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Posts tagged with: PML-N

Nawaz Sharif’s Corruption highlighted in Raymond Baker’s book on Dirty Money

Raymond Baker in his book Capitalism’s Achilles HeelDirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System tried to understand the dynamics of how dirty money works, in his book he elboarately covers the Corruption in Pakistan and takes a swing at both Benazir Bhutto & Nawaz Sharif to say [Credit @Aleem_Ashraf]

Corruption and criminality run from the top down, with the political class constantly looting the national treasury and distorting economic policy for personal gain. Bank loans are granted largely on the basis of status and connections. The rich stash much of their money abroad in those willing western coffers, while exhibiting little inclination to repay their rupee borrowings. Pakistan’s recent history has been dominated by two families—the Bhuttos and the Sharifs—both merely tolerated by the military, the real power in the country. When it comes to economic destruction, there’s not a lot of difference among the three.

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An Election Pretense

An election is taking place in Faisalabad for Punjab Assembly today. There are three more bye elections in other areas of Punjab. All are taking place after the resignations of the members of parliament due to their fake degrees of graduation submitted to Election Commission during the 2008 general election. It took two years before the Supreme Court took up the cases and several of these accused opted to resign instead of fighting their cases.

Two of those who resigned are contesting again. A natural division of these two is shared by the two parties of the rich, the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz. Ajmal Asif contesting from Faisalabad is from PMLN and Jamshed Dasti from PPP. Both of them are allowed by the courts to contest against. What a mockery of the justice. They resigned from their seats because they had cheated the Election Commission and the people in general. The cheaters are contesting again because at present the condition for the illegibility of a candidate to be a graduate is gone.

This is just one aspect of these bye elections. The elections are contested every where with full state sponsorship of the candidates from the respective governing political parties. The rich candidates are violating all the code of conduct that Election Commission has laid down for candidates before the elections.
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PML-(N) leverages Pakhtunkwa debate for Votes in Hazara

It was only matter of time before PML(N) would have capitulated to the name Pakhtunkwa. PML(N) knew it, ANP knew it, and the rest of the parties knew it as well; the outcry was all part of the political point scoring. Initially refusing to accept pakhtunkwa was form of point scoring by PML(N), it was making sure that the clear message was being sent to the people for whom it supposedly refused to accept the name in the first place. There was similar outcry when Shahbz Shairf begged Taliban to spare Punjab. The potential audiences got just the right message in these two situation– PML(N) voting base, despite loud protests by some.

All the provinces in Pakistan are not close to being homogeneous, but at the same time they have the name of certain linguistic or ethnic group residing in that province. Balochis are about 55% of Balochistan’s population, but the province is called Balochistan. Sindhish are about 59% of Sindh’s population, but the province is called Sindh. Punjabi are 75% of Punjab’s population–that is if one doesn’t count Seriakis’ as ethnic Punjabis, but the province is called Punjab. The similar is true for pakhtunkwa, Pakhtuns are between 65% to 75% of the province’s population, depending on who you believe, the estimates vary–in this sense people of pakhtunkwa rightly demand their province to be named after Pakhtuns, the majority ethnic group in the province.
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The NRO (Dis)Honor Roll

NRO Pakistan - National Reconciliatory OrdinanceMuch has been discussed about the in-famous National Reconciliatory Ordinance where 5,800 crooks were pardoned by the then President Pervaiz Mushrraf as an attempt to broker a deal for his own extended stay as the President of Pakistan. This NRO in effect opened the flood gates to allow thousands of white collar criminals and murderers to return back to Pakistan and reestablish themselves to (re)loot Pakistan yet again, and by golly in the short spam of three years they have done a brilliant job, heck third time around they went straight into business, since now these were all hardened criminals now given an executive golden key to make millions courtesy of a selfish dictator who thought his own stay in Islamabad was more precious then the country itself

The NRO was brokered in late 2007 where then we all had raised some hell about this criminal bill, but the movers and shakers of the country thought it in “their” best interest to keep this list private and extend large pardoning pleas to all the beneficiaries, be it thousands of murderers in Karachi or the ruthless Mr. 10% criminal like Asif Zardari and his team cronies, all permitted to enter back into Pakistan with a precious to-die-for get-out-of-jail-card.

Now it seems that there is an attempt to turn the tables and some movers and shakers(?) within “the establishment” think that this is now an opportune time to make this list public after almost three years. We must understand this move is definitely a serious attempt to turn up the heat in Islamabad and make all these crooks a little uncomfortable (times-up) and possibly turn the tables, making way for another set of so-called cleaner leadership to assume power, which for now mostly means the Sharif Brothers
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The Innocent of Gojra: Victims of the Half Law

Guest Blog by Brigadier Samson Simon Sharaf is a retired officer of Pakistan Army and a political economist.

gojra christian women cryingThe recent incidents in Gojra are a grim reminder of how existing half laws can be manipulated for personal and political ends. Besides loss of life, property or the reputation of the country, it also reflects an opportunist political system in which strange bedfellows can be espoused for political expediency and where rule of law can be applied selectively. Worse, it exposes false claims of the provincial and federal governments over constant surveillance of banned militant outfits in Punjab.

The entire trail from Jhang to Gojra, Mian Channu and Shantinagar is littered with similar incidents of religiously fanned hatred spearheaded by banned militant outfits. Time and again such incidents take place with impunity and remarkable alacrity. It is to question why the local administration is caught sleeping and why no preventive measures manifest themselves in pre emptive actions.

There is no doubt that the working relationship between the Federal Government and PMLN Government is dysfunctional. It took the Government of Punjab three days to move into a belated action despite warnings given by Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti, the Federal Minister of Minorities Affairs. The provincial government dismissed the factual reporting of the federal minister for over two days and moved reluctantly after all the damage had been done and Faisalabad-Karachi Railway traffic blocked for two days. The Chief Minister has repeatedly postponed his visit to the city citing security reasons. Meanwhile the frustrations continue to grow resulting in resignations of one federal and one provincial minister.
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Gojra Incident: Sparked because of a drunkie being bounced out of a wedding

A summary of events as shared by Dr. Arif Alvi [Sec General of PTI] as he narrated his conversation with one of his party members who was in Gojra to investigate the horrific incident which involved the killing of seven Christians

Gojra RiotsA lot of detail has been published in the newspapers today. Brig. (R) Samson Sharaf of PTI visited Gojra yesterday and has met and interviewed a lot of people.

He informs us that the incident started at a wedding reception where there was some misbehaviour by a drunk person. On my query he said it was a Pakistani but on my insistence he just said that the person did not belong to the Christian community but of the majority religion in Pakistan. This person was, as courteously as possible in such a situation, escorted out.

But he and his friends reacted and created a scene and started making allegations. The easiest way to put non-muslims on the defensive in Pakistan is an accusation of blasphemy. It is like Karo Kari where an allegation is enough for criminals to unleash their venom.
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Zardaris upcoming Joint Session speech – 58-2(b) & the 17th?

zardari-speech-to-parliamentPresident Asif Ali Zardari is scheduled to grace and address the Joint Session of the two houses, in preparation Mr. Asif Zardari made a swift preparatory powder and puff exit to Dubai while his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has in turn made his way to Pakistan and will most likely expected to grace the visitors gallery along with his sisters on Saturday whilst his father carefullyplaces the picture of their slain mother on the dais to address the nation.

Typically the speech was expected to have been a garlanding speech for the PPP to have fulfilled Benazir Bhuttos’s promise, he would generally have returned the cordial pat on the back to Nawaz Sharif [returning the favor where Nawaz Sharif gentle tapped the shoulders of Yousuf Raza Gilani on his visit to Raiwind a few days back]. it would have followed through with some simple announcements regarding the Governor rule in Punjab and even maybe a few cordial cabinet seats handouts to PML-N in a show of friendship and support – BUT
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Mr. Zardari remained Mr. Zardari afterall

Guest blog by Amjad Malik, MA, LLM

Zardari MetamorphosisI wrote on 7 September 2008 that the litmus test for Mr. Zardari to prove whether he is an ‘don’ or an originator of a new dawn of democracy in Pakistan depends on his progress on 5 things: a) how he handles absolute power, b) his party, c) chief justice issue, d) charter of democracy and e) foreign policy. Looking at his performance in first 12 months, it is unfortunate that he is trailing on all. He could not father the nation and confined himself to the meager position of his party chairmanship and handles his party petty matters at President House, thus making it virtually impossible to look at PML with the same affection as required by the constitution bring his very office into a conflict & disrepute. He enjoys all the powers which ideally should have been assigned to his party premier, but he did not.

Drone attacks and missiles in Fata are still falling randomly, a bitter reality, and he has not taken concrete steps to implement sacred historic charter duly signed by his wife in London on 14 May 2006 which has a hope for the nation in decades to come. He not only backed out on his promises, & written agreements on judiciary, but humiliated the chief justice and went one step ahead by appointing higher court judges on whole sale basis without consensus, and consultation with provincial Govt in question & his partners in COD, thus he violated the charter which can save the Federation and civil rule in the country. He gathered a team of non elected commodity around him and has cornered opposition. He has ordered Governor Rule and let loose his fiery aide in Punjab to blow fire on opposition leaders. First he lost credibility of his words, his faith in democracy and now his respect amongst his peers.
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Mass arrests likely in the days leading upto the Long March

Reports are emerging across a few networks that there are likely to be mass arrests across the country leading up to the Long March slated to arrive in Islamabad on March 16th. Indications arise from the latest decision by Mr. Asif Zardari to setup mobile courts on Sunday by promulgating an ordinance to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, authorizing setting up of mobile courts and appointing district magistrates across the country, the timing of which is suspiciously linked to an attempt to quench the build up of massive support in th following two weeks.

Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood thought the ordinance was aimed at suppressing the PML-N and the lawyers’ movement. “As a lawyer, I think that these courts will work as military courts worked during martial law period, which could not last long,” he remarked

So in short, could this be a another form of Martial Law that we saw in 2007 under the watchful eye of Pervaiz Musharraf. It seems the battle has just resumed yet again


1971 All Over Again – PPP repeating History !

Circulated from the Emergency Times Mailing List, originally Ibitians by Syed Ali Hameed

Zulfiqar Ali BhuttoIn 1971, the Chairperson of the PPP, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, refused to acknowledge the mandate of the people of East Pakistan and prevented a democratically elected government from functioning. Notwithstanding the mess that our “great” army had left us with, it was the PPP Chairperson who had adorned complete dictatorial stature and threatened to break legs of anyone who would attend the assembly inauguration session in Dhaka. Bangladeshis resisted and eventually took up arms and fought for independence. Pakistan had lost its most populous province and split into two.

Today, another PPP Chairperson has engineered a verdict that refuses to give the democratically elected government its right to function. Zardari is doing exactly what Bhutto had done in 1971 – eliminating all challenges that may come in his way to become another “Civilian Martial Law Administrator”. It was Sheikh Mujeeb, the rightfully elected leader of Pakistan, who was the biggest challenge to Bhutto’s throne. For Zardari, it is the rightful Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who will not only revoke the NRO but also put an end to the stretches of today’s corruption.
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