Shaheen Sehbai VS Wajid Shamsul Hasan & Jang Group of Newspapers.

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

Wajid Shamsul Hasan: Mr Wajid Shamsul Hasan completed his MASTERS (MA) IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS in 1962, followed by Bachelor's degree in Law (BA LLB). After completing his education in 1962, he formally joined Pakistan's biggest newspaper chain-‘The Jang Group of Newspapers’. He became Editor of its English newspaper ‘The DAILY NEWS’ in early 1969. He also edited Jang's English Weekly Magazine-‘The Weekly MAG’ from Karachi. Earlier, in 1968, he did an extensive course for senior journalists in the United Kingdom after he was awarded the prestigious "COMMONWEALTH PRESS UNION SCHOLARSHIP”. While he received his practical training in journalism at the ‘BRISTOL EVENING POST’ and London's ‘EVENING STANDARD’, he completed short academic courses at Oxford (Queen Elizabeth Hall) and Thomson Media Foundation at Cardiff. In early 1989 he left ‘DAILY NEWS’ to become ‘CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL PRESS TRUST (NPT)’, largest conglomerate of more than 14 newspapers, magazines in Pakistan-both in English and Urdu languages, published from the four provinces including capital city of Islamabad. REFERENCE: Wajid Shamsul Hasan - http://www.prideofpakistan.com:8080/maincontroller?requestId=4&userId=236

When NRO erupted on the face of Mr Zardari, another meeting between the Army Chief and the PM was essential on Monday night so that the right message was conveyed. And it was. Then we saw the surrender. The Zardari era, the argument goes, consists of broken promises, colossal mistakes in assessing the mood of the people, taking decisions with arrogance, taking on the establishment and institutions which were needed to survive, taking gigantic U-turns when under pressure and smiling about them, claiming unabashedly as if it was a considered policy (like the restoration of judges, sacking and restoration of the Punjab government of PML-N, surrender on the Kerry Lugar Bill and eventually running away from the NRO). REFRENCES: Has a countdown begun in Islamabad? By Shaheen Sehbai Saturday, November 07, 2009 http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=207257 The contours of a changed, unwritten script Situationer By Shaheen Sehbai Wednesday, November 04, 2009 http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=25365

Mr Wajid Shamsul Hasan is condemned by Mr Shaheen Sehbai for lacking intellectual, moral and professional integrity and Mr Shaheen Sehbai alos alleged that many journalists [that includes Mr Wajid Shamsul Hasan] 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.

BUT THE SAME SHAHEEN SEHBAI "ACCOMMODATED" MR WAJIOD SHAMSUL HASAN IN HIS [SHAHEEN]'S WEB BASED MAGAZINE SOUTH ASIA TRIBUNE [FOUNDED BY SHAHEEN SEHBAI WEHN HE HAD ESCAPED FROM PAKISTAN TO USA FOR POLITICAL ASYLUM].

Mr Shaheen Sehbai is hellbent to give importance to Musharraf's negative comment [in Seymour Hersh's Story DEFENDING THE ARSENAL - In an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe? by Seymour M. Hersh NOVEMBER 16, 2009] on Zardari [I wonder where has gone the wish of Journalists of Jang Group of Newspaper for Musharraf's Trial for violating article 6 of 1973 Constitution]. Now read what Wajid Shamsul Hasan has to say about Musharraf on the web based magazine South Asia Tribune which was owned by the same Shaheen Sehbai who is nowadays busy to convince people of Pakistan that "Musharraf's statement against Zardari is a Cardinal Truth". It is further mentioned here that Seymour M Hersh belong to the American Jewsih Community. Please go through Mr Shaheen Sehbai's article which was published in his web based magazine South Asia Tribune [he founded SAT in USA when he escaped from Pakistan in 2002 and adopted self imposed exile in USA].

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Musharraf Has Finally Become Dispensable, or so the General Claims By Wajid Shamsul Hasan WASHINGTON DC, Sept 25, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 www.satribune.com http://antisystemic.org/satribune/www.satribune.com/archives/200509/P1_wajid3.htm



Musharraf receives a citation from World Jews after his New York address

LONDON, September 25: General Pervez Musharraf, with a bagful of 'foreign conquests' has returned to his country that welcomed its macho hero with bomb blasts, death of several innocent commoners, injuries to scores of others writhing in pain for lack of proper medical care and a blistering indictment of his recently held local bodies elections by the Commonwealth and the EU observers that found them, as in the past, fraudulent and deeply flawed. His more than a weeklong yatra that took him to New York to attend 60th annual session of the United Nations, among other engagements, included a 30-minute ceremonial meeting with President Bush, a much sought-after handshake with Israeli Prime Minister, a free meal with the Indian Prime Minister and his address to the World Jewry.

Besides, the usual annual address to the UN General Assembly, an opportunity extended to all the invited heads of states, to recall its performance the previous year and to promise more of the same for the future, Musharraf used it as an occasion to reassure his insurers in Washington that he would do better and the taste he offered in the pudding as what it is being called as "historic breakthrough" regarding recognition of Israel was amply savoury for his mentors. While mention of Pakistan was conspicuously missing from President Bush's speech to the UN his comments praising India were prominently noted.

When one calculates the gains and losses of his visit, one regretfully arrives at a total that is in the red for the country and its image. It is also a manifestation of the recognition of the glaring difference in American approaches to democracy and dictatorship. In case of India, it is the country that is praised and its people described as great. When it comes to Pakistan, it is Musharraf who gets plaudits and not his people who have to face the main brunt of his failures. In the Time magazine interview US Secretary of State Dr Condi Rice took pains to praise him to the skies for his brave stance against terrorism.

Despite her being a woman and that too bracketed among the few most powerful in the world, she found it expedient to turn a deaf ear to his gender-bashing remarks that women in Pakistan are in the business of getting raped by design, that is to make money and get a foreign passport. No doubt she did mention about democracy in Pakistan and wants Musharraf to do more for it forgetting that to ask a military dictator to do that is like asking a man to get pregnant.

Musharraf also ended up with lot of domestic and foreign flak on his face. His overall performance has done more damage to Pakistan's already tarnished image than ever before. Though he issued a tongue-and-cheek denial following his highly derogatory remarks on Mukhtaran Mai's rape case, his subsequent performance sunk him deeper into his own scum. What an anorchous image that he managed to create for himself when he got provoked on a question by a member of the weaker sex in a meeting attended by hundreds of women in New York that had been organized to white wash his sins of omission and commission.

Apparently outraged by a question that hit him right where his flesh is rather sore since he sits long on pile of problems, the macho general trying to do his best to uphold the ignominious traditions of General "Tiger" Niazi (master of rape and genocide) converted an event to promote his regime's so-called pro-women policies to degenerate into a shouting match between himself and part of the invited audience. He desperately stooped so low that he tried to convert an innocent question into an enemy war against Pakistan. "I'm a fighter, I'll fight you. I don't give up and if you can shout, I can shout louder" was the response of our so-called battle-hardened commando president. Later, he also accused the questioner of being a member of a hostile political party-namely PPP.

Knowing well his sub-human frame of mind, those who know him diagnose that his desperation is due to the messages that he is receiving from his Western mentors that enough is enough, that he has to do more for democracy, to ensure that 2007 elections are freely and transparently held with level-playing field for all political parties and their leaders especially poet Habib Jalib's "Nehati Larki" (Benazir Bhutto).

Hence his disparate efforts at Geneva, that she nailed so effectively recently by putting the record straight on baseless charges of corruption out of political vendetta, through his NAB courts and outright thuggery to break PPP are his last ditch measures to force Ms Bhutto out of politics. Like his mentor General Zia who failed to bury the Bhutto legacy under the dung-heap of allegations, Musharraf too would ultimately have all the filth on his face when innate justice would be done to her by the Lord above who no general can bribe nor influence.

The messages to Musharraf that a countdown has begun on him has at least brought on him the home truth that he is not indispensable. While his predecessor Ziaul Haq, despite well indicated, instead of calling it a day, continued to say and believe that he would remain at Pakistan's helms of affairs for many decades to come. Regretfully, powers that be that had supported him for so long against democracy, had found him to out-live his utility. His fatal fall from the sky was perhaps "arranged". The disposal bandobast (fix up) could only be done by his colleagues in uniform who had ensured that they do not accompany him on his fateful journey into eternity.

In a number of my recent articles I have been underscoring the main concern of those in the West who have reasons to believe that their horse in Pakistan is in the last leg of his steam. The question by them begging an answer is: After Musharraf what and who? Their think tanks have been working on the contingency plans. No doubt yet another military intervention would become inevitable but it would not solve their problem. They do not know who that man on horseback might be: a liberal or a fundamentalist belonging to the Jihadis.

To avoid such an eventuality their best bet is to pressurize Musharraf to hold early free, fair and transparent elections, let leaders in exile return home and participate in a level-playing field political and electoral activity. Both London and Washington have been trying to convey their man Friday that he cannot combat terrorism by isolating the great majority of the people in his country by denying it its democratic right to vote in a government of its choice. The enormous magnitude of the terrorism requires a national effort to combat it. By keeping main leaders out of the mainstream politics, he has given an open field to the religious parties to have the cake and eat it too.

Of late Washington in particular and other Western capitals in general, seem to be taking seriously observations of experts like Stephen P. Cohen who have sized up Pakistani population's "growing alienation" from the United States that feeds into support for extremism. And this growing anti-Americanism obviously is due to absence of democracy and a level playing field for popular leaders who continue to command the support of the majority in the masses.

The recent report before the House of Representatives International Relations Subcommittee for Asia and the Pacific on June 14 followed a month later by her statement in Islamabad, the American Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca virtually singed the lion's beard in his den. Ms Rocca 's message amply communicated the wind of change. She declared that it was the 'US policy that free and fair elections, a level-playing field and return to full democracy was the key to long-term prosperity and stability in Pakistan'.

Besides, in her Washington-Islamabad video conference with senior journalists, Ms Rocca also brought on record that the US administration did not believe that the President's uniform guaranteed success of war against international terrorism and that it ensured that Pakistan's nuclear assets would not fall into the hands of fundamentalists. "It is a policy we continue to pursue," she said.

How hurt Musharraf must have felt by her comments on his uniform as not being a necessity for war on terror, his personal main achievement in his just concluded American yatra was perhaps Washington's concession to him to tell the press that uniform was not a matter of concern for the Americans and that during his several meetings with President Bush since 9/11 not once did Bush express his desire to see him without his uniform. Obviously, the American reaction to his fad is: "If the truant is happy with it, let it be."

If his Khaki viagarises him, why deny him the pleasure of feeling manly. It is heartening to see that more and more of his Western supporters have started seeing through his game of misleading the international opinion in insisting that his uniform was essential for stability and to fight terrorism.

While people in Pakistan who continue to struggle for democracy welcome the winds of change blowing from Washington, their gratitude is more for the Commonwealth that has remained steadfast in demanding of Musharraf to make electoral process transparent and to separate the office of the President from that of Army Chief since that is a contradiction of democracy. In this connection, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group in its 26th meeting in New York on 17 September 2005 reviewed developments in Pakistan since its last meeting in London in February 2005.

The Group expressed concern on the slow progress in the democratization process. It stressed that there were areas where improvements still needed to be made to the electoral process and the political environment in Pakistan. CMAG endorsed the recommendations of the Commonwealth Election Team for strengthening the independence of the Election Commission and empowering it to use its executive powers to enforce its decisions and the code of conduct for elections. The Group requested the Secretary-General to intensify ongoing high-level contact with Pakistan and requested that the Secretariat continue to extend all possible technical assistance to Pakistan to support its transition to full democracy.

CMAG reaffirmed its earlier stance that the holding by the same person of the offices of the Head of State and Chief of Army Staff is incompatible with the basic principles of democracy and the spirit of the Harare Commonwealth principles, as well as CMAG's expectations. It also restated its strong view that until the two offices are no longer combined in the same person, the process of democratization in Pakistan will not be irreversible. It urged the General to relinquish one of his two offices, certainly no later than the end of the current Presidential term in 2007.

CMAG called on Islamabad to continue and intensify progress in fostering a sustainable and inclusive political culture, improving democratic governance, strengthening political and oversight institutions, supporting local governments, protecting human rights, respecting media freedoms and improving the position of women and minorities. It also called for the further widening of the democratic space so that all who wish can participate in the electoral process. The decision by CMAG to keep Pakistan on its agenda means that it shall continue to monitor the political and electoral activities to ensure sanctity of vote in 2007 general elections.

While Commonwealth is doing all that it can to help speed up democratic transition in Pakistan, the European Union too has been contributing immensely to this end. Its mission in Islamabad too have compiled a detailed report on the recently conducted local bodies polls indicating serious flaws in the whole electoral exercise along with numerous complaints of pre-poll rigging from the opposition parties.

The observers reported the failure of election officials to follow procedure, complete lack of secrecy in most polling stations during the vote casting and using of electoral rolls from 2001, not those of the last elections in 2002, serious problems on the days of polling such as presiding officers disallowing genuine ID cards, blatant breaches of election code by candidates and politicians, ballots box rigging including party officials removing real boxes and replacing them with pre-filled boxes and different methods of multiplying voting. The problems observed by EU missions also included an unusually high number, in international terms, of spoiled ballot papers and chaotic and violent scenes at polling stations often to deliberately prevent voting from taking place.

Notwithstanding the winds of change and apparently a countdown having begun on him, American Professor Stephen Cohen believes that it would be difficult to persuade the Pakistani General to democratize since the military establishment is afraid that a complete civilian government could mean end of policies that serve its interest best. It would also draw a curtain on its self-assumed role as the sole savior of "the national interests and guardian of Pakistan's ideological and geographical frontiers."

Nevertheless, he rightly believes that Washington should insist that Musharraf allow the mainstream political parties - Ms Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N of Mian Nawaz Sharif - to function freely and be provided an even playing field. Any more marginalization of the main political leaders and their political parties would further strengthen the religious political parties who already have institutionalized support in the form of chain of madrassas throughout the country. Only a democratic Pakistan can defuse the emergence of a coalition of the Army and Islamist forces committed, in the longer run, to Talibanize Pakistan. The writer is a former Pakistan High Commissioner to UK

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Mr Wajid Shamsul Hasan [as per Shaheen Sehbai, Wajid is a compromised Journalist] also filed these stories in South Asia Tribune [used to be owne by Mr Shaheen Sehbai]

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1 - Musharraf and the Business of Getting Raped By Wajid Shamsul Hasan WASHINGTON DC, Sept 19, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 www.satribune.com http://antisystemic.org/satribune/www.satribune.com/archives/200509/P1_wajid2.htm

2 - Expected Recognition of Israel Part of Agenda Given to Musharraf By Wajid Shamsul Hasan WASHINGTON DC, Sept 5, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 www.satribune.com http://antisystemic.org/satribune/www.satribune.com/archives/200509/P1_wajid.htm

3 - Controlling Army-led Democracy Through Manipulated Vote By Wajid Shamsul Hasan WASHINGTON DC, Aug 23, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 www.satribune.com http://antisystemic.org/satribune/www.satribune.com/archives/200508/P1_wajid3.htm

4 - Signs That Washington is Ready to Stop Backing Musharraf By Wajid Shamsul Hasan
WASHINGTON DC, Aug 8, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 www.satribune.com http://antisystemic.org/satribune/www.satribune.com/archives/200508/P1_wajid2.htm

5 - Pakistan Getting Too Hot for the Generals to Handle By Wajid Shamsul Hasan
WASHINGTON DC, Aug 2, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 www.satribune.com http://antisystemic.org/satribune/www.satribune.com/archives/200508/P1_wajid.htm

6 - The Fault for London Blasts Lies With the West and General Musharraf By Wajid Shamsul Hasan WASHINGTON DC, July 18, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 www.satribune.com http://antisystemic.org/satribune/www.satribune.com/archives/200507/P1_wajid3.htm

7 - Saner Voices in UK say Military Means Cannot End Mindless Terrorism By Wajid Shamsul Hasan WASHINGTON DC, July 11, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 www.satribune.com
http://antisystemic.org/satribune/www.satribune.com/archives/200507/P1_wajid2.htm

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