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VIDEO:PAKISTAN POLITICIANS & ELECTIONS

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New Episode of Topi Drama by Asif Zardari & Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)
16th president of US (1809 – 1865) 

MAKAAR ZARDARI’S LATEST TRICK: NOORA KUSHTI AND TOPI DRAMA WITH BILAWAL TO DISTANCE HIM FROM ZARDARI’S TAINTED PERSONALITY AND MAKE HIM ACCEPTABLE TO PEOPLE

 

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Zardari is a master schemer and makaar as evident from his latest ploy.  He is ostensibly playing a game, where Bilawal can become more palatable to the people of Pakistan. In this game Bilawal is shown to have “falling-out” with Zardari. That way Zardari is kept at a distance from Bilawal, who can again use his “shaheed” mother excuse or victim syndrome to gain sympathy from the people. Bilawal is now no more tainted with the corruption of Zardari, as he is now a White Knight, who fought with his Prince of Darkness father, Asif Zardari, and therefore, is ready to continue “BiBi’s Mission,” without the taint of his Zardari’s evil shadow. This is yet another master stroke from Zardari to dupe the naive electorate and PPP Jiyalas of Pakistan; and thereby salvage the sinking ship of PPP in the coming election. Zardari is a megalomaniac. He is completely power drunk to the point of power inebriation. He will try any trick to hang on to the Presidency, come hell or high water.  He is a civilian dictator like Saddam Hussain, Manuel Noriega, Augusto Pinochet, and his personal hero Muammar Ghadafi. He is like a thief, who has been given keys to Fort Knox He will continue to enjoy the 5 lakhs/day or more open expense account of the Presidency. He will continue to loot the nation leading to Pakistan’s default and bankruptcy.

TOPI DRAMA PROLOGUE

Bilawal Bhutto leaves Pakistan after tiff with Asif Ali Zardari over PPP affairs

 

 
 

Bilawal Bhutto leaves Pakistan after tiff with Asif Ali Zardari over PPP affairs

 

SCENE ONE OF TOPI DRAMA

Islamabad/Lahore: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has left for Dubai after a tiff with his father, President Asif Ali Zardari, over the affairs of the PPP, leaving the party without its star campaigner for Pakistan’s general election.

Bilawal, who was recently named patron-in-chief of the Pakistan People’s Party, developed differences with Zardari and his sister, Faryal Talpur, over the party’s handling of key issues, including militant violence, sectarian attacks against Shias and the award of party tickets for the polls scheduled for May 11.

Two sources privy to the development told PTI that Bilawal had made it clear to his father that he felt the PPP had not strongly taken up issues like the shooting of teenage rights activist Malala Yusufzai by Taliban fighters last year and three devastating bomb attacks on Shias in Quetta and Karachi that killed nearly 250 people.


Video: Rahul Gandhi accepts Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's invite to Pakistan

Bilawal Invites his Indian Cousin Rahul Gandhi to Pakistan

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    THE TOPI DRAMA SCENE TWO

  • Bilawal was also upset with the PPP’s handling of issues that affect the youth, especially in the wake of efforts by other parties like Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf to woo the youth ahead of the polls, the sources said.
  • The 24-year-old nominal chief of the PPP was angered by Faryal Talpur’s refusal to award tickets to certain candidates in Sindh province that he had recommended, a source said.
  • “Last month, Bilawal had recommended the names of some 200 PPP workers and asked former Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to give them jobs but Talpur had intervened, causing bad blood between them,” the source said.
  • Bilawal discussed these matters with his father and sought authority to take decisions in party matters.
  • But Zardari sided with his sister, who plays a key role in the PPP’s affairs, the source said.
  • “When Zardari told him that he would be handed over the command of the party after he is groomed politically, Bilawal got upset and left for Dubai,” a source said.
  • Matters got so heated on one occasion that a source quoted Bilawal as saying: “If I had to vote, even I wouldn’t vote for the PPP.”
  • Bilawal’s abrupt departure for Dubai last week has caused considerable disquiet within the PPP as the party had been banking on him to appeal to the voters who have traditionally voted for the Bhutto family.
  • “Bilawal had been projected as the PPP’s star campaigner as the President cannot participate in the campaign due to pressure from the courts,” a PPP leader said.
  • “Without Bilawal, the PPP cannot touch the emotions of the people, especially the hard core PPP workers,” said the PPP leader, who did not wish to be named.
  • The leader said he feared the PPP might not be able to get the “Bhutto vote” if Bilawal did not take part in the campaign.
  • PPP leaders have acknowledged that Bilawal will not be present when the party launches its election campaign on April 4 from Garhi Khuda Buksh, the traditional stronghold of the Bhutto family in Sindh.
  • However, they contended that Bilawal was not participating in the event for “security reasons” and would instead deliver a telephonic address.
  • Latif Khosa, recently elected secretary general of the PPP, told PTI that there were security threats to the party’s leadership, especially Bilawal.
  • He said: “Bilawal may not attend election rallies due to security concerns and is likely to address gatherings on telephone or via video-conferencing.” 
  • PPP spokesman Qamar Zaman Kaira too said Bilawal would not attend the rally on April 4 because he was “facing more threats than other leaders of the PPP”.
  • Party leaders are also concerned that the PPP’s campaign is now likely to be led by former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is known for his lack of charisma.

This would place the PPP at a disadvantage as it is up against seasoned campaigners like Imran Khan and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.

Gilani sought to play down the issue of Bilawal’s sudden departure from Pakistan, saying there were no differences between Bilawal and Zardari or Talpur.

“In our families, our children give immense respect to their elders,” Gilani told PTI.

Hasham Riaz, Bilawal’s chief of staff, said Bilawal had gone to Dubai for “routine business”.

He claimed the reports of differences between Bilawal and his father “mere rumours”. Asked if Bilawal would come back to Pakistan, Riaz said: “Of course.” 

Bilawal himself will not be eligible to contest polls till he turns 25 in September. The PPP had formally launched his political career at a massive rally in Garhi Khuda Baksh that marked the death anniversary of his mother, former premier Benazir Bhutto, in December last year.

American Press Toe US Government Line to Build-up US Puppet Zardari.

THE INEPT, MAKAAR, CONNIVING, INCOMPETENT & MURTAZA BHUTTO’S MURDERER ASIF ZARDARI 

FROM:LOS ANGELES TIMES

 

PAKISTAN LEADER’S LEGACY: THE ART OF POLITICAL SURVIVAL

As President Asif Ali Zardari ends a history-making five-year term, his approval ratings are low, but he has hung on. 

Asif Ali Zardari

 

The government of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, center, ended its five-year term Saturday, setting the stage for the country’s first transfer of power from one civilian government to another. (Emilio Morenatti / Associated Press /September 6, 2008)

 
By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times

 

March 16, 2013, 11:09 p.m.

 

ISLAMABADPakistan — Throughout his presidency, Pakistan’s Asif Ali Zardari has looked over his shoulder. Would the military bounce him from office? Would an aggressive Supreme Court find a legal lever to send him packing? Would infighting and dissent erode his fragile coalition government?

Now, as he and his government make history by becoming the first civilian administration to ever complete its five-year term — despite public approval ratings as low as 14% — Zardari’s legacy is clear. He turned political survival into an art form.

“You give Zardari a roomful of politicians, and he will find you 51%. That’s an art he has perfected that no one really knew he had,” says Cyril Almeida, a Pakistani newspaper columnist. “By and large, he has done his own thing and cut whatever deals he needs. But he hasn’t gone after enemies and opponents, and that has kept the political temperature at a manageable level.”

Known to most Pakistanis as “the accidental president,” Zardari fell into the job after the slaying of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated in 2007 as she was launching her political comeback. Many Pakistanis still call him “Mr. 10%,” a reference to corruption allegations that have followed him since stints in previous decades as a Cabinet minister.

Zardari’s government ended its five-year term Saturday, setting the stage for the first transfer of power from one civilian government to another in Pakistan’s 65-year history. Every other civilian government’s term has been interrupted by military coups or politically motivated ousters.

A caretaker government is slated to assume power as the country embarks on a campaign season that will culminate in parliamentary elections, expected in May. Members of the federal and provincial assemblies will then select a president later in the year. Zardari, 57, remains president and, unless he wins reelection, will step down upon the inauguration of a new president.

Zardari’s prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, will step down as soon as the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and its main opposition, the PML-N, agree on a caretaker replacement. Parliament and the Cabinet dissolved Saturday.

The transfer of power through the ballot rather than military might is seen by most Pakistanis as a crucial step in the country’s democratic evolution.

But as Zardari’s PPP enters what is sure to be a tumultuous campaign, it faces an electorate deeply disappointed with the ruling government’s failure to remedy the country’s biggest ills.

Daily power outages that in the summer can last 12 hours or more shackle the economy and make everyday life miserable. Zardari has never been able to tamp down Islamist terrorism, and a recent wave of sectarian attacks by Sunni Muslim militants against the country’s minority Shiite Muslim community poses a new national security threat with the elections around the corner. The federal government remains heavily indebted to international lenders, and corruption taints every echelon of society.

An annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment” report delivered to the U.S. Congress last week by James R. Clapper, director of national intelligence, criticized Zardari’s government for being unwilling to tackle “problems that continue to constrain economic growth. The government has made no real effort to persuade its disparate coalition members to accept much-needed policy and tax reforms, because members are focused on retaining their seats in upcoming elections.”

The same sense of frustration with Zardari’s government runs through Pakistani society.

“This government has ruined the country in the last five years,” says Azhar Iqbal, 50, owner of a cookware shop in one of Islamabad’s central shopping districts. “It’s bad everywhere. Every night when we go home and turn on the television, we hear about this or that number of people killed.”

Despite popularity ratings as low as 14%, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, Zardari and the ruling PPP government aren’t necessarily doomed in the upcoming elections, and in fact might be able to garner enough backing to engineer another coalition government and retain power.

The PPP and its primary rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif‘s PML-N party, already have entrenched support bases, and cricket legend Imran Khan’s upstart Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is expected to cull more voters from Sharif’s vote bank than the PPP’s, analysts say. And while dissatisfaction with the government is widespread, historically Pakistanis haven’t expressed their frustration at the ballot box. Turnout in Pakistan’s national elections has always been low, ranging from 36% to 45%.

The ultimate winner may not be the top vote-getter, but the better coalition builder.

“Political polarization in Pakistan is sharp,” says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based political analyst. “The PPP may lose some seats in Parliament, but they still will have the capacity to form a coalition government. Whereas Sharif isn’t seen as someone who can build a coalition. … So by default, the PPP may be able to pull through because they can produce a better coalition.”

During the last five years, Zardari’s most formidable opposition has not come from Sharif, but from the military and the Supreme Court, both institutions that have always viewed the president as a liability. Both the court and the army have hounded Zardari, at times stoking fear within society that the government would collapse.

But neither institution ever pushed Zardari and his government over the edge. The Supreme Court ousted Ashraf’s predecessor, Yousuf Raza Gilani, on a contempt charge in 2012, but since then has eased up on the government.

“While the army’s high command is angered by the mismanagement of the economy by the Zardari government, there’s also an understanding that they don’t really have solutions themselves,” newspaper columnist Almeida said. “And the Supreme Court can’t oust a political government because its entire public standing is based on the fact that it resisted unconstitutional moves by [former President Pervez Musharraf] in 2007.”

That year, Musharraf, who saw Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry as a threat to his authority, ousted him, a move decried by lawyers and opposition parties as illegal.

“So the routes have been shut,” Almeida continued. “There’s no obvious route to dismantling this government.”

[email protected]

Press Trust of India | Updated: March 26, 2013 14:00 IST 

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HEC bill may kill education, benefit fake degree holders

 

HEC bill may kill education, benefit fake degree holders

 DIPLOMAFRAUD 

 
MARCH 12, 2013 

Despite the 2010 directive of the Supreme Court, the educational degrees of a total of 393 parliamentarians remain unverified as yet and are thus considered suspect or fake, it is learnt.

 

However, these 393 MPs would find themselves in serious trouble in the next elections as the authorities are expected to get their degrees, as shown in the 2008 elections, verified from the HEC before clearing them to contest in the upcoming polls.

Sources in the Election Commission of Pakistan and the Higher Education Commission told The News that although the degrees of 56 parliamentarians have been declared fake, with 18 under litigation, the documents of 393 parliamentarians have not yet been verified because of non-cooperation of the federal/provincial governments and the assemblies.

It is feared that many of these unverified degrees would be fake, but the exercise of degree verification, that was in full swing during the second half of 2010, has been halted now as the holders of unverified degrees include extremely powerful parliamentarians.

The sources said the degrees of 56 MPs had been declared fake by the HEC; there are 18 MPs whosefake degree cases are pending with different courts; the cases of 250 MPs are pending with the HEC as degrees are not being provided for verification; matriculation/inter certificates of 47 MPs have been sent by the HEC to different universities but without any response from these institutions; whereas the verification of 19 MPs’ graduation/master’s level degrees await the verification of respective universities.

Documents show that the MPs whose matriculation/inter certificates have not yet been provided to the HEC for verification include 12 senators, 96 MNAs, 88 members of the Punjab Assembly, eight members of the Sindh Assembly, 37 members of the KPK Assembly, and nine members of the Balochistan Assembly. Those whose degrees/certificates are yet be verified include members of the PPP, PML-N, PML-Q, ANP and others.

In June 2010, the HEC was directed by the ECP on the orders of the Supreme Court to have the degrees of all parliamentarians verified. The commission did the job in a remarkable manner despite the fact that its chairman had been told by the PPP leadership to go-slow on the issue. However, when the HEC Chairman Javed Leghari did not cave in to pressure, he was asked to resign but he refused.

Later Leghari’s younger brother Farooq Leghari was picked up from interior Sindh by the provincial police and later produced before the court and charged with corruption. The junior Leghari was given bail but was rearrested on other charges. He again got bail from the court but was arrested a third time from Hyderabad. The ancestral farmhouse of the chairman HEC in Hyderabad was ransacked and farmers were picked up and put under detention.

After failing to browbeat Leghari, the government started targeting the HEC. The government initially tried to devolve the commission but it was saved following the intervention of the apex court. Later the HEC was faced with budgetary cuts. Almost 40 percent of the funds required by the universities were cut back.

When the employees, including faculty members, staff and students, went on a nationwide strike up to 20 percent funds were released. Later, an effort was made to put the HEC under the administrative and financial control of the Ministry of Education and Training but the notification in this respect was revoked by the SHC.

Then the government made yet another move to take charge of the HEC. Taking advantage of the executive director’s position which had been advertised by the HEC and which the commission had the authority to appoint, the prime minister directed the secretary education and training to take charge as the acting ED.

The chairman HEC refused to accept this, which led to a huge battle between the HEC and the government. The battle again reverted to the apex court, which suspended the government’s order and ordered the HEC to appoint the ED. This was yet anther defeat for the regime.

Finally, the government decided to amend the existing HEC law to take away its autonomy besides slashing the term of the chairman from the existing four to a proposed three years. A few PPP members moved the bill as a private members bill, which came up for hearing on Jan 23 in the NA committee that instantly cleared the same.

It is apprehended that if this bill passes through parliament, the future of higher education in the country would be jeopardised.

While the suspected fake degree holders are all set to teach the HEC an exemplary lesson, some foreign nations, including Turkey, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, are replicating the Pakistani model of the HEC. While we are settling personal scores at the cost of national institutions, India is going a step further and establishing a supra-HEC with far-reaching consequences to position itself as a regional leader.

It is said that the World Economic Forum Global Competitive report indicators on higher education and training, technology readiness and innovation have shown a consistent improvement over the last three years for Pakistan, much more than many other countries, which is a clear proof that higher education reforms are paying off.

HEC sources demand that the apex court should take suo moto notice of this latest attack on the future of the country’s youth. A federal minister, who is vigorously pursuing the onslaught on the HEC too holds a degree which has been challenged in the LHC as fake so a conflict of interest situation also exists.

This article originally appeared on thepeshawar

 

 

 

 

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This article originally appeared on thepeshawar

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The Economist: Pakistan’s energy crisis

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SUMMER in the plains of Pakistan is excruciating enough without the added joy of 20 hours of power cuts a day. Earlier this month protesters in several towns in Punjab, Pakistan’s wealthiest province, smashed windscreens, blocked motorways, shut down markets and set fire to the offices of parliamentarians and an electric utility. They clashed with police who brought out handcuffs and tear gas and fired live rounds in the air.

It was a reaction to electricity shortages that had plunged parts of the province into darkness and scorching heat. At one point the gap between supply and demand hit 7,500 megawatts (MW), or nearly 40% of national demand.  

Under the current government, the power sector has neared the top of a list of security, political and foreign-policy problems that includes some heavyweight contenders. Last week’s confluence of events once again underlined how easily Pakistan’s power sector can slip into collapse. The system’s many weaknesses find it all too easy to conspire. Cool weather in the north meant a reduced flow of hydroelectricity. Demand shot up as summer temperatures further south soared into the forties and air-conditioners strained to keep pace.

Lights+OutMeanwhile, several private power producers had to halt or slash production because the state-run power purchasing company hadn’t paid them. They had not been able, because the biggest consumers (especially provincial and federal governments) had not paid their own electricity bills. The bills that were paid are not enough to cover the cost of generation.

This so-called “circular debt”, currently about $880m, is an ongoing problem. The government usually bites the bullet, as it did this time, by paying off a portion when power producers are about to sue for default, enabling them to start generating again—for the moment. What remain unaddressed are the structural issues that cause the debt to pile up again: poor recovery of dues (receivables stand at $4 billion), electricity theft, transmission losses, reliance on imported oil and politically sensitive subsidies for certain groups. Perpetuating all of this is a lack of efficiency and co-ordination across a maze of state-owned agencies including a power purchaser, distribution and generation companies, a regulator and various ministries. The gap between the effective cost of generation and payments received is estimated at $12 billion over the past four years.

Riots over power shortages in Pakistan are not new. But this time the protests flared up against a unique political background: that of a prime minister’s conviction. On April 26th Yousaf Raza Gilani was declared guilty of contempt of court for refusing to re-open various corruption cases pending against Asif Ali Zardari, the president. In response, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the main opposition party, claimed the prime minister stood disqualified and started calling for his resignation in parliament and through public rallies.

For PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, then, the power crisis could not have come at a better time. His party does run the Punjab government, but that has not stopped him trying to shift the blame onto the federal government. His parry is not merely rhetorical; Punjab relies on the centralised distribution of energy generated by resources in other provinces. Mr Sharif’s brother, the chief minister of Punjab, joined the power protests in Lahore.

At stake is more than just the fate of this particular government. If Mr Gilani makes it through the budget on June 1st and to elections next year, he will be the first elected prime minister to complete a five-year term. That would mark an historical achievement in the country’s constantly interrupted democracy.

But the disruption of lives and livelihoods may now have gone too far for the anger to confine itself to just one set of politicians. In the town of Vehari, rioters burned the offices of lawmakers belonging not only to a ruling coalition partner (which has threatened to quit the government over the issue), but also the PML-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party of Imran Khan, who positions himself as the country’s only hope for change. Pakistan’s politicians might find they need to start addressing this issue, not just politicising it.

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Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd) Pakistan Army: Leaders & Leaders

LETTER TO EDITOR

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February 18th, 2013

 

Leaders & Leaders

 

At least I am fed up of listening to the incessant rhetoric and harangues from the highest to the lowest leaders of the PPP  eulogizing ZAB and/or BB  just for the sake of praising them on each and every occasion whether in context or out of context! Anything they do (though frankly not much) for the public good is always extolled to be in accordance with the vision and wishes of the late Shaheeds – one or the other or the both!  Don’t they have anything of their own to offer to the people?  Will they ever grow up to be able to conceive or visualize something  good for the country all by themselves or will they always keep us and themselves reminding of the ZAB and the BB?  It is comical to watch BB’s picture placed dutifully and cautiously on a table (at times not bigger the size of the picture itself) so that it remains prominently visible throughout the interview given by these leaders – whether the baby Bilawal or the stalwart Amin Faheem – what to talk of the hubby President perching it on the UN General Assembly podium!  Has anyone  in the history of the UN GA ever done so?

 

Whether they realize it or not, such cult worshiping goes against them.  They are living under the shadows of the Shaheeds and martyrs – a shadow like that of the proverbial banyan tree that doesn’t let anything grow under it.  No one takes such pigmies seriously, on the contrary consider them to be void of any vision, planning and leading the people. It is time they showed some mettle of their own and proved themselves to be capable of leading the nation from the front and not through the stilts of the shaheeds.

 

 

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30 Westridge 1
Rawalpindi 46000
Pakistan
Tel: (051) 5158033
E.mail: [email protected]

 
 
 
 
 

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