for all Pakistanis.
The assertion that this is just paranoia on part of the ruling PML-N dispensation is not an unfounded notion that has no basis in fact or reality. A simple comparison with the preceding government alone – and not the Musharraf regime from 2002 to 2007/08, or even the governments of the 1990s – can rule out all other reasons for the PML-N to be acting in such a manner.
The PML-N’s parliamentary strength – greater than that of the PPP from 2008 to 2013 – has already been made clear. The PML-N does not – and did not – need support from other political parties to form a government, or to pass the budget (Finance Bill 2013/14), or to enact other laws (the most important law, concerning the country’s security situation, was dealt with through a Presidential Ordinance called the “Protection of Pakistan Ordinance”, which will require approval by the federal parliamentary legislatures within 90 days of the Ordinance being given assent by the President of Pakistan). Other factors such as major appointments to Constitutional posts – which the PML-N faced minimal problems in addressing, except for their own intra-party indecision and consistent rethinking up to the last minutes – also reflect the strength of the PML-N to be greater than that of its predecessor government. The PML-N elected its candidate for the President of Pakistan to the supreme office of the head of state: Mamnoon Hussain now occupies that prestigious post, but unlike his immediate predecessor, Asif Ali Zardari, President Hussain has yet to take any significant initiative on his own – whether political or administrative. PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari joked on Twitter about how Pakistan’s new President is much more comfortable being inactive behind the scenes while the nation faces critical challenges and significant threats on a daily basis. The PML-N government also fed stories to the media about how the country’s new Army Chief would be announced and decided well in advance of General Kayani’s retirement in November 2013: this did not happen, as the last-minute adjustments had to take place before incumbent Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif was appointed and given command of Pakistan’s most important state institution. General Sharif (no relation to the Prime Minister) superseded only one senior General, who was the senior-most and who retired in order to pave the way for General Sharif’s appointment, and the other General senior to General Sharif was appointed to the post of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC). The incumbent Chairman of the JCSC previously served as Corps Commander Lahore, and is therefore an eminently suitable choice to advise the government on matters related to the armed forces of Pakistan. The new Army Chief, General Raheel Sharif, was instrumental in designing and deploying the Pakistan Army’s new command and control doctrine, which was effectively and successfully tested with the Azm-e-Nau (New Resolve) exercises that the Army undertook with the Air Force in recent years. The superseded General – a commando and former General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the elite Special Services Group (SSG) of the Pakistan Army – had personally led special forces units of the Pakistan Army into battle in Swat and Malakand division, particularly in the Battle of Peochar Valley, to ouster TTP elements and extremist militant groups loyal to Mullah Fazlullah (the new commander of the TTP after Hakeemullah Mehsud was killed in a U.S. drone strike on the eve of the commencement of the Pakistan government’s “peace talks” initiative with the militant group). This officer, the senior-most General after the former Army Chief General Kayani, chose to retire rather than continue serving as a three-star general or as Chief of General Staff (CGS, a prestigious appointment in the Pakistan Army, usually awarded to the senior-most general after the COAS himself) in order to avoid any undue controversy or dissension among the rank and file of the Pakistan Army. In addition to reconfiguring the Pakistan Army’s doctrine and command to face the modern challenges and threat matrix present before the country and its security apparatus, General Sharif is a third-generational soldier, and his brother – Major Shabbir Sharif – is a recipient of the posthumous Nishan-e-Haider medal, the highest military honour of the Pakistan Armed Forces which is awarded to a martyr who performs the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield in service of the motherland. After electing their candidate as the new President and selecting their own choice for appointment as the new Army Chief, the PML-N government also paved a smooth path for the new Chief Justice of Pakistan, Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, as Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry retired from the Supreme Court as the apex judicial officer of the country after an illustrious tenure filled with highlights – especially after 2007, when the now-retired CJP provided opposition parties the ultimate platform for opposing the military regime that tried to oust him twice, but met its ignominious demise in doing so. After his return to the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Chaudhry became the hero of the masses, and took suo moto notices of many major and minor incidents like no other judge in the history of Pakistan (or in modern history, thus causing many analysts and jurists to comment on the unfettered judicial activism of Pakistan’s superior judiciary), and making use of the country’s “vibrant” electronic media (another offspring of the dictator’s military regime) to take suo moto notices as well as make pronouncements regarding judicial proceedings well in advance of the truncation of these proceedings to the effect of pronouncing a judgment in such cases. As such, CJP Chaudhry proved to be a continuous bane for the Musharraf regime as well as for the subsequent PPP regime, putting judicial as well as public pressure (via the media) on the government and the administration. CJP Chaudhry will go down in history as the first Chief Justice to disqualify a sitting Prime Minister from his seat in the National Assembly, and therefore, of his Constitutional office of the country’s chief executive and head of government. CJP Chaudhry’s successor, CJP Jillani, is known as the “mild-mannered judge” and the “gentleman judge”, and has so far refrained from making use of the country’s electronic media and/or other avenues of pressure and force, and seems intent on restoring the judiciary’s honour and impartiality by maintaining the sanctity of cases being heard by the apex court as “sub judice” and therefore illegal for discussion in the public domain until the judiciary provides its judgment on the matter: something that CJP Chaudhry was quick to penalize others for, and hold them in contempt of court, while he himself basked in the media’s limelight as his verbatim statements were launched by news channels as headlines and breaking news even though no judgment had been issued (and the cases remained “sub judice”, or under the jurisdiction of the judiciary and out of the public domain).
As the PML-N filled these three important Constitutional posts – and did so without the fanfare or the controversy or the negative media limelight that the PPP government endured – its strength as the government of Pakistan was definitely augmented within the first six months of its coming into power, and added to the strength of its numbers in the National Assembly. In 2009, the PPP government was forced by the PML-N (which was then in the Opposition in the National Assembly) to reinstate CJP Chaudhry after a legal dispute caused the imposition of Governor’s Rule in the Punjab province, and the PML-N – which lost its government in the province – launched a “long march” towards Islamabad for the restoration of the CJP (but turned back at Gujranwala after the then-PM Gillani – who was later ousted by CJP Chaudhry himself – announced the reappointment of CJP Chaudhry in a late-night address to the nation: after taking the reins of the Supreme Court once again, CJP Chaudhry declared the Governor’s Rule in Punjab to be illegal, thereby restoring the PML-N government in that province). In the same manner, the PPP government extended the tenure of COAS General Kayani for an additional three years through a late-night address to the nation by PM Gillani – a measure which drew negative responses from many quarters, including the PML-N, regarding the method of the announcement, and making connections regarding possibilities that the announcement was made at a time when “the U.S. would be awake”.
After the resignation of President Musharraf, the PPP and its allied parties elected Asif Ali Zardari to the office of the President. President Zardari served five years as head of state, during which he actively worked for consensus and reconciliation among all political parties – especially the government’s coalition partners. In addition, he was instrumental in overturning the 17th Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan and – under the auspices of the 18th Amendment – returning important Constitutional powers to the office of the Prime Minister and to the Parliament, thus restoring the Constitution in its original shape as per the 1973 document and giving power to the federal parliamentary setup in the country rather than keeping such powers with the office of the President (as General Musharraf had done). President Zardari also faced a lot of flak from the Supreme Court and from other quarters (political, public and others) regarding allegations of corruption that had dogged him since the 1990s, for which he faced 11 years in jail and emerged “without a single case being proven” (although the reality is that he was one of the primary beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance promulgated by General Musharraf to woo the PPP and its erstwhile leader, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi in December 2007). For his refusal to write a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen cases against Asif Ali Zardari, who was then President of Pakistan and enjoyed immunity in Pakistani and foreign courts (as admitted by Swiss judicial authorities as well), PM Gillani was declared to be in contempt of court by CJP Chaudhry, and was ultimately disqualified from holding his seat in the National Assembly and the office of the Prime Minister. The PPP’s President, Asif Ali Zardari, was also the focus of the oft-discussed “minus-one formula”, wherein the PPP government was told that it would be allowed to continue in government without any overt, existential threat from any quarter (judicial, legislative, or extra-Constitutional) if President Zardari were to vacate office (and perhaps also leave the control of the PPP – as the President of Pakistan is bound to be an apolitical entity and cannot hold an office of profit or a membership in any political organization or party while serving as head of state). The Lahore High Court admitted petitions regarding President Zardari’s occupancy of the office of Co-Chairperson of the PPP, and accepted the petitioner’s prayers that the President be asked (or ordered) to relinquish one of two posts: either that of the President (i.e. head of the state), or that of the party co-chief (i.e. the political office). While facing political, media and public threats like these to its very existence, the PPP government was obviously paranoid and defensive – and its members and parliamentarians also paid heavy prices during the 2008-2013 era as well as in the May 2013 general elections. The PML-N faces no such threats so far, and the kinds of threats faced by the PPP do not bear any resemblance (and are of far greater magnitude and severity) to those that the PML-N government currently faces.
So what are the reasons for the PML-N to be so paranoid, despite spending only six months in government at the center? This paranoia is also surprising because most of the negative media attention is focused on the new entry in Pakistan’s national politics, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI, and particularly its policy on drone strikes and the protest sit-in (dharna) that its workers are dedicated to in Peshawar and KP province (where the PTI is in power) so as to stop and deter NATO supplies to Afghanistan until the U.S. announces a complete and unilateral cessation of drone strikes in Pakistan’s FATA areas (like the one that killed former TTP leader Hakeemullah Mehsud, and his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud).
Many analysts point to the worsening economy of Pakistan under the PML-N regime since May 2013: the poor economic performance is highlighted by uncontrollable inflation and price hikes instituted by the PML-N government, as well as the continued weakness of the Rupee against the U.S. Dollar (which has stabilized to a certain extent, but is still at a dangerous level because Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves are only sufficient to meet approximately one month’s import bill). The PML-N’s poor economic performance is also highlighted by its acquisition of a U.S.$ 6 billion loan from the IMF, despite claims that it would “break the begging bowl” that Pakistan’s governments take when going abroad to wealthier countries or to donor agencies. This would point to the PML-N’s realization that it is itself backtracking on its electoral pledges and manifesto promises, on the economy and on other issues of national governance. The PML-N’s paranoia can also be attributed to foreign policy failures and national security failures: the biggest example of a combination of these two is the apparent “sabotage” of Pakistan’s so-called “peace process” with the TTP by a U.S. drone strike which killed TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud and brought the rabid Mullah Fazlullah to the helm of the umbrella militant organization, thereby dashing any hopes of a negotiated settlement with the terrorist grouping that claims to command between 50 and 70 militant organizations under its operational and ideological umbrella. The Prime Minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif, simultaneously held the portfolios of Defence Minister as well as Foreign Minister: the portfolio of Defence Minister has now been given to Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif, ostensibly so that the head of the Defence Ministry may appear before the Supreme Court in the “missing persons case”. Regardless of that, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister are still struggling to carve out a suitable and implementable foreign policy and regional policy for Pakistan – especially as the crucial year of 2014 is dawning – despite having experts like Sartaj Aziz and Tariq Fatemi and retaining them in an official advisory capacity to help finalize and implement Pakistan’s new foreign policy.
Nevertheless, Pakistan’s new foreign policy, as well as its much-touted National Security Policy, which was revealed to an All Parties Conference (APC) by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan (but has yet to be seen by the Pakistani public), seem to run into one failure after another. This is as serious a failure of governance as the PML-N’s incapacity to deliver on the economic front and on the internal security, law and order, and peace and stability fronts are. Corruption, nepotism, and privatization of vital state assets to favourites are issues that are being raised in the public domain by the media as well as by those who love to indulge in “drawing room discussions” on Pakistan’s politics. The notion here is that under the PML-N, a select elite with family ties to the governing dispensation (i.e. the “ruling family”) will continue to thrive and prosper while the gentry, the general public and the poor masses will continue to suffer in abject misery and face greater hardships as each day goes by. The price hikes in essential food commodities, petroleum and fuel oils, and electricity and gas bills (whose costs rise while the supply remains the same, or rather, falls) continue to haunt the people of Pakistan – albeit in a much more dangerous way than before. Senator Aitzaz Ahsan rightfully said on the floor of the upper house of Parliament that those who cannot make a budget for an average Pakistani who earns Rs. 10,000 per month cannot be expected to make a budget that would work for the entire country. This drew an angry – and ill-fitting – response from the Finance Minister, Senator Ishaq Dar, who exclaimed that instead of praising his efforts and giving due consideration to his health condition, the Parliament is keen on deriding his statements, pronouncements, and work as Finance Minister. He called this the Opposition’s “drama’s”, while Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar was quick to decry the Opposition’s (and particularly the PTI’s) “tamasha’s” when they ask for Election Tribunals to verify ballots cast through Constitutionally prescribed methods: in their paranoia, the PML-N and its senior party leaders expect the nation, the suffering public, and the Opposition (who are getting ready to beat the PML-N black and blue in upcoming local bodies elections – if they are held on time and in a free, fair and impartial manner) to blindly praise the government and not criticize it (whether constructively or obstructively) regardless of what it does. It is clear that the nation – and the Opposition parties – will be quick to take the PML-N to task as far as its traditional weaknesses of governance are concerned (particularly the issue of nepotism and the party’s inability to find suitable parliamentarians and elected experts to occupy ministerial offices, requiring the PM to take on more than one portfolio and the CM Punjab to take on a staggering dozen portfolios or more, while the CM – or “Khaadim e Aala”, as he prefers to call himself – appoints his son as Deputy CM of the Punjab province, like it is a monarchy or a feudal fiefdom and not a modern democracy). Any other opportunities that the PML-N government provides the Opposition or the public to criticize its governance methodology or the results of its enacted policies will indubitably add to the paranoia and helplessness that the party is feeling – and expressing – so early on, when it has barely completed a year in power.
One only hopes that the PML-N does not feel so helpless in the coming years, and that it transforms and grows as a party as well as an organization capable and worthy of governing Pakistan and the Punjab; and doing so effectively, while keeping the public interest supreme, in a transparent and open fashion that conforms to the requirements of a modern, pluralistic, democratic nation that has effective governance processes.
Posted by admin in NAWAZ SHARIF LOAN SCAM on December 17th, 2013
Yet another fraud in offing.The fate of this scheme is going to be similar to that of Yellow Taxi scheme of 90s floated by NS. Thereafter, all the six nationalised banks had to write off around Rupees nine Billion, while 80% cars landed in Afghanistan. This time its going to be 100 Billion default portfolio at stake to be borne by just one & half bank only. Poor will die running from Bank to Bank day dreaming for a loan.
Published 2013-12-11 16:04:07
The Scheme may end up with billions of dollars in toxic debt. While it appears to be a well-intentioned Scheme to offer business loans to the youth, it may end up becoming a massive exercise in sub-prime lending where the defaulted amounts will be added to the ever-growing public debt.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif, launched the Youth Business Loan Scheme
earlier this week. The 100 billion rupees Scheme will give out 100,000 loans to young entrepreneurs to launch small businesses. The loans will range from 100,000 rupees to a maximum of two million rupees. The borrower will pay an 8 per cent annual interest rate, whereas the lending institutions will charge approximately 15 per cent in annual interest. The government will subsidize the loans by covering the borrowing cost for the difference between the rates charged by lenders and 8 per cent paid by the borrower. The Scheme will be run by the Prime Minister’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif.
Pakistan is suffering from widespread under- and unemployment resulting in the youth being readily recruited by religious and other extremist groups. In such dire circumstances, any scheme that engages the youth in commerce and productive activities must be a step in the right direction. However, despite the good intentions, the Scheme appears to be flawed and ill-conceived. Furthermore, the claims that theScheme will be free of corruption
and nepotism fly in the face of the Prime Minister’s decision to put his daughter in charge of a 100 billion Rupee lending program.
Successful entrepreneurs turn investment and opportunity into profits and prosperity. They are driven by the desire to create something new as they chase their dream in every living moment of their lives. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are all examples of entrepreneurs who launched small businesses and with passion and perseverance grew their small businesses into multi billion dollars corporations.
The fine distinction between a loan and an investment appears to be lost in the Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme. Does Pakistan really have 100,000 entrepreneurs ready to turn opportunity and capital into profits and prosperity? Or will the nation end up with billions in loans extended to those who couldn’t even write or conceive a business plan.
Even if one were to assume that the 180 million Pakistanis are fortunate to have 100,000 budding entrepreneurs ready to make their mark, the very structure of the Scheme is riddled with constraints and contradictions that may take away the very incentive to put the borrowed funds to productive use.
For starters, consider that an applicant doesn’t need to submit a business plan with the application for the loan. SMEDA, a partner agency along with the State Bank of Pakistan, offers templates for how to develop a business plan
on its website. However, the very first item in the template states the following: “A business plan is not required for PM’s youth business loan scheme.” How on earth will the lenders determine the feasibility of the proposed business?
Take the example of Canadian Youth Business Foundation
that offers up to $45,000 in start-up financing to youth for new businesses. The program does not limit its role to extending credit, but instead it guides the engaged youth in developing business plans, arranging mentors, and making available other resources for a successful execution of their business plans. No one gets financing without a business plan in Canada!
I see the Prime Minister’s Scheme bearing the signs of sub-prime lending because many unsuspecting individuals will end up borrowing huge sums for projects they will not be able to plan or execute, thus resulting in defaults. Remember, if the prospective borrowers are not required to furnish a business plan, how will lenders differentiate entrepreneurs from subprime borrowers?
The two leading banks in the Prime Minister’s Scheme are the National Bank and the First Women Bank. The lenders have set the lending (interest) rate at KIBOR plus 500 basis points. Since the base rate in Pakistan is hovering around 10 per cent, the lenders are adding 500 basis points on top of it to end up with an interest rate of 15 per cent. However, if the base rate fluctuates, as it has done in the past, the cost of borrowing can change as well. This can play havoc with the balance sheets of even well-planned businesses who may have naively assumed that they were protected from fluctuations in interest rates.
Notice that inter-bank interest rates in Pakistan were as high as 14 per cent in 2011. What if the 8 per cent mark-up or interest rate advertised by the Prime Minister’s office end up being a teaser rate? The odds of that happening are high and the borrowers under this Scheme will be at the mercy of lenders, especially if the government withdraws its subsidy and sovereign guarantee during the 8-year life of the loan. Clause 8 under Terms and Conditions of the loans states explicitly that if the current or any future government were to withdraw the subsidy for any reason, the borrower agrees to pay against the revised interest rate set by either the National Bank or the First Women Bank.
The 2007-08 global recession was brought about by similar lending practices in the United States where sub-prime mortgages were offered to un-creditworthy borrowers who were enticed by very low mortgage rates that lasted for only a short while. As soon as the higher mortgage rates kicked in, borrowers lacking a stable source of income ended up defaulting on their mortgages resulting in a global crisis because the sub-prime mortgages were bundled as mispriced derivatives that concealed the inherent risks in those investments. Could Pakistan be next with its 100 billion Rupee toxic debt?
If the partner Banks are correct in pricing the debt at 15 per cent, these loans may create a secondary debt market managed by those who would like to benefit from the opportunity for arbitrage, i.e., borrowing two million rupees at 8 per cent and lending it at 15 per cent, thus avoiding the need to start a business and create employment opportunities for others. These borrowers may end up becoming shark investors themselves as they loan funds to the financially disenfranchised in their communities. This will generate a source of revenue for some, but will defeat the very purpose of the Scheme that aspires to start an entrepreneurial revolution in Pakistan.
And what about the notion of Islamic banking? Remember that the Muslim League has always pandered to the religious right who have shun the very concept of ribaa(interest). These loans are structured as traditional debt where the borrowers are expected to return the principal and interest for a fixed interest rate of 8 per cent. The loan repayment schedule posted as Excel spreadsheets lay bare the structure of these loans. A video posted on the SMEDA website shows an individual who explains the details of the Scheme. Fast forward the video to eight minutes and 45 seconds to see the gentleman almost choking at the word interest
and with some effort replacing it with profit margin.
Calling interest payments profit sharing is intellectual dishonesty. What business turns profit in the first month? Those familiar with the risk/venture capital know it takes years before the business turns profitable. Until that time the business merely services the debt. Also misleading is the claim that the Scheme offers the first year as a grace period. The loan repayment schedule illustrates that the borrowers have to make interest payments in the first year and are exempted only from repaying principal in the first year.
Details on what happens in the case of default are sketchy at best. The borrowers are expected to put only 10 per cent in collateral. In case of default and with a 10 per cent limited exposure, the borrower can simply walk away from liabilities, leaving the public sector to foot the cost of defaults.
Pakistan is not without the expertise to roll out such Schemes to meet their objectives. Organisations such as the National Rural Support Programme
and Tameer Bank
have significant experience in micro finance and operations in near and remote parts of Pakistan. Their decades of experience and demonstrated success is the competitive advantage that the Prime Minister could have tapped into. Instead, it appears that the 100 billion Rupees initiative is being used to bolster Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s claim to inherit the Muslim League’s throne against the rival bid by the Prime Minister’s nephew, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif.
A 100 billion rupees is too big an amount to settle a family dispute over succession
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