Dirty & Filthy Power Politics in Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: Cracks in the ranks of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q widened on Sunday when president of the party’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter Amir Muqam who had taken oath on May 2 as minister of production submitted his resignation from the cabinet to the chief of his party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. Talking to journalists, Mr Muqam said he had taken the extreme step in line with a decision of the party’s provincial general council taken last week because of the failure of the party leadership to meet the promise of sharing with them the written agreement signed with the Pakistan People’s Party. The PML-Q leader said when negotiations were being held with PPP the party leadership had assured him that their demands for creation of Hazara province and introduction of political reforms in tribal areas would be made part of the agreement with the PPP. However, he said, the party leadership had not shown him the agreement, forcing him to submit the resignation. He said he had also informed the leadership about his reservations on other issues. But, he added, he would continue to abide by party decisions and discipline. The PML-Q leader said that President Asif Ali Zardari had called him earlier in the day and asked him to withdraw his resignation. Talking to a group of reporters later in the day, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain claimed there was no rift within the party and that Mr Muqam’s reservations would soon be redressed. REFERENCE: Cracks in ‘Q’ widen as Muqam quits cabinet By Amir Wasim | From the Newspaper Yesterday http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/16/cracks-in-q-widen-as-muqam-quits-cabinet.html

General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg on AAJ TV - 1 (27 Apr 2010)



URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HebY6teSblk

General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg on AAJ TV - 2 (27 Apr 2010)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-0cTJwyD_Q

General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg on AAJ TV - 3 (27 Apr 2010)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQcjSehFmMA

Lies of Lt. Gen [R] Hamid Gul & Murder of Benazir Bhutto. http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/04/lies-of-lt-gen-r-hamid-gul-murder-of.html

Benazir Bhutto on AAJ TV - 1

URL: http://youtu.be/ouZsENkOoVE

Benazir has not yet named the three persons, but PPP insiders disclosed their identity to Outlook. It's an illustrious list: Brig (retd) Ejaz Hussain Shah, DG, Intelligence Bureau; Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, chief minister of Punjab; and Hassan Waseem Afzal, a former official of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). A fourth, familiar name pops up in the concluding part of the letter—that of former isi chief, Lt Gen Hameed Gul, who's a vocal supporter of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. PPP insiders believe the quartet's motive in organising the assassination attempt on Benazir was to check the burgeoning moderate political alliance between her and Musharraf. As such, the Musharraf camp was bitterly divided over his deal with Benazir. One group led by the secretary of the National Security Council, Tariq Aziz Warraich, was in favour of Musharraf sharing power with the PPP. Shah's group opposed the deal with Benazir, believing it would be at the cost of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid-e-Azam). Ejaz Shah is close to the powerful Chaudhry brothers—Elahi and Shujaat Hussain—whose party the ruling PML-Q is, besides sharing their fundamentalist worldview. Indeed, it was Shah who had 'arranged' the surrender of Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed, the killer of American journalist Daniel Pearl, on February 5, 2005, in Lahore. Then, Shah was the home secretary of Punjab. Shah knows Omar's family well as both of them belong to the Nankana Sahib area of Punjab. The relationship between Shah and Omar was really one of a handler and his agent. In an interview with Daily Times, August 13, 2007, Benazir Bhutto said, "Brig Shah and the isi recruited Omar Sheikh, who killed Danny Pearl. So I would feel very uncomfortable to have the Intelligence Bureau, which has more than 1,00,000 people under it, run by a man who worked so closely with militants and extremists." Links with militants apart, Shah was instrumental, say PPP insiders, in splitting PML (Nawaz) and weaning away 20 PPP members in the National Assembly, to form the PML-Q. It's Shah on whom the PML-Q depends to manipulate the impending general election to its advantage. For the Chaudhry brothers, the general election is a do-or-die battle: a defeat could well spell political oblivion for them. The third person named in Benazir's letter, Hassan Waseem Afzal, is currently secretary to the governor of Punjab. He was appointed to this post after he was removed as NAB's deputy chairman on Benazir's insistence a few months before her Abu Dhabi meeting with Musharraf in July this year. It was one step Benazir had wanted Musharraf to take as a confidence-building measure with her. Afzal had incurred her wrath because he had made it his personal mission to pursue corruption cases against her in the United Kingdom, Spain and Switzerland. It was on his order that the Interpol issued a red alert notice against her. The fourth conspirator PPP names is Gul, a retired, dyed-in-the-wool Pakistani general who headed the isi following the jehad against the Soviets in Afghanistan and was responsible for fomenting the Kashmir insurgency in 1989. Gul worked in tandem with the Americans against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, but began to oppose America post-9/11. In 2003, Gul declared, "God will destroy America." Government sources, however, say a high-level meeting presided over by Musharraf dismissed Benazir's accusations as "childish". They also say her insistence on implicating Musharraf's close associates in the Karachi carnage could even threaten her equation with the president. (The FIR filed by Benazir in Karachi states as suspects "those whose names were given to Gen Musharraf".) They claim the suicide attack bore the signature of Al Qaeda, arguing that she has incurred its wrath because of her support for military operation against the Red Mosque fanatics in Islamabad in July and for declaring that she would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to question Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan about his nuclear proliferation activities. Her emergence as an ally of Musharraf, government sources say, explains the fury of militants who had targeted him as well earlier. But, are Benazir's claims as ridiculous as government sources are making them out to be? Why, even Musharraf in his book, In the Line of Fire, wrote that militants roped in Pakistani air force personnel in the conspiracy to kill him in 2003. In another abortive attempt the same year, Musharraf implicated personnel of the Special Services Group charged with vip security. What was accepted as true in Musharraf's case cannot prime facie be falsified in Benazir's. Nothing is impossible in Pakistan's cloak-and-dagger politics. REFERENCE: ATTACK ON BENAZIR Scenes From A Wreckage The imprint, Al Qaeda's. Blessed by? Establishment Islamists? AMIR MIR MAGAZINE | NOV 05, 2007 http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?235926

Benazir Bhutto on AAJ TV - 2

URL: http://youtu.be/WrBko9sYySY

During its brief history Pakistan has been used as a stage for many a charade, sometimes in the name of religion, sometimes in the name of democracy but always in national interest and for the people! The latest farce is a deal between Gen Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. As usual on such occasions the people do not know whether to laugh or curse their stars. Quite a few people believe that on the fourth of October, in the year 2007, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s party was stabbed in the back by none other than his daughter and that the injury may prove fatal. Did the 40-year-old party that had begun by holding up the promise of people’s empowerment deserve to spend its adult years as the bonded maid of a praetorian consul? While the country was going through a convulsion on whose outcome depended the future of its young ones, the PPP had three concerns on the top of its agenda: the people’s right to democracy, the party’s prospects in the coming general election, and the possibility of its chairperson’s rehabilitation in active politics — in that order. The chairperson seems to have chosen to read the priorities upside down. As she bargained for reprieve for herself, she rendered the party more vulnerable than before and the prospect for democratic revival bleaker. Many in the party had hoped that the chairperson would give the organisation a new lease of life and democracy a chance by stepping out of the power race and letting the Young Turks lead what is left of the great party. Frustrated, they do not know how to defend an indefensible deal.

There were also many, inside the party and outside, who had, at the very first reports of the deal, warned of a kiss of death. During the weeks that the deal took to materialise this warning was justified many times over. Those who have persuaded themselves to believe that the deal will benefit Pakistan or the PPP may be in for early shocks. The ordinance that is being hailed for reconciliation between Gen Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto is most likely to further alienate the people from both. Besides, the General’s team will ensure that his promises to BB — removal of bar to a third bid for premiership, etc. — are put on hold till after the electoral contest, which the PPP will enter with a thin force of bedraggled soldiers. If it does not do well enough at the polls, the General is likely to renege on his pledges to BB as comfortably as he had abandoned MMA after the pact leading to the 17th amendment. The party faithful will then be left to ponder what Ghalib had said over a century ago:

Kia woh Namrud ki khudai thi/Bandagi mein mera bhala na huwa.

Benazir Bhutto was right when she identified quasi-religious militancy as the most serious threat to Pakistan and argued that the country could be saved only by the people, backed by civilian democratic government. But the regime with which she has pawned her soul is capable neither of preventing Pakistan’s Talibanisation nor of establishing a popular democracy. The threat to the state has increased. The other party to the deal is unlikely to fare any better than the PPP. The General’s victory is as pyrrhic as pyrrhic can be. He will not be as strong and as free a ruler as he has so far been. Attempts to run the country as before will make the going much tougher. At the same time the events of the past few weeks will give rise to new political forces and the next round between democrats and autocrats may take place sooner than expected and may not end the way the last one has. However, the fate of the deal-makers will matter to the people less than their own ordeal. The people’s disappointments over the past few weeks will severely affect their activism that the lawyers’ agitation had engendered. Between March 9 and September 29 Pakistan politics went through a cycle that has certain basic lessons for the hardy democrats.

The lawyers’ courage out in the open helped them win people’s support and by July 20 the regime seemed to have been routed. But then the streets were emptied of the democrats and the gendarmes moved in. They had a dry run on September 10 when Nawaz Sharif was cheated out of his birthright, contrary to everything contained in the Constitution, laws and rules of decency, and the people watched passively while their half-baked leaders sulked under detention. Assured that the people were not returning to the streets, the regime showed its hideous face on September 29, one of the blackest days in the history of Pakistani people. The opposition fell back on the rhetoric of its leaders and a strategy of blocking General Musharraf’s election by resigning from legislatures. This manoeuvre was a non-starter to begin with and the delay in carrying it out made its defeat certain. In the process the experts found the Constitution silent on the effect on the presidential election if a provincial assembly stood dissolved. The Indians had been alive to this eventuality and therefore they made it clear in the constitution that the dissolution of a state (provincial) assembly would not affect the election of the president. But this provision offers little help to Sher Afgan. A state in India represents only 1/17th of the provincial part of the electoral college whereas a province in Pakistan represents 1/4th of the provincial component of the electoral college. All this constitutional and legal quibble apart, the essential fact is that the battle for the people’s right to self-rule will be won neither in courts nor in assemblies of doubtful origins; this battle will be won by people’s mobilisation alone. The democrats are on the verge of another defeat because they have been looking for short-cuts to democracy where none are available. It’s time to return to the basics of mass mobilisation through serious political work. REFERENCE: The people again done in? By I.A. Rehman October 06, 2007 Saturday Ramazan 23, 1428 http://archives.dawn.com/2007/10/06/top9.htm

Benazir Bhutto on AAJ TV - 3

URL: http://youtu.be/RbE8Vg1Qt4U

Now note the somersault on Nawaz Sharif and Judiciary

LONDON, May 15: The following is the text of the Charter of Democracy signed by former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif here on Sunday: We the elected leaders of Pakistan have deliberated on the political crisis in our beloved homeland, the threats to its survival, the erosion of the federation's unity, the military's subordination of all state institutions, the marginalisation of civil society, the mockery of the Constitution and representative institutions, growing poverty, unemployment and inequality, brutalisation of society, breakdown of rule of law and, the unprecedented hardships facing our people under a military dictatorship, which has pushed our beloved country to the brink of a total disaster; Noting the most devastating and traumatic experiences that our nation experienced under military dictatorships that played havoc with the nation's destiny and created conditions disallowing the progress of our people and the flowering of democracy. Even after removal from office they undermined the people’s mandate and the sovereign will of the people; Drawing history’s lesson that the military dictatorship and the nation cannot co-exist – as military involvement adversely affect the economy and the democratic institutions as well as the defence capabilities, and the integrity of the country - the nation needs a new direction different from a militaristic and regimental approach of the Bonapartist regimes, as the current one;

32. The ISI, MI and other security agencies shall be accountable to the elected government through Prime Minister Sectt, Ministry of Defence, and Cabinet Division respectively. Their budgets will be approved by DCC after recommendations are prepared by the respective ministry. The political wings of all intelligence agencies will be disbanded. A committee will be formed to cut waste and bloat in the armed forces and security agencies in the interest of the defence and security of the country. All senior postings in these agencies shall be made with the approval of the government through respective ministry. REFERENCE: Text of the Charter of Democracy May 16, 2006 Tuesday Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1427 http://archives.dawn.com/2006/05/16/local23.htm  http://archives.dawn.com/2006/05/16/local23.htm  Benazir & Nawaz sign Charter of Democracy By Ashraf Mumtaz May 15, 2006 Monday Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1427 http://archives.dawn.com/2006/05/15/top1.htm 

Benazir Bhutto Criticised Pakistani Judiciary for being Ethnically Biased.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_YcV-ZvOQU

Benazir Bhutto supported "Judiciary"

ISLAMABAD: Chairperson Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian, Benazir Bhutto greets with her party leader, Abida Hussain outside the residence of Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry. Police did not allow Benazir to meet with Chaudhry.

November [10-12-2007] after the imposition of emergency by General Musharraf [now Il Presidente] Police in Islamabad stopped Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from meeting with deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary Benazir Bhutto tired to approach disposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry homes where he is in detention but Police parked truck on road blocked her path. Despite repeated announcement of Chairperson PPP through megaphone to Police and Magistrate to allow her to meet with deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan who was prime victim of Provincial Constitutional Ordinance, she was not allowed. Later, rangers were also called in. Addressing the Party workers outside the Judges colony via megaphone, the Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is real Chief Justice of Pakistan. BB’s bid to meet deposed CJ foiled, PPP workers police clash Saturday November 10, 2007 (2124 PST) http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?194273

Benazir Bhutto on AAJ TV - 4

URL: http://youtu.be/vMkXVZwAT_0

"The marriage is over. Both have decided to move on... there has even been a distribution of assets." A prominent Pakistani close to both Benazir and Zardari - "Had Benazir married someone else, PPP would be different. Bhutto was anything but corrupt. Asif put a blot on the record." A PML(Q) politician linked to intelligence agencies. When the generals in Pakistan were mulling the option of releasing Asif Zardari from prison, a close confidant of President Pervez Musharraf weighed in with this quip about ex-premier Benazir Bhutto's husband, "Mr President, it's about time we release him. He'll prove more damaging to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) outside jail than inside." Accordingly, Zardari was released in November 2004 to rapturous receptions, prompting many swooning admirers to see in his long years of separation from Benazir—and their imminent coming together—a dramatic real-life parallel to Veer-Zara, the Bollywood film then immensely popular in Pakistan. The inveterate romantic here even began to describe the two as Pakistan's Veer-Zara. A little over two years from that heady, emotional November, as we settle into 2007, a chill seems to have seeped into the romantic saga that the Benazir-Zardari matrimony has always been for this country. The fizz has gone out of the love story, Benazir and Zardari don't live together, their marriage is an empty shell, a partnership of pretences, a form they must maintain because Pakistan, like much of South Asia, can't accept a woman politician divorced from her husband. You could say it's a separation that's still dressed as marriage, you could say Musharraf's confidant, in a way, has been proved prescient.

For months now, the souring of the Benazir-Zardari saga has been the staple of whispers in PPP circles. The buzz attained credibility in November last year when Pakistan's English daily Observer led its front page with the bruising header: 'Benazir desperately trying to save her marriage'. The PPP didn't issue any denials. Last year too, in a money-laundering case filed by the earlier Nawaz Sharif government, Benazir told a Swiss court that she wasn't associated with offshore companies being investigated for their links to Zardari. The statement was perceived as an attempt on her part to distance herself from her husband. A prominent Pakistani close to both Zardari and Benazir, who too now lives abroad, told Outlook, "The marriage is over. Both have decided to get on with life and live in countries of their own choosing. There has even been a distribution of assets; that's why her statement last year to the Swiss court." But this doesn't mean Benazir will legally formalise the split—and it isn't only because of the political factor. As a lady friend of Benazir's told Outlook, "Benazir is too conservative to go in for a divorce. Once, till late in the night, she kept advising me against seeking divorce." There are, however, incontrovertible signs of their marriage being on the rocks if not totally kaput. For one, Benazir lives in Dubai, Zardari in a New York apartment with his dogs. His friends there invite sneers from the extremely class-conscious Pakistanis. As a former foreign secretary told this correspondent, "We were having dinner at this posh restaurant and in walked Asif with a group of men who would never be seen in polite company." Influential expat Pakistanis say Benazir did not stay with her husband when she visited the Big Apple last September, choosing instead to reside with a friend there. The PPP explained it saying she needed a larger space for party work.

Cold vibes between the Zardaris and the Bhuttos aren't a fact of recent vintage. When Asif was undergoing a heart operation in Dubai in 2005, his parents flew down to the desert emirate to see him. Instead of staying in the plush villa of their daughter-in- law, they were booked in a hotel. A Pakistani who was there then narrates, "I think it was in June 2005. Dubai then witnessed its biggest power blackout. I was staying in the same hotel as Asif's father, Hakim. I asked him why he wasn't staying with Benazir, he kept silent. Hakim's wife (Asif's stepmother) clearly said that they did not want to stay there." So, why did the Benazir-Zardari marriage turn so sour? One way of answering the question is to look at the marital fate of other women prime ministers (or presidents) and summarise, perhaps simplistically: marriages of powerful women leaders are doomed to fail. When she visited NY last September, Benazir stayed with a friend, not with Zardari who lives there in an apartment with his dogs.

From Sirimavo Bandaranaike to Golda Meir to Indira Gandhi in the earlier generation, and now Benazir Bhutto, Tansu Ciller and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo—their marital going has been stormy; the discord most often arising from a husband reluctant to live in the shadow of his wife. Most often, cracks developed in relationships because of the husband's insatiable appetite for power and pelf—definitely true of Benazir-Zardari' s life together. What's also true, though, is that both Benazir and Zardari were a terrible mismatch in a Pakistani society that is extremely class-conscious, and chauvinistic. To the manor born, cosmopolitan, Oxford-educated, princess of Pakistan's "only political dynasty", many found it intriguing why Benazir chose to marry Zardari at all. Theories abound. One, she didn't have a boyfriend, never even went out with boys—a fact testified to by Hussain Haqqani's failed efforts to dig up dirt on her university days in the months before the 1988 elections. (Haqqani later joined her government). It was considered impractical, perhaps inconceivable, for a single woman to jump into politics. A husband had to be found. Simultaneously, Pakistan was also witnessing cataclysmic changes: Zia was in power; he had hanged Zulfiqar Ali To the manor born, Oxford-educated, princess of Pakistan's "only political dynasty", many wonder why she married Zardari at all. Bhutto, even thrown Benazir in the dungeon for months; subsequently, in 1984, her brother Shahnawaz died under mysterious circumstances abroad; the other brother—Mir Murtaza—nursed ambitions about usurping the Bhutto legacy. Worse, mother Nusrat, in the eastern tradition of anointing males as heirs, was more supportive of Murtaza than Benazir. "Benazir needed a friend and a man by her side. Asif needed power, authority and wealth. She also wanted a Sindhi as then she could play her father's Sindhi card," says an old PPP member.

It was Zardari's stepmother who played matchmaker, says the PPP source, getting the two to meet each other. Back then, the Zardaris' most important asset was the Bambino cinema theatre in Karachi. Though younger to her by two years, Zardari swept Benazir off her feet. No other man had been so close to her. There were quiet moments in London's Hyde Park: she said she was attracted to his sense of humour; impressed by his 'chivalry' (he saved her from a bee which attacked her). Says the PPP member, "There were flowers and presents. Asif at his best was macho whom she could not resist. Had I been Benazir, I too would have said 'yes'." Perhaps the Bhutto gameplan was different from what it eventually turned out to be. Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash in 1987, elections were called in 1988, and Benazir spectacularly rode to power. About this twist in the script Nusrat was to comment after Benazir was ousted from power the second time (1996), "How did we know that Zia would die so soon? We thought that by the time her turn to (govern) would come, they would have had a couple of kids and he would have settled down." Zardari did settle down in the prime ministerial house—but not as a quiet husband willing to stay in the background. He became the 10 per cent man, allegedly cutting deals, amassing property abroad and stashing funds in Swiss banks (though nothing has been proved against him even after he spent eight years in jail). When Benazir was in Opposition, then prime minister Nawaz Sharif claimed a prohibitively expensive diamond necklace belonging to Benazir had been unearthed from a Swiss bank locker. Photographs of the necklace were flashed in newspapers. Sitting in the chambers of the Leader of Opposition, surrounded by visitors, she passed a note to this correspondent on the necklace controversy: "Do you think I would have such horrible taste?" People now say she didn't know about the necklace because Zardari never told her about it. Says a PML(Q) politician closely linked to intelligence agencies, "If Benazir had married someone else, the story of the PPP would've been entirely different. "How did we know Zia would die so soon? We thought by the time her turn came, they'd have had kids and he'd have settled down." You could blame Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for everything but corruption. Zardari managed to blot that record of the PPP."

Another irritant in the relationship could be the murder of Benazir's brother Murtaza. Then living in exile, Murtaza was persuaded to return to Pakistan and develop a stake in Pakistan politics. Among those who sponsored the move was mother Nusrat. Benazir was opposed to the idea, fearing the establishment didn't want a Bhutto man to be alive, that the time wasn't appropriate for his return. Nevertheless, Murtaza returned. Soon differences between Murtaza and Zardari surfaced. The last occasion he met his sister in the prime minister's house there was a terrible row between Murtaza and Zardari. Murtaza accused Zardari of destroying his father's legacy. Thereafter, in 1996, a posse of policemen pumped bullets into Murtaza's vehicle. People still remember the heart-rending scenes of Prime Minister Benazir rushing barefoot across hospital floors in Karachi to be with her dying brother. No one knows who killed him. But a PPP member points out, "Don't forget, there's a legal suit pending (filed soon after Benazir was ousted for the second time) against Zardari for his alleged involvement in the murder of his brother-in-law. " There are also stories about Zardari two-timing her. Former president Farooq Leghari, a founder-member of the PPP, apparently once stooped low enough to even record Zardari's steamy extra-marital encounters on tape. There have been eyewitness accounts of some truly ugly encounters between the couple. The PPP, of course, attributes it to propaganda by the government.

There is, however, an irony to their soured relationship: it's Asif who spent three years in prison bearing the brunt of the Sharif government's vindictiveness, thanks to promptings from Leghari; he languished behind bars for another five years until Musharraf freed him in 2004. On his release, he became a symbol of PPP resistance, his example often invoked to boost the morale of party workers. A PPP worker sums it up thus, "While in jail, his impact on the PPP was very positive as workers said, 'Asif nay dilayarna jail katee hai (he braved it all).' But he has had a very negative impact on Benazir while she was in government." Does the relationship still have a future? It's unlikely the two will divorce each other—for the sake of their children, and political expediency. For the time being, it'll be status quo. As a PPP member points out, "Zardari can't fly down to Dubai because he expressed his inability to appear in the Swiss court as his doctors have prohibited him from taking long flights. A flight to Dubai means he must depose before the Swiss court. Would he want to do that?" Should Zardari go to Dubai at a later date, or come down to Pakistan when Benazir returns, he can at best hope to get a few PPP tickets for his followers."There will be no impact on the PPP if he stays in New York," a party leader adds sarcastically. REFERENCE: The End Of The Affair [Courtesy: OUTLOOK INDIA MAGAZINE] Has Asif Zardari become too much of a liability—personal and political—for Benazir Bhutto to continue her marriage with him? MARIANA BAABAR MAGAZINE | FEB 05, 2007 http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?233781

TAIL PIECE

The late President Anwar El-Sadat of Egypt was assassinated in 1981 by a faction of Egypt`s leading Islamist organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood. The irony is that this was the same organisation that Sadat had purposefully patronised. He had replaced the charismatic Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdul Nasser as the President of Egypt after Nasser died in 1970. Nasser had ruled the country as a popular president between 1952 and 1970, leaving behind a legacy of staunch secular/socialist Arab nationalism. Though Nasser remained popular till his death, the glow of his influence across assorted Muslim and Third World countries was somewhat dimmed when Egyptian and Syrian armed forces backed by the Soviet Union were decimated in the 1967 war against Israel. Though Sadat had helped Nasser in toppling the Egyptian monarchy in 1952, and was also an integral part of Nasser`s socialist/secular policies, he initiated a shift. In Sadat`s view, Nasser`s socialist model could not sustain the new sombre realities that had surfaced after the 1967 war. Sadat`s move towards the western economic model was welcomed by the country`s urban bourgeoisie, but it was vehemently challenged by the pro-Nasser and left-wing student groups and the Arab media. To neutralise the pro-Nasser and left-wing challenge to his shifting policies on campuses and in the print media, Sadat brought back to life one of the staunchest anti-Nasser and anti-left forces in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood. REFERENCE: Secular blunders Nadeem F. Paracha July 5, 2009 http://archives.dawn.com/archives/19738

The Brotherhood had been greatly radicalised by its second generation leadership led by the teachings of Syed Qutb. He had posed the biggest challenge to Nasser`s socialism and the regime`s pro-Soviet and secular make-up. However, after Nasser`s death, Sadat tactfully let loose the Brotherhood, using state power to help the organisation infiltrate campuses and the media. To appease the organisation, Sadat instructed the state-owned radio and TV channels to not only start regular religious programmes, but to also show as many images as possible of him saying his prayers at a mosque. Sadat also lifted the ban on various Muslim Brotherhood magazines and newspapers. All this was done to soften Egypt`s pro-Soviet and Nasserite image and to mollify concerns of the West and Egypt`s new allies such as the oil-rich Saudi Arabia. REFERENCE: Secular blunders Nadeem F. Paracha July 5, 2009 http://archives.dawn.com/archives/19738

General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg - 1 (Frontline 30 May 2010)

URL: http://youtu.be/GgFy_VTIsMA

By the late 1980s, while religion had begun to play a major role in the soldiers’ lives, and the revised historicity first introduced in the late 1970s became the new mainstream historical narrative in Pakistan, one now saw senior officers with even the most liberal and secular habits, spouting Islamist rhetoric. But this too was about to give in to even more Puritanism. In the early 1990s, the influential Islamic evangelical movement, the Tableeghi Jamaat, began making its way into the military. Though an apolitical movement that emphasised on ‘correct’ Islamic ritualism and attire, its entry into the barracks produced a surreal mix when it came into contact with the highly political philosophy of Maududi that had by then deeply entrenched itself in the army. Interestingly, this episode was another example of how an Islamic experiment that was first conducted in the Pakistani army soon seeped out to become a phenomenon in the society in general as well. The Tableeghi Jamaat which was formed in 1929 had, until the 1980s, been more associated with working/peasant-class Muslims from the Deobandi sect and (in the 1980s) became popular with the trader classes. A move was seen by the Jamaat from the early 1990s onwards in which a conscious attempt was made to attract upper-middle and middle-class Muslims, and this was achieved when various senior Pakistan Army officers joined the Jamaat. The army’s influence on the Pakistani society and politics meant that the Jamaat not only began to bag recruits from well-to-do urban classes, but for the first time it also managed to attract a number of celebrities such as TV actors, pop musicians and cricketers. What I saw at that ‘party’ was actually the socio-political outcome of the above elaborated process. A process that saw a secular army going through an experiment in political Islam that then was dissipated across the society and consolidated itself as a mainstream phenomenon. This phenomenon was then fused (in the army) with ritual Puritanism of the Tableeghi Jamaat and this fusion too became a mainstream sociological mainstay amongst various urban classes. Thus the schizophrenic happenings at the ‘party’ were a modern, upper-middle-class expression of the said process. Interestingly it is the mindset emerging from this fusion and process that also dictates the choice of the kind of political leaders that the classes embroiled in this phenomenon would like to see.The choices too have increasingly become equally schizophrenic. For example, these classes whose politics are a fusion of classical political Islam, Tableeghi Jamaat ritualism and modern-day consumerist capitalism want their leaders to be professional white-collared men, urban in outlook, educated, good to look at, but at the same time, religious, anti-West, anti-India and highly tolerant of Islamic exhibitionism, even sometimes to the point of being apologetic about those who take this exhibitionism to a more violent levels. REFERENCE: Like army, like nation BY NADEEM F. PARACHA ON APRIL 21ST, 2011 http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/21/like-army-like-nation.html

Immediately after Egypt`s 1973 war with Israel — in which Sadat (falsely) claimed to have defeated the enemy — he completely pulled Egypt out from the Soviet camp. However, in 1977 when Sadat, in an unprecedented move, agreed to make formal peace with Israel, the Brotherhood became Sadat`s biggest enemy. Eventually, in 1981, he was assassinated by members of the Brotherhood — ironically the very organisation he had encouraged to nullify the perceived communist threat to his regime. Something similar happened in Pakistan as well. In the 1970 elections, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto`s Pakistan People`s Party had routed the Islamic parties. But by 1973 Bhutto was under pressure from the PPP`s leading ideologues, asking him to hasten the regime`s socialist agenda. In response, Bhutto purged the PPP of its radical founding members. He then came under the influence of the party`s `conservative wing` that encouraged him to appease his staunchest opponents, the Islamists, (especially the Jamat-i-Islami), which had declared the PPP`s socialism as un-Islamic. REFERENCE: Secular blunders Nadeem F. Paracha July 5, 2009 http://archives.dawn.com/archives/19738

General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg - 2 (Frontline 30 May 2010)

URL: http://youtu.be/ssUyqseoL20

General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg - 3 (Frontline 30 May 2010)

URL: http://youtu.be/1_ABmQTIpHw

General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg - 4 (Frontline 30 May 2010)

URL: http://youtu.be/hUM6Mmdymzc

By the late 1980s, while religion had begun to play a major role in the soldiers’ lives, and the revised historicity first introduced in the late 1970s became the new mainstream historical narrative in Pakistan, one now saw senior officers with even the most liberal and secular habits, spouting Islamist rhetoric. But this too was about to give in to even more Puritanism. In the early 1990s, the influential Islamic evangelical movement, the Tableeghi Jamaat, began making its way into the military. Though an apolitical movement that emphasised on ‘correct’ Islamic ritualism and attire, its entry into the barracks produced a surreal mix when it came into contact with the highly political philosophy of Maududi that had by then deeply entrenched itself in the army. Interestingly, this episode was another example of how an Islamic experiment that was first conducted in the Pakistani army soon seeped out to become a phenomenon in the society in general as well. The Tableeghi Jamaat which was formed in 1929 had, until the 1980s, been more associated with working/peasant-class Muslims from the Deobandi sect and (in the 1980s) became popular with the trader classes. A move was seen by the Jamaat from the early 1990s onwards in which a conscious attempt was made to attract upper-middle and middle-class Muslims, and this was achieved when various senior Pakistan Army officers joined the Jamaat. The army’s influence on the Pakistani society and politics meant that the Jamaat not only began to bag recruits from well-to-do urban classes, but for the first time it also managed to attract a number of celebrities such as TV actors, pop musicians and cricketers. What I saw at that ‘party’ was actually the socio-political outcome of the above elaborated process. A process that saw a secular army going through an experiment in political Islam that then was dissipated across the society and consolidated itself as a mainstream phenomenon. This phenomenon was then fused (in the army) with ritual Puritanism of the Tableeghi Jamaat and this fusion too became a mainstream sociological mainstay amongst various urban classes. Thus the schizophrenic happenings at the ‘party’ were a modern, upper-middle-class expression of the said process. Interestingly it is the mindset emerging from this fusion and process that also dictates the choice of the kind of political leaders that the classes embroiled in this phenomenon would like to see.The choices too have increasingly become equally schizophrenic. For example, these classes whose politics are a fusion of classical political Islam, Tableeghi Jamaat ritualism and modern-day consumerist capitalism want their leaders to be professional white-collared men, urban in outlook, educated, good to look at, but at the same time, religious, anti-West, anti-India and highly tolerant of Islamic exhibitionism, even sometimes to the point of being apologetic about those who take this exhibitionism to a more violent levels. REFERENCE: Like army, like nation BY NADEEM F. PARACHA ON APRIL 21ST, 2011 http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/21/like-army-like-nation.html

Though in private, Bhutto accused the Islamic parties of being anti-socialist American stooges, in public he went along with some of his advisers` counsel and declared the Ahmaddiyya community non-Muslim, naively believing this concession would appease and contain his Islamist opponents. The truth is, the Islamists were only emboldened by this gesture. Also, while purging the left-wing radicals in the PPP (from 1974 onwards), Bhutto is also said to have `allowed` the student-wing of the Jamat, the IJT, to establish a strong foothold on campuses which, till then, were mostly dominated by radical left-wing student groups such as the NSF. Bhutto, like Sadat, had ignored the Islamist challenge to his regime, and seemed more concerned about imaginary Soviet/ Indian-backed groups. His pragmatic indulgence in this regard had the reverse effect. Instead of containing the Islamist parties, his constitutional concessions only emboldened them. Not surprisingly, he was toppled by a reactionary general whom he had handpicked himself, shortly after the Islamist parties unleashed a countrywide movement against the PPP regime in 1976, calling for Sharia rule. These are just two brief examples of the blunders committed by certain leading secular Muslim leaders that annihilated the over-blown left-wing and secular challenges by regenerating and using Islamist forces against them. This created daunting political and ideological vacuums in societies that were eventually filled by reactionary military regimes, rejuvenated Islamist forces and, eventually, a new breed of extremism — the sort that now worked towards grabbing state power and carving out a theological hegemony, based on mythical and Utopian illusions about an eternal `Islamic State.` Pakistan and Egypt are prime examples; two of the many Muslim republics now desperately trying to reinvigorate moderate and secular forces to open a consensual front against extremism that was once state-sanctioned, to bludgeon opposing secular forces. One wonders if it is already too late to do that; or if there are any worthwhile progressive sections in society today, in these countries, who can once again demonstrate the same boldness and imagination that they exhibited in the construction of their respective countries` nationalism before their downfall. REFERENCE: Secular blunders Nadeem F. Paracha July 5, 2009 http://archives.dawn.com/archives/19738

PML - Q League becomes Nawaz League/PPP League.

LAHORE: Two senators of the former ruling party PML-Q met Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to discuss economic and political crisis faced by the country. Senator S.M Zafar and Tariq Azeem held a meeting with Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday. Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar, Khwaja Asif and Senator Ishaq Dar also attended the meeting. The meeting discussed the role political parties could play for the betterment of the country. The meeting also agreed that the federal government should change its attitude and play a positive role by implementing the orders of the judiciary.—Dawn News - REFERENCE: PML-Q leaders discuss political crisis with Shahbaz Sunday, 17 Oct, 2010 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/12-pml-q+leaders+discuss+political+crisis+with+shahbaz--bi-02

Way back in 2003, Mr Ayaz Amir (PML - N) wrote in Daily Dawn.

Nothing else explains the birth and rise of the Q or Qainchi League. Most of the stalwarts in this party were flag-bearers of the Nawaz League. Many of them held important positions in Nawaz Sharif's government and usually let no opportunity go by without singing Nawaz Sharif's praises. Well, lo and behold, the day came when that government fell and from the Prime Minister's House Nawaz Sharif found himself in army custody charged with a crime - hijacking - carrying the death penalty. The military agencies, more at home with politics than anything connected with intelligence gathering, got busy and started working on the Nawaz League. Soon from the same politicos who had held high office under Nawaz Sharif and had sung his praises, came loud voices of disagreement with Nawaz and his policies. When I was MPA in Punjab, an error I am unlikely to repeat, it was funny seeing the antics of a Lahore mafia, comprising MPAs from Lahore, around the chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif. In season and out these guys would be proving themselves more loyal than the king. If any MPA was in the least bit critical of what was then known as 'the heavy mandate', (where the hell has it gone?), the members of this mafia would be on their feet hollering and brandishing their fists. Well, guess what? The Nawaz government fell and much before anyone else, this mafia almost to a man was the first to bolt to the other side. I have seen switchovers before but this one left me gasping.

Let me make it plain that there was little to commend the Nawaz government. It made more than its share of blunders and by its actions paved the way for another military takeover. But as long as he was in power no one pointed out his mistakes. And few had the guts to speak up at party meetings. If anyone felt any disquiet he kept it closely to his chest. Only when Nawaz Sharif was down and out did these patriots brush the crumbs from their clothes and walk over to the other side. Time-servers are bad in two ways. They don't speak up when the sun is shining on someone. And they walk away when the clouds gather. Nawaz Sharif could have made a thousand blunders and they would still have stuck by him and sung his praises if he had remained in power. When he slipped from the greasy pole, their support slipped too.

But the thing I am pointing to in Pakistani politics is not confined to the Nawaz League. It runs like a constant through our history. Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad dismissed Khawaja Nazimuddin as prime minister, and most of the ministers in the dismissed cabinet felt no qualms about accepting office under Nazimuddin's successor, Muhammad Ali Bogra. When Field Marshal Ayub Khan - famous more for his political than military exploits - set about forming a king's party, there was no shortage of Muslim Leaguers who hoisted him on their shoulders and proclaimed the birth of what came to be known as the Convention Muslim League. Since then the name Convention League has stuck as a description of all king's parties, the Q League now rallying to General Musharraf's support being the latest incarnation of the Convention League.

Four things Pakistani dictators have never lacked. (1) The support of a section of the political class which readily declares that the country has been saved. (2) The support of the judiciary which legitimizes the new order at the altar of necessity. (3) The assistance of some of the country's best legal brains who, while working closely with the judiciary, strive to provide some sort of legal cover to what at best is a coup d'etat. (4) And the support of a section of journalists who are ready to sing hosannas to the new leader and say that he is the messiah the nation was waiting for.

How many times has this routine not been repeated? How many more times are we destined to see it repeated? Why this problem of spine or rather the lack of spine in our body-politic? Has it something to do with our soil or our climate? If overriding necessity were behind this lack of spine it would still be something. We could say that such and such a person was jumping ship to save his skin or better his lot. Most of the time, however, fair-weather loyalists are comfortable people who lack nothing. They simply want to be on the right side of power. To use Nawaz Sharif as a metaphor, suppose he were to make a comeback - something not about to happen anytime soon. Chances are, the very people who were the first to leave him and join the Q League, will be the first to give a departing kick to the Q League and, jostling with each other and using their elbows, line up to shower him with rose petals. What's more, they'll get away with it. REFERENCE: The problem of spine in Pakistani politics By Ayaz Amir 26 September 2003 Friday 28 Rajab 1424 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/ayaz/20030926.htm

LAHORE, Oct 25: Two bitter political rivals — the PPP and PML-Q — on Monday tried to give a new meaning to the adage, “Politics is the art of the possible”, by expressing intent to “find a way forward through reconciliation in view of the crisis besetting the country”. The drama unfolded with a visit to the residence of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, by Law Minister Babar Awan. As if this were not enough, the two men addressed a joint press conference in which they dropped hints that the two parties were exploring prospects of forging a “working relationship”. Political observers interpreted the development as an attempt by the People`s Party to pre-empt the efforts for reunification of all Muslim League factions spearheaded by Pir Pagara. Pervaiz Elahi, once named as her possible killer by slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto in a letter to Mark Siegel, her lobbyist in Washington, welcomed the Babar Awan-led PPP team, arguing “doors cannot be shut (on opponents) in politics”. REFERENCE: PPP courts PML-Q in bid to derail unification From the Newspaper (15 hours ago) Today By Amjad Mahmood http://public.dawn.com/2010/10/26/ppp-courts-pml-q-in-bid-to-derail-unification.html PPP, PML-Q on same page over national issues: Babar, Elahi Updated at: 1956 PST, Monday, October 25, 2010 http://www.geo.tv/10-25-2010/73395.htm

Learn how this PML - Q League was created by the Establishment during General Musharraf's Martial Law.

Watch the Dawn News on “Horse Trading” and back-door Politics to remove the government. “Meesaq-e-Pakistan” Code Name: IJI of 21st Century but which Bank because Mehran Bank is no more:)

A general election was held in Pakistan on 18 February 2008, after being postponed from 8 January 2008. The original date was intended to elect members of the National Assembly of Pakistan, the lower house of the Majlis-e-Shoora (the nation’s parliament). This DAWN News TV Investigation Report was aired just before that election and features people who have affected past elections and Pakistan’s democratic process in many ways including General Ali Kuli Khan Khattak, General Hamid Gul, Maj (Retd) Masood Sharif Khan Khattak, General Roedad Khan, Air Marshall Asghar Khan, Brig Imtiaz Ahmed, Maj Aamir and more. One of the main topics is Midnight Jackals, an operation conducted by the Intelligence Bureau to thwart an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of Benazir Bhutto. Other topics include the rigging of elections, involvement of the Pakistan Army in democracy and elections, intelligence agencies involvement in elections and democracy and more. REFERENCE: DAWN News TV Investigation Report with Masood Sharif – 6th January 2008 http://www.sharifpost.com/2008/01/06/dawn-news-tv-investigation-report/

DAWN 1

[NOTE: Hamid Gul admits that ISI political role was pre Bhutto DAWN News TV Investigation Report with Masood Sharif -- 6th January 2008]

ISLAMABAD: The main wheeler and dealer of the ISI during the 2002 elections, the then Maj-Gen Ehtesham Zamir, now retired, has come out of the closet and admitted his guilt of manipulating the 2002 elections, and has directly blamed Gen Musharraf for ordering so. Talking to The News, the head of the ISI’s political cell in 2002, admitted manipulating the last elections at the behest of President Musharraf and termed the defeat of the King’s party, the PML-Q, this time “a reaction of the unnatural dispensation (installed in 2002).” Zamir said the ISI together with the NAB was instrumental in pressing the lawmakers to join the pro-Musharraf camp to form the government to support his stay in power. Looking down back into the memory lane and recalling his blunders which, he admitted, had pushed the country back instead of taking it forward, Zamir feels ashamed of his role and conduct. Massively embarrassed because he was the one who negotiated, coerced and did all the dirty work, the retired Maj-Gen said he was not in a position to become a preacher now when his own past was tainted. He said the country would not have faced such regression had the political management was not carried out by the ISI in 2002. But he also put some responsibility of the political disaster on the PML-Q as well. The former No: 2 of the ISI called for the closure of political cell in the agency, confessing that it was part of the problem due to its involvement in forging unnatural alliances, contrary to public wishes. Zamir’s blaming Musharraf for creating this unnatural alliance rings true as another former top associate of Musharraf, Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani has already disclosed that majority of the corps commanders, in several meetings, had opposed Musharraf’s decision of patronising the leadership of the King’s party. “We had urged Musharraf many times during the corps commanders meeting that the PML-Q leadership was the most condemned and castigated personalities. They are the worst politicians who remained involved in co-operative scandals and writing off loans. But Musharraf never heard our advice,” Kiyani said while recalling discussions in their high profile meetings. REFERENCE: The man, who rigged 2002 polls, spills the beans By Umar Cheema Sunday, February 24, 2008 http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=13159

DAWN 2

[NOTE: Hamid Gul admits that ISI political role was pre Bhutto DAWN News TV Investigation Report with Masood Sharif -- 6th January 2008]

He said one of their colleagues, who was an accountability chief at that time, had sought permission many times for proceeding against the King’s party top leaders but was always denied. Kiyani asked Musharraf to quit, the sooner the better, as otherwise the country would be in a serious trouble. Ma-Gen (retd) EhteshamZamir termed the 2008 elections ‘fairer than 2002’. He said the reason behind their fairness is that there was relatively less interference of intelligence agencies this time as compared to the last time. But he stopped short of saying that there was zero interference in the 2008 polls. “You are quite right,” he said when asked to confirm about heavy penetration of ISI into political affairs during the 2002 elections. But he said he did not do it on his own but on the directives issued by the government. Asked who directed him from the government side and if there was somebody else, not President Musharraf, he said: “Obviously on the directives of President Musharraf.” Asked if he then never felt that he was committing a crime by manipulating political business at the cost of public wishes, he said: “Who should I have told except myself. Could I have asked Musharraf about this? I was a serving officer and I did what I was told to do. I never felt this need during the service to question anyone senior to me,” he said and added that he could not defend his acts now. REFERENCE: The man, who rigged 2002 polls, spills the beans By Umar Cheema Sunday, February 24, 2008 http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=13159

DAWN 3

[NOTE: Hamid Gul admits that ISI political role was pre Bhutto DAWN News TV Investigation Report with Masood Sharif -- 6th January 2008]

“It was for this reason that I have never tried to preach others what I did not practice. But I am of the view that the ISI’s political cell should be closed for good by revoking executive orders issued in 1975,” he said. Responding to a question regarding corruption cases that were used as pressure tactics on lawmakers, he said: “Yes! This tool was used, not only by the ISI. The NAB was also involved in this exercise.” Former corps commander of Rawalpindi, Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani said majority of corps commanders had continued opposing Musharraf’s alliance with top leadership of the PML-Q. “Not just in one meeting, we opposed his alignment with these corrupt politicians in many meetings but who cared. Now Musharraf has been disgraced everywhere, thanks to his political cronies.” REFERENCE: The man, who rigged 2002 polls, spills the beans By Umar Cheema Sunday, February 24, 2008 http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=13159

DAWN 4


DAWN 5


[NOTE: Hamid Gul admits that ISI political role was pre Bhutto DAWN News TV Investigation Report with Masood Sharif -- 6th January 2008]

Short Term Memory Loss of PML - Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party.

In the letter, according to The News, she named Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Director General, Intelligence Bureau, Ejaz Shah, former director National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Waseem Afzal and former ISI chief Gen. (Rtd) Hameed Gul as conspirators. Last Thursday, two explosions went off a minute apart shortly after midnight near Karsaz close to the vehicle Bhutto was travelling in. “The blasts hit two police vehicles which were escorting the truck carrying Bhutto. The target was the truck,” said a senior Karachi police official. The attack reportedly bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda and resembled assassination attempts by militants linked to the terrorist network on President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in recent years. The Pakistan Interior Ministry has confirmed the deaths of 70 people in the attack.

Officials at six hospitals in Karachi reported over 130 dead and about 600 wounded, making it one of the deadliest bombings in Pakistan’s history. Bhutto was leading the procession to Qaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum, where she was to give a speech. However, after the two explosions, she was rushed to the safety of Bilawal House in Karachi’s uptown Clifton area. According to witnesses, the bomber tried to enter the inner security cordon of the PPP workers around Bhutto, but was stopped. He then set off the explosion. The second blast originated from a golden-coloured Pajero parked on the road, witnesses added. Earlier, Intelligence reports had warned of threats of suicide attacks against Bhutto by militants linked to al Qaeda, the Taliban and Baitullah Mehsud. (ANI)REFERENCE: Benazir names Pervaiz Elahi, Ejaz Shah, Afzal and Hameed Gul as conspirators Wed Nov 14 2007 01:47:18 GMT+0500 (West Asia Standard Time) http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/benazir-names-pervaiz-elahi-ejaz-shah-afzal-and-hameed-gul-as-conspirators_1002416.html#ixzz13NtKFIWS

LAHORE, Dec 29: The Pakistan People’s Party has said that the investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto must be based upon the letter she had written to President Pervez Musharraf before her return to Pakistan. The letter had named a number of people in an alleged plot to kill the PPP chairperson. “It (the letter) was a dying declaration,” PPP Senator Latif Khosa told Dawn by phone from Larkana. He said former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi, former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Intelligence Bureau chief Ijaz Shah and ex-ISI chief Hameed Gul should be named in the FIR on the basis of that letter. The police, he said, should have allowed Makhdoom Amin Fahim or Naheed Khan, political secretary to Ms Bhutto, to lodge an FIR. The police had washed the crime scene at the Liaquat Bagh with water to erase the evidence which would have led to the killer(s), he added. REFERENCE: PPP demands probe based on Benazir’s letter By Syed Faisal Shakeel December 30, 2007 http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/30/top12.htm

He said that the matter should be referred to Punjab Police. The application was filed by Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam, the protocol officer of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, through his counsel Manzoor Ahmad advocate. Other respondents include former Intelligence Bureau Director General Ejaz Shah, former Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi, former Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz, former Interior Secretary Kamal Shah and former spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Javed Iqbal Cheema. - Online REFERENCE: ustice Asif refuses to hear FIR of Benazir murder case Monday, 31 Aug, 2009 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/06-justice-asif-refuses-to-hear-fir-of-benazir-murder-case-rs-09

A people without spine must look to creative disorder as the great god of change. We are entering interesting times. The farce that is the Q League — the nominal ruling party, the real ruling party being the army headquarters — is crossing the last frontiers of its relevance. For the future a new set-up is required, or so think the president’s men, for which purpose, as we keep hearing, presidential emissaries are in touch with the PPP (through PPP point man Rehman Malik). The presidential camp is split between ‘forward-lookers’ and ‘reactionaries’, advocates and opponents of this deal. The former comprise the president’s principal secretary Lt-Gen. Hamid Javed (Rtd), presidential aide Tariq Aziz, and the ISI chief Lt-Gen Kayani. The circle of ‘reaction’ revolves around the Gujrat cousins, Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi, and the Intelligence Bureau chief Brigadier Ejaz Shah. REFERENCE: A New Year wish by Ayaz Amir December 29, 2006 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/ayaz/20061229.htm

The government of her now widowed husband has no other choice but to investigate and bring to book all those involved in this conspiracy of assassination and subsequent cover-up. With the UN commission categorically announcing that it has no part to play in the subsequent criminal proceedings, the ball is in the government’s court. If proper investigations point the finger of accusation at the government of the time, the registration of FIRs on everybody even remotely linked to the killing and/or cover-up from Musharraf right down to the then Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi and responsible officials cannot be shirked. * REFERENCE: Second Editorial: Mohtarma’s last sigh Saturday, April 17, 2010 Daily Times http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\04\17\story_17-4-2010_pg3_1

On October 19, 2007, a day after the Karsaz suicide bombing on her welcome procession, Benazir disclosed at a press conference that she had informed Musharraf in a confidential letter, written on 16 October, 2007 that three senior officials of his government were planning to assassinate her upon her return. “However, I had further made it clear to Musharraf that I won’t blame (the) Taliban or al-Qaeda if I am attacked, but I will name my enemies in the Pakistani military establishment,” she told journalists. Although Benazir did not publicly name the three persons, PPP circles later told the media that they were the then director general Intelligence Bureau, Brigadier (retd) Ejaz Hussain Shah, chief minister Punjab Pervaiz Elahi and chief minister Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim. While concluding the letter, she reportedly asserted that her life was in great danger, particularly from Ejaz Shah. Significantly, on December 30, 2007, two days after Benazir’s murder, a visibly furious Asif Zardari had accused [at a press conference in Naudero] the PML-Q leadership of his wife’s murder besides describing the party as “Qatil League”. Hitting back in the same tone the same evening (on December 30, 2007), Pervaiz Elahi had charged Zardari for Bhutto’s murder, saying: “Who has benefited the most from the assassination? Zardari, and only Zardari. Check the authenticity of Benazir’s will. Find out the amount for which she was insured.” By that time, Zardari had already been elected as the Co-chairman of the PPP. On October 18, 2008, on the first anniversary of the terrorist attack made on Bhutto’s procession, the Karachi Police finally lodged a second FIR of the Karsaz attacks on the basis of her letter, naming three persons as those who could be involved in her assassination. National newspapers reported on October 20, 2008 that those named in the second were Pervez Elahi, Ejaz Shah and Hameed Gul. Confirming the lodging of the second FIR, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said Bhutto’s own attempts to lodge a second FIR of the Karsaz tragedy were foiled by the PML-Q government. The same day, Qaim Ali Shah declared in Karachi that the three persons nominated by Benazir Bhutto would be arrested soon for interrogations. REFERENCE: Why is everyone mum about the Bhutto killer? Sunday, December 27, 2009 By Amir Mir http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=215600

However, no consensus could be reached on the role of other political personalities mentioned in the UN report, which include Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Rehman Malik. A final decision may likely be made at the next meeting of the committee. The sources confirmed that action would be sought against then Punjab home secretary Khusro Pervaiz, then Rawalpindi DCO Irfan Elahi, then Rawalpindi CPO Saud Aziz, then IB director general Brig (r) Ejaz Shah, then federal interior secretary Kamal Shah, Major Imtiaz and others. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has been asked to put the names of these officials on the ECL, while the establishment secretary has been asked to transfer to the OSD pool all officials nominated in the report. REFERENCE: ‘Musharraf responsible for BB’s murder’ * PPP core committee asks PM to take legal action against all those involved in Benazir’s assassination, including Musharraf * Malik asked to put nominated officials on ECL By Saeed Minhas Sunday, April 18, 2010 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\04\18\story_18-4-2010_pg1_1

The news is that SP Ashfaq Anwar who had been deployed to provide security to the late and much lamented Benazir Bhutto has turned approver against other senior policemen suspected of having a hand, if not in her cold-blooded and horrific murder, at least in its criminal cover-up. SP Ashfaq has reportedly denied this impression. The most damning of all is his allegation that, as we thought, it was none other than a senior police officer who gave the orders to hose down the scene of the crime almost immediately after the assassination, obliterating any and all forensic evidence that might have been collected from there as should have happened, and as does happen when the target(s) are not high-profile political leaders who are on the wrong side of the Deep State. Cases in point: the suicide hit on the good and well-spoken of surgeon general of the army on The Mall in Rawalpindi when the road was closed off for a whole day, the hit on the bus carrying ISI personnel in Westridge when that road was closed off for several days; even when lawyers were hit by a blast in GPO chowk, Lahore.

The second most shocking revelation in his statement is that a plain SHO stood in the way of an autopsy on poor Benazir. We are Pakistanis who have lived and grown old in this country — can we ever believe that a lowly inspector of police could on his own prevent the autopsy of as powerful a political leader as Benazir Bhutto? Or that a senior superintendent of police could order the hosing down the scene of the crime all on his own? No sirs, no! Both the orders had to come from the very top because the people at the top apparently knew well that it was no suicide bomber whose detonation of his charge made Benazir fall down into the jeep and hit her head on the sun-roof lever so hard that her brains oozed out. They knew that it was the pistol shooter, plainly visible in video-film record of the murder, who shot her in the upper left side of her neck, the bullet exiting from the right side of her head. I am sorry for being so graphic, reader, but what do you do other than kick the Deep State in the teeth when it not only is at least an accessory to a crime of this proportion, but takes us lay citizens for so many fools? As an aside, how many of us remember Brigadier Cheema (I think his name was), trying to sell the theory of the lever at a press conference after being briefed by none other than a director of the Mother of All Agencies as he himself later admitted?

The man’s mouth was dry; he was groping for words; his hands were shaking, and he generally looked as if he had seen several ghosts a mere minute ago. What a sorry and shameful performance that was, by a hanger-on of a sorry and shameless dictatorship. Why, you might ask, is it that I say that this is even better news than the SC judgment? Because, friends, far too many of Pakistan’s political leaders have been done to violent death without the perpetrators ever coming to justice. Start from Liaquat Ali Khan, go to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and then to Benazir, and you will see the dark and dirty hands of the Deep State behind every one of those awful assassinations. One hopes that the deposition of SP Anwar will be acted upon and that the case will reach a conclusion in a court of law, in which everyone even remotely connected with the case, no matter what their station at the time of the killing of that brave woman, will be questioned and if remotely suspect will be proceeded against. This country has seen enough bloody interventions by those that would not let democracy grow and prosper. REFERENCE: Good news at last Kamran Shafi (15 hours ago) Today By Kamran Shafi http://public.dawn.com/2010/10/26/by-kamran-shafi-3.html

THE TAILPIECE

WHY THESE ACTS OF OMISSION AND COMMISSION ARE BEING IGNORED BY THE MEDIA?

QUOTE



Please explain the dirty and very dangerous advertisement campaign which was initiated by PML-Q after the death of Benazir Bhutto after her assassination in 2007. Reference : Reports said that PML of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had given ads, asking all the non-Sindhis living in the province to provide the details of losses they suffered during the riots following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The party intended to compensate their losses. After a strong reaction from all sides, the party the very next day removed the term non-Sindhis and said that Sindhis could also apply for the same. EC asked to take notice of controversial ad Thursday, January 10, 2008 By Mumtaz Alvi http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=90407 , KARACHI: The PML-Q Punjab has amended the language of a controversial advertisement it published on riot damage compensation for non-Sindhis in Sindh, after a bad reaction from the southern province?s party leaders and workers. The advert now says Sindhis (in bold lettering) can also apply for compensation. PML-Q Punjab alters ethnically exclusive ad By Amar Guriro and Qazi Asif http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C01%5C06%5Cstory_6-1-2008_pg12_1 .

Please explain the fraudulent Ad campaign in the national newspapers against Benazir Bhutto, which was initiated by your party before her death? Reference: ISLAMABAD: A letter forged by an over-smart opposition leader against Benazir Bhutto 18 years ago, came back to haunt him on Wednesday when the ruling PML used it in an ad campaign against the PPP but in vain. A PPP spokesperson said Benazir Bhutto and the PPP would take firm legal action against the advertisement. The letter, said to have been written by PPP leader Benazir Bhutto to her friend Peter Galbraith in late 1990, was then circulated by the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) to defame Benazir Bhutto before the 1990 elections. The letter was forged by then opposition activist Naveed Malik, who now is an opposition leader. The letter was used on Wednesday by the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) in huge half-page ads in different newspapers. A senior marketing expert said at least Rs 5 million was spent on the ad. The letter was first released by Naveed Malik, political adviser to the then Punjab chief minister, with the aim to demoralize PPP voters in the 1990 elections. The PPP lost by a big margin but later the polls were declared as massively rigged. PML ad campaign against Benazir backfires By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=11162

What do you have to say on the statements of Talal Akbar Bugti and Nawab Aali Bugti, son and grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti respectively, have alleged that Shaukat Aziz, PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Sayed are the real killers of the 22nd chieftain of the Bugti tribe. Reference: Trial of Shaukat, Shujaat, Mushahid sought for Bugti?s murder By Mazhar Tufail Wednesday, June 24, 2009 ISLAMABAD: Despite being sworn enemies of one another, two immediate heirs of slain Nawab Akbar Bugti have together accused former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and two top leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) of involvement in the killing of the veteran Baloch leader and have demanded their trial. http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=22908

There was a news against you for being bank defaulter. Reference: [News Clipping is attached] More References: Top guns got Rs 54bn loans written off By Rauf Klasra Tuesday, October 23, 2007 http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=10768 ISLAMABAD: As the present government completes its five-year term in office on November 15, it has been officially disclosed in a secret report that the top guns of Pakistan got Rs 53.499 billion bank loans written off on the basis of a decision taken by the financial team of Gen Pervez Musharraf in October 2002. PML-N urges SC to take action on loan write-offs * Ahsan says 2 sitting CMs also beneficiaries of loan writing-off Staff Report Daily Times - Site Edition Wednesday, October 24, 2007 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\10\24\story_24-10-2007_pg7_24 ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court must take suo motu action and ask the government to make public the names of all those who have benefited through the writing off of over Rs 53 billion in loans, said PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal. He termed the writing off of over Rs 53 billion in loans a ?plunder of public money?. In a statement issued here on Tuesday, he said, ?This is yet another mega scandal of the Musharaf regime which has come out in public.

How would you define PPP Reference against you filed in NAB when PPP was in opposition? Reference:

REFERENCE / COMPLAINT NO. XXII

Reference dated 19-6-2004 ? Billion Rs Loan Write-Off http://www.ppp.org.pk/refs/ref0407.html


"QUOTE"

Reference dated 19-6-2004 ? Billion Rs Loan Write-Off

To: The Chairman
National Accountability Bureau
Islamabad
Pakistan Peoples Party ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPLAINANT

V/s.

Ch Shujaat Hussain

Ch Mansoor Elahi

Ch Parvez Elahi

Ch Gulzar Mohammad

Ch Wajahat Hussain

Ch Sabahat Elahi

Mrs Qaisra Elahi

Mrs Kausar Hussain

Mrs Khalida Begum (1 through 9 - Purportedly the Directors / Owners of Punjab Sugar Mills )

Daewoo Corp of Pakistan and others

Chief Executive of National Bank of Pakistan and other financial institutions (who have written off the loans)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACCUSED

COMPLAINT U/S 18(B) (11) OF THE NATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY BUREAU ORDINANCE 1999.

FACTS:

1. The daily ?The News? in its publication of 19 June 2003 (Copy enclosed with the complaint) gave the details which were given by the Jamali government to the National Assembly Secretariat wherein it was revealed that an amount of Rs 18 billion was written off during the last three years (1999-2002) of the military regime.

2. The accused respondents where some of them being holders of public offices in the terms of Section 2 of the NAB Ordinance 1999 and the rest of the accused which are business enterprises had obtained loans from the different financial institutions.

3. The accused respondents had siphoned off the depositors money from the financial institutions which were written off collusively by the respondents and financial institutions authorities and thus plundered the public money.

4. That the financial institutions had maintained only those loans were written off which were totally irrecoverable which does not give the clear picture and policy of the financial institutions for recovery of loans whereas small farmers were taken in custody for only recovering 9 millions rupees and the people having influence and collusion with the regime and financial institutions were not only set at liberty but were also given huge financial benefits.

5. That the accused / respondents being the holders of public office and the beneficiaries have caused a huge loss to the financial institutions who were the custodians of public money and have badly effected the performance, economy, trust and confidence of the public in the financial institutions.

Conclusion:

Based on the above facts and grounds respondents have shown willful indulgence in corrupt practices under Section 9 of the Ordinance. Such persons are subject to punishment under Section 10 of the Ordinance. As such the Chairman of the NAB is called upon to initiate investigation in connection with the matters set out herein above and further proceed to file a reference against respondents for violating the provisions of Section 9 of the Ordinance punishable under Section 10 of the Ordinance in competent court of law and proceed against those concerned for violating Section 9 of the Ordinance.

Complainant

Pakistan Peoples Party

Through:

Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari Advocate
Islamabad Dated : 19-6-2004

"UNQUOTE"

Why did you approach the Lal Mosque Mullahs when your government wiped them out during Musharraf Military Regime? Reference: A dangerous game February 14, 2008 Thursday Safar 06, 1429 http://www.dawn.com/2008/02/14/ed.htm#1 DOES Chaudhry Shujaat realise what a dangerous game he is playing? He and several PML personalities have met Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid fame and there are reports that the hard-line cleric is to be released. Whether or not he is guilty of any crime is to be decided by the court. But there are cases against him relating to his involvement in the Lal Masjid insurgency last summer. The ?deeds? of the brainwashed commandos wearing polka dotted kaffiyehs and led by him and his dead brother, Ghazi Abdul Rashid, have included arson, murder, kidnapping (including those of some Chinese nationals), illegal use of firearms, etc. Only a court can release him if it acquits him of the charges. Maulana Fazlur Rahman, too, visited him, and one of Abdul Aziz?s relations told a press conference that his family expected him to be released. On the eve of the general election?

Did ISI or General Aslam Beg offered you money for ulterior motives? Reference: Shujaat says Beg offered him massive fundsDAWN/The News International, KARACHI 23 April 2003, Wednesday, 20 Safar 1424 http://www.karachipage.com/ http://karachipage.com/news/Apr_03/042303.html ISLAMABAD: Leading politician Ch Shujaat Hussain has reopened the controversy over Army's role in politics by admitting that he and his cousin Ch Pervez Elahi were offered millions of rupees by the then Army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg in 1991 for political purposes from Mehran Bank accounts. Mehran Bank scandal had cost Rs 9.92 billion to the national exchequer. Ch Shujaat is the first politician to openly confirm that he was offered massive money for political purposes by a sitting Army chief in 1991 for political purposes.

Tell us something about Co-operative Companies Scam of 90s.

MOST IMPORTANT : TEXT CANNOT BE COPIED.

Some Facts about C Shujat and Co. http://www.attocknews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=368&Itemid=168

The Chaudhry and his fellow Chaudhry, Pervez Elahi, will have to face the charges levelled against them which warrant disqualification from the political scene in Writ Petition No.18463/2002, Mian Sajid Pervez, president, [of Imran Khan's] Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf Punjab versus Federation of Pakistan, Election Commission of Pakistan, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain [Respondent No.3], Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi [Respondent No.4], Returning Officer, NA105 Gujrat II and PP 110 Gujrat III, filed in the Lahore High Court in the second half of September, by Advocate Hamid Khan, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. It has been cited that under Clause (o) of sub-Article 2 of Article 8D of the Conduct of General Elections Order 2002 pertaining to the disqualification of members of our assemblies, it is stipulated that a person stands disqualified if "he has obtained a loan for an amount of two million rupees or more, from any bank, financial institution, cooperative society or corporate body in his own name or in the name of his spouse or any of his dependents, which stands unpaid for more than one year from the due date, or has had such loan written off." Similarly, Representation of People Act 1976, Section 12(2)(c), provides that a member is not qualified to sit in our assemblies if he makes: "a declaration that no loan for an amount of two million rupees or more obtained from any bank, financial institution, cooperative society or corporate body in his own name or in the name of his spouse or any of his dependents, or any business concern mainly owned by him or the aforesaid, stands unpaid for more than one year from the due date, or has got such loan written off" This makes it quite clear that any person who has obtained a loan of Rs 2 million or more from any bank and had it written off, stands disqualified from being a member of the national or provincial assemblies. The writ petition relates that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi obtained a loan in the name of the company of which they were both directors, Punjab Sugar Mills Limited of Mian Channu, from the National Bank of Pakistan. In 1999, Rs.37.987 million was written off, which fact is recorded in the annual report of the bank for that year. At the time, Shujaat was the federal minister of interior and Pervaiz was speaker of the Punjab Assembly. The two Chaudhrys obtained another loan from the Muslim Commercial Bank Limited for their Punjab Sugar Mills Limited and in 2000 a sum of Rs 22.792 million was written off, which fact is recorded in the annual report of the Bank for that year. According to the law, as it stands today, it appears that both the Chaudhrys fully qualify for disqualification. Technically speaking, Imran's writ petition filed in the Lahore High Court - not heard and decided - is now infructuous, but the disqualification, if established, is a continuing one, and can be invoked at any time by any concerned or aggrieved person in appropriate proceedings before the Election Tribunal or the Supreme Court. Now what? Are the Chaudhys worth a further amendment in the laws of our pure but poor Republic of Pakistan? As white as driven snow By Ardeshir Cowasjee 03 November 2002 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20021103.htm

High treason case against Nawaz *From Shujaat Ali Khan Week Ending : 15 June, 1995 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1995/15Je95.html

LAHORE, June 12: Former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif has been charged with high treason in a complaint lodged with police by the Punjab Home Secretary, Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa.Also cited as the opposition leader's co-accused are the former federal interior secretary, Senator Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and former provincial governor Mian Muhammad Azhar.The complaint has been filed in the Qila Gujjar Singh police station, Lahore, under Section 2 of the High Treason (Punishment) Act 1973, enacted pursuant to Article 6 of the Constitution which prescribes death as the only punishment for the offence.The complaint was produced on Monday before a five-member full bench of the Lahore High Court as it took up the bail petitions of the treason case accused.

The military's alliance with some of Pakistan's most corrupt politicians has also raised serious questions over President Musharraf's pledge to fight corruption. The military regime's backing of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has evoked strong criticism from political parties. The Chaudhries are allegedly, not only involved in the infamous multi-billion rupee cooperative scam, but have also had numerous loans written off. Similarly, the military has propped up Imtiaz Sheikh, a notoriously corrupt former bureaucrat, to counter the PPP in Sindh. The leader of the Sindh Democratic Alliance (SDA), Sheikh is believed to be one of the most corrupt civil servants who rose to power under former Sindh Chief Minister, Jam Sadiq Ali. Sheikh is now seen as the military's candidate for Sindh's chief ministership. Reference: The General's Selection By Zahid Hussain [Monthly Newsline Oct 2002] http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsOct2002/cover1.htm

WHAT ABOUT THESE LOAN DEFAULTERS?