Sharon - A New Pakistani Hero?

Your blogger must have been asleep when this came out a month ago but now having stumbled onto this piece of news, all I can say is that I was momentarily stunned speechless.


Here is an excerpt from an interview our Commando General gave to the German publication Der Spiegel (published on 28 May 2005).

SPIEGEL: Will Sharon succeed or will he be stopped by religious extremists?
Musharraf: He is a bold man, a great soldier, a courageous leader, but he needs to put more effort into building confidence between the two sides.

Just to jog your memories In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon and arranged for their Phalangist mercenaries to massacre 3500 innocent civilians – unarmed men, women and children - in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

Robert Fisk, that eminent journalist of our era, writing at the time said:

They must have been sent in here with Israeli permission. They must have been armed by the Israelis. Their handiwork had clearly been watched - closely observed - by the Israelis who were still watching us through their field-glasses.

The massacres even horrified the atrocity hardened Israelis and it led a to Government inquiry which found Ariel Sharon, then defense minister, ‘indirectly’ responsible for the killing of hundreds of men, women and children at Sabra and Shatila camps and he then was sacked from office.

Here are some of Fisk’s eye witness observations from that day for the strong hearted to read:

There were more than a dozen of them, young men whose arms and legs had been wrapped around each other in the agony of death. All had been shot point-blank range through the cheek, the bullet tearing away a line of flesh up to the ear and entering the brain. Some had vivid crimson or black scars down the left side of their throats. One had been castrated, his trousers torn open and a settlement of flies throbbing over his torn intestines.

On the other side of the main road, up a track through the debris, we found the bodies of five women and several children. The women were middle-aged and their corpses lay draped over a pile of rubble. One lay on her back, her dress torn open and the head of a little girl emerging from behind her. The girl had short dark curly hair, her eyes were staring at us and there was a frown on her face. She was dead

Another child lay on the roadway like a discarded doll, her white dress stained with mud and dust. She could have been no more than three years old. The back of her head had been blown away by a bullet fired into her brain. One of the women also held a tiny baby to her body. The bullet that had passed into her breast had killed the baby too. Someone had slit open the woman's stomach, cutting sideways and then upwards, perhaps trying to kill her unborn child. Her eyes were wide open, her dark face frozen in horror.

And Musharraf calls this man ‘a bold man, a great soldier, a courageous leader? ‘. Is his kursi so important that such bloodcurdling realities are of no longer of any relevance?
Musharraf
Pakistan

'Extremely Stupid' & 'Bastards'

From declassified documents of 1970-71 released by the US State Department we learn, among other things, that President Nixon and Henry Kissenger believed that:

"The Pakistanis are straightforward and sometimes extremely stupid" and "The Indians are bastards" and "more devious".

Well, thirty plus years later things have certainly changed.

Yes, recent Pakistani governments (Benazir, Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf) have all proved, at the best of times, to be "extremely stupid", but the word "straightforward” is clearly is out of date.

Instead "deception" is now the order of the day – Okara Farm, Gwadar, Mukhtaran Mai, etc ad nauseum - you want me to go on?

As for the Indian leadership being 'bastards' and 'more devious', I would rather leave that for Indian citizens to decide - after all isn't that what democracy is all about?
Pakistan

A Troubled Judiciary

The newly appointed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, uttered some valid truisms which are quoted in today’s newspapers. He said:

- The man in the street is disillusioned by the judiciary’s role and the way justice is dispensed because proper justice has become elusive in our society.
- Delay in dispensing justice was the same as denying justice and bred a chaotic and lawless society.
- National dailies, editorials and voices raised in [parliament] demanding accountability of judges shows a serious crisis of confidence that can shake the very foundation of the country’s judicial hierarchy.

One needn’t look far to discover where the real problem lies.

Take for example the Mukhtaran Mai case. At Musharraf’s command his flunkies (i.e. the Government of Pakistan) placed the woman in preventative custody, entered her name in the ECL, brought her under escort to Islamabad and subsequently seized her passport.

Now if we had a truly independent judiciary Mukhtaran Mai could have filed charges against Musharraf and the Government of Pakistan for illegal detention, kidnapping and forced transportation to Islamabad, theft of passport and unlawful entry of her name in the ECL. The judiciary would then have summoned Musharraf, Nilofer Bakhtiar, etc. to answer the charges made against them.

Can anyone envisage this happening in the near future?

No, of course not. That is why the judicial branch of the State has been rendered totally compliant by the executive branch of the State. And it is not just Musharraf’s military regime that prefers an emasculated judiciary; our previous civilian governments were no different. It is worth recalling what happened the last time a Chief Justice decided to assert his freedom - Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif sent their goons to ransack the Supreme Court.

Ideally even before democracy, we need a rule of law whereby the law is not only enforced but is applied equally to all – from presidents to street sweepers. Only by creating such a rich and fertile environment can we then plant democracy properly and firmly, and will it to flourish.
Pakistan
Musharraf
Mukhtaran

The Timebomb Begins to Tick Louder

Two months ago when I wrote about the impending political cataclysm that is facing Benazir Bhutto and her husband (‘A Damoclean Sword that continues to swing’) I overlooked a significant piece of detail which I had been unaware of and here it is: the couple now face an additional charge of aggravated money laudering which has even more serious consequences.

"Geneva: Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto now faces more severe money laundering charges against her in Switzerland, paving the way for her trial before a Swiss jury, legal officials and lawyers said Thursday.

Geneva investigating magistrate Christine Junod said she had formally charged Bhutto with aggravated money laundering at a hearing on Wednesday, marking a step up from the simple money laundering case first opened in 1997.
"The legal qualification of laundering can be made in this way when the amount thought to have been laundered, in this case about 12 million dollars, is high enough," Junod told the Swiss news agency ATS.
Legal sources said the charge carries a stiffer penalty and also extends the statute of limitations from about seven years to 15 years for the former Pakistani prime minister, who was forced out of office in 1996. Once the examining process is completed, the case must be tried in court by a jury. It carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail as well as a fine of about one million Swiss francs if Bhutto is found guilty. "

Under Swiss law the Examining Magistrate has now to make a pronouncement on this additional new charge of aggravated money laundering. The Examining Magistrate therefore summoned the couple to Geneva for a court hearing set for 15th June 2005 to commence preparatory investigation on the new charge.

Benazir Bhutto’s lawyer, Alec Reymond, petitioned for a delay offering the following explanation:
Mrs. Bhutto has to remain in Dubai for obligations of a familial nature until 25th June, date from which she will start a round of conferences abroad which has been organized for a very long time.” And that she will be entirely at the court’s disposal during the weeks of 2nd to 5th August and from 5th to 9th September.”

Asif Zardari’s lawyer, Saverio Lembo, also petitioned for a delay for the following reason:
Because of his ‘heart attack and subsequent angioplasty’ Zardari’s doctors has instructed him to stay in bed for three weeks and also advised him not to carry out long journeys with in the next six months.

While the Swiss Magistrate grudgingly postponed the hearing to 13 July, she made it clear “there will not be any other postponement of hearing apart from the one accepted today”

She also reminded Benazir Bhutto that obeying the demands of justice was significantly more important than participating in a cycle of conferences. She also mentioned that she was keeping track of all the recent travel activities of Asif Zaradari.

I wonder what comes next?

benazir+bhutto
asif+zardari
Pakistan

Sheeda Tulli in Trouble

The Newsflash
On 13 June at an HRCP function in Islamabad the visiting JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik blurted out that the current Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had once been actively involved the training of Kashmiri guerillas.

As Daily Times of 14 June reported:

“ISLAMABAD: When the armed struggle in held Kashmir was at its zenith, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed set up a camp where around 3,500 Jihadis were trained in guerrilla warfare, revealed Yasin Malik, the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman…
…The JKLF leader praised Rashid for his contribution to the armed struggle, but the minister refused to comment when journalists approached him.”

_________________________________________________________

A Sudden Denial
The very next day (Wednesday, 15 June) Sheikh Rashid Ahmed denied running ‘terrorist camps’. This time Daily Times, quoting the Associated Press, reported:

“I never ran any training camp for terrorists. It has never been my policy to
train militants. I am a politician and support the peace process between
Pakistan and India,” AP quoted Rashid as saying.

Then the Foreign Office also weighed in, as the newspaper added:

The Foreign Office on Tuesday denied a story that Sheikh Rashid had been running terrorist training camps. “The news item is based on reported remarks by Yasin Malik,” an FO spokesman said. “The Government of Pakistan strongly refutes the story which is obviously based on lack of comprehension by the reporter. In fact, Yasin Malik had commended the moral support to the Kashmiri cause by the minister,” he added.

_________________________________________________________

Swift Rebuttals
Several People unexpectedly entered the fray by robustly corroborating Yasin Malik’s version, these included:

- General Mirza Aslam Baig, the former Army Chief,
- Maj Gen Naseerullah Babar, Interior Minister (1993-1996) during Benazir’s 2nd government
- Ch.Nisar Khan, ex- Federal Minister & colleague of Sheikh Rashid during Nawaz Sharif governments
- Khawaja Khalid, former officer in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
- Hamid Mir, of the Geo Television Network

They all confirmed that Rashid Ahmed used to run a militant camp in Rawalpindi which allegedly functioned under the name of ‘Freedom House’.

Hamid Mir went on record and said:

Sheikh Rashid's Rawalpindi farmhouse was dubbed Freedom House and used to be a hub of Kashmiri activists belonging to the JKLF. The camp was operational from 1988-90 to train JKLF cadres and Sheikh Rashid accompanied JKLF leaders, including Yasin, to the LoC several times. The camp's existence was known to high officials in Islamabad

Amir Mir writing in Outlook stated that:

A retired [Pakistani] intelligence official told {Amir Mir} that late Ashfaq Majeed Wani was in charge of Freedom House, the Sheikh's 20-acre farmhouse in Fateh Jang, Rawalpindi; and it was the ISI, then under Lt Gen Hamid Gul, which established the facility. But the former official claims the "liberation of Kashmir" may not have been the Sheikh's sole motive. "There were those in the intelligence who believed that he had actually rented out his farmhouse to the ISI for a hefty sum of money

In the same Outlook article, Amir Mir quotes Farhatullah Babar, a Pakistan People's Party spokesperson with a decided anti-Rashid standpoint:

Since only 20 acres of land was used to train militants, Babar has alleged that hundreds of acres of land were given to the Sheikh for some "collateral purposes". Claiming that the "training camp story was anything more than a decoy to divert state funds to favoured political leaders to overthrow democracy", the PPP has now demanded an inquiry into the Sheikh's role in training militants.

The most damaging allegation came from the former ISI officer Khawaja Khalid who asserted:

Then Nawaz Sharif introduced me to Sheikh Rashid, and he took me to his Freedom House camp near Fateh Jang Road near Rawalpindi. He asked me to get support from Arabs. I took several of my Arab friends to his training camp, and they provided him with some money, though they were not satisfied with the environment. The youths were mostly trained to fire AK-47 rifles, but there was no arrangement for the ideological training of youths. That was the point on which the Arabs objected, that it is ideological training that makes a difference between a mercenary and a mujahid. Rashid was the least bothered about ideological training, he was interested in money - Rs50,000 per person. Some money was provided to Rashid, and he claimed that he procured AK-47 guns with that money. How many, I do not remember.

_________________________________________________________

A Retraction
Yasin Malik then spoke to BBC with a clarification which was refuted by the former Army Chief Mirza Aslam Baig:

"We got refuge in his farmhouse... Sheikh Rashid helped us a lot and loved us" like a brother, Mr Malik told the BBC. However he denied having alleged in Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper that the minister had set up a training camp. "I have never mentioned the word training," Mr Malik said.
But Gen Beg has taken the allegations further, saying that Mr Rashid did run such a camp. "It came to my knowledge in 1990 that there was a militant training camp on Fateh Jang Road some 20km from Islamabad. I passed the information to the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who ordered the closure of the camp in 1991," he told the BBC.

. _________________________________________________________

Indian Reaction
On 24th the Press reported that Indian government turned down a visa application from Sheikh Rashid Ahmed to visit Indian-administered Kashmir.

_________________________________________________________

A Blog Comment
Your blogger vividly recalls Sheikh Rashid Ahmed bragging in the Pakistani press about the camp and his heroic support for the Kashmiri cause.

Can anyone, who has the patience and the urge to sift through newspapers of around 1989-1991, track down this report and find out what exactly Sheeda Tulli said? He certainly wasn't handing out Havana cigars to his guests, so what was he actually providing them with?

Pakistan
Sheikh+Rashid

The Fine Art of Toadying

I rest my case simply by quoting the BBC:

The BBC news website asked the prime minister's advisor on women's development, Nilofer Bakhtiar, if stopping Ms Mai from travelling may have done more damage than if she had been allowed to go.

"I don't want to get into that. All I want to say is that whatever decision the president took was the right one."

This lady deserves the Victoria Cross for sycophancy above and beyond the call of sanity.

Mukhtaran
Nilofer+Bakhtiar

State Sanctioned Thugs?

Freedom House, a well-known pro-Democracy organisation founded by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1941, had this to say about Pakistan’s police force:

Anecdotal evidence suggested that police continue to routinely engage in crime; use excessive force in ordinary situations; arbitrarily arrest and detain citizens; extort money from prisoners and their families; accept money to register cases on false charges; rape female detainees and prisoners; commit extrajudicial killings; and torture detainees, often to extract confessions. Political opponents, former government officials, and other critics of the regime are particularly at risk of arbitrary arrest or abduction, torture, and denial of basic due process rights at the hands of military authorities, according to Human Rights Watch. Prison conditions continue to be extremely poor. A report issued in November by Amnesty International noted that the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance of 2000 remains largely unimplemented and several thousand children continue to be jailed alongside adults.

Interestingly, two days ago ordinary citizens of Karachi were seen on TV stridently criticizing the role played by the Police in the distribution of heroin in the city. Many complained that because of the pressure of payoffs demanded by their superiors, local SHO’s had struck deals with the heroin gangs promising not to interfere in their operations in return for large sums of cash.

Ever wondered as to why no government – civilian or military – has ever bothered to reform the police?

The answer may lie in the fact that each government has relied on the police to harass and brutalize its political opponents into submission.

An obedient police force has therefore always been more important than one that is upright and competent.
Pakistan

The Follies of Hubris

These are absorbing times. Two influential columnists from US’s two most authoritative newspapers – The New York Times and the Washington Post - are suddenly on warpath against the Musharraf regime.
(Those wishing to obscure the issue will say these columnists are ‘anti-Pakistan’, but that will be patent nonsense as being anti-Musharraf and anti-Pakistan are decidedly not the same thing).

There are two general issues involved here:
- Mendacity
- Abuse of power

On 17 June Musharraf openly acknowledged his involvement in blocking Mukhtaran Mai’s US trip (by the preventative detention, putting her name on the ECL, snatching her passport, etc) while addressing the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Auckland.

And having done so, he exposed senior members of his government, who had been yelling themselves hoarse to the contrary, to be nothing more than a pack of blatant liars. We’ve known this all along but thanks to the mighty Commando this fact was propelled into the glare of global daylight in front of an assembly of international journalists.

And while Musharraf in commando fashion opted to take it on the chin by saying ‘I did it’, the confession damaged him immensely. The dignified shroud of enlightened moderation and a neatly assembled democratic façade fell at his feet, exposing the iron fist and jackboots underneath.

Not used to democracy – apart from incessantly talking about it – Musharraf forgot that there is such a thing as a system of laws. In a democratic society no king, president or prime minister can issue any orders without the support of an underlying law and the exercise of legitimate legal authority. What Mush did was confess that he can and does behave like a medieval king – “off with that peasant’s head, etc” – without bothering to reflect on the legality of his conduct.

So in one fell swoop Musharraf managed to wreck the image of himself and his government to smithereens.

The early Greeks well understood the follies of Hubris. And there are two modern interpretations of an ancient Greek saying on this subject:

- Those whom the Gods would destroy they first make all powerful.
- Those whom the Gods would destroy they first make proud

Take your pick!

Mukhtaran
Musharraf

Musharraf vexed in NZ

Don’t go by what our ‘controlled’ TV channels and silly ol' geriatric Dawn have to say.
Commando Salamat did not get an easy time in NZ .

_____________________________________________________

Fact One - Musharraf was sent elsewhere…

First of all Musharraf could not make it to the NZ capital city of Wellington. Why? Because the visiting British Rugby Team, the Lions and its supporters had booked all the hotels in advance and therefore had democratic precedence. The New Zealand Herald reported:

General Pervez Musharraf arrives on Friday for a weekend of talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark. But the entire 55-strong delegation will only visit Auckland because there is not any available accommodation in Wellington. Foreign Affairs says there are only a few hotels in the capital that can cope with a delegation of that size, and they are all booked out for the Lions tour.
_____________________________________________________

Fact Two - An embarrassing clash took place between NZ Police and Mush’s guards (NZ Stuff))

The visit of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had a rocky start when police seized a pistol from one of his security men at Auckland airport last night.
Pakistani officials became involved in a lengthy argument after a police sergeant took a heavy pistol from the man's shoulder holster.
[See Photo: The policeman is holding the confiscated pistol in his hand].

It took more than an hour after the presidential party landed for diplomatic protection squad chief Inspector Bruce Blayney to sort the issue out.
Five guns were eventually handed over.

And The New Zealand Herald adds:
A spokesman from the office of the Police Commissioner said the delegation had been specifically instructed by New Zealand police to leave their weapons on the chartered plane that brought General Musharraf from Australia.
_____________________________________________________


Fact Three - As the Mukhtaran Mai story hit the local press, Musharraf decided to duck the issue by cancelling his interviews on radio and TV
– this is confirmed by the following press release issued by the irate TV station (NZ’s Scoop).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has today cancelled two in depth media interviews with Pakistani President Musharraf.
The interviews were scheduled for Radio New Zealand’s “Nine to Noon” and the TVOne programme “Agenda”.
Agenda producer Richard Harman says no explanation has been given for the cancellation of the interview on his programme though a Foreign Affairs spokesman claimed the decision had been made by the Pakistanis.
President Musharraf’s visit here comes in a week with heightened concerns about human rights in his country provoked by an honour gang rape.
Mr Harman said his programme certainly intended to ask the President about the rape and human rights in his country.
“Right from the start the New Zealand authorities have been hyper sensitive over this visit and our interview,” said Mr Harman.
“We even received a demand from the New Zealand police that the President’s motorcade not be filmed as it entered the TVNZ network centre complex in Auckland.”
“It is time for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs to start upholding the fundamental New Zealand democratic right of a free media and stop pandering to the whims of foreign dictators.”
_____________________________________________________

Fact Four - A New Zealand MP and Foreign Policy spokesman for the Green party publicly called on the NZ Prime Minister to challenge Musharraf for being a dictator who tortured and held people without trial
NZ Scoop reports.

"Musharraf is all but a dictator, and the Prime Minister will be betraying the Pakistani people if she doesn't speak out strongly against his shocking human rights record during his visit here," Green Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Keith Locke said.

"It is good for New Zealand to have closer relations with Pakistan, but they must be accompanied by plain speaking on human rights.

"The routine torture of political dissidents in Musharraf's prisons has been condemned around the world, including in US State Department reports. Pakistan's Human Rights Commission estimates 5000 cases of police torture a year, including beating, whipping the soles of feet, and administering electric shocks.
"Miss Clark says she will be discussing counter-terrorism with Mr Musharraf. We ask her not to accept excuses from the President that the 'war on terror' justifies the use of force against prisoners and their detention without trial. The truth is that many ordinary Pakistanis have been terrorised by the country's security forces."

Mr Musharraf had also failed to protect women's rights, and our Prime Minister should relay our disquiet, Mr Locke said.

"At least 1500 women are killed in Pakistan each year for 'dishonouring' their families. Rape victims are discouraged from laying a complaint. Women can even be charged for the crimes of family members.

"Three years ago, a Pakistani woman Mukhtaran Bibi was sentenced to be gang-raped for a crime allegedly committed by her brother. She has now been detained by the Pakistani police because she dared to speak out about her case in the international media.
_____________________________________________________

Finally - a well known NZ Blogger ‘No Right Turn’ – a human rights advocate - summed up Mush's three day visit in NZ as:

A grilling
Agenda this morning commented at length on the cancellation of their interview with President Musharraf and issues surrounding his visit. They also reported on his speech to the Foreign Correspondent's Club in Auckland last night, during which it seems he received quite a grilling about human rights and the Mukhtaran Bibi case in particular. His response was to say that he had personally ordered Mukhtaran's travel ban and detention as he did not want her to tarnish Pakistan's image abroad. He also called human rights NGOs "westernized fringe elements" which are "as bad as the Islamic extremists". I think that makes it quite clear where he stands on human rights...
Meanwhile, according to Stuff, both Helen Clark and the Governor-General reportedly raised human and women's rights issues with Musharraf yesterday, so there's been some progress since the beginning of the week.


I would imagine the Great Commando will be relieved to return to dear old Pakistan. a country where he can do no wrong and is daily reminded of this 'fact' by his chumchas, such as Nilofar Bakhtiar

Musharraf

Homage to a Mai from a Village

If one was poor and illiterate what sort of prospect can one expect in Pakistan? OK, if we members of the educated-in-English-and-not-uselessly-in-Urdu elite were honest about it – the answer would be a hopelessly pitiful one.

Now add a ‘being a woman’ factor to the ‘poor and illiterate’ and what do you get? A short life span between 50 and 60 years, filled with daily hardships, misery, toil and drudgery, and having to live these years in a society completely dominated by men and their whims.

And then you have someone like Mukhtaran – definitely poor, definitely illiterate and definitely a woman – who has lived all her life in a small backwater village where her family was deemed to be lesser folk by the senior yokel hierarchy of the village.

On a horribly brutal day some three years ago she was gang raped by four members of the senior yokel family to avenge some concocted grievance. In those few short and inhuman hours Mukhtaran must have died a thousand deaths.

But she survived. In a failed society where her tragic cries might have remained unheeded because of the absence of proper administrative justice, she had the good fortune to be heard by some caring outsiders. They publicised her calamity and soon it caught the attention of local and then eventually the international press.

Finally alerted by all the attention Mukhtaran was getting, the authorities felt obliged to act. Her attackers were finally detained and Musharraf grandly awarded her Rs, 500,000.

Using that money along with some US$ 133,000 raised by US well-wishers; she built two schools, one each for girls and boys; a shelter for abused women; and bought a small Suzuki van to be used as a local ambulance. It becomes apparent that she desired genuine advancement for her community.

As I said previously, I would vote for her, like a shot, for president.

OK, I know the cynics out there will shake their heads and wonder – an illiterate village woman for president? Could one imagine her meeting and conversing with Putin, Chirac or Blair? This guy must be nuts for suggesting such a brainless idea!

In reply I would say the following:

For the past *^#@&^% fifty-seven years we have had urban educated males abominably mismanaging and egotistically misruling this country.

A country, that had a great deal hope four decades ago, is now widely perceived as a failing state. Pakistan is not only poverty stricken, we have an absence of rule of law, few working amenities, rampant illiteracy, an extremely corrupt and amoral ruling class, a powerfully wealthy and defiant army and a criminal police force.

Yes, we would also have to agree that we have been inundated with exceedingly corrupt and amoral politicians, rural gentry, generals, admirals, air marshals, bureaucrats, businessmen, traders, bankers, wankers, et al. And yes, nearly all of them – 99% - have been educated men, mostly urban. (No, I did not forget Benazir Bhutto, she enters this list of the dissolute as the remaining 1% - which consists of the ‘urban & educated but woman’ category)

A simple good hearted woman like Mukhtaran may not impress everyone. However, she will help bring back a genuine heart and a moral soul to a country, which many suspect that even God has given up on in sheer disgust.

And hey, there will never be any shortage of self-important educated urbane males who can be roped in to entertain the likes of Putin or Chirac.
Mukhtaran
Musharraf

Post-Mortem of a Complete and Utter Fiasco.

For a moment let us forget Mukhtaran Mai and the fact that three years ago she was gang raped, stripped naked and left to ruin, only to be saved by pressure from outside the frontiers of our blessed Islamic Republic.

And then last week after being placed on the ECL, she was locked up under so-called ‘protective custody’ by dozens of policemen, had her telephone line cut, then ‘officially’ kidnapped and dragged to Islamabad then pressurised by some bimbo (an advisor to the PM by the name of Nilofar Bakhtiar, who let her know that the great Commando Musharraf was personally "very angry" with her).

Mukhtaran Mai was then forced to withdraw her passport from the US Embassy where she had sent it to obtain a visa for her intended trip to the US, and made to face a press conference, nervous and shaking, to save the face of the wizardly half-wits currently in power and deny everything.

But no one believed the façade. Under international derision and anger these wizardly half-wits had to beat a hasty and undignified retreat. They removed her name from the ECL and announced that she was free to go whenever and wherever she wished.

_________________________

Let us for a moment forget about the dreadful ordeal this poor brave and underprivileged woman had to undergo. Lets us instead examine how the government of Pakistan managed to make a total international ass of itself on a grand scale

From the facts that have emerged it appears that the daft circus was begun by one Jahangir Karamat –a former Army Chief who has been famously accused in the Lahore High Court of pocketing $20 million in purchase of 300 tanks from Ukraine.

Mukhtaran Mai had been invited by a group of Pakistani-Americans (see www.4anaa.org) to visit the US. It has been reported that the retired army chief, currently our Ambassador in Washington, feared that she might malign Pakistan’s image during her stay in the US. So he instructed the Foreign Office at Islamabad to prevent her from reaching the US.

I imagine no one can say no to a General – particular a retired army chief so highly thought of by Commando Salamat himself. The Foreign Office promptly informed the Ministry of Interior and the menacing wheels of coercion were quickly put into gear against a poor and defenceless village woman.

As we all know once officialdom in Pakistan starts moving any withdrawal is perceived as loss of face. So, despite the howls of protest in the local press, Islamabad moved onwards relentlessly to curb Mukhtaran Mai’s independence. Then yesterday it stopped in its tracks. Why? Because a New York Times columnist pronounced that:

-the Pakistani government had gone ‘berserk’
-‘The threat to Pakistan's image comes from President Musharraf for all this thuggish behavior’
- ‘President Musharraf has gone nuts’
- Mr. Bush should ‘invite Ms. Mukhtaran to the Oval Office - to show that Americans stand not only with generals who seize power, but also with ordinary people of extraordinary courage’.

This was followed the next day by a savagely critical editorial in the same newspaper.

Prodded by the Press (and US bloggers on warpath emailing officials by the thousands) the US Government got in to action.

Christina Rocca, the assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, announced that the US Government was ‘dismayed at the treatment being meted out to a courageous woman, Mukhtaran Bibi, who is herself a victim of a horrendous crime and is being denied the right to travel and to tell her story,” She added that "We will pursue this matter during the course of the day"

The Empire had spoken. And so the bullies of Islamabad had to temporarily duck for cover.
Mukhtaran
Musharraf

CNN - Predicting Pakistan's Future

Dateline: 27 May 2105

Transcript of CNN’s interview at Army House, Rawalpindi

CNN: General, will you be standing for re-election and more importantly, will you be keeping the uniform?

Musharraf: No and Yes and, of course, Yes and No.

CNN: Sorry. Sir, could you kindly clarify that.

Musharraf: (Chuckling) You people never really understand what I’m trying to say. As I have always said we have to place the interest of Pakistan first and foremost.

CNN: Yes? (Interviewer nodding her head and looking quizzical at the same time)

Musharraf: As a straight shooter I don’t dilly dally, you see. So really, whatever is in the interest of the nation is the only path to follow.

CNN: So you will be standing again?

Musharraf: Yes and No.

CNN: And in uniform?

Musharraf: No and Yes.

CNN: Sir, do you realise that at the age of one hundred and sixty-three you are the most ancient Army Chief in world history.

Musharraf: So what? Pakistan needs me, my uniform fits me and I am positive that we will catch that rascal Osama by the end of the year.
Musharraf

A Case of 'Unenlightened Immoderation'?

Amnesty International has come down heavily on Pakistan for its poor human rights record. The Report 2005, formally released on 25th May criticised the military for consolidating its political role through the National Security through an act of Parliament and blamed Musharraf’s regime for the following Human Rights violations:

Women and Religious Minorities at Risk

Women and religious minorities, including Shi'a Muslims, Ahmadis, and Christians, are routinely subject to discrimination.
The government has permitted discriminatory laws to remain on the books, failed to enforce laws prohibiting discrimination, allowed individuals to be arbitrarily detained, and failed to ensure that those responsible for abuses are held to account.
In addition, Christians, Shi'a Muslims and Ahmadis, who have been the subject of targeted killings by Islamist groups, have been afforded little protection by the government.

Women
Domestic violence, including physical abuse, rape, acid throwing, burning and "honor" killing, is widespread.
Forced marriage of young girls continues to be reported despite a legal minimum age of 16. Although slavery is illegal in Pakistan, girls and women continue to be traded to settle debts or conflicts.
Physical abuse of women in custody is rife.

Tribal Justice System
The government has allowed tribal councils, or jirgas, to abuse a wide range of human rights.
In rural Pakistan, jirgas are convened to resolve disputes over land, water, breaches of "honor," murder and blood feuds. Jirgas often resolve feuds by ordering an offender to hand over girls and women to the aggrieved party. In cases where a woman is believed to have "dishonored" her family by having a male friend, marrying a man of her choice, or seeking a divorce, jirgas have decided that those involved be killed or otherwise punished. The state does not generally take action when jirga decisions lead to murder, rape or other abuses.

Abuse of Blasphemy Laws
Pakistan's blasphemy laws, while purporting to protect Islam and the religious sensitivities of the Muslim majority are vaguely formulated and arbitrarily enforced by the police and the judiciary.
The laws have frequently been abused to imprison people on grounds of religious enmity and have also provided a mechanism through which to have people imprisoned when the real motives are business rivalry, land disputes, or politics.

Children
Children who come into contact with the criminal justice system are routinely denied basic rights to which they are entitled under Pakistani law. Thousands of children have been denied access to bail and remain in prison for months - sometimes years - while awaiting trial under conditions in which they are vulnerable to abuse by police, prison staff or adult prisoners.
Children are routinely transported while chained to each other, adult prisoners, or guards. They are frequently held in lockups with adults.
Some children have been sentenced to death.

Post 9-11 Detention and Transfer of Custody
In the context of Pakistan's cooperation with the U.S.-led war on "terrorism," persons detained under suspicion of being al-Qa'ida or Taleban members have been denied rights guaranteed by the Pakistan constitution, including the rights to access to a lawyer, to meet with family members and to be seen by a medical doctor.
Many have been turned over to the U.S.-led coalition in violation of their rights under Pakistan's extradition law.
Some foreigners present in Pakistan, including Uighurs from China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and people from Middle Eastern countries, have been handed over to their home countries without regard to the human rights violations they may face in those countries.

Pakistan+human+rights

Another Fragile Desi Ego Out of Control?

Saad S. Khan is said to be a rare breed of bureaucrat – principled and idealistic. Reports suggest that he still does not own a car or a house. If that is the case then he must certainly belong to a nearly extinct variety of the now rapacious genus civili servantus islamabadicus.

He is said to have a passion for writing and has written in journals, periodicals and newspapers and participated and lectured at several seminar and conferences. All was well with him until he wrote a passionate column in The Nation last November – it was addressed as an ‘Open Letter to the Prime Minister’. Since then all hell has broken loose.

Here are some excerpts from that column:

Mr. Prime Minister and my readers know of the contents of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s (HRCP) report on the Tharparkar bye-election. Government officials and the presiding staff was openly found stamping whole books of ballot sheets in your favor.

The opposition leaders were being detained and harassed. You got 156,000 otes, an imaginary figure, a number that has never been polled in the history of Tharpakar, nor ever will be in the foreseeable future. This massive “victory “, rather than strengthening your standing, would remain a living scar on your personal integrity and on the electoral history of our country. Blessed be he who gave you the idea of contesting from this seat and giving Dr Arbab a free hand to make you win by such a ‘miraculous’ margin.

I was again awed by your guts at your swearing in ceremony as Prime Minister. The utter contempt you displayed for the national language by taking oath in English, unlike all previous Prime Ministers who took oath in Urdu, speaks for your courage to rule the country without any pretense of being a son of the soil. All your practical life has been spent at the paid service of banks abroad. But the public display of your feelings at this auspicious occasion was amazing. It is a fashion to decry Urdu as a difficult and unrefined language because it was the language of an insignificant palace, Delhi’s imperial court, while English was being used by the Emperor’s British “servants” in the East India Company who later usurped our land and became our masters. I am happy that while abroad, you never lost touch even with Pakistan’s latest fashions in linguistics. Since the ritual of swearing oath to Pakistan, you are found religiously swearing allegiance to your own army chief everyday, equating democracy with his uniform.

The induction of your government had an equally ‘impressive’ start, when you appointed a whole army of ministers, many of them sons and scions of every jagirdar of our country whose loyalty for the ruler, whosoever he may be, had been up for sale. The defense of
our capital city, Islamabad, is now impregnable, because now two corps are placed there; the Army’s 10-Corps and Aziz’s Corps of Ministers.

Then he referred to three specific incidents:

1. The illegal confinement of Geo TV team by members of Anti-Narcotics Force who then broke the Geo TV camera and smashed the teams’ mobile phones and then subjected them to severe torture.
2. The killing by Faisalabad police of Qari Noor Mohammad while in police custody.
3. The raping of helpless women at Hyderabad’s Dar-ul-Aman by officials who then had the police arrest them when they escaped.

And then laid into old Shortcut Aiziz.

But since all these incidents did not catch your eye while you remained busy ddressing posh gatherings in five-star hotels elucidating your vision of Pakistan’s future, I can only pray for Pakistan, my country.

The media reports that Shaukat Aziz became incensed at cheek of the officer and wrote ‘Get this man’ and sent it to the ‘head of a national security agency’.

Saad S. Khan was issued a dismissal notice, without the formality of holding an inquiry and giving him the opportunity of being heard, as required by law. Khan sought relief at the High Court. Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha of the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court, hearing Khan’s constitutional petition, stayed the dismissal orders as an interim relief.

It is now reported that Shaukat Aziz saw to it that the judge was transferred from his post. And, the Rawalpindi Bench of the High Court temporarily ceased to exist with the transfer of the judge.

Is this how things were done in Citibank, New York? Not on your life!

Get an insecure desi ego daily boosted by hordes of durbari chumchas and what does one end up with?

A petty little Attila the Hun on steroids. So what else is new?

Pakistan

Shaukat+Aziz

Yet More "Balderdash'

In this week’s Newsweek a retired senior CIA spook Gary Schroen (see footnote) says that Pakistan will never really act against Osama bin Laden.

Major General Shaukat Sultan rejects this accusation. So it's 'balderdash' time yet again.

Excerpt from Newsweek: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7937013/site/newsweek/

“Bin Laden's greatest protection now may be his growing legend, Schroen says Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf fears a horrific Islamist backlash if he publicly arrests the man seen in parts of South and Central Asia and the Middle East as an Islamic Robin Hood. By contrast, the Pakistani leader is willing to hand over lesser figures like al-Libbi, who was allegedly involved in two attempts on Musharraf's life but arouses no strong feelings among the Pakistani public. As evidence, Schroen says that it took the Pakistanis five months to act against al-Libbi after the Americans delivered intel on the whereabouts of a Qaeda suspect who could not, at the time, be specifically identified; Schroen believes the Pakistanis acted only after determining that the suspect was not bin Laden but a smaller fish. "We gave them the information on Libbi back in December," says Schroen, who has written a new book on his work with the CIA in Afghanistan. "They didn't want to do it." Pakistani officials deny this. "I reject that Pakistan stayed back on the intelligence for five months," says Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan. "The moment Pakistan got confirmed intelligence, Pakistan immediately acted."

I just wonder who is right?

*Gary Schroen CIA career includes:
Case Officer, Islamabad, 1978-1980; Chief of Station-designate, Kabul, 1988-1990; Chief of Station, Islamabad, 1996-1999; Deputy Chief, Near East Division, Directorate of Operations, 1999-2001

It's Pakistan Stupid!

An extract from a US Conservative Journal: Front Page Magazine

It's Pakistan, Stupid! by Paul Sperry May 6, 2005

"Internal Department of Homeland Security documents I've obtained show officials fear Pakistan-based al-Qaida may be sending terrorists our way, including ones trained in terror camps up and running inside Pakistan -- that's right, Pakistan. The terror-training camps we shut down in Afghanistan are now open for business on the other side of the border, despite Islamabad's apparent efforts to crack down on them.

According to the closely held intelligence bulletins, officials worry Pakistanis trained in the camps are trying to sneak into America to carry out terrorist attacks. In fact, U.S. border authorities are reminded each day in shift musters that Pakistanis pose the No. 1 terrorist threat to America right now. And for the past several months, they have been under orders to increase scrutiny of travelers of Pakistani origin.

The latest advisory puts authorities on high alert for Pakistani terrorists trying to enter the U.S. with fake British passports.

"A number of Pakistani-based young men in their 20's may be traveling to the U.S. with altered United Kingdom passports in order to engage in terrorist-related activity," says the highly sensitive DHS action memo.
"Of most interest may be individuals fitting this description traveling to Washington D.C., Houston, Chicago or New York."

The FBI says al-Qaida leaders -- many of whom are believed to be hiding in Pakistan, as evidenced most recently by the capture there of senior operative Abu Farraj al-Libbi -- have discussed plans for a 9/11-type attack in which hijackers would board planes in Britain so they wouldn't have to use U.S. visas. Customs inspectors are questioning all male Pakistani travelers between the ages of 18 and 35 bearing British passports, as part of the latest DHS directive known as Intelligence Driven Special Operation #2005-07.

Even Pakistani-Americans have been subjected to special screening.

Fearing some may be returning from terrorist camps in their ancestral homeland, customs officials have been directed to not only question them about their trip and activities but to also search their arms and legs for signs of having had terrorist training. They've been told to look for anything from rope burns to bruises to possible injuries suffered from using firearms or explosives. The body searches stopped after the Pakistani Embassy complained, but they are still being asked a battery of questions.

"Many of the individuals trained in the Pakistani camps are destined to commit illegal activities in the United States," says the two-page DHS warning that launched IDSO #2004-022. (Click here to view page one and page two, parts of which I have redacted to protect some of the more sensitive countermeasures.)

The unusual steps show how desperate homeland security officials are to disrupt what they believe is a major attack planned by terrorists of Pakistani origin.

At the same time, U.S. immigration authorities are targeting Pakistanis living illegally in America for deportation. Since 9/11, they've rounded up and removed three times more Pakistani absconders than they did during the comparable period before 9/11. DHS data also show the number of Pakistani removals dwarfs those of illegals from all other Muslim nations.

Pakistanis account for most of the OTMs -- other than Mexicans – crossing the U.S. border with Mexico illegally from countries considered high risk for terrorism. And officials fear some may try to smuggle nuclear or radiological weapons across the porous border into America.

Osama bin Laden, who has long sought a nuclear weapon or radioactive materials to make a so-called dirty bomb, recently secured from a Saudi cleric a religious ruling giving him the green light to use nuclear weapons against Americans. He and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, along with much of al-Qaida's inner circle, are thought to be hiding in Pakistan's northern badlands. In fact, they've recently used couriers to deliver video- and audio-taped messages to Al-Jazeera TV's bureaus in Islamabad and Karachi. And just yesterday it was announced that one of their top operatives --al-Libbi -- was captured in that same badlands area.

Pakistan, which husbanded al-Qaida and served as a base of operations for the 9/11 plotters, has long been a hotbed of terrorist activity. The war on terror started in Pakistan, and many officials believe it will end there.

But for that to happen, they say Bush must pressure Islamabad to shut down the terrorist camps in Pakistan, because U.S. forces can't do it unilaterally. Islamabad refuses to allow our troops based in Afghanistan to cross the border into neighboring Pakistan.

After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush demanded the Taliban close terror camps in Afghanistan. On Sept. 20, 2001, he warned: "Tonight the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban ... Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan."

Yet Pakistan, the cradle of the Taliban movement, gets no such ultimatums regarding its own terror camps. Too be sure, Islamabad cut formal ties with the Taliban after 9/11, and has vowed to crack down on terrorists in its country. But the seeming double standard over the camps still gripes law enforcement here.

"What gets me is while we were going after the Taliban in Afghanistan, there were a lot of training camps in Pakistan. I mean, there was like a ton. That was where the terrorists were getting most of their training -- in Pakistan -- and they're still getting training there," says John M. Cole, who until last year worked at FBI headquarters as program manager for foreign intelligence investigations covering Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

While the arrest of al-Libbi was a blow to al-Qaida and a win for our side, untold numbers of terrorists are still plotting and training inside Pakistan -- and preparing to launch attacks against America. Cole and others don't understand why Washington is taking the unnecessary risk of trying to catch the bad guys here when Islamabad could be doing more to stop them over there -- or at least letting our troops help stop them."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17968

A Short Bio of the $70 Million Man

Quite amazing when you think about it.

An IBA man from the then urban wilderness of Nazimabad (circa 1969) makes it good as a young recruit at an influential US bank in Karachi.

Smooth talking and talented he rapidly rises through the ranks of the generally staid and colourless commercial bankers and eventually making it big time at head office in New York. Soon his networking skills among Third World ‘movers and shakers’ becomes the stuff of legend.

Three decades later (after having made approx. US $ 70 million through his entitlement of Citibank share options) Shaukat Aziz was comfortably wealthy but ‘unrich’ and ‘unfamous’ by resident US standards– in other words just another New York banker in a city dominated by multi-billionaires and the mega-rich.

But for Pakistanis he was a local boy who had done amazingly well in a competitive world dominated by WASPs but even so he wasn’t the only desi among Citibank’s senior staffers – Aziz had to share the sub-continental limelight with the likes of equally talented Indians such as Victor Menezes and Rana Talwar.

During the 1990s Aziz became recognized for leveraging his Citibank success on the local Pakistani scene. He became known for currying favour with the likes of Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari, Shahbaz Sharif, and a host of Generals – particularly those holding key commands. He also joined the prestigious Sind Club by the extraordinary act of jetting in regularly from Singapore to attend the club’s compulsory introductory meetings.

Then came the Travellers Group ‘takeover’ and a management shake-up which left some Citibankers such as Aziz and Rana Talwar reduced in status. Talwar went on to head Standard Chartered Bank and Aziz became Pakistan’s post-coup Finance Minister. While Victor Menezes went on to become the vice-Chairman of the new Citigroup

In the next few years Aziz did his best – in difficult circumstances - to improve Pakistan’s economy. A tall order for a commercial banker but he managed better than his predecessors but truth is the incidence of backbreaking poverty went on increasing, while paradoxically the rich got even richer – hence his continued popularity among the money making elitist circles.

Then in late 2004 out of the blue he emerged as a compromise candidate for the post of Prime Minister - largely because without a voter base he threatened no one.

In the ‘who-flung-dung’ of Pakistani politics it is difficult to forecast Aziz’s continued survival. The petty and nasty egos that bedevil the local political landscape leave little room for Aziz’s masterfully polished art of smooth talking – success in a setting of chilled champagne and iced oysters may not work as well in an environment offering at times nothing more than tepid mango juice and congealing karahi ghost.

The Fraud Who Went a Step Too Far (Part I)

Many people got fake degrees to contest the 2002 elections but few had the audacity to aim for instant doctorates. Not only did ‘Dr’ Aamir Liaquat Hussain win his election, he was soon elevated to the rank of Minister of State for Religious Affairs.

Posing as a religious scholar on Geo TV he beamed himself across the nation on Aalim Online. Soon Geo TV was boasting that the programme had taken the nation and our Commando -Salamat by storm. Geo’s website boldly states:

General Parvaiz Musharaf is a self confessed fan of Dr.Liaqat and his program Aalim Online. To quote the president; “Aalim on line is doing a great service for Islam. Dr.Aamer Liaqat is amazing. I like to watch him and hear him.He is doing a great service for Islam through Geo. I am the biggest fan of Dr. Aamer Liaqat Hussain.

On one occasion it was widely reported that Mrs Sehba Musharraf even rang to tell Aamir Liaquat Hussain that he had reduced the mighty Commando Salamat to tears with the power of his TV sermons.

Holy Guacamole, Batman!

So when the scandal about his fake degrees broke out did the Jahil-Online panic? No, of course not. With his biggest fan supporting him who could take him on.

But then the silly fool blew it – completely and utterly. Jahil-Online committed blasphemy of such nature that even Commando Salamat found it difficult to forgive.

Pakistan
aamer+liaqaut+hussain

The Fraud Who Went a Step Too Far (Part II)

Transcript of Jahil-Online’s ‘blasphemous’ interview
(Daily Times, 7 May 2005)

Daily Times: You said the ISI was the architect of jihadis and you said now the ISI is arresting the jihadis. Now who is putting hurdles in the way of the government and who is actually threatening enlightened moderation?

Jahil-Online: Many people told me not to make such statements but I am outspoken. There is an ISI within the ISI, the former more powerful than the original. They were the godfathers of the Taliban. Who attacked President Musharraf? Only Army personnel can do this. A third attempt on President Musharraf’s life is also possible. There are people who are enemies of Musharraf Saheb. They will not spare me either. My life is in danger too. President Musharraf should be careful about his life. He has his enemies within.

Daily Times: Do you have any evidence to substantiate your claim with regard to “an ISI within the ISI”?

Jahil-Online: Yes, there is plenty of evidence. For example, look at the tenor and tone of MMA chief Qazi Husain Ahmed. From where does he derive the confidence to claim that he would have Musharraf kicked out of the army very soon. Yes, he has got ‘some people’ behind him.

Daily Times: What do you mean by “enemies within”? Does it mean the Army?

Jahil-Online: Look, President Musharraf has on a number of occasions told the nation that the real threat to the country was from within. Which means there exists an internal threat, far greater than any outer one. Well, internal threat includes the Army.
____________________________________________

Moral of the Story: You can lie, cheat, bullshit and commit fraud at the highest levels and get away with it but even Commando Salamat can’t protect you if you besmirch a most hallowed institution.
Pakistan
aamir+liaquat+hussain

Apologies!

Have been away for the past few weeks and will soon make up for the prolonged absence.