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Posts tagged with: Zardari
Sep 26, 2009    |       11 comments

While our Country starves, Senators spend Rs. 22 Million as travelling expenses in FOUR Months

Senate secretariat has spent a staggering amount of over Rs22 million in just four months, traveling / jet-setting around the world from April to July 2009 on 13 foreign trips made by senators to participate in various international events. The Chairman Senate Farooq H Naik said these expenses were incurred on air tickets, foreign exchange, and communication charges, hiring of transport and other miscellaneous expenditures, Geneva Rs 5.452 million, Oslo for a meagre Rs 5.127 million, China for Rs 4.515 million, UK trip cost us Rs 2 million and a trip to Ethiopia costed us Rs1.22 million.

Goodness gracious 22 Million in four months or an average of 5.5 million a month is enough to be the basic monthly salary of 4000 people (6000/month), it can possibly teach 2200 children for a whole year at Citizens Foundation (10,000/year) or another more touching calculation could be that this 22 Million can possibly feed 50,000 people for an entire week, or simply feed 2500 people for the entire four months that our Senators were out partying at the expense of the National Exchequer

I dread not hear the traveling expense of our dear’ol President Asif Ali Zardari and his side-kick Rehman Malik, which would be far more staggering then the senate disclosure. To be honest it may be spare change for some, but considering the hungry and starving in our country how can these elected representatives consciously, do our parliamentarians actually work FOR the people, or merely CON them for their own gains

Aug 21, 2009    |       3 comments

Zardari facing the Minus-One Formula or Not?

Cyril Almedia is one level headed analyst who I take very seriously, his regular friday columns are a must read to get a decent idea of how the pulse beats within Pakistan’s political circus. This Fridays column for Dawn is a must read where Cyril analyses the various options that could possibly take Zardari out

The judicial option? NRO or no NRO, the fact is Zardari hasn’t been convicted of anything yet and as president has immunity in fresh criminal cases …… Perhaps later, once Zardari is out of his office, they [CJ Iftikhar and his team of non-PCO judges] will get their chance — but that doesn’t really help the minus-one brigade right now.

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Aug 14, 2009    |       3 comments

Killing of PPP’s JANISARS; The First by “terrorist” and second by “Police”

Why are all high profile murders always suspicious? One may call the narrative of these murders conspiracy theories but these are real theories on which if develop a case may lead us to the “real” culprit.

If look for similarities in Khalid Shehenshah and Waja Aqeel Ahmed’s murders , their Janisari for PPP occupies the top position in this list.

Khalid Shahenshah— who from student activist to PPP loyalist has vast experience of Janisari came to the limelight after the release of his video of suspicious movements on the stage in Liaquat Bagh where PPP’s BB was murdered.

He was made a member of the security team (Janisaran-e-Benzair) as he was a close aide of Munawar Suharwardy, another Janisar whose story ended in a target killing.
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Aug 1, 2009    |       16 comments

Supreme Court overturns Nov 3rd Emergency by Musharraf

Supreme Court of PakistanIn mammoth decision yesterday late evening – the Chief Justice of Pakistan Honorable Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and a bench of 12 Supreme Court Judges passed an order declaring the actions of Nov 3rd 2007 Invalid and unconstitutional. This comes after a struggle of over one year and 270 days since that fateful date in November 2007 when the then President of Pakistan General Pervaiz Musharraf enforced an emergency in Pakistan and over threw the Supreme Court replacing them with hand picked judges who approved and validated the Emergency Order.

Following the enforcement of a Martial Law across Pakistan in 2007 many lawyers, jounralists and civil society activsts rallied against this illegal aggresion by the military dictator. The struggle waged on for almost a year and today it can easily be hailed as a momumental decision for Pakistan. It is probably the first time an independent judiciary has flexed its muscles to show the people that justice will prevail over might.
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Jul 23, 2009    |       12 comments

Gen. Musharraf’s re-launch from Britain, a Challenge to Democrats

cartoonmusharrafiron-fistGeneral Musharraf , no doubt is counting on the follies of the signatories of ‘Charter of democracy’ which is the core reason of his re launch from UK. He could not successfully achieve any one item of his 7 points agenda when he came in power on 12 October 1999 and he is now coming out as an expert on Pakistan or a statesman which is ironic to many. I think story is not that simple as it seems. People quickly forgets that he is the one who detained judges with their children, but what his successors did was unforgiveable. However they must be ready to face the music as they themselves saw him off with a ‘guard of honour’ and now his return is ringing an alarm bell to their ears as his claims may not be hollow.

First of all his statements on important national and political issues are creating embarrassment for the Executive which is struggling with its internal management issues. They some time are achieving some mileage and Musharraf issues a statement which is an attempt to say, ‘he was doing better on this front’. Well of course, he caved in meagrely before Richard Armitage and no politician can beat that record, hence Gilani seems not doing enough. He is a lone guarantor with western friends of the notorious ‘Nation Reconciliation Order’ which is a sigh of relief to the Presidential camp who is surrounded by many of the beneficiaries of that ‘NRO’ which is sub judice so far. It is ironic th at a little fish is threatened of exemplary punishment by superior court and big fish is laughing out loud as no one can do anything about it. Musharraf’s return is a solace to ruling party too. As long as he aspires to acquire the top slot of ‘Q’ league, he will keep the Muslim league vote divided and any unity attempt will remain in jeopardy hence no threat to current administration. Unless a miracle happens and a new elections are called which will dissolve the ‘Q’ like salt in water.
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Jul 16, 2009    |       6 comments

‘Judicial Coup’ Democracy in Pakistan is under threat

Long term military dictatorships, shorter civilian rules, where accountability of politicians takes place on the name of corruption with the nexus of judges with civil & military establishment, is the destiny of Pakistan’. Thanks to our rulers as this notion is well supported by their inefficiencies. People came whenever the true leadership called. They came in 1947 on Quaid’s call. They came for Bhuttoo senior. They came for Be Nazir when she landed at Lahore from exile. In near history they came for Chief Justice when he said ‘no’ to Gen. Musharraf. They again came on 18 Feb on joint call of political parties and rejected the dictator. Finally they came on the call of Sharif’s when Zardari was adamant that justice is no more desired under Iftikhar Chowdhary. On 16 March 08, they came like a flood and made an impression, so we can never under estimate the people’s power.

18 February 2008 election of change could not be translated in its true sense as PPP preferred to hold on to government of up to 2 years than a full scale democratic practice. ‘charter of democracy’ was compromised to feed the empty bellies of the workers who had been shouting slogans of ‘change’ for last 12 years. First 6 months of PPP reign was crucial where establishment was divided, but a little chance given to them and they tear both top political leaders apart and the rest is history. First President Zardari lost sanctity of his words on ‘Chief Judge’ and ‘COD’ and later drowned the dream of democracy by imposing governor rule and disqualifying the ‘N’ leadership. The rest is all a damage control exercise. Who is to be blamed for the failure of inept politicians who never are trained to take the reign of Pakistan post 1971 lost war as sovereignty of the state has been assumed by the troika as mentioned above. President Zardari though retained power, but despite taking the PPP to the heights it could never imagine, has damaged the party to an extent which was a dream for the military led establishment. He saw the PPP ship sinking whilst sitting on the chair of head of state.
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Jul 10, 2009    |       5 comments

The Carbon Tax Fiasco

oil tankers in pakistanCyril Almeida a columnist in Dawn has penned an excellent article on the recent controversy regarding the petroleum carbon tax. It is a fact that in March 2009 the government had imposed a Petroleum Developmental Levy which resulted in an increase in the price of petroleum goods by a few rupees. The then, newly restored Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took matters into his own hands and reversed this developmental levy and rightly said “the welfare state had the authority to recover tax on petroleum but not to make profit”.

Having been forced to undo a lucrative indirect petroleum taxation by the Supreme Court the government returned with a new Carbon Tax piggy-backed onto the Finance Bill of 2009 which went through unanimous approval across the parliament with practically not a single politician objecting to this steep rise in petroleum prices in the debate. Interestingly once the Carbon Tax came into effect the Supreme Court knee-jerked to issue an immediate order to stop this implementation of the carbon tax which was actually going to result in atleast a Rs. 10 hike in all petroleum goods across the board.
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Jun 27, 2009    |       86 comments

Zardari throws out Quaid-e-Azam from the Presidency

I was alerted of this development earlier in the afternoon courtesy of blogger Farhan where he wrote a blog post The Terrible Blunder at Presidency. Caught up in work, I made a mental note to check it out in detail, but at 9pm Geo reportedly carried a news item along the same lines showing picture after picture where the Presidency had apparently removed all pictures of Quaid-e-Azam

Pakistan Cricket team at the Presidency without the Quaid-e-Azam portrait

Having a close look at the picture you see four portraits namely Asif Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and followed by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, nowhere do we see the portraits of the Founder of the Nation Quaid-e-Azam Mohd Ali Jinnah or for that matter Allama Iqbal.

I hope this is just an accidental mistake and there is no attempt by the idiot President to alter our history in anyway whatsoever.

Jun 27, 2009    |       13 comments

Zardari’s Freudian Slip

Rickshaw Zardari FraudMuch could be said about the lackluster reception accorded to the Pakistan Cricket Team upon its return to Pakistan after having won the Twenty20 World Cup in England.  The heroic reception at the airport was put off due to security issues and instead the Prime Minister and the President both decided to honor the champions in separate receptions hosted in their honor.

The Prime Minister held an evening dinner to honor the champions, and the chaos which followed during the award distribution ceremony lacked the decorum of the Prime Ministers office, to make matters worse the stage show / comedy gig held ‘in honor’ was definitely an embarrassment.

Had if that had only been the end of the embarrassing run to garland the winning team we saw President Zardari flash his dental veneers at a lunch hosted at the Presidential House in the honor of the team.
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Jun 1, 2009    |       119 comments

Bilawal Zardari bumps a seat in the Pakistani Delegation to the White House

obama-karzai-zardari-bilawal

A casual glance at this picture above taken a few weeks back one would generally not have seen the anomaly but a careful look reveals the problem, a high level meeting in Washington between the respective Presidents of The United States of American, Afghanistan and Pakistan, seems ordinary enough. Generally such a meeting is attended by the official representatives of each country, Afghanistan being represented by President Hamid Karzai, the American delegation by President Obama and you can even see Vice-President Joe Biden, but the problem lies when you take a look at the Pakistani side of the delegation President Zardari, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Hussain Haqqani and Rehman Malik, but what-the-heck is Bilawal Bhutto Zardari doing sitting right next to Mr. Asif Zardari.
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May 13, 2009    |       6 comments

Shameful Flight – Redux

“Only in the desperate days and weeks after those celebrations of mid-August did the horrors of Partition’s impact begin to emerge. No viceregal time had been wasted in planning for the feeding and housing and medical needs of ten million refugees. No British officers or troops remained to keep the peace in shattered Punjab, or in Bengal, nor in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, left in deadly limbo to become the source of increasingly violent conflicts between India and Pakistan, the cause of three wars to be waged between them over the next fifty-five years.” – Stanley Wolpert, Shameful Flight.

There are many similarities in the events of yesteryear and today. The difference is that the British had an escape route, we dont !

The images of displacement of a million people this week horrifies me to think of its repercussions. While the government’s rhetoric is of a united counter insurgency attack which requires support of all stakeholders (political parties, public and foreign countries) involved, I fail to see any real strategy laid out by those in charge. Again, today’s speech by the PM in the National Assembly was demoralizing to say the least, apparently, the PM has no backup plan if things go wrong. The point that strengthening the armed forces and utilizing foreign aid on the military offensive will bring success is a narrowly viewed idea.
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May 5, 2009    |       7 comments

The Taliban’s Atomic Threat: John Bolton’s Fear Mongering

John Bolton, the former interim US Representative at the UN is now at the American Enterprise Institute. He was “interim” because he was not confirmed by the Senate despite Bush Administration’s advocacy. Among other things he faced allegations of mistreating women employees working under him. Seeing the writing on the wall he resigned in 2006. He was also associated with the Project for the New American Century. Scroll down from here to Associations with Bush administration to get an idea of the people involved.

Bush Sr. kept them at bay but the Junior did not have the spine and succumbed to the AEI lobbying. The results of that meddling are before us – Iraq, Afghanistan and the Economy.

In a recent piece John Bolton wrote for the WSJ he espoused his fringe neoconzix views.

Quoting from Obama’s press conference, he wrote:

At his press conference Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama endorsed Pakistan’s official position that it has secure control over its nuclear-weapons arsenal. Mr. Obama said he was “gravely concerned” about the situation there, but “confident that the nuclear arsenal will remain out of militant hands.”

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Apr 22, 2009    |       52 comments

Taliban factions potentially joining forces against Obama, Zardari & Karzai

The Disturbed areas of PakistanWe have long since known that the Taliban entity is not a mere single unified front waging a war in the North Western regions of Pakistan but a hodge podge of various groups working independently for their own vested interests. There are potentially three Taliban factions one headed by Baithullah Mehsud which was working against the interests of Pakistan, while Jalaluddin Haqqani and Mullah Omar were given protective custody by the ISI

London Review of Books – Taliban v. Taliban by Graham Usher

In the Bajaur tribal area, for example, the army is fighting an insurgency led by Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of one of Pakistan’s three Taliban factions, but it’s not because he is a friend of al-Qaida. What makes him a threat, in the eyes of Pakistan’s army, is that he is believed to be responsible for scores of suicide attacks inside Pakistan (including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto). He is also thought to have recruited hundreds of Afghan fighters, among them ‘agents’ from the Afghan and Indian intelligence services – ‘Pakistan’s enemies’, in the words of a senior officer.

An enemy in Bajaur, the Taliban is a friend of Pakistan in North and South Waziristan. Like Mehsud, the guerrilla commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, who directs the Afghan Taliban’s ‘central front’ from bases in Pashtun villages in Pakistan, has ties to al-Qaida. Unlike Mehsud, he’s not attacking Pakistan, and his fight against the US and NATO enjoys the support of the army and of broad sections of the Pakistani public. The same courtesy has been extended to Mullah Omar, whose headquarters are in Quetta, where he’s reportedly sheltered by the ISI. ‘They are our people; they’re not our enemies,’ one ISI officer says.

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Apr 8, 2009    |       5 comments

An Incomplete Revolution

by Ameer Bhutto son of Sardar Mumtaz Bhutto

Given the repeated sellouts and betrayals of politicians masquerading as awami leaders, it is a miracle that Pakistan has not only survived but still holds the possibility to flourish, given some measure of integrity and honesty in those who haunt the corridors of power. But though the country has somehow survived this mess, the price it has had to pay is debilitating regression, to the point where the economy, civic facilities and infrastructure, peoples’ wellbeing in the form of employment, law and order and opportunity, our foreign relations, national sovereignty and indeed the binding glue of nationhood stand corroded to a point of acute crisis.

Incompetence rules supreme in Islamabad. Those who hold the destiny of 170 million people in their hands can not even read a simple written speech. Gone are the days when a leader would address the nation live on television and radio. Now all speeches are pre-recorded and edited to prevent leaders from making fools of themselves. But when they can not escape having to make a live speech or choose to ad lib, their calibre and worth are immediately exposed, even though they hide behind portraits of Shaheeds to bask in borrowed glory and legitimacy. Zardari, in his address to the joint session of parliament, expressed the desire to give autonomy to Balochistan. Why just Balochistan? Have Sindh and NWFP not been clamoring for autonomy as well? Someone should have explained to him that provincial autonomy can only be granted by means of a constitutional amendment, which would apply to the whole country and not just Balochistan. He also talked about his administration’s respect for the freedom of the press and media. If such is the case, then did Geo Television go off the airwaves during the days of the long march by its own volition, causing Sherry Rehman to resign? Zardari has taken Orwellian doublespeak to a whole new stratosphere.
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Apr 2, 2009    |       26 comments

I Told You So – by Mumtaz Ali Bhutto

This article was sent via email claiming that it has been banned from publication in newspapers by the Zardari government, as it has issued directives to all news agencies preventing the publication of all articles by Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto. His previous article Choas & Collapse was also prevented from going into print

mumtaz-ali-bhuttoReaders will recall my repeated warnings that a man with Zardari’s reputation, who has no educational or political background and lacks all the other prerequisites of leadership, will be an absolute disaster in a minor office leave alone the top position in the country. This has proved to be true in the short period of six months leading to a nation wide upheaval. His claim to fame rests entirely on being the husband of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and spending eight years in jail. Let us look at these laurels a bit closer: Shaheed Benazir, in her book “Daughter Of The East”, confesses to marrying him under relentless pressure from mother and aunts and his own perseverance in the face of repeated rejection, but hastens to add that there was no love or even affection involved. Of course it is also true that the last ten years of the marriage were spent in estrangement for reasons that are stated below. It is however surprising that she was unable to control him during her two terms in office when he went on a rampage for which he has acquired the internationally acclaimed and rather modest sobriquet of Mr. 10%.

For the veracity of this epithet let us not depend on the bouquet of corruption cases against him even though two, the Surrey Palace and money laundering cases, in Jersey and Switzerland stand proved, but recall the laments of the people at large and even Jialas. Accepting the principal that there is no smoke without fire and the fact that before marriage, the Zardari family had nothing to show but a cinema house in Karachi, many questions arise about his lifestyle not only in the country but more so abroad. The internet discloses mansions and lands in various countries, twenty seven bank accounts and forty five off shore companies, the minimum value of which is placed at over two billion dollars and this does not include the cash balances in the twenty seven bank accounts, which remains unknown.
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