Mr Shaheen Sehbai, the Group Editor, The News International (Jang Group of Newspapers) had written in the year 2000 that, "Every one in the present morally, intellectually and financially depleted Pakistan --the print media and its well-entrenched "gurus" among the foremost --- is shouting from the roof top for accountability of every one else.Yet no one has seriously demanded, nor does any one appear to be contemplating, any accountability of the media itself. The peers, naturally those who come out unscathed and "clean", should sit down to formulate lists of those who have been publicly demonstrating a lack of intellectual, moral and professional integrity. Big names like Minhaj Barna, Mushahid Hussain, Maleeha Lodhi, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, Nazir Naji, Ataul Haq Qasmi, Ayaz Amir, Hussain Haqqani, Irshad Ahmed Haqqani, Najam Sethi, Nasim Zehra, Jamiluddin Aali and many others who sought or accepted political, diplomatic or government jobs, or joined political parties as activists, should be asked to explain why they did not quit journalism to do so and why they continued to use the profession to get, keep or regain lucrative jobs or positions of power. How do they retain, or claim to retain, their objectivity and credibility, once they have demonstrated their political ambitions. In the least they should have apologised to the profession". REFERENCE: Who will Bell the Bad, Fat Cats? by Shaheen Sehbai January 5, 2000 http://www.chowk.com/articles/4687 Shaheen Sehabi on the Accountability of Media/Press. http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/10/shaheen-sehabi-on-accountability-of.html
The fact is that Mr Roedad Khan served as a loyal civil servant for three Chief Martial Law Administrators: Field Marshal (without fighting an war) General Ayub Khan, Gen Yahya Khan (Fall of Dhaka in 1971) and Gen Ziaul Haq (Heroin, Religious Extremism, Gun Culture and worse Drugs and Narcotics). Why didn't Mr Roedad Khan have the courage to say then, what he says now? Roedad and Shaheen Sehbai have the audacity to share the same newspaper i.e. The News International, as a Columnist and as a Group Editor.
Altaf Hussain's fateful decision not to support Zardari on the infamous NRO issue was a masterly stroke in the game of politics. Otto von Bismarck famously said that political genius entailed hearing the hoofbeat of history and then rising to catch the galloping horseman by the coattails. This is what Altaf Bhai has done, to the surprise of friends and foes alike. Altaf Bhai's friendly advice to President Asif Zardari to sacrifice his exalted office for the sake of the country and democracy reminds me of the fateful "Norway Debate” in the House of Commons in May 1940. All presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but no elected president in history has fallen this low this fast. All presidents are opposed, of course, and many are disliked; but few suffer widespread attacks on their personal integrity or veracity. President Zardari is one of those few. Zardari knows well the man responsible for the trouble he is in. He looks at him everyday while shaving. A year after he captured the presidency, Zardari seems to have lost his "mandate of heaven." At a time when leadership is desperately needed to cope with matters of vital importance to the very survival of the country, Pakistan is led by a president who lacks both credibility and integrity. What is worse, he seems oblivious to the realities of his awesome responsibilities and is only interested in perpetuating himself. REFERENCE: In the name of God, go - by Roedad Khan, DatedWednesday, November 11, 2009 http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=207859
The Supreme Court story starts with a letter dated June 16, 1996 addressed by Asghar Khan to the then chief justice of Pakistan Sajjad Ali Shah drawing his attention to ‘the disclosure by the minister for interior in the National Assembly on 11 June 1996 that General (retd) Aslam Beg, a former chief of the army staff, had drawn Rs15 crores from the Mehran Bank and had distributed this amount to various people prior to the 1990 elections. He disclosed that this had been done through Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, the director general of the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate, at the time. General Durrani’s statement was read out in the National Assembly….’ The air marshal was advised by the Supreme Court on Oct 28, 1996 that his letter had been converted by the CJP into a petition and registered as Human Rights Case 19/1996,its first hearing to be on Nov 3 of that year. REFERENCE: Let justice awaken By Ardeshir Cowasjee Sunday, 30 Aug, 2009 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/ardeshir-cowasjee-let-justice-awaken-089Petition of Air Marshal [Retd] Asgher Khan is still pending in SC for the crime committed with the help of Pakistan's Public Money aka Mehran Bank Scandal, one of the Criminal was Roedad Khan:
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Nawaz opened up by congratulating Kamran on his Mehrangate exposures which had recently appeared in the press, asking how the inquiry was progressing, and giving his own views. They exchanged information, each believing the other was being informed. They talked about how COAS Aslam Beg (sporter of shades in the shade) managed to get Rs 14 crore (140 million) from Yunis Habib, then of Habib Bank. This was deposited in the 'Survey Section 202' account of Military Intelligence (then headed by Major-General Javed Ashraf Kazi). From there Rs 6 crore was paid to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan's election cellmates (General Rafaqat, Roedad Khan, Ijlal Hyder Zaidi, etc.), and Rs 8 crore transferred to the ISI account. After lunch, Nawaz brought up the subject of how Aslam Beg early in 1991 had sought a meeting with him (then prime minister) to which he brought Major-General Asad Durrani, chief of the ISI. They told him that funds for vital on-going covert operations (not identified by Nawaz) were drying up, how they had a foolproof plan to generate money by dealing in drugs. They asked for his permission to associate themselves with the drug trade, assuring him of full secrecy and no chance of any trail leading back to them. REFERENCE: We never learn from history By Ardeshir Cowasjee dated 21 July 2002 Sunday 10 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1423 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20020721.htmNow, my friend Roedad Khan, perpetual bureaucrat steeped in the art of bureaucracy, yet again ready to serve his country, has reacted in a letter printed in this newspaper on July 26. Apparently, his innocence has been injured. He denies having had any connection with those in President Ghulam Ishaq's secretariat who were paid to 'fix' the 1991 elections. He has, however, said that though he does not wish "to comment on the substance of the matter," he "will do so at the appropriate time," which, hopefully, will be soon. His secretariat colleague, General Rafaqat, is listed as having accepted ISI funds to do the job. So it should seem unlikely that the other secretariat members such as Roedad Khan, Ijlal Zaidi and Chaudhry Shaukat would not be in the know. (Oddly enough, when last month President General Pervez Musharraf met a band of 'intellectuals' with whom to discuss the coming elections, the strategy to be adopted, and the constitutional amendments, these four retired members of Ghulam Ishaq's special assignment cell were amongst those summoned.). REFETRENCE: We never learn from history-3 By Ardeshir Cowasjee 11 August 2002 Sunday 01 Jamadi-us-Saani 1423 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20020811.htm
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Asghar Khan - former Air Chief Marshall of the Pakistan Air Force, Chairman of the Tehrik-e-Istaqlaal political party, and a man renowned for his integrity and clarity - vociferously denounces Pak Army and intelligence agencies' interference in political process via distribution of cash to favored politicians. He explains how: (a) Army officers are obligated to obey only lawful commands of their superiors and should be prosecuted for bribery of politicians; (b) intelligence officials do not need a lawyer but only their conscience to decide which order are illegal; (c) there have never been any elections free from fraud since mid-70s; and (d) successive Pak governments have deliberately dragged ISI into domestic politics to suit their purpose. This interview was recorded in 2009 as part of "Policy Matters" program. REFERENCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r8-w5Cawrs [Courtesy: Kashif H Khan]
Asghar Khan: ISI Bribery of Pak Politicians -1/2
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r8-w5Cawrs
Asghar Khan: ISI Bribery of Pak Politicians -2/2
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOtna-6RZag&feature=related
Asghar Khan: ISI Bribery of Pak Politicians
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9varQhZWSUI
Asghar Khan: ISI's Role in Pak Politics -1/2
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u_4vZloT68
Asghar Khan: ISI's Role in Pak Politics -2/2
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVl2w1vb7mY&feature=related
Roedad Khan loves Martial Law!
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"A year later, I was relocated and posted to Peshawar where I met Morarji Desai, finance minister of India. He was visiting Pakistan as a guest of the government. On arrival in Peshawar, Morarji expressed a desire to pay a courtesy call on Abdul Ghaffar Khan. I was asked to make necessary arrangements and escort him to Utmanzai. On the way to Utmanzai, Morarji asked me how the freedom-loving Pukhtuns had reacted to the imposition of Martial Law. This triggered a lively discussion. “Was it for this?, Morarji asked, “that your people fought so tenaciously? You thought you had found freedom on August 14, 1947. But hasn’t it turned out to be another kind of slavery? Were all Mr. Jinnah’s brave words and deeds to end in this? Don’t you feel cheated and betrayed? I feel sorry for you. Your future looks very grim to me?. “Until recently, we were all Indians?, I replied. “We are as good and as bad as Indians are. We all share the same weaknesses. You are not much better than us. We have martial law today. You will have it tomorrow?? Morarji reacted sharply: “No general dare impose martial law in India?, he retorted. “And if he does, Morarji will be the first to face the Indian bullet?. On this grim note, the conversation ended. We had reached Utmanzai. REFERENCE: Conversation with Morarji Desai By Roedad Khan June 3, 2002 Monday Rabi-ul-Awwal 21,1423 http://www.dawn.com/2002/06/03/op.htm#5"UNQUOTE"
Ayaz Amir on Roedad Khan [Secretary General Interior during General Zia's Martial Law]
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It is a strange country indeed where a ghost from the past such as Roedad Khan should emerge from the mists to preach, of all things, a revolution. Every despotic regime in recent memory he faithfully served. The burden of the infamies then gathered by the country he valiantly bore but the infamy of Kargil has cut him to the quick and made him write a frenzied piece in the News with gems such as this: "What a terrible burden of guilt our rulers bear. One day this treachery shall be avenged and out of all this would come the politics of the future." He goes on to ask, "Who will light a candle in the gloom of our morale?" The answer should be obvious: another Zia-ul-Haq with Roedad Khan as his secretary-general of the interior. An invaluable insight into the intellectual calibre of our governing classes is afforded by the spate of memoirs to have come out in recent years. While not a few of them are badly written, virtually all of them are self-serving, making their writers out to be infallible individuals who held aloft the banner of rectitude while everything around them was collapsing. In some cases, it is true, these writings are a useful addition to the historical record but the reader who might be looking for any traces of grace, modesty or humanity in them is likely to be disappointed. If such be the state of the brightest and heaviest stars in the national firmament, of what account are Nawaz Sharif's reputed limitations? He has been false to no one, least of all to the masses who put their trust in him. The foolishness was that of the masses if they saw wonders in him which never existed.Endlessly restless and therefore flitting from here to there, fascinated with gewgaws and gimmicks, believing that somewhere through the woods lies a golden short-cut which if discovered would turn the burden of governance into a perpetual holiday, are vintage Nawaz Sharif traits which at least the members of Pakistan's permanent politburo (Roedad Khan being an erstwhile member of this club) should have fully known when they went about creating him as a counter-weight to Benazir Bhutto. But they were blinded by their prejudices, hating Benazir more for being her father's daughter and less for her presumed failings. REFERENCE: Getting on with life Ayaz Amir 07 August 1999 [Courtesy: Daily Dawn Wire Serice] http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1999/07aug99.html
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Roedad Khan and A MISSING JUDGE. The fact is that Mr Roedad Khan served as a loyal civil servant for three Chief Martial Law Administrators: Field Marshal (without fighting an war) General Ayub Khan, Gen Yahya Khan (Fall of Dhaka in 1971) and Gen Ziaul Haq (Heroin, Religious Extremism, Gun Culture and worse Drugs and Narcotics). Why didn't Mr Roedad Khan have the courage to say then, what he says now? Roedad and Shaheen Sehbai have the audacity to share the same newspaper i.e. The News International, as a Columnist and as a Group Editor."QUOTE"
While all Pakistan is trying to liberate the judiciary, with long marches and threats of dharnas, an old gentleman was seen on a private TV channel crying, for his bail had just been approved though he was not yet released. He had served 22 years in various jails in Pakistan, with no charges framed nor any trial. He was moved around the country and there were no records on him. He was not a bearded fundo or Taliban. He was not a murderer, terrorist, nor a spy, nor a Baloch activist. He was Dr Ghulam Mustafa Ismail Qazi, a former ad-hoc judge of the Lahore High Court and also the husband of an army captain, Dr Mubarika, who was killed in Siachen 18 years ago (published in a local English daily, June 13, 2008), a serving judge of the Lahore High Court no less, when he was picked up, and put away for 22 years. The signature on his detention order shown on TV was authorised by Roedad Khan Federal Secretary of Interior, and had been missing for 22 years. (The same fellow who is a regular on TV talk shows and spouts holier than thou messages on TV conveniently forgetting his role in the Missing judge case). REFERENCE: The Missing Judge By Fakir S. Ayazuddin The Nation, June 27, 2008
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LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, THE ONE AND ONLY MR SHAHEEN SEHBAI THE GROUP EDITOR OF THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL ON MR ROEDAD KHAN [ALLEGED COLUMNIST FOR THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL]
Roedad and Shaheen Sehbai have the audacity to share the same newspaper i.e. The News International, as a Columnist and as a Group Editor.
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Shaheen Sehbai is back in the media with a bang. Friday club nausea: A view from America By Shaheen Sehbai The writer is a senior Washington-based Pakistani journalist - How should a Pakistani, living in a foreign land, away from the country for years, view, analyse and react to the mainstream press articles and website rants of a well-informed insider of the Pakistani establishment? Is this frustration of an almost senile angry old man? Is this because he has been kept away from the corridors of power by military masters similar to those he has been serving for decades? Is this a belated feeling of guilt after enjoying, and mostly misusing, decades of unchecked and uninterrupted administrative and political power? Or are these the anguished cries of a genuinely concerned citizen who cannot see his country get buried into the dustbin of shame and ignominy?Yes I am talking about the recent articles of Roedad Khan, the super-bureaucrat who proudly claims on his website that during his service he got to know two prime ministers Benazir and Nawaz Sharif and six presidents -- Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, ZA Bhutto, Ziaul Haq, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Farooq Leghari -- in varying measure. "They all displayed vast differences in personality, character and style. Each one of them has directly or indirectly contributed to our generation's anguish and sense of betrayal, our loss of confidence in our rulers, in our country, in our future, in ourselves and the souring of the dream of Pakistan. Every now and then, I put pen to paper and unburden myself of the things that weigh upon my spirit: the sense of being in a blind alley, the perception of our collective guilt, the knowledge of all that has been irrevocably lost," he states recalling those he served.
At another place on the same website, under the title of "Friday Club", Mr Khan reveals the company he keeps every Friday in Islamabad at his residence. "This is an informal, social gathering of about 20 persons, mostly retired civil servants, all united by a common interest in current affairs, meeting every Friday, for intellectual stimulation and catharsis, without a fixed agenda at 10:30 am at the residence of Mr Roedad Khan, who acts as host and coordinator. Its origin goes back to the mid 1970s when 'club members' used to meet every Friday at Zubaida Agha's residence. Altaf Gauhar, Ejaz Naik and Roedad Khan formed the nucleus. Others joined the club later. He claims the members of the Friday club now include retired governors, foreign ministers, air marshals, federal secretaries, ambassadors, educationists, poets and columnists. No papers are read and no speeches are delivered. No minutes are recorded and no record is kept. Discussions are uninhibited, free, frank, animated, and end up as brainstorming sessions. According to him these meetings last for about four hours. Among other points on his long CV since he joined the civil service in 1949, the year of my birth, Roedad Khan can boast of several important appointments, including those of chief secretary, Sindh; secretary, ministry of interior; secretary general, ministry of interior; federal minister in charge of accountability; and advisor to the prime minister on accountability.
His latest article in a national daily newspaper has fired me up, so much so, that I decided to write about him ignoring the hot shot disclosures made by President Musharraf in his just released memoir, In the Line of Fire. Mr Khan had already come in my line of fire before General Musharraf released his bombshells and hot air balloons. This is what Mr Khan wrote which angered me more than General Musharraf's truths. "Pakistan is a nation of teahouse politicians, midgets with no commitment to principles and no values; nothing to die for and nothing to live for. Here we have pocketbook liberals, pseudo-democrats and orthodox religious leaders concerned only with short-term profits and only too eager to do business with the military…" And he goes on and on against everybody else.
The descriptions he gave in the above paragraph, ironically, fit his own character and performance since 1949, like a glove on a lady's hand. He talks of everyone's failings except bureaucrats, his own, to be specific. He was a collaborator and partner in every crime the military rulers and their henchmen committed against the country but he forgets all that with ease. He calls politicians midgets with no commitment to principles, but does he have any of his own to show? He accuses all pocketbook liberals, pseudo democrats and orthodox religious leaders of being opportunists and eager to do business with the military. But what about his own association and business with the military dictators of the past? Was Ayub Khan or Yahya Khan or Ziaul Haq an elected leader that he served and boot-licked?
Who does not remember his role as the leader of the secret election cell in the Ghulam Ishaq Khan presidency in 1990 when he rigged the election blatantly in collaboration with his colleague Ijlal Haider Zaidi and General Rafaqat? His exploits have all been recorded in several books written about those elections. Does that conduct fit into his description of "nothing to die for and nothing to live for" or was it only for a short-term gain? By his own admission he sits only with the elite or the so-called elite of Islamabad, mostly those who are now retired and have nothing else to do but find faults with everybody else. The list of foreign ministers, retired governors etc. does not appear to include any one who may have enough respect and credibility that he could be named by name. The Friday club is apparently nothing but a group of has-beens who envy the magician Sharifuddin Peerzada and curse him day in and day out as he has managed to stay inside the power corridors, despite his age and frailty. So if they are not in, nothing is right, cannot be.
Mr Roedad Khan and his Friday club may be making the right noises at this point in time but they owe tons and tons of apologies to the nation before their voices could be taken as sincere, honest and well meaning. They have to remove the stigma of their yester years of serving all ilks of dictators and autocrats who have brought the country to the current pass. Mr Khan cannot escape the burden of guilt that would forever stay on his shoulders. Who can say with confidence that if tomorrow General Musharraf summons him for consultations and help on how to run a democracy, in uniform, Roedad Khan would not order a new sherwani, or a three-piece suit, on an urgent delivery basis and be there in the king's court within 24 hours. The lack of credibility issue has to be resolved first before the Friday Club lectures on democracy make any sense. Mr Khan can begin with an apology to the nation in his next column or display it on his website. REFERENCE: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2006 A view from America: By Shaheen Sehbai Comment: Shaheen Sehbai is back in the media with a bang. Friday club nausea: A view from America By Shaheen Sehbai The writer is a senior Washington-based Pakistani journalist http://watandost.blogspot.com/2006/09/view-from-america-by-shaheen-sehbai.html
MAY ALLAH HELP SAVE PAKISTAN FROM ALLEGED EDITORS, JOURNALISTS, COLUMNISTS OF THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL - JANG GROUP OF NEWSPAPERS - AND GEO TV.
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