Reuters says on Allegations and contentious or vituperative attacks: We can never allow our sources to make allegations, contentious statements or vituperative attacks behind a cloak of anonymity. It weakens our credibility and gives the sources an opportunity to benefit at our expense. It is fundamentally unfair to the other party and thus biased. If quoting unnamed sources on one side of a conflict about what is happening on the other side, use them only for facts, not opinions. If a source wants to make a vituperative attack on an individual, organisation, company or country he or she must speak on the record. We may waive this rule only if the source is a senior official making a considered policy statement which is obviously newsworthy. A story must make clear both that the informant has volunteered the information and that he or she is an official. If the person will not speak on that basis we should not use the story. Such a story might begin: "Gaul accused Rome on Wednesday of practicing genocide against its ethnic minorities." The second paragraph would then read something like this: "In news briefing a government official, who declined to be identified, said...". Reference: Reuters Handbook of Journalism http://www.trust.org/contentAsset/raw-data/652966ab-c90b-4252-b4a5-db8ed1d438ce/file
Recently the Judiciary has allowed Zaid Hamid petition in SC against Jang Group and SAFMA wherein he alleges that certain people in Jang Group are Anti Pakistan and on this the Jang Group has reacted and started asking 20 questions, I would just quote from Jang Group very own archives wherein the Group Editor of the News Mr. Shaheen Sehabi, Resident Editor The News Islamabad Mohammad Malick (who is now MD PTV) and their countless minions --> and they call themselves Journalists uloaded similar Allegation without even a formal enquiry and they not only influenced the Judiciary by relaying 24/7 Marathon Transmission loaded with worse king of mudslinging, misreporting and highly unethical campaign on a matter which was in the court of law and that too without any genuine legal ground, read the news and watch the footage & do note the Imran Khan and Mohammad Malick (now MD PTV and then resident editor The News of Jang Group) connivance in Memogate and also note the use of word "Traitor" by Khawaja Muhammad Asif.
Memogate, Treason and Jang Group
Memogate, Treason and Jang Group by SalimJanMazari
The PML-N Friday, through a Civil Miscellaneous Application (CMA), requested the Supreme Court that Pakistan’s High Commissioner to UK, Wajid Shamsul Hassan; Shaheen Sehbai, Group Editor, The News, and Muhammad Malick, Editor, The News, Islamabad, also be made respondents in the memo case being taken up for hearing from December 19. ISLAMABAD: The PML-N Friday, through a Civil Miscellaneous Application (CMA), requested the Supreme Court that Pakistan’s High Commissioner to UK, Wajid Shamsul Hassan; Shaheen Sehbai, Group Editor, The News, and Muhammad Malick, Editor, The News, Islamabad, also be made respondents in the memo case being taken up for hearing from December 19. In their petition, PML-N leader Ishaq Dar and Khwaja Asif contended that an impression was created by the civil authorities that Pakistan knew nothing about the Abbottabad operation in advance. However, they stated that Shaheen Sehbai, Group Editor of The News, in his story on December 8, 2011, while quoting interviews of Pakistan’s High Commissioner in UK, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, with CNN, BBC and NDTV revealed that Pakistan had known about the May 2 raid at least 8 to 10 days in advance. The report further revealed that Pakistan knew the operation was going to happen and assisted in terms of authorisation of the helicopter flights in our space. Similarly, the report, while quoting the ambassador’s interview, also stated that Pakistan knew about bin Laden’s location and helped the US reach him. The petitioners further submitted that another report of December 8, 2011, submitted by Ms Mehreen Zahra-Malik also quoted Mansoor Ijaz alleging that Pakistan’s former Ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, and President Asif Ali Zardari had prior knowledge of the United States stealth mission to eliminate Osama bin Laden. The PML-N leaders also informed the apex court that another senior journalist. Mohamamd Malick, Editor of daily The News, had authored numerous informative reports on the subject and two reports dated November 18 and November 20, 2011, were co-authored along with Sehbai. The petitioners requested that the court ensure Wajid Shamsul Hassan’s appearance through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which may be directed to ensure that the ambassador, once in Pakistan, not be permitted to proceed abroad unless exonerated by this court or any commission so appointed for the said purpose by this court. They contended that Wajid, being the person who had admitted on May 2, 2011, to having prior knowledge of the May 2, 2011, Abbottabad operation was a necessary party. The PML-N leaders prayed to the apex court that their application be allowed, and the three persons, including Pakistan’s High Commissioner in UK Wajid Shamsul Hassan, Shaheen Sehbai, Group Editor, The News, and Mohammad Malick, Editor, The News, Islamabad, be added as respondents in the noted petition and be summoned for assisting this court for the effective adjudication of the matter in issue. They prayed that the apex court direct the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure the presence of Wajid Shamsul Hassan in the court. It is pertinent to mention here that a larger bench of the apex court headed by the chief justice is resuming from hearing from December 19 petitions filed by PML-N Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif. In compliance with the court’s earlier order of December 1, 2011, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), DG ISI, Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Secretary Ministry of Interior, Defence, Cabint Division and Federation have submitted their replies in the memo case while President Asif Ali Zaradari, another respondent in the case, has not yet filed his reply. Likewise, the administration of the Supreme Court has ordered extra security measures for December 19 as the memo case is being taken up by the larger bench of the apex court. REFERENCE: PML-N wants Wajid summoned by SC in memo case BY Sohail Khan Saturday, December 17, 2011 http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-82798-PML-N-wants-Wajid-summoned-by-SC-in-memo-case
Jang Group Role in MemogateJang Group Role in Memogate by SalimJanMazari
The treasonous memo! By Shaheen Sehbai & Mohammad Malick November 18, 2011 - ISLAMABAD/DUBAI: From a smoking gun to a smouldering fuse, the mysterious memo earned many sobriquets even before its precise contents were known to anyone but a handful of highly secretive power players involved in its drafting and communication. The (in)famous, rather possibly game-changing, Mike Mullen memo, ironically contains six mutinous articles and is now being revealed after Admiral Mike Mullen also confirmed its existence and 'remembered' having received it at the height of the OBL crisis.
After days of huddles between the troika and other major power players of the country resulted in a resignation offer by President Zardari's closest foreign and domestic policy adviser and Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, the memo has acquired the importance of a political nuclear bomb.
The memo was sent to Mike Mullen through mutually trusted contacts by US businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who claimed doing so at the behest of an unnamed senior Pakistani diplomat, who has now been identified as none other than Mr. Husain Haqani. The memo is said to have been approved by the President of Pakistan.
Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani reportedly endorsed and seemed convinced with the evidence that Mansoor Ijaz has provided to the army and took this up in his latest one-on-one meeting with the president. Sources say without offering many options, the president was 'asked' by Gen. Kayani to immediately summon Haqqani for further enquiries.
The President, who earlier through his spokesman had simply shrugged off the whole affair while rubbishing Mansoor's claims, readily obliged and Haqqani was summoned to Islamabad. So far however, the ambassador is still staying put in Washington on the officially offered explanation that he is finishing up prescheduled diplomatic commitments.
Besides the Memo, the electronic correspondence between the diplomat and Mansoor Ijaz has also become available in full and is a graphic account of dates, time lines, words, and even emoticons, which are normally used by youthful SMS users. Part of this conversation was recently released by Mansoor Ijaz to the media in his almost 3,700 word long statement. All communications between Haqqani and Mansoor have now been transcribed from the cell phones and made available to The News.
The Memo has reached The News from more than one source, both within Pakistan and from abroad, and is nothing short of being offensively repulsive, offering an alarming insight into a power-corrupt mindset willing to compromise national interest for petty personal power gains. It is, arguably, a document crafted by soul-less conspirators who clearly have no shame and dignity, no national pride or respect.
The originator, writer, approver and the ultimate beneficiary of the Memo all look like vicious anti-state collaborators and traitors hiding under the garb of national leaders and proving themselves to be decision-makers occupying positions they never deserved and should never have been allowed to occupy in the first instance. All that has come in bits and pieces in the media so far are simply peanuts as compared to the 929 words of the Confidential Memo, which has been obtained and confirmed to be authentic by The News.
Couched as a "Briefing for Admiral Mike Mullen," each word has a deep meaning and each sentence carries an offer, a plan, an incentive to demolish national security apparatus of Pakistan, play havoc with its nuclear assets, allow American boots on Pakistani soil and help and abet the US in accusing and proving the Pakistani armed forces and intelligence agencies guilty of "complicity" in the Osama bin Laden affair, his secret stay in Pakistan and his mission.
To top it all and make such an investigation into a foolproof nutcracker, the memo also invites US authorities to hand pick the investigators panel. Aping Camp-Justice style justice, the memo also assures its recipient that the investigation process, "will result in immediate termination of active service officers". In other words, byebye to a recalcitrant Kayani, adios to a hardnosed Pasha?
The memo brazenly accuses the Pakistan Army leadership of "brinkmanship aimed at bringing down the civilian apparatus in Pakistan" and calls the time it was written in May 2011 as "a 1971 moment in Pakistan's history" when the armed forces had been defeated in East Pakistan and civilians led by ZA Bhutto had gained the upper hand over the military.
And what do the drafters of this treasonous memo have in mind for changing the security paradigm of Pakistan? In lieu of prolonging their own stay in power, the authors of the memo promised the US administration to replace the, "National security adviser and other national security officials with trusted advisers that include ex-military and civilian leaders favourably viewed by Washington". Talk of being his master's voice.
The Memo talks of creating a "new national security team" which promises to give "carte blanche" or a blank cheque to the Americans to carry out Osama-type military raids inside Pakistan and any operation on Pakistani soil. Could there be a greater violation of national sovereignty? One wonders. Clearly the authors of the memo did not give two hoots about at least two unanimous resolutions of the national parliament, which categorically forbade any violation of Pakistan's sovereignty by a third country and any action by it against Pakistani citizens inside Pakistan.
Not only this but the memo also promises that the US would be given the "green signal" to not only track down people on Pakistani soil but also to kill them if so needed. The memo stands in clear defiance of the binding resolutions adopted by the Constitutionally elected parliament.
In a criminally dangerous development, the memo presents as an equivocal fact that the top al-Qaeda leadership is based inside Pakistan when the authors promise to hand over the likes of Ayman Al Zawahiri, Mulla Omar etc. This angle alone would have qualified Pakistan to be declared a rogue terrorist state but try telling that to a duo with vaulting ambitions who appear to have no qualms of destroying the state in order to perpetuate their stay in office and continue with loot and plunder.
As an icing on the cake, the authors of the memo also promised to bring Pakistan's nuclear assets under a "more verifiable, transparent regime.. For those in the know, this translates into retooling the entire setup and providing unrestricted access to Pakistan's nuclear assets to United States, something that has long figured high on the US wish list. This offered concession also fits in neatly with the framework softly being pushed through the slower and circuitous Cooperative Threat Reduction regime (CTR) That the move to place our nuclear assets at the mercy of the US and its 'friends' has direct security consequences for Pakistan vis-‡-vis India, among other serious concerns, is clearly no priority for the authors. And understandably so because their only concern was to stay in power no matter how. Let the country pay the price of their avarice.
What political repercussions this memo will have on the power politics of Pakistan is too early to predict but what has been established is that the military establishment is not happy at all with what was going on and the Opposition will jump on the government with a relentless campaign to bring the culprits to book. Will the President stick to his guns and refuse to abandon his man in Washington? Or will he move with ruthless efficiency and speed to sever any possible incriminating link? Will the expected sacking of the envoy signal the end of the crisis or mark the beginning of the next and possibly fateful phase?
The political landscape is waiting for some more aftershocks, it appears. What is certain however is that the heat from the smouldering fuse is being felt by the keg. REFERENCE: The treasonous memo! By Shaheen Sehbai & Mohammad Malick November 18, 2011 - Updated 834 PKT http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-26760-The-treasonous-memo
Army thinks govt’s Taliban policy has failed, says Sethi Aapas Ki Baat on Friday News Desk Saturday, May 10, 2014 To a question on a treason plea filed in the Supreme Court, Sethi said the petition was filed before the then SC CJ iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry but he had rejected it. “Most people in the petition belong to Geo. Some people have managed its admission in the court which included people who oppose Geo. Some newspapers and two secret agencies are also behind it. ISI is against Geo for its severe criticism. I believe the SC will hear it to reach a conclusion whether these people are traitors or not. I hope the court will dispose of the man with the red cap after admonishing him. If this case continues, many people will reach the court with similar cases. I think the court will rubbish the case and the mover,” he observed. To another question on the rules and regulations for the media, he said the media would not accept any code of conduct. “However, the media itself should evolve a regulatory authority. I think Geo and Jang, being the biggest group, should lead from the front. If you insult others, they will pay you in the same coin. We will have to present the truth, not mix our thoughts with the reality and not make news out of our wishes,” he added.Some newspapers and two secret agencies are also behind it. ISI is against Geo for its severe criticism. I believe the SC will hear it to reach a conclusion whether these people are traitors or not. I hope the court will dispose of the man with the red cap after admonishing him. If this case continues, many people will reach the court with similar cases. I think the court will rubbish the case and the mover,” he observed. To another question on the rules and regulations for the media, he said the media would not accept any code of conduct. “However, the media itself should evolve a regulatory authority. I think Geo and Jang, being the biggest group, should lead from the front. If you insult others, they will pay you in the same coin. We will have to present the truth, not mix our thoughts with the reality and not make news out of our wishes,” he added. REFERENCE: Army thinks govt’s Taliban policy has failed, says Sethi Aapas Ki Baat on Friday News Desk Saturday, May 10, 2014 http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-249293-Army-thinks-govts-Taliban-policy-has-failed-says-Sethi Princess and the Playboy 1996 BBC http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xubf0i_princess-and-the-playboy-bbc-1996_news
Najam Sethi joins Geo/Jang Group : Friday, January 07, 2011 KARACHI: Renowned editor, political analyst and anchor Najam Sethi has joined the Geo/Jang Group as group adviser political affairs. Najam Sethi will host three weekly shows on Geo TV and write regular news analyses and commentary for Jang Group of Newspapers, including The News. Najam Sethi is the recipient of three international press freedom awards, including the Golden Pen in 2009 from the World Editors Forum representing 17,000 of the world’s leading newspapers. He was awarded the Hilal-e-Pakistan, Pakistan’s highest civil award, in 2010. Najam Sethi was educated at Government College Lahore and Clare College, Cambridge University, UK. He was declared Alumnus of the Year 2011 by Cambridge University and appointed Eric Lane Fellow of Clare College, a first for a Pakistani. Newsweek International described him in 1999 as a “Crusading Editor” for exposing and fighting against corruption in high office. He was imprisoned in 1975 by the regime of ZA Bhutto, by the regime of General Ziaul Haq in 1984, and by the government of Nawaz Sharif in 1999 for opposing their policies. His forthcoming book series to be published in 2011 is titled: ìFrom Plunderland to Blunderland: Pakistan under Benazir, Nawaz, Musharraf and Zardari, 1988-2010î. Najam Sethi writes op-ed columns for various international newspapers, including Wall Street Journal, is a frequent speaker at international conferences and is the chairman of the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers. Najam Sethi is also an international Trustee of the Asia Society, New York, and Leaders Project, Washington DC. The Geo/Jang Group said it was delighted to have such an eminent and popular media personality on its platform. “He will add depth, balance, objectivity and neutrality to the wide spectrum of views available on our platform,” said a spokesman for Geo TV. REFERENCE: Najam Sethi joins Geo/Jang Group Friday, January 07, 2011 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=3168&Cat=13&dt=1/7/2011
Najam Sethi on Media Ethics (Aapas Ki Baat - 9... by SalimJanMazari
President Asif Ali Zardari confers civil, military awards on outstanding individuals on 24 March 2011 and one of those outstanding gentlemen was Mr Najam Sethi http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/national/24-Mar-2011/president-confers-civil-military-awards-on-outstanding-individuals
Najam Sethi is a riddle wrapped up in an enigma never ceases to amaze. He is liberal anti-establishment, pro-establishment and pro-PPP, all at the same time. Kinda similar game is played by Altaf Hussain. - Najam's inclusion in Laghar Cabinet in 1996 (as pronounced by Zardari) after Tummandar dismissed his own (PPP second government) - What we have here that Alleged Awami Government is awarding Tamghas (Medals) to the likes of Najam Sethi - In good book of Zardari or not but he is absolutely in the good books of State Department and Rawalpindi.
Princess and the Playboy BBC 1996
Princess and the Playboy BBC 1996 by f1499110548
Dawn Prime Ministers Adviser on Political Affairs and Accountability, Najam Sethi DAWN 26 December 1996 Cabinet split over recovery from defaulters - The officials have said that Ms. Bhutto and Mr. Zardari took pains to avoid creating a documentary record of their role in hundreds of deals. How this was done was explained by Najam Sethi, a former Bhutto loyalist who became the editor of Pakistan's most popular political weekly, Friday Times, then was drafted to help oversee a corruption inquiry undertaken by the caretaker Government that ruled for three months after Ms. Bhutto's dismissal in 1996. Mr. Sethi said Ms. Bhutto and Mr. Zardari adopted a system under which they assigned favors by writing orders on yellow Post-It notes and attaching them to official files. After the deals were completed, Mr. Sethi said, the notes were removed, destroying all trace of involvement. REFERENCE: HOUSE OF GRAFT: Tracing the Bhutto Millions -- A special report.; Bhutto Clan Leaves Trail of Corruption By JOHN F. BURNS Published: January 09, 1998 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1996/26Dc96.html#cabi and http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/09/world/house-graft-tracing-bhutto-millions-special-report-bhutto-clan-leaves-trail.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
TalkBack with Wajahat Khan Farooq Ahmed Leghari... by SalimJanMazari
Ladies and Gentlemen, The President! Posted on Thursday, October 3, 1996 in The Friday Times (Editorial) http://www.najamsethi.com/ladies-and-gentlemen-the-president/
FEB 22, 1999: The Pen Is Mightier... Pakistan's press is certainly freer than before though it labours under the shadow of the government. BY NAJAM SETHI NAWAZ Sharif has never liked the press. He once said newspapers only cause trouble. When he was prime minister the last time (1990-93), he had a short fuse and gave the press a hard time. Numerous cases of vandalism by ruling party thugs against newspapers and journalists were reported across the country. Takbeer magazine's offices in Karachi were burnt down. A sedition case was lodged against the editor of The News in Islamabad for publishing a poem in the letters column which Sharif didn't like. And so on. I had a particularly nasty experience in 1992-93 because, apart from the investigative stories of corruption in government, Sharif didn't warm to a weekly satirical column about him in my paper. Armed thugs were sent to rough me up but I escaped their clutches. I was advised my safety couldn't be guaranteed if some ruling party loyalists decided to bomb my office. Income tax notices flew thick and fast. Anonymous phone-callers abused my wife and threatened rape and kidnapping. My paper survived only because Sharif was booted out of power a couple of months later. Pakistani politicians like Sharif who are originally products of martial law have a special love-hate relationship with the press. They adore it when in opposition and abhor it when in power. Their problem is that they cannot come to terms with a Pakistani press which has come to savour and guard its independence after forty years of censorship under various authoritarian regimes. Pakistan's press is certainly freer today than ever before. But it continues to labour under the shadow of the government. One, the government controls the bread and butter of newspapers newsprint imports are banned except for the press but the government retains a tight grip over newsprint quota. Two, as the government is one of the biggest sources of advertising, the press can't afford to shrug off its main source of revenue. Three, the government can use its vast coercive apparatus to browbeat the press or muzzle it if it remains unrepentant. In the final analysis, therefore, the press in Pakistan is free only to the extent that the government in power respects the rules of democracy or the judiciary, as the custodian of fundamental rights in the last resort, is strong enough to resist encroachments on democracy. If the government is authoritarian and the judiciary weak or divided, the press is a prime target for repression. Some of us have been shrieking murder since Sharif assaulted, divided and weakened the judiciary in 1997. With the judiciary out of the way, we reasoned, it was only a matter of time before the press would come under Sharif's heel. The worst has now come to pass. The Jang group of newspapers has become the focus of Sharif's unmitigated wrath. By lashing out at the largest media group, Sharif is sending a stern warning to the small fry. The siege of the Jang group is unprecedentedly vicious. Its bank accounts have been frozen, newsprint godowns sealed, hawkers harassed, journalists threatened, stiff income tax notices served and sedition cases lodged against three editors. All that remains is for the group's newspapers to cease publication, its owners to be arrested and its journalists packed off. The confrontation began like this. A column by Irshad Haqqani, Lahore Jang editor, kicked up a veritable storm in Islamabad in July 1998. Haqqani wrote advisedly about the need to revamp the government's ad-hoc decision-making system and suggested the army might have a small but positive role to play in it within the parameters of the democratic system. Islamabad reacted angrily by freezing ads to the Jang group. Then came the proverbial straw which broke the government's back. In October, army chief Gen. Jehangir Karamat suggested a National Security Council to tackle the country's mounting difficulties. The Jang group ordered a telephonic survey of public opinion: an overwhelming majority were all for the proposal. Two days later, Karamat was sacked. On the third day, Sharif stood before the national assembly and blasted those who wanted to derail democracy. And ordered senator Saif-ur Rahman, a loyalist who runs the controversial Accountability Bureau, to teach them a lesson. Jang was number one on the good senator's hitlist. We know the rest, thanks to the charming indiscretions of the senator, who was taped by the owner-editor of the Jang group, Mir Shakilur Rehman, when he brandished the threats. Among other demands, the government wants the Jang group to fire 16 top editors and reporters. Where does the press, and in particular the Jang group, go from here? Forward. There is no choice. Here was an Urdu newspaper whose editorial comment pages were often conspicuously tilted, as a matter of policy, in favour of the government. Indeed, a number of highly paid hacks blindly loyal to Sharif were put on its payrolls expressly to keep Islamabad happy. Yet it fell foul of an autocratic regime when it tried to steer a marginally less devoted path. Imagine what might happen to a more outspoken paper (like mine) if the Jang group were to bite the dust. Saif-ur Rahman claims he is only going after tax dodgers, not impinging on press freedom. This is a hollow, self-righteous claim. The biggest tax dodger and loan defaulter is the senator's boss, followed by scores of fellow compatriots in the national assembly, including industrial robber-barons and feudal landlords who have scooted away with Rs 200 billion in public money, without as much as a scratch on their backs. The press is in for a rough time. It would do well to remember a fact of life. Governments are fated to come and go but the press is destined to go on forever. REFERENCE: The Pen Is Mightier... Pakistan's press is certainly freer than before though it labours under the shadow of the government. BY NAJAM SETHI http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?207042
