|



















News Archives
Latest News
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September
2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December
2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
The Rediff
Interview/Benazir Bhutto
|
 |
August 2005

Are we a
democracy?
Reality Check
Shafqat Mahmood
It would seem so with millions casting their vote in the second phase of
local polls. Yes, there are allegations of pre poll rigging particularly in
Sindh and Punjab. Police, it is said, has been used to harass ruling party
opponents and development funds are being freely distributed to help
officially backed candidates.
An atmosphere that suggests total control of the government over the
electioneering process has also been cleverly created specially in the
Punjab. The message is that without official support you can forget about
becoming a Tehsil or district Nazim. Apart from the Chief Minister, who has
used all the traditional tricks to strengthen this notion, intelligence
agencies have also been active in the background. This has convinced many
that if you want to get anywhere official blessing is a must.
No wonder then that many leading lights from the opposition parties are
lining up to join the Q party. This does not mean that they have suddenly
discovered the glory of General Musharraf or fallen in love with Parvaiz
Elahie. Only that, they just cannot bear losing control over local politics
in their constituencies. They are deserting their dearly loved but distant
leaders to rake in immediate benefits. As the old joke goes, "what is
nearer, God or a fist in the face." Apparently fist, or in this case local
power that is triumphing over old loyalties.
This manipulation of the electoral process is hardly democratic and would
lend credence to the allegation that we are not a democracy. Clever
apologist for the government, not any run of the mill mouthpiece, would
argue that we do not claim to be a perfect democracy. We have a long way to
go, they will say, but we are on our way. General Musharraf also uses a
similar formulation. He always says that we are on the road to becoming a
true democracy not that we already are a democracy.
Many in the West buy this. Not only because they need the General for the
war on terror but because they compare us with Burma or Saudi Arabia or near
anarchic African states such as Rwanda and Burundi. They see the
electioneering and people going to the polls and what appears to be free
comment in the press and they see democracy. But, as Asma Jehangir said on
the Hard Talk program of the BBC, we have a long history of struggle for
democracy. We would like to be compared to the best examples of it not to
military dictatorships or royal autocracies of the third world.
The debate whether we are or are not a democracy can only be credible if
some things are conceded straight away. We do have the appearance of a
democracy. There is no point in challenging this because to a casual
observer we have many of the forms that would constitute a democracy. There
is a parliament and a separate institution of the judiciary. Elections have
been held, twice for local government and once for provincial and national
assemblies. We are not obviously a single party state. This is important too
because generally dictatorships allow only one party to function.
The press appears to be free. There is a lot of criticism of the government
and open comment on whatever is going on. Even General Musharraf is not
immune from unfavourable remarks. His parent institution and the most
powerful force in the country, the Army, is also not a no go area. Many
critical articles about its corporate activities particularly about housing
schemes and land grants appear regularly in the press.
This pretty much looks like a democracy, albeit not perfect, to outsiders.
It is General Musharraf's success or the Army think tanks foresight that
before taking over this time, they clearly worked out the parameters of
military rule in the twenty first century. They obviously realised that the
draconian model of dictatorship pursued by Zia was no longer viable after an
eleven year interregnum of civilian rule, multi party democracy and a free
press. This time they decided on a unique model that has all the symbols of
democracy but in essence is a dictatorship.
Let us look at some of the elements that make us look like a democracy and
see whether they really are democratic. We have a parliament that is
universally recognised to be toothless, a rubber stamp or a worthless
debating society. One example of its meaningless role is the way the
military treats it. The parliament cannot discuss the defence budget and its
committees have been barred from discussing dodgy defence deals. It cannot
pass any legislation without the clearance of the army chief of staff who
also happens to be President. So much for the parliament.
The judiciary is indeed a separate pillar of the state but at the risk of
attracting the wrath of the honourable judges, it is hardly free and
independent. It shies away from taking cognisance of any matter that the
government does not want to be adjudicated. Petitions of Shahbaz Sharif are
an example. It has never ruled against the General or the military as an
institution. The ISI case is still pending in the Supreme Court after ten
years. It has also not ruled against the government on any matter in which
the government is seriously interested. This is the level of its
independence. No need to say anything more.
The press is indeed much freer than under any previous military government
and this is the greatest success of the military game plan. Nothing gives
the impression of freedom more than a vibrant press and there is little
doubt that we do have lively press. The reality is that behind the scenes
there is immense pressure on the editors to tone down criticism. There are
also no go areas. No one can write about the Generals financial dealings or
personal life and no one can write about corruption among the serving
military.
Every stratagem is used to get a press that is if not uncritical at least
within what are considered acceptable bounds. Those that have strayed out
have been punished. Government advertisements, which constitute a fair
portion of newspaper revenue, are routinely used as a weapon and lately even
private companies have been advised not to give ads to papers that are
writing anti government stuff.
Individual journalists are also being marked for action. One story on the
grapevine is that the Inter Services Public Relations or ISPR has a marking
system. Every article critical of the government is given certain marks with
higher marks on the negative part of the scale. If a writer crosses a
certain number he comes within the cross hairs and is marked for some action
or the other. I was once a victim of this system and others have also felt
the wrath in more ways than one. I also have a feeling that I am being
barred as guest speaker from government training institutions.
The beauty of this new model of dictatorship unfolded by the military is
that it gives the impression of being a democracy. In actual fact, it as
tightly controlled as any intelligent dictatorship would be. I use the word
intelligent not crude. It is an intelligent use of power if you create a
credible facade of democracy to hide a dictatorship.
The writer is a former member of parliament and a Lahore-based freelance
columnist.

200 Reports of Rigging
The Karachi Monitoring
Cell of the Pakistan Peoples Party received more than two hundred
complaints of rigging, ballot stuffing, occupying of polling stations,
eviction of Awam Dost polling stations, torture and manhandling of Awam
Dost supporters, arrests and detention of PPP leaders and workers. Some of
the incidents, which were promptly reported to the office of Acting Chief
Election Commissioner for action are. What action did his office took is
not known.
-
In Polling station
Talibul Maula Girls School, UC Hala 2, where Chief Minister’s armed
supporters opened fire on Awam Dost supporters when they tried to
prevent the former from illegally stamping ballot papers. Three Awam
Dost workers are wounded and already in hospital.
-
Armed persons of PML (F)
have attacked voters at polling station Rasool Bux Marri in UC Mohabbat
Wah, tehsil Kot Diji and have injured 4 voters. Polling staff or
security personnel have taken no action.
-
In Polling Station Walis Road, UC 2,
Sukkur, where armed gangs of the MQM have opened fire and wounded four
Awam Dost supporters in an attempt to prevent Awam Dost voters in that
station.
-
Armed persons belonging to PML (F) at
polling station Pir Bux Kerio, UC Khabar Rind, taluka Thari Mir Wah,
District Khairpur have attacked the voters and injured 3 persons.
Security agencies have not taken any action.
-
In UC 17, Taluka Latifabad, Sachal
Sarmast Colony, District Hyderabad, where weaponised gangs belonging to
the MQM, have been harassing Awam Dost supporters and the SSP Hyderabad
has been notified of the firing and violence in order to take action.
-
In Polling Station Qaim Khan Chandio,
Darya Khan Chandio, UC Kaddanh, District Badin, where the government’s
candidates’ have been firing indiscriminately on all Awam Dost
supporters to prevent them from voting. The firing was so heavy and
continuous that even the Presiding Officer of Qaim Khan Chandio has been
injured in this violence.
-
In Polling Station Primary School
Waleed, Girls School, Munawarrabad, UC 2, Larkana, where PML Q leader,
Pir Shah turned up with armed thugs and forcibly snatched all the ballot
papers in the station. The police looked on, tried to return the ballot
boxes, but they had been emptied by the armed men by then.
-
In Polling Station Talibul Maula
Girls School, Market Polling Station, Makhdoom Nooh Primary School, UC
2, Hala, where the governments’ allies attacked the Awam Dost
supporters, injuring eight workers and arresting 16 Awam Dost workers.
No FIR has been registered against the government supporters who
attacked the Awam Dost workers, but the victims have been arrested
instead.
-
Fake
Identity Cards without any address are being used in UC Puranoabad,
tehsil Bakrani, district Larkana for voting. Presiding officers are
taking no action to stop these voters.
-
Presiding officer at polling station
Keher village, UC Dhamra, taluka Larkana is allowing voting on the basis
of residence certificates and photocopies of identity cards, which is
against the law.
-
Two burqa clad male workers of the
government party entered the ladies polling at polling station Lal
School, UC 4, Sukkur and were apprehended by the voters. These burqa
clad males were handed over to the police who released them at a safe
distance from the polling station.
-
There are confirmed reports that 500
Mutahhida workers from Karachi have gone to Sukkur in Government of
Sindh transports which are flying Mutahida flags. These persons are
fully armed and are invading polling stations and stamping bogus vote
under the full protection of Sukkur police. A group of these persons
invaded polling station Deaf and Dumb School Bunder Road at around 12’o
clock and made the polling staff hostage. They cast bogus votes under
full protection of local police. They are roaming freely in government
transports all over the city.
-
Respected mother of PML (Q) Nazim
candidate Khurram Leghari has been posted as presiding officer at
polling station Bhitai Nagar, UC 2, Qasimabad. Most regretfully she is
indulging in large scale rigging in favor of her son.
-
In Polling Stations 14, 15, 16, UC
Hala 1, where the Electoral Lists of 2001, or 2002, are not being
accepted. In their place, new additional lists have been produced and
all checking and polling has been taking place outside the polling booth
by the police and Rangers.
-
Ladies were not allowed to vote at
polling station Middle School Bahu Khan UC Bahoo Khan Pathan, Matiari 1.
Polling agents were thrown out by force. Awam dost supporter Urs Soho
has been greiviously injured. In another polling station of this UC
namely, Primary School Dahila, same situation has prevailed where ladies
polling agents have been thrown out and voters have been prevented from
voting. Large scale stamping of ballot papers in favor of
government candidates is going on at both the polling stations.
-
In
Polling Station Alliabad, UC Madhbahu, Taluka Bakrani, District Larkana,
where the Awam Dost candidates and polling agents are not being allowed
to sit in the polling station by local officials backed by Minister
Altaf Unnar, who is openly sitting in the polling stations.
-
In Polling Station Haji
Hakim Zaur, UC Saeed Matho, District Tando Mohammed Khan, where the
polling staff has been diverted so that polling cannot begin. This is
being done to wipe out the votes of Awam Dost supporters, as they are
the ones expected to poll 80 % of the votes in the area.
-
In Polling Station
Mohammed Ali Zaur, UC Lakha, District Tando Mohammed Khan, where the
police is harassing Awam Dost supporters and preventing polling staff
form conducting polling. The candidate has registered a serious protest
with the local DRO, but valuable polling time has been wasted
deliberately by government officials.
-
In Polling Station Babbar, UC
Jalalani, Khairpur, where Awam Dost supporters have been fired upon, and
voters are being denied the right to vote after 400 ballot papers have
already been caught as illegally stamped.
-
In UC Kothi Kalhoro, Taluka Larkana,
where voters whose names are not on the Voters List are being allowed by
the Presiding Officer to cast their vote, while Awam Dost supporters are
not being allowed to enter the polling stations by government officials.
-
In Polling Station Girls High School,
UC Bhanhn Saeedabad, District Jamshoro, where the DSP Sehwan, Usman
Malik, is going into the polling booths and openly facilitating the
polling for a candidate, Roshan Burio, and they are misbehaving with
Awam Dost women candidates to prevent them from casting their votes.
-
In Polling Station Mohammed Ali Zaur,
UC Lakha, District Tando Mohammed Khan, where the DCO and DPO have
personally entered the polling stations and forcibly removed the Awam
Dost polling agents themselves. The DRO and ARO have been duly notified,
but by 12.20 pm no action had been taken.
-
In Polling Station Sobo Khan Chandio,
UC Ghulam Shah Bagrani, District Tando Mohammad Khan, where the Awam
Dost polling agents have been abducted and taken away to prevent Awam
Dost supporters from casting their votes. The abducted agents’ names are
Anwar Rind, Hashim Kumar, Alnawaz Bakrani, Hadi Bux Bagrani, Salma
Bagrani, Fatima Kumbhar, Amna Kumbhar, Mundham Rind. Their vehicles have
also been taken away.
-
In Polling Station Girls School, UC
1, Matiari, where local MPA, Jalal Shah Jamote, is sitting inside the
polling station with the full support of the DPO, who is assisting in
the disenfranchisement of women’s voters.
-
In Polling Station Sachal Sarmast
Colony, Latifabad Taluka, UC 17, Hyderabad, where a van-load of armed
men fought with our naib-nazim, Pervez Bihari, and took over the polling
station to stamp the ballot papers in favour of MQM candidates. The van
was openly carrying MQM flags on it as well.
-
In Polling Station Zubaidah College,
UC 1 City Hyderabad, where the MQM’s armed supporters have taken over
the polling stations and forcibly stamped ballot papers in their panel’s
favour.
-
In Polling Station Noor Mohamed High
School, Polling Station Madina Masjid, Srighat, Pollling Station,
Madrasutul Binaat, UC 4, Hyderabad City, where armed gangs of the MQM
have enetered the polling stations and are stamping ballot papers
forcibly in favour of their candidates.
-
Armed Mutahhida (MQM) workers have
captured Polling stations 8 and 10 in UC 5, Latifabad and are busy in
bogus voting on a large scale.
-
Polling station Bagh Bhatti polling
station Gujrati Para and polling stations 1 and 3 of UC 15, Latif abad
have been taken over by armed person of MQM who are indulging in bogus
voting on a large scale.
-
MQM, MPA Arshad Shah accompanied
with armed workers has occupied polling stations Mirza Qaleech Baig and
polling station Hashmat Bano, UC 2, Hyderabad City and are stamping
bogus votes.
-
In Polling Stations Bachal Shoro,
Ganjo Takkar, Hatthar, Bihar Colony, UC 17 Latifabad, District
Hyderabad, where the MQM’s armed gangs have entered the polling stations
and are forcibly stamping ballot papers in their candidates’ favour.
-
In Polling Station Thari Chutto, UC
Kothi Kalhoro, District Larkana, where the Awam Dost polling staff and
polling agents were held hostage by the CM’s supporters. After that 1100
votes were forcibly stamped by the armed group of men over the next
three hours, while the police looked the other way.
-
In Polling station UC
Allah Yar Turk, the Shah Karim Bhulr SHO, has arrested 24 Awam Dost
supporters at 3 am last night in order to reduce polling day numbers and
resources for the Awam Dost candidate.
-
In Polling Station Bindo Khan
Mohammed, UC Kot Mir Mohammed, Disrict Khairpur, where the Awam Dost
Nazim, Asad Narejo, has been arbitrarily arrested and locked up to
prevent polling in his favour.
-
Rana Arshad an MQM candidate resorted
to aerial firing in UC-16, Hyderabad and then occupied the polling
station and were stuffing the ballot box but the Rangers and police
arrested father and brother of Awam Dost Nazim candidate Manthar Ali
Jatoi.
-
Armed men along with Irshad Shah,
Prof. Khalid Wahab raided the polling stations of UC-4, Hyderabad
took over the polling stations and were stamping the ballots. The police
arrested Jeeando Soomro, the Awam Dost Nazim candidate for protesting
against the rigging. In UC Naseer Faqeer Jalalani, Taluka Kot Diji awam
dost candidate for nazim Mr. IMtiaz Mallah was attacked and badly beaten
up. Also beaten up were cameramen of a local channel, representatives of
print media and also some policemen when they tried to protect the media
people Large scale stamping of ballot papers in favor of government
candidates is going on all over the place.
-
MQM leader Aslam Pervaiz advocate
accompanied with armed workers of MQM has captured polling station Allah
Bux Brohi Goth, UC 16, Lateefabad. Stamping of ballot papers in favor of
government candidates is going on in full swing.
-
Rana Arshad an MQM candidate resorted
to aerial firing in UC-16, Hyderabad and then occupied the polling
station and were stuffing the ballot box but the Rangers and police
arrested father and brother of Awam Dost Nazim candidate Manthar Ali
Jatoi.
-
Armed men along with Irshad Shah,
Prof. Khalid Wahab raided the polling stations of UC-4; Hyderabad took
over the polling stations and were stamping the ballots. The police
arrested Jeeando Soomro, the Awam Dost Nazim candidate for protesting
against the rigging.
-
In UC Mohia. Polling Station Sobho
Khan Chandio the ladies polling agents have been kidnapped by the
supporters of the Government supported candidate and the ballot papers
are being stamped freely.
-
In UC Nazeerpur, Polling Station
Juman Bahrani the agents of the Awam Dost candidates have been kidnapped
and ballot papers are being stamped freely.
-
In UC Zair, Polling Station Yousaf
Hagani, Taluka Hala, the said Station was attacked by the supporters of
the Government supporters backed by the police. The Station is in the
control of the same and stamping of the ballot papers is taking place.
-
In UC Tajpur, Taluka Hala, the said
Station was attacked by the supporters of the Government supporters
backed by the police. The Station is in the control of the same and
stamping of the ballot papers is taking place.
-
In UC 1 Tando Mohd. Khan City,
Polling Stations Yar Mohd. Kandra, Barrage Colony and WAPDA Grid Station
the supporters of Mir Anyat Talpur, a leader of the PML (Q) attacked the
said the stations and in the firing that followed 8 workers of the Awam
Dost candidate have been injured with bullet wounds.
-
In UC Nazeerpur, Polling Station
Allah Rakhio Chagsi the lady polling agents of the Awam Dost candidates
have been manhandled and thrown out of the polling station.
-
The Q-League supporters snatched
1,500 ballot papers from Polling Station Anaj Mandi in Tando Mohammad
Khan city UC-3 and Awam Dost complained to the Ranger who arrested the
culprits from the residence of Mir Ali Nawaz Talpur, Advisor to Chief
Minister.
-
Awam Dost Hari/Peasant candidate
Budho Panhwar was attacked by Q-League supporters in UC Kario Genhwar at
Polling Station Abdul Karim Nizamani Primary School.
Released by
Media Cell Bilawal House
6:00 p.m.
Thursday, August 25, 2005

Administration involved in rigging in Rawalpindi and Gujar Khan
Islamabad, August 25, 2005: Pakistan
Peoples Party lodged complaints regarding election rigging, arrest of Awam
Dost Candidates and their supporters in Rawalpindi and Gujar Khan area with
the Election Commissioner on election day.
Kamran Zafar, the member of PPP Monitoring Committee for local bodies
elections faxed a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner detailing ten
instances of rigging and victimisation of Awam Dost Candidates, wrote:
"1. In Union Council 26 Rawalpindi City, Mr. Asad Mughal, candidate for Naib
Nazim was arrested by the police without any valid reason.
"2. Similarly in Union Council 70, Mr. Nasim Abbasi, candidate for Nazim was
detained unlawfully for almost three hours, in the morning, today.
"3. Union Council 36, Polling Agents of Awam Dost Group were not allowed to
be present in the Polling Station, enabling the opposing candidate to
indulge in bogus polling with the connivance of the local administration.
"4. Union Council 52, Ward No. 7, Gujar Khan, located at the Vocational
Training Center, an unprovoked attack was made by the hooligans of the PML
(Q) on the Polling Station to scare away the voters and supporters of the
Awam Dost Group.
"5. similar scene was created by these hooligans at Union Council "Doltala".
"6. may be pointed out that the Voters list at Union Council 92 to the
Presiding Officer was different from the one provided to our candidate.
"7. "Mujahid", "Chontra", at Union Council 6 "Abdal", the polling staff did
not arrive until 11:30 a.m. delaying the polling by two and a half hours.
"8. At Union Council 6, "Dhoke Hasso", Rawalpindi City and Union Council 9 "Bangash
Colony", Rawalpindi City, ladies were not permitted to vote.
"9. Union Council 46, Rawalpindi City, the ballot boxed at the polling
stations were not found to be sealed.
"10. "Dhoke Tehsildar", "Badana", Gujar Khan, where Ch. Iftikhar is the
candidate for the office of Nazim, his agents were driven away from the
polling station. The Presiding Officer has been informed about the
incident."
He asked the Election Commissioner to immediately take notice of these
actions of rigging.

Opp has won 50% seats
in Lahore and Pindi: Benazir
LAHORE: Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto said on Friday that despite massive
rigging the opposition had won 50 percent of the seats in Lahore and
Rawalpindi during the second phase of the local council elections.
Speaking to Geo news channel from Dubai, Benazir said that torture and
harassment of opposition candidates and government intervention was rampant
during the polls.
She alleged that the Sindh government had harassed and attacked Awam Dost
candidates and had changed the election results in their favor.
Asked whether the government would dismiss rigging allegations and get to
business as usual, Benazir said the government might possibly dismiss
rigging allegations, but government affairs would not be normal, as the
post-poll situation would worsen.
She said matters could not be run through fake tactics and foreign pressure
against the government on rigging was in the offing. She said the nation’s
true leaders had been sidelined whereas President Pervez Musharraf and his
government machinery had been running the election campaigns of the
candidates they supported.
Asked why foreign observers had not pointed out or criticised the alleged
rigging during the polls, Benazir said, “It is too early at the moment.
These elections will be discussed seriously later. Foreign governments are
analysing the polls and you will see a big difference during the next
general elections.”

PPP activist killed
in Karachi
KARACHI: An office-bearer
of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) district Thatta was killed in Thatta on
Friday when he was on the way to his house after attending a party meeting.
According to a press statement issued by the media cell of Bilawal House,
the party activist, Haji Qasim Samoon, hailing from Tehsil Mirpur Sakro, was
killed by supporters of a rival group.

PPP threatens protest if fresh
polls not held
KARACHI: Accusing the
Sindh government and the Election Commission authorities of involvement in
rigging, the opposition PPP has announced that the party would be launching
protest demonstrations all over the province from August 31 if the demands
for fresh elections, release of arrested party leaders and workers, and
withdrawal of cases were not accepted.
The Sindh PPP President Syed Qaim Ali Shah announced the protest plan at the
Bilawal House at an urgent press conference held on Saturday and said that
the party would hold rallies and public meetings to protest against the
rulers and to press their demands.
He invited the other component parties of the Alliance for the Restoration (ARD)
and the participants of the All- Parties’ Conference to join this protest in
the larger interest of democracy and for the country.
Qaim Ali Shah said that that the PPP would hold protest demonstration on
August 31 in Karachi, on the 1st of September in Sukkur, 2nd of September in
Larkana, 3rd of September in Mirpurkhas, and the 4th in Hyderabad against
the rigging in the local bodies election.
The PPP leader said that the party would review its strategy and chalk out a
future line of action on September 5 when the third process of the local
bodies election starts for the election of towns, Tehsils, and districts.
He said that the PPP was the main target in this election and declared that
the party would tackle this situation politically. He expressed
apprehensions of rigging of the third phase of the election and accused the
rulers of manipulating the exercise to elect Nazims of its choice.
The PPP leader said that police were conducting raids on the residences of
the elected Awam Dost Nazims to pressurise them to switch loyalties. He
claimed that in Karachi and in the rural areas all the SHOs were assigned
the task of forcing five opposition councillors to switch loyalties. He said
that police had started hounding the opposition councillors while the
government contractors were also assigned the task of purchasing the
councillors for the ruling parties to facilitate more contracts in the
future.

PPP-P leaders visit winning
candidates
RAWALPINDI -
Pakistan People’s Party leaders Sunday visited the residences of their
successful candidates in Rawalpindi and greeted them on their success on
behalf of the Party Chairperson Ms Benazir Bhutto.
On Sunday morning Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians MNAs Nahid Khan
and Zamurad Khan advocate, PPP leader from Rawalpindi Aga Riazul Islam,
Rashid Mir, Baji Nusrat, Haji Saleem Mughal, Mian Khurram Rasool and other
leaders visited the residence of their successful candidates in Ratta Amral,
Dokh Ratta, Dokh Mantkal Dokh Hassu and other parts of the city where Awam
Dost candidates won the elections.
These leaders presented sweets to the successful candidates and greeted them
on behalf of the party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto who termed the victory of
these candidates as victory of democratic forces in the country.
Talking to party workers and activists during these visits Nahid Khan and
other leaders said that dictatorial forces failed to squeeze the popularity
of Pakistan People’s Party and made it clear that they would not bow to the
forces of oppression and would continue their struggle for establishment of
true democratic rule in the country.
These leaders expressed optimism that like in the first two phases the
candidates of Awam Dost Group and joint opposition would manage to get their
candidates elected on the slots of Nazims and Niab Nazims at district and
tehsil level.
These leaders came down hard on the ruling party which had broken all
records of rigging and used all state machinery to get the engineered
results but as the overwhelming majority was behind the true democratic
forces these people failed could not fully succeeded in their nefarious
designs.
Nahid Khan demanded of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of
killing of some 60 persons blatant violation of code of conduct by the
ruling party backed candidates, kidnapping of opposition party members and
life attempts on the opposition leaders and member parliaments.
She said that a judicial inquiry into the whole affair should be held under
the supervision of a Supreme Court of Pakistan judge and those who had lost
their lives in the elections related violence should be given compensation.

Why Sarabjit Singh must not be
hanged
Farhatullah Babar
After meeting General Musharraf on Tuesday Foreign Minister
Khurshid Kasuri told The News "if a mercy petition (for the convicted Indian
Sarabjit Singh alias Manjit Singh) comes then the President will decide on
merit."
Since the country's apex court has given its verdict on August 18 upholding
the death sentence it is no use arguing over the legalities involved.
However, some judicial verdicts do invite a sharp public comment even for
long after implementation. Sarabjit Singh's case seems to fall in this
category whether he is pardoned or not, although clemency may perhaps blunt
the sharp edges of the public comment.
Clemency is called for whether seen from the perspective of circumstances of
the case or reliance on Sarabjit's confessions or claims to nab enemy
agents.
Take the circumstances. In August 1990 one Sarabjit Singh of village
Bikhiwind in the Amritsar district of Indian Punjab went missing. The family
was clueless as to where he had gone.
On August 30, 1990 Pakistan's border security forces in Kasur in the Punjab
arrested an India national for trespassing. That was a time when the media
routinely talked of Pakistan's covert operations in Indian Kashmir and India
responding to it by sending agents provocateurs in Sindh and Punjab.
The Indian was taken into custody and grilled. He was identified as Manjeet
Singh, an agent of RAW and charged with masterminding a series of bomb
blasts in Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan.
Within a week he was produced before a magistrate on September 8 for
recording his confessional statement. According to the prosecution Manjeet
Singh had admitted to his involvement in all the bomb blasts. He also
confessed to have joined RAW in 1987, when he received special training in
bomb making, made a fake Pakistani ID card in the name of Khushi Muhammad
and visited Pakistan fourteen times in different years. He also supposedly
confessed that for each blast RAW paid him eight to ten thousand rupees.
He was tried in an anti terrorism court which convicted and sentenced him to
death on five counts on the basis of his confession. The conviction was
upheld by the Lahore High Court.
From his death cell he appealed to the Supreme Court claiming that he was
not Manjeet Singh who had been brought up in Agra and whose family later
moved to Amritsar in 1972. He claimed he was Sarabjit Singh of Amritsar. The
prosecution had forced him to admit to a wrong identity, he claimed. The two
member bench of the Supreme Court last week however dismissed the appeal and
upheld the death sentence.
Meanwhile Sarabjit Singh's family who has been missing since August 1990 and
who lived in Amritsar has claimed to have proof including birth certificates
and identification cards showing that the accused is Sarabjit Singh and not
Manjeet Singh. The family has appealed to the leaders in Pakistan and India
and to the human rights bodies for help. His teenage daughter Swapandip has
threatened that the family will commit suicide if he is hanged.
There is no doubt that a confession in accordance with proper procedure
forms a legal basis for convictions. But it is worth pondering whether
convictions on the basis of confession alone should be the prime candidate
for clemency. It is important because the history of confessions and the
history of claims made by security agencies of nabbing enemy agents make a
painful reading.
Remember the high profile murder of Hakim Muhammad Saeed in Karachi in the
90's and the confession of one Amirullah before the journalists and also
before the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The Prime Minister was so impressed
with the prosecution's story and Amirullah's confession that he ordered a
promotion out of turn for the police officer superseding some forty senior
officers. Later, however, Amirullah turned out to be innocent.
Or take the claims by security agencies of nabbing enemy agents. On June 5,
1992 nine people were killed in Tando Bahawal near Hyderabad in Sindh in an
encounter with security forces. The initial official reaction was that those
killed were dacoits. Within hours the official news agency APP retracted its
earlier story and claimed that those killed were not dacoits but terrorists
who wanted to blow up a nearby thermal power station. The ISPR also endorsed
the APP story saying that the terrorists had a cache of arms including hand
grenades and guns.
The Prime Minister who was visiting Sindh was given a briefing before the TV
cameras on how RAW agents had been killed. Senior military and intelligence
officers were present at the briefing. A beaming Prime Minister smiled
triumphantly and there was a prolonged applause over the daring action by
vigilant security forces.
The local Sindhi press and the BBC were however suspicious and refused to
accept the official version. They insisted that far from being agents of RAW
the nine villagers were actually innocent and unarmed tenants of a local
landlord who had been killed in a mock encounter at the behest of an
opponent of the landowner.
At first those who pedaled this story were dubbed as anti-state and
anti-Army. Later, however, the then Army Chief, in a decision to place him
and the institution of the Army on a high moral pedestal, refused to cover
up the incident and decided to investigate the matter.
An inquiry revealed that the nine people killed were poor haris aged 16 to
60 who were woken up early morning, shoved into vehicles and whisked away to
a deserted water pump of the thermal power station Jamshoro, where they were
lined up, and shot dead in cold blood at the behest of rivals of the local
landlord. Those involved were tried and punished.
The point to make is that while confessional statements before a court may
have legal value, the circumstances and the manner in which they are secured
also needs to be probed. Another point is that those accused as enemy agents
by our agencies have actually turned out to be poor haris.
Justice Khuda Bukhsh Marri in his book, A Judge may Speak, has lamented
about how a 21 year young student leader Abdul Hamid Baloch was executed in
the late 70's on conviction of murder by a military court. The name of the
deceased victim was twice changed besides many other irregularities in the
trial process, according to Justice Marri. The Balochistan High Court had
stayed the execution but Hameed Baloch was executed speedily and summarily.
Justice Marri finds it hard to come out of the trauma of execution of a
young man in a case involving mistaken identity of the deceased victim.
If the Indian convict is really a case of mistaken identity it would be a
gross miscarriage of justice if he is hanged and many will not be able to
come to terms with the trauma. If the convict is really the alleged RAW
agent Manjit Singh it would still be sensible to commute the death sentence
as a unilateral step to break clean with the past when the two countries
launched covert operations inside each others territories.
After all General Musharraf called for an end to that legacy when he
declared on January 12, 2002 that there will be no cross border
infiltration.
The French hated the Jews at the turn of the last century. Yet as a people
they stood by a Jewish Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus when writer Emile Zola's
description of the Dreyfus Trial revealed it as no less than a national
embarrassment. We may have serious differences with Indians but it must not
persuade us to hang every Indian at the drop of a hat. The Sarabjit Singh
trial must not be allowed to become our national embarrassment as was the
Dreyfus Trial in France. He must not be hanged.
The writer is a PPP Senator and member of the Defence Committee of the
Senate.

PPP files complaints
against Major Tahir Sidiq
Islamabad, August 23, 2005:
Pakistan Peoples Party apprised the Chief Election Commissioner of
the incident of indiscriminate firing by the supporters of Major Tahir Sadiq,
former district Nazim Attock and borther in law of Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain
at the main election office of the Awam Dost Group at Lari Adda Chaowk on
Tuesday 23rd August.
Member PPP Central Monitoring Cell for the local bodies elections, Kamran
Zafar in a letter, addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner apprising
him of the incident, wrote, "These supporters indulged in the worst kind of
"Goondaism" and intimidation with the result that the people have been
scared beyond description. All these ruffians earlier on staged a similar
show in the stadium of "Fateh Jang" also and vowed that they will see to it
as to how the Awam Dost supporters polls their votes on the 25th instant.
The people of the area are now demanding the deployment of army in the area
to prevent any bloodshed, since the police have so far behaved as passive
spectators."
Kamran Zafar demanded of the Election Commission to have very close vigil in
order to ensure smooth and orderly election in Attock.

Naheed Khan warns
Administration not to indulge in rigging efforts by the King’s party
Islamabad, 24 August 2005: Naheed Khan
MNA, the political secretary of the chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has appealed to all democratic people to come out on
25th August and vote for Opposition candidates so that the nefarious designs
of the rulers are defeated who want to foist one party rule in the country.
Naheed Khan in a statement said that the country is passing through a very
difficult stage and it has become necessary to defeat the forces of
dictatorship in the country. A regime, which failed to provide basic
necessities to the people, also failed to find enough candidates to field in
all the Rawalpindi constituencies. "The party is a clear winner in
Rawalpindi and the next Nazim in the city will be from Pakistan Peoples
Party who will work for the betterment of the people", she said.
Naheed Khan said that despite massive pre-poll rigging in the first phase of
local bodies elections, the people of Pakistan displayed political maturity
and voted for Awam Dost and other opposition candidates. The success of
opposition was so clear that the regime had to resort to its old tactics of
changing results overnight and declare King’s party and its ally’s
candidates as winners. Naheed Khan said that the people have the right to
reject all those results, which do not represent their choice.
She warned the administration to restrain itself from obeying illegal orders
and indulging in rigging activities by the King’s party. She said that all
those officials found involved in helping rigging activities will be held
accountable and would be punished.

Naheed Khan
asks the Election Commissioner to declare elections null and void in the
areas where women were disenfranchised of their basic right to vote
Islamabad, 22 August 2005: Naheed Khan
MNA, the political secretary of the chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has asked the Chief Election Commissioner to
immediately declare the elections null and void in the areas where women
were not allowed to exercise their basic right to choose their own
representatives.
Naheed Khan said that the statement of the Chief Election Commissioner that
the elections will be declared null and void if it is proved that women were
barred from voting in any part of the country is just an eye wash because
what more proof he needs to declare these elections null and void when there
are several constituencies in NWFP and Punjab where not a single woman vote
was cast. She said that no one has the right to insult women intelligence by
saying that no women wanted to vote in certain areas in the name of
tradition. She said that this would be the worst kind of male chauvinism if
someone tries to make us believe that women did not want to vote and they
were not pressurised.
"The male prejudice shown in certain parts of NWFP has the domino effect and
in different parts of Sargodha and Multan in Punjab where women were stopped
from exercising their right to vote which is despicable act on the part of
the perpetrators and should be condemned in strongest possible words",
Naheed Khan said. She asked the Election Commissioner to review the voting
pattern in urban area like Naushehra where in several counts he will find no
woman voted for any candidate. This is itself a proof that women were
stopped from voting in these areas.
Naheed Khan urged the Human Rights Organisations, international and national
monitors and civil society to take notice of this grave injustice meted out
to the women in Pakistan. She said that the hollow claims of the regime of
being enlightened and liberal under a general in uniform has been fully
exposed.

'I Will Go to
Do Jihad Again and Again'
By N.C. Aizenman
KABUL, Afghanistan --
The prisoner perched on a metal chair, hugging his knees to his chest and
rocking slightly, like a nervous child.
But his expression relaxed into a blissful smile as he described what he
would do if released from his cell in the headquarters of the national
intelligence service.
"When I get the chance, I will stick to my promise," said Sher Ali, 28, a
Pakistani man with cropped black hair and a long beard. "I will go to do
jihad again and again."
Ali said he took his vow to wage holy war against U.S. forces in Afghanistan
earlier this summer, just before embarking on what he described as a 20-day
weapons training course at a secret mountain camp in northeastern Pakistan.
He was captured by Afghan police about three weeks ago, shortly after
crossing into Afghanistan's rugged, northeastern Konar province. The area
has been a haven for armed renegades from an assortment of groups, including
al Qaeda, the Taliban and backers of former Afghan leader Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar, who is now a fugitive.
Over the last several months, insurgents have killed hundreds of people in
Afghanistan, including aid workers, religious and tribal leaders, government
officials, and Afghan and U.S. troops, many in ambushes and bombings
apparently aimed at derailing parliamentary elections scheduled for Sept.
18.
American and Afghan forces have countered with an aggressive effort to flush
the fighters from their remote mountain hideouts, killing several hundred in
operations in border provinces from Konar in the north to Kandahar in the
south. They have also taken several hundred suspected insurgents prisoner
and allowed a few to speak to journalists.
Ali's story, which could not be verified independently, offered a glimpse of
what Afghan authorities charge is a shadowy Pakistani network that continues
to fuel the insurgency with fresh recruits as fast as U.S. and Afghan forces
kill or capture their predecessors.
Ali spoke in the presence of an Afghan intelligence official, but he did not
show signs of having been mistreated. Some details, such as the existence of
jihadist training camps and the recruitment of Islamic fighters, have been
reported separately in the Pakistani press or described by prisoners after
their release.
"We know where a lot of these training camps are. We have their names. And
we've given the Pakistanis all the information we have," said a senior
Afghan intelligence official. "We're waiting for Pakistan to show the
willingness to fight."
Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has repeatedly pointed out that
his government has captured or killed more than 700 suspected al Qaeda
members in Pakistan since 2001. It also lost more than 250 soldiers last
year in battles against al Qaeda bases in the largely lawless semiautonomous
tribal regions along the Afghan border.
Officials from the two governments have recently exchanged pledges to
collaborate closely on security. But they must still contend with the
sympathy that many Pakistanis feel toward the Taliban, particularly in
tribal border towns such as Miram Shah, where residents share the same
Pashtun ethnicity as the Afghan militia.
It was in Miram Shah this summer, at the home of a friend, that Sher Ali
said he met Zubair, an Afghan in his late twenties, who recruited him to
fight in Afghanistan. Ali, who was visiting from his village, said Zubair
did not initially admit to being an insurgent. "But from the way he talked,
I could tell that he had been a fighter," Ali said during an hour-long
interview in the intelligence headquarters.
Ali said Zubair told him and his companions that Western troops were
bombing, arresting and torturing innocent Afghans. "He kept saying, 'It's
our duty as Muslims to go there and help,' " said Ali.
That night, Ali recalled, Zubair turned to him and asked point-blank: "Do
you want to join the jihad?"
The son of a truck driver, Ali said he had never belonged to any religious
movement and had never attended any of the thousands of free religious
schools that cater to impoverished Pakistani children. Instead he had
dropped out of public school at 13 to take a series of odd jobs, most
recently as a security guard.
During that pivotal evening in Miram Shah, Ali said he thought of his wife
and 1-year-old son, who lived with his parents in a mud hut. But he also
thought of how he had often seethed at the idea of U.S. troops in Muslim
lands such as Afghanistan and Iraq and at the U.S. military's detention of
Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"It was like Zubair had poured the petrol, lit the match and set fire to
this issue of jihad for me," he said.
Several days later, Ali said he boarded a public bus for the four-hour
journey from Peshawar, the city nearest his village, to the northeastern
Pakistani mountain town of Mansehra. He carried only a backpack stuffed with
three changes of clothes and a bar of soap. His ears rang with his mother's
wails of protest at the news that he was setting off for jihad.
But as the bus sputtered through the flat, hot plain of his youth into hilly
green terrain, Ali said his only concern was whether he would prove
physically fit for the regimen ahead. Otherwise, he said, he felt deeply
happy.
"I knew then that when I was killed in jihad, I would go directly to
heaven," he said, smiling.
On reaching the bus stop in Mansehra, Ali walked to a stand selling fried
dumplings and looked for the contact Zubair had promised would be waiting.
"Salaam aleikum," peace be to you, he said tentatively to a middle-age man
with a long beard.
"Are you the person who has come from Peshawar?" the man asked.
Ali nodded, and the man quickly led him to another bus, this one far more
dilapidated. They rode for an hour to a small town, then alighted and began
a steep hike up into the hills, following no discernable path. For more than
four hours they trekked in silence under a cool canopy of trees, taller than
any Ali had ever seen.
Finally they reached a small camp of five white tents, where about 20 men
were preparing to perform afternoon prayers. Ali was introduced to a
soft-spoken Pakistani instructor who never gave his name, though Ali said he
overheard others refer to him as Maksud.
Maksud never gave the name of the group that was training him, Ali said.
However, the hills around Mansehra overlook Pakistan's border with Kashmir,
a disputed Himalayan province that is split between Pakistan and India.
The area has long been a training ground for Kashmiri guerrillas,
unofficially supported by Pakistan. In recent years, several Kashmiri groups
have joined forces with al Qaeda or the Taliban to attack Western targets,
but critics charge that the Pakistani military remains reluctant to defang
them.
Every day, Ali said, the trainees awoke before dawn and did sprinting
exercises for 20 minutes. They spent several hours learning how to assemble,
aim and fire weapons, from Kalashnikov rifles to rocket-propelled grenade
launchers, although Ali said there was only one rocket, so the trainees
never actually fired it.
Despite the loud bangs emanating from the camp, Ali said, Maksud took pains
to conceal it and warned the trainees not to wander too far away.
Shortly after Ali returned to Peshawar, he said, Zubair arrived and
announced they would drive into Afghanistan the next morning. Ali said
Zubair never told him whom they would be joining, but an Afghan intelligence
investigator said Ali had confessed under interrogation that Zubair was
working for a senior Taliban commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani.
Ali said Afghan border guards waved them into Konar, assuming they were
Afghan. But some miles later, police stopped their taxi. When they
discovered Ali did not have identity papers, they arrested him.
Ali complained that the Konar police kept him tied up for several days and
threatened to hurt him. But he said that he was never beaten and added he
had been pleasantly surprised by the extent to which Afghans appeared to be
in charge of their country.
Still, the Pakistani prisoner remained skeptical and defiant. The interview
over, Ali rose from his chair in the investigator's office and began to
shuffle out of the room. Suddenly, he stopped and popped his head back
through the door.
"So," he demanded, "when are you taking me to Guantanamo?"

PPP issues 6th
fact sheet regarding local bodies elections
Islamabad, 22 August 2005: The Media Coordinator of the PPP
Central Monitoring Committee for Local Bodies Elections, Nazir Dhoki has
said that the Election Commission remained unmoved while the ruling party
crossed all limits of rigging in the first phase of elections on 18th
August. He said this while issuing the 6th fact sheet regarding rigging and
victimisation of Awam Dost Candidates and their supporters in the local
bodies elections.
The fact sheet says that the administration in Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sargodha,
Khushab, Lodhran, Multan, Khanewal, Sahiwal, Pak Pattan, Vehari, D.G.Khan,
Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan committed acts of
rigging in the elections to get the King’s party candidates elected. He said
that the candidates who had won in the evening were declared unsuccessful in
the morning. A private TV channel showed a film in which the polling staff
was shown casting votes with the connivance of the King’s party. The houses
of Awam Dost Candidates and their workers were raided at night and the PPP
workers were tortured including Nisar Razi in Sargodha and even the
electronic media personnel were not spared. The goons of King’s party opened
fire in Gujranwala and created an atmosphere of fear. In Silakot, the
Speaker National Assembly used police to pick up opposition candidates from
the polling stations. The federal parliamentary secretary Dr. Firdaus Ashiq
Awan also complained about these tactics used by the Speaker. Nazir Dhoki
said that grave irregularities and acts of rigging were committed by the
King’s party in Khushab and Rahim Yar Khan. Federal Minister Sher Afgan
Niazi and Jahangir Tareen also complained on television regarding these
riggings.
The fact sheet says that every limit of state terrorism was crossed by the
King’s party in Sindh province. Government machinery was used by the King’s
party and its allies on election day in Karachi, Umarkot, Mirpurkhas,
Jacobabad, Kashmore, Sanghar, Tharparkar, Tando Allah Yar and Naushehrao
Feroz. Several polling stations in Karachi were declared no go area even for
the media representatives. Results were changed in Lyari-3, Ghaddap-3,
Rehri-2, Kemari-6 and Site Town-9 during the night of the elections. The
supporters of King’s party opened fire in Malir at the polling stations and
voter lists were snatched from the opposition polling agents in Ibrahim
Haidari. The allies of the government opened fire on the voters and workers
of the party in Shahra-e-Qaideen, Ajmer Nagri, Lyari and Liaquatabad and
seven peoples were arrested by the police but were released on the orders of
the governor of Sindh. The election administration helped the King’s party
in the acts of rigging and Awam Dost polling agents were not allowed in the
polling stations. In Kashmore, on the polling day, the son and the nephew of
the former member national assembly, Mir Hazar Khan Bajarani were arrested
while member national assembly, Saleem Jan Mazari committed grave acts of
rigging with the help of police and administration. Ballot boxes were filled
with bogus votes by the Presiding Officers in Kashmore. Thirty workers of
Pakistan Peoples Party got injured by the firing of the supporters of King’s
party. Several ladies polling agents were kidnapped and dozens of Awam Dost
Candidates alongwith 40 PPP workers were arrested in Kashmore.
In Sanghar, the Awam Dost Candidate for Naib Nazim Mumtaz Rajar and his
brother Mashooq Rajar were tortured and kidnapped. The supporters of King’s
party opened fire on PPP workers injuring 29 of them. Ballot boxes were
snatched on gunpoint by the armed Hurr of Pir Pagara. In Thatta, the
supporters of Shirazi group opened fire on member Sindh assembly Sassi
Palejo, Ghulam Qadir Palejo and Sattar Lohar. The Awam Dost Candidate for
Nazim in Jhok Sharif, Allah Rakhio Ghamboh was attacked with an axe and
severely injured. In all Thatta district, Awam Dost Candidates and their
agents were targeted and the King’s party goons opened fire injuring Mathino,
Mir Soomro, Gul Muhammad Soomro, Bachayo, Azeem, Somar, Ghulam Mustaf,
Maqbool, Didar and Aziz. The Awam Dost Candidates were refused the result
sheets. Dr. Hafeez Jatoi was attacked by the supporters of Shirazi Group in
Jhok Sharif. The fact sheet says that the son of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi used
police and the administration for acts of rigging in Naushahro Feroz.
Polling agents of Awam Dost Candidate was thrown out of the polling
stations. The polling staff was severely beaten up in Tando Allah Yar by the
supporting of King’s party. The administration remained unmoved despite
complaints filed by presiding officer Inamullah Bhatti in Tando Allah Yar
and the office bearer of MQM committed open acts of rigging. The state
machinery was used in all these acts of riggings.
The fact sheet says that six workers of PPP were killed in NWFP by the goons
of the King’s party. Voters were stopped from using their basic rights to
vote for Awam Dost Candidates in Barkhan and other areas of Balochistan.
Nazir Dhoki said that the Election Commission did not take notice of
victimisation of opposition candidates and use of state terror against Awam
Dost Candidates and their supporters. The code of conduct was violated by
the government officials but the Election Commission did not take any
action. He said that it is very unfortunate that Election Commission has
been made a B-team of General Musharraf and the sanctity of ballot was
violated without any fear. Nazir Dhoki said that Pakistan People Party
rejects the results manoeuvred and engineered by the Musharraf government.

PPP demands
removal of Police Officers involved in election rigging in Gujrat
Islamabad, 22 August 2005: Pakistan
Peoples Party has filed a complaint with the Chief Election Commissioner
asking him to remove several police officers who are involved in picking up
the Awam Dost Candidates and their supporters in Gujrat district and
demanded him to direct the District Returning Officer to restore
candidatures of all those candidates of Nazim and Naib Nazim who have not
withdrawn jointly and together in compliance of the election Rule 16(1).
The application filed by the former member national assembly, Advocate
Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gul and Chaudhry Qamar Zaman Kaira, Member National
Assembly reads, "The ruling Party, Shujaat group, is playing havoc with the
election process in the Gujrat district. No norms of elections code of
conduct are being followed at all. The Gujrat administration, police and
otherwise is at their disposal. No writ or authority of the Election
Commission prevail there. The State machinery is being used ruthlessly to
crush the opposition to achieve desired results. Ch. Shujaat’s younger
brother Ch. Wajahat Hussain MNA is directing the operation. He is acting as
a defecto Chief Minister."
It further says, "From the beginning of the election process is being
exerted on the opposition candidates of Nazims and Naib Nazims through
police, either to join Shujaat group or withdraw from the contest or face
the consequences. The candidates are picked up and kept in illegal custody
till they submit. At number of places armed gangs are harassing the
candidates and their supporters. A number of seats have been secured
unopposed. Under rule 16(1), Nazim or Naib cannot withdraw without the
consent of both the candidates under joint candidature. In Gujrat this rule
is being violated blatantly. A Nazim or a Naib Nazim is picked up by police
and forced to withdraw, resultantly it becomes fatal for the non-withdrawing
candidate as well. The Returning Officers don’t pay any head to objections."
The application has mentioned names of all candidates of Nazim and Naib
Nazim who were pressurised to withdraw by the ruling party using police,
administration and government machinery. The application has asked to remove
DSP Kharian, SHO PS Jalal Pur Jattan Saddar and City, SHO Karrianwala, SHO
PS Saddar Gujrat, SHO PS Civil Line Gujrat, Incharge Police post Dault Nagar
and Police Post Rehmanian are playing a main role in harassing and arresting
candidates to force them to withdraw. A fair, free and transparent election
is just a mad man’s dream. These officers are on active duty. The aforesaid
police officers are immediately removed from duty to ensure a free and fair
poll, the application prayed.

PPP to cut off
talks with govt
By Mubasher Bukhari
LAHORE:
Pakistan People’s Party chief Benazir Bhutto has decided to cut off talks
with the president’s aides following what the party sees as widespread
rigging in the local elections and the government’s dogged pursuit of cases
against PPP leaders in Swiss courts, party insiders told Daily Times on
Sunday.
The sources said that in the last round of talks between the government and
the PPP, the government’s negotiators had assured the party that it would
not pursue the cases against Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari pending in
Swiss courts, and would allow free and fair local bodies polls. “The
government has broken both promises,” said the sources.
When fresh negotiations began between the government and the PPP a few weeks
ago, the PPP demanded fresh general elections before the local polls.
“Though the provincial governments of the Pakistan Muslim League and its
allies were openly supporting their candidates with public funds, the PPP
still believed that the ‘real forces’ would not let them engineer the
results, but this is exactly what happened,” said insiders.
They said that Bhutto had decided to immediately suspend the talks with the
government.
PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar, when asked about the talks, did not
deny the report. He said the PPP and the ARD would not boycott the second
phase of local polls on August 25, even though it believed there would be
more rigging. The party would decide about talks with the government after
August 25, he added.

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns denial of treatment to Peer Mukarram
Islamabad: Former Prime
Minister and chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto has condemned the denial of medical facilities to PPP leader Peer
Mukaramul Haq in Jail and described it as inhuman and smacking of vendetta.
Pir Mukarram the husband of the PPP Punjab MPA Farzana Raja was in detention
in a NAB case and under treatment in a hospital in Islamabad under medical
advice. However when his wife Farzana Raja continued to stridently criticize
the government he was forcibly shifted against medical advice from the
hospital in the federal capital to jail in Mianwali about two months ago.
Lately Peer Mukarram who is a diabetic complained of high sugar level upon
which the jail doctor advised that he be shifted to any jail where the
facility of a teaching hospital or a District headquarter hospital were
available.
Farzana Raja has complained that the doctor's report coming during local
bodies' polls embarrassed the rulers who asked the doctor to modify it.
Refusing to bow to the pressure the jail doctor resigned his job and left
the town. The Mianwali jail is now without a qualified doctor and there is
only one dispenser who looks after the medical needs of several hundred jail
inmates.
Peer Mukarram has also applied for urgent bail on medical grounds in the
Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court through Advocate Dr. Babar Awan
but in the absence of a division bench during summer vacations the bail
application will come up for hearing after the court vacations.
In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that denial of treatment
to Peer Mukarram was not only denial of a basic human right but was also
cruel, inhuman and degrading to the perpetrators. She said it was a
manifestation of political vendetta in the extreme.
The former Prime Minister demanded of the regime to immediately provide
medical care to Peer Mukarram in the light of the medical report and warned
that if anything happened to him the rulers will be responsible for the
consequences.
She also asked the human rights bodies and members of the legal fraternity
to raise voice against this injustice and cruelty and force the regime to
desist from perpetrating such crimes against political opponents.

Mohtarma Bhutto shocked over
the murder of Derek Cyprian
Demands judicial probe and arrest of criminals
Islamabad: Former Prime Minister and
Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has said
that it was strange that the regime had adopted a casual attitude towards
the murder of a former federal minister.
Former federal minister in an earlier Musharaf Cabinet and a Christian
leader Derek Cyprian was kidnapped in Lahore last week and remained untraced
for three days. Subsequently his dead body was recovered decomposed and with
his hands and feet tied besides marks of strangulation around his neck.
In her compliant lodged with the police the daughter of the deceased had
also stated that late Derek Cyprian used to receive threatening phone calls
placed by some unknown callers for several days before the incident.
In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that an impartial
judicial inquiry was necessary to investigate the matter. She was shocked
That the regime had failed to take stern action following the gruesome
murder. She said that it was important for the regime to show it was not
involved in the matter by ensuring that the crime was investigated and the
murderers punished.
"The kidnapping and cold blooded murder of a former federal minister and a
Christian leader in the capital of the country's largest province only shows
the worsening law and order situation in the country", Mohtarma added.
Mohtarma Bhutto said that it was most unfortunate that the rulers spent time
and energy in chasing political opponents but had no time for performing
their basic duty of protecting the honor, life and property of citizens.

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns
murders of Party workers
Demands arrest of killers, condoles with bereaved families
Islamabad: Former Prime Minister and
chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has
condemned the killing of PPP workers in Akora Khattak in district Nowshera
in Frontier province on the eve of local bodies' polls and demanded arrest
and punishment to the killers.
I am shocked beyond measure by the murder of PPP workers in district
Nowshera on the eve o elections, she said in a statement today.
A victory procession of Nazim elect of Akora Khattak was on its way back
from a local shrine when they were fired upon by opponents resulting in the
death of five workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party. Two workers died on the
spot while three succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. Nine injured
are still in the hospital with the condition of some stated to be serious.
The former Prime Minister demanded a judicial probe into the matter and
arrest and punishment to the killers at the earliest. She also demanded that
the families of those killed be compensated.
"Those who perpetrated this heinous crime must be punished; they will be".
Mohtarma Bhutto condoled with the bereaved families and prayed for eternal
rest for the departed souls and speedy recovery to those injured in the
shoot out.
The former Prime Minister also directed the Frontier Party leadership to
take up the matter at the highest level and ensure that the culprits were
brought to justice without delay. She directed the provincial president to
also visit the bereaved families and offer condolences on her behalf.

Zardari in New York for
treatment
NEW YORK: Asif Ali Zardari, husband of
former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians Chief
Benazir Bhutto, reached New York for medical treatment on Sunday.
After initial tests, doctors are likely to operate on him today. Zardari
suffers from diabetes and a spinal ailment which prevents him from moving
around without support.
Soon after landing at Kennedy Airport, Zardari left for a friend’s house
where he will stay during his treatment.

Raza Rabbani condemns attack
on Prof. Ghafoor's house
KARACHI: Opposition Leader in Senate and
Central Leader of Pakistan People Party (PPP) strongly condemning the firing
incident on the residence of Senator Prof. Gafoor Ahmed has accused the
government of embarking upon the path of 'fascism and wanting of physically
eliminate the opposition'.
In a press statement issued here on Monday he also reject Prime Minister
Statement that election were held in a peaceful manner and termed it a cruel
joke. He said that the death tolls in the present first round were continued
to mount, as did the cases of political violence.
Reminding the attacks on opposition's members of parliaments he alleged that
Pakistan Muslim League and their political partner had involved in the
attacks.
PPP leader accused the PML of giving birth a new culture of political
violence.

Mian Raza Rabbani talks of
three-pronged strategy of rulers to chase and hound opposition
Warns against social and political consequences of pushing opposition to the
wall
Islamabad: Mian Raza Rabbani leader of
the opposition in the Senate has expressed serious alarm over the new wave
of intimidation and harassment let loose by the regime against political
opponents and warned that if not ended immediately the new wave of
repression would result in irreversible polarisation endangering the
integrity of the federation.
He stated this in a statement today reacting to the incident of firing on
Nisar Khuro Opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly when the latter was
addressing a corner meeting of political workers in Larkana on Friday. Nisar
Khuro escaped unhurt in the aborted murderous attack.
Mian Raza Rabbani said that the rulers had taken the rigging in local polls
to unprecedented pitch so much so that they were now seeking to silence
those who exposed the manipulations and gerrymandering.
He said that Nisar Khuro was exposing the fraudulent polls at the corner
meeting when he was fired upon by some hired goons of the rulers who later
fled under cover of the protective agencies.
He said that the regime had adopted a three pronged strategy to crush and
hound the opposition.
First, the opposition leaders were physically attacked to scare them from
supporting the PPP and Mohtarma Bhutto. PPP leaders Yousuf Talpur, Ghulam
Qadir Palijo and Sassi Palijo were physically attacked by unknown assailants
during election campaign of the awam dost candidates, he said.
Second, leading political opponents were framed in false and fabricated
murder and other criminal cases to bog them down in running from court to
court and from city to city. False murder and other criminal cases had been
instituted against MNAs Pir Aftab Shah Jillani and Naveed Qamar, ex Minister
Mohsin Shah, ex Nazim Makhdoom Rafiquz Zaman and MPA Sassi Palijo.
Third and worse, the rulers had now resorted to manipulating the election
results after the polls to show that the winners had actually lost the
elections.
Giving examples Raza Rabbani said that in the UC 2 Liaquatabad Ramzan Malik
was declared successful by the returning officer and the results announced
on the media but now he was being denied victory through manipulation of
results.
Likewise, Rafiq Suleman in UC 3 Liyari, Muhammad Bakhsh in UC 3 Gudap,
Ashraf Himayati in UC 2 Rehri, Allah Bakhsh in UC 6 Kemari and Muhammad
Niazii UC 9 Site Town were formally declared successful as Nazims by the
respective poll officials and this fact was also announced on the electronic
and print media. But official results have now been withheld and the
candidates have been told that the initial reports of their having won were
not correct.
"This is manipulation and rigging unprecedented the political and social
fall out of which would be disastrous for social cohesion and national
integration".

PPP expected to prevail in
Wagah Town polls
* PML-backed Diyals to face off against
PPP-backed Ghurkis
* Shalimar and Aziz Bhatti towns’ division plays into PPP’s hands
By Qamar Jabbar
LAHORE: The division of the provincial
capital into nine towns from six could potentially help the Pakistan
People’s Party (PPP) make a clean sweep in Wagah Town.
Wagah Town consists of 12 union councils out of which only four fall in
urban areas while eight fall in rural areas. Rural areas have been a
traditional stronghold for the PPP for the last fifteen years and so the
PPP-backed Ghurki family has a golden opportunity to hold its hegemony on
the town and kick out the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-backed Diyal
family.
Wagah Town was established by dividing the old Shalimar and Aziz Bhatti
towns, which damaged the political position of the Diyals and blocked the
way for former Shalimar Town nazim Ashiq Diyal to become town nazim again.
The Diyals, who joined the PML in 2000, captured the Shalimar Town nazim
position in the 2001 local elections and later contested the 2002 general
elections on the PML’s ticket.
Reportedly, former Lahore nazim Mian Amir Mehmood divided the Shalimar and
Aziz Bhatti towns because of differences with Ashig Diyal. Diyals see this
as a conspiracy against them by the former nazim, as they now have to run in
rural areas against their old rivals, the Ghurki family.
Ashiq Diyal, who is PML’s nominee for Wagah Town nazim, wanted to run for
Shalimar Town nazim and requested the PML Punjab president to nominate
someone else to face Ghurki in Wagah town. However, the PML had already made
a commitment with Ikhlaq Guddu, who recently joined the PML from the PPP, to
run for Shalimar Town nazim.
Under compulsion, the Diyal group, with the help of clans in the area, are
fielding candidates in 11 out of the 12 union councils (UCs) in Wagah Town
In 10 UCs, the PPP candidates will directly face the PML nominees while the
PPP’s allies, the PML-N candidates, will contest the ruling party candidates
on two seats.
UC 37: The PPP nominee Syed Zahid Ali Shah will contest Akhtar Nazir of the
PML for the nazim slot. This area falls in the constituency of PPP leader
Aitzaz Ehsan, which increases PPP’s chances of winning the election.
UC 38: Saeed Nazir of the PML will contest Malik Jaffar of the PPP for nazim.
In this constituency, a close fight is predicted as the PML have a
substantial vote bank in the area.
UC 39: This contest between three candidates will be purely on the basis of
clans. The PML has nominated Chaudhry Majeed for nazim while the PPP and the
PML-N have nominated Malik Shahid Imtiaz and Mehmood Sadique Olak,
respectively. The Awan, Malik and Rajpoot clans in the area support the PML
candidates while the Jatts and the Gujjars support the PPP.
UC 40: The PML has nominated Haji Ghulam Mustafa and Mian Arshad for nazim
and naib nazim against Qazi Muhammad Idrees of the PML-N and Mian Ghafoor of
the PPP.
UC 42: The PML has yet to finalise its candidate while Chaudhry Sajjad Imran
of the PPP and Haji Khadim Hussain of PML-N are contesting the nazim slot.
UC 49: Babar Butt of the PPP and Chaudhry Manzoor of the Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), candidates for nazim and naib nazim will face Saleem
Butt and Liaqat Ali of the PML. This area is mostly rural and the hub for
the PPP.
UC 50: Muhammad Asghar Ali and Munir Hussain of the PML, running for nazim
and naib nazim, will contest Rana Mehmood of the PML-N for nazim and
Muhammad Islam of the PPP for naib nazim. This area falls in the
constituency of PML-N’s MPA Rana Tajammul Hussain, putting the opposition in
a strong position.
UC 51: Malik Ghulam Habib of the PML and Malik Habib Awan of the PPP are
contesting the nazim slot. In this constituency, the Awan and the Jatts
support the PPP while the Gujjar and Rajpoots favour the PML candidate.
UCs 52, 53, 62 and 65: Shafqat Butt of the PML and Mian Abio Ali Manwan of
the PPP in UC 52, Tahir Majeed of the PML and Muhammad Arif Jatt of the PPP
in UC 53, Haji Arif of the PML and Mian Pervaiz of the PPP, in UC 65, and
Major (r) Aslam Sindu of the PML and Malik Maqsood Mora of the PPP in UC 62
will contest the nazim elections. These four union councils fall in areas
where the Ghurki family has a strong influence. The Jatt, Awan, Gujgar and
Arain clans from Manawan, Minhala, Burki and Hudiara villages fully support
the Ghurki group.
The 156 nazim, naib nazim and general councillor seats in Wagah Town could
play a vital role in the Lahore district nazim election. The PML-N, the MMA
and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have given the PPP a free hand to run the
town’s political affairs, given the strong position the Ghurki family has in
the town.
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has a strong vote bank in Lakhodher, Bhaseen and
Dogria Kalan villages and JI Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed contested the 1993
elections form this constituency. However, the JI has offered to support the
PPP against the candidates from the ruling party in the local elections.

Controlling
Army-led Democracy Through Manipulated Vote
By Wajid Shamsul Hasan.
LONDON, August 23: Pakistan's founder Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed
Ali Jinnah was a democrat par excellence. If he had known that the ideals
that he had lived for, struggled all his life and fought for, would be raped
so blatantly, as has been done repeatedly by its military establishment and
Bonapartist generals, he would have thought twice before opting for an
independent state.
He did not have, nor did he seek, help from more than a 100,000 Muslim army
officers and other men in uniform serving as the most loyal servants in the
British imperial armed forces with quite a few of them at the top licking
the boots of their Gora (white) higher ups for promotions. He believed in
the power of the ballot over the bullet and hence restricted his struggle
for freedom within the democratic parameters.
In his first speech to the Legislative Assembly of Pakistan (11 August 1947)
he had laid bare categorically his magna carta for the democratic management
of the country. In his Pakistan all citizens were to be equal irrespective
of their caste, creed or color and that religion had nothing to do with the
business of the state.
His subsequent emphasis, as long as he lived, was that since it was to be a
people's government, responsible to the people and none else but the people,
it was the sole prerogative of the masses to change the government in
Pakistan and its policies. It also rested within the powers of the people to
vote in and vote out a government when it failed to perform in the largest
interest of the greatest numbers. He had also warned the civil and military
bureaucrats and told them: "Make the people feel that you are servants and
friends" and that they should maintain the "highest standard of honor,
integrity, justice and fair play."
It goes to the credit of the people of Pakistan that despite subversion of
democracy by frequent military interventions, they have stood by their
commitment to the democratic ideals bequeathed to the nation by the Quaid.
However, now we have come to a crucial pass after many constitutional and
electoral dislocations, especially following the farce in the name of local
bodies elections that were inflicted on us on Thursday, August 18, that a
stage has been reached for the entire nation and its political leadership to
evolve a new strategy to meet the Praetorian challenges.
Away from home, thank goodness to the number of Pakistani TV channels, we
could see with our own eyes the most shameless mockery of vote. It seemed to
be in continuation of the policy of the militarization of the state by the
present regime to further disenchanting the masses away from the power of
vote, thereby to weaken the democratic forces that don't give up challenging
its absolute authority.
State sponsored rigging, fraudulent results and installation of military's
favorites in the government have disheartened the voters to the extent that
they feel discouraged to vote since they have been denied their right to
elect their representatives. This is one major reason for the gradual
decline in the voting pattern and the regime feels confident that it can
hoodwink international opinion by jacking up falsely the figures of voting
turnout.
General Pervez Musharraf's Local Government Ordinance of 2001 drafted
painstakingly by the best Praetorian brains, aided by their civilian
experts, had an overall objective of not promoting democracy at the grass
root level but to control it so that managing of local affairs remains at
the mercy and sweet will of the Center. It was perennially designed to
convert the real rulers, the people, into serfs and power sharing in it was
so devised that on paper it seemed to be devolution but in fact it meant
more of overwhelming control of Islamabad. In short, it has been the most
deplorable recipe for controlled democracy in the country.
It has been rightly alleged that instead of devolving power in three tiers,
by moving power down the provinces and reducing the load of federal
ministries, the President has become the reservoir of all power. General
Musharraf has had the cake and has been gulping it too. He has used local
bodies not for empowering the people at the grass root level but as an
institution for extending semblance of civil legitimacy to it, much in the
pattern of General Ayub Khan's basic democracy and General Zia's party less
local body politics.
Like Musharraf's they also had one objective to further fracture and
fragment Pakistani society so that instead of national cohesion, there
should be more of local biradari lords with the sole purpose of reducing and
minimizing the power of the collective vote. Especially from General Zia's
time to this day, calculated attempts are being made to fragment the society
into ethnic, feudal and sectarian groups to divide and reduce the democratic
power of the people to change a government through their collective vote.
This has been real reason for holding non-party local body elections rather
than the empowerment of the people.
As usual the regime's propaganda machinery is busy orchestrating that
Thursday's local polls were the most transparent and peacefully held ever
with more than 50 cent of registered voters turning out. Contrary was the
view of various panels of experts who were invited by the private TV
channels to comment and analyze the daylong proceedings punctuated by bloody
violence, 11 deaths with scores wounded.
It was also a sad commentary on the performance of the Election Commission.
It is understandable since an Acting Chief Election Commissioner heads it.
It did not take cognizance of pile of complaints lodged at its doors from
the day elections were announced. The blatant transfers and postings of
officers by the Chief Ministers and for other bandobast (management) it did
not have spine good and strong enough to take a stand. Rather, the President
and his Chief Ministers who did not feel shy for lobbying openly for their
favorite candidates did it most obtrusively in gross violation of its code
of conduct.
Back to TV discussions. Some panelists had a point that needs to be answered
by the political leaders. They were of the view that since General Zia's
time the political parties had been opposing non-party elections and yet
they have been participating in them knowing well that the very concept of
non-party elections is tendentiously undemocratic, especially when it is
inherently designed to divide the political power of the masses.
It is time a consensus decision was taken by the ARD and APC and get over
with their contradiction of demanding party-based elections and yet
surrendering themselves to a party less contraption designed entirely for
the service and perpetuation of the military regime.
One, therefore, expects that having had the bitter and nightmarish
experience of the first phase of local bodies elections, ARD and APC parties
should get together to tell Musharraf enough is enough, that they cannot be
a party to his shameless electoral farce. It needs to be noted that he is
already under pressure and he is no more in a position to shrug off lightly
any united protest by the Opposition parties. It is time they corrected
their stand on non-party polls.
The writer is a former Pakistan High Commissioner to UK

Polls rigged to ensure one-man
rule, says PPPP
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s
Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP) on Saturday expressed concerns that the
massively rigged local polls were a conspiracy against the parliamentary
system in the country to introduce a one-man rule under the presidential
system.
“I fear that the country is being pushed towards the presidential system to
establish a one-man rule in the country. Gen Musharraf is trying to prolong
his rule through rigged elections such as his referendum but he will not
succeed,” said Raja Pervez Ashraf, the party’s secretary general, in a press
conference at the PPP media centre.
Although he criticised the government severely for extensive rigging during
first phase of the local polls, he vowed to contest the second phase polls
with full force and was determined not to give a free hand to their
opponents. “We will contest the second phase of the polls as well, and call
a meeting of our allies in the opposition to launch a joint struggle against
the present regime,” he said.
All opposition parties have agreed on a three point agenda including
restoration of real democracy, an end to military rule and revival of the
1973 Constitution and make a joint strategy to achieve common goals, he
added.
“We were expecting rigging and have been informing the media and the
Election Commission but the Punjab and Sindh chief ministers had crossed all
the limits and personally supervised the elections process,” he said.
Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that even ministers Sher Afgan Niazi, Jahangir
Tareen and Firdous Ashiq Awan have complained about rigging in their
constituencies.
After sensing defeat despite pre-poll rigging, he said that the government
arrested Awam Dost candidates to ‘engineer’ a victory for their candidates.
Raja Pervez alleged that the results in certain districts were deliberately
delayed and changed, declaring winning candidates unsuccessful.
He also criticised the Election Commission, saying that the commission had
become ineffective and had failed to respond to any of the opposition’s
complains. “We expect the same attitude from the EC in the second phase,” he
said.
“Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had asked senior police
officials and district administration to ensure support for his candidates,”
he said.
Talking about Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Raja said that the
PPPP had never lost elections in Kashmore, Jacobabad, Tando Muhammad Khan
and Thatha districts, alleging that Rangers and police took the ballot boxes
to police stations in the afternoon and filled them with “bogus votes”.
Sindh Opposition Leader Nisar Khoro’s convoy was attacked in Larkana to
scare people from voting for PPPP, he said.

Pakistan's
opposition cries foul over local polls
(Raises death toll; adds comments from opposition, rights body)
By Faisal Aziz
ISLAMABAD, Aug 19 - Opposition officials
accused President Pervez Musharraf's government of electoral fraud on Friday
as votes were tallied after the first round of voting in Pakistan's local
elections.
At least 15 people were killed and hundreds injured in sporadic violence
during Thursday's voting for district councillors that will help determine
the make up of the government that emerges from general elections in 2007.
The three-phase local elections are officially being held on a non-party
basis, but factions have openly backed candidates to build their power bases
ahead of the general election.
Analysts have said the polls could determine whether Musharraf incorporates
liberal opponents in a future government.
However, the best-selling Jang newspaper said preliminary unofficial results
showed pro-Musharraf parties ahead in the most populous Punjab province and
Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, and Islamist parties leading in regions
they already dominated.
The main liberal opposition party, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of
self-exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, accused the government of
"massive irregularities".
Qaim Ali Shah, a member of the PPP's central executive committee, said the
polls had been rigged "in a naked and brutal manner" and demanded a new vote
under independent supervision.
"The Election Commissioner is saying there was 50 percent turnout. It's
strange he is saying this when the counting is yet to be completed. It
appears everything was predetermined."
COMMISSION REJECTS CHARGES
Another senior PPP official, Taj Haider, put the turnout at no more than 12
percent. "It's a different thing how many votes go into the ballot box and
how many come out," he said.
A senior member of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the main grouping of
Islamist parties, made similar accusations.
"Some ballot boxes were full even before the polling started," said
Naimatullah Khan, a former district chief of Karachi. "It was a complete
network of irregularities."
Election Commission official Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad denied this, saying:
"The elections were completely free and fair."
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it had reports that women were
not allowed to cast votes in some areas of Islamist-dominated North West
Frontier Province, and demanded the elections be held again in such areas.
Violence broke out in some areas despite the deployment of tens of thousands
of troops to maintain security.
Voting was held in 53 districts nationwide and will be held in the remaining
56 on Aug. 25. Dilshad said official results from the first round were
expected to take several days.
On Sept. 29, councillors elected in the first two rounds will elect powerful
district chiefs, whose influence will be significant in elections for
national and provincial assemblies that will choose a president for a
five-year term later in 2007.
Aides say Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism who seized
power in a bloodless 1999 coup, will stand in the next presidential
election. He is widely expected to win, but what sort of coalition he will
work with remains unclear.
Like other military leaders, Musharraf has in the past relied on the backing
of religious conservatives but they have fallen out and he has urged voters
to shun the Islamists who won power in North West Frontier and Baluchistan
in 2002 general election.
Analysts say a poor overall showing by candidates backed by the ruling
Pakistan Muslim League could make Musharraf more amenable to a deal with
liberal forces, such as Bhutto's party.

Pakistan
votes for local councils
Voting has begun in half of Pakistan's 110 districts to elect
several thousand local councils.
There are reports of minor clashes and irregularities in Karachi and several
other parts of the country despite unprecedented security measures.
Political parties are not allowed to take part in the polls but a specific
quota for women and minorities have encouraged their greater participation.
Voting in the remaining districts will be held next week.
Polling has been suspended at two polling stations in Karachi following
armed clashes between rival groups.
And at a women's polling station in the city's densely populated Burnes
Road, election officials discovered four ballot boxes that had been stuffed
with votes before being delivered.
A polling officer was also been beaten up by supporters of one candidate.
Meanwhile there are reports of incomplete voter lists from all over Karachi.
In Lyari, one of the most colourful and multiethnic localities of the city,
hundreds of people are complaining that their names are missing from the
lists.
"I have been voting for the last 20 years from this area but this time, I
cannot find my name in the voters list," says one resident.
The problem seems to be particularly acute at women's polling stations, says
the BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi.
There are also reports of a clash between rival groups in the southern
Punjab town of Vehari. Seven people were injured in an exchange of fire,
police said.
But officials say that the atmosphere in most districts has remained
peaceful.
Women ban
The Chief Minister of North West Frontier Province Akram Durrani has
contradicted reports that tribal elders had prevented women from voting in
some parts of the province.
Tribal elders had banned women from voting in three councils in the
province, but the government had persuaded councils - or jirgas - to lift
the ban late on Wednesday.
Nonetheless reports from the area suggest that women are not turning out to
vote in large numbers.
The present system of local governments was introduced by President Pervez
Musharraf four years ago.
Voting is being held for over 6,000 local councils and more than 40,000
troops have been deployed.
A record 218,000 candidates are contesting what are only the second such
elections since General Musharraf took over.
They include more than 55,000 women candidates, including many in the
highly-conservative part of the North-West Frontier Province.
Crying foul
The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says since the elections are on a
non-party basis they are devoid of the traditional rivalries of Pakistani
politics.
But political parties are supporting their own set of candidates which has
generated a fair amount of controversy.
Opposition parties have accused the government of pre-poll rigging -
pointing to the fact that a large number of candidates have been elected
unopposed.
For its part the government says the opposition has not been able to find
enough candidates to contest all the seats.
When the local government system was first introduced it was an instant hit
because of the promise to transfer political and financial powers to the
district councils.
But analysts say these elections are not just about choosing a new set of
local governments - they are also a test of General Musharraf's commitment
to restore complete democracy in the country.
And our correspondent says with the opposition parties already crying foul,
the results are not likely to end the continuing controversy about the
military's role in the country's politics.

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns murders of Party workers
Demands arrest of killers, condoles with bereaved families
Islamabad August 20, 2005: Former Prime
Minister and chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto has condemned the killing of PPP workers in Akora Khattak in district
Nowshera in Frontier province on the eve of local bodies’ polls and demanded
arrest and punishment to the killers.
I am shocked beyond measure by the murder of PPP workers in district
Nowshera on the eve o elections, she said in a statement today.
A victory procession of Nazim elect of Akora Khattak was on its way back
from a local shrine when they were fired upon by opponents resulting in the
death of five workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party. Two workers died on the
spot while three succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. Nine injured
are still in the hospital with the condition of some stated to be serious.
The former Prime Minister demanded a judicial probe into the matter and
arrest and punishment to the killers at the earliest. She also demanded that
the families of those killed be compensated.
"Those who perpetrated this heinous crime must be punished; they will be".
Mohtarma Bhutto condoled with the bereaved families and prayed for eternal
rest for the departed souls and speedy recovery to those injured in the
shoot out.
The former Prime Minister also directed the Frontier Party leadership to
take up the matter at the highest level and ensure that the culprits were
brought to justice without delay. She directed the provincial president to
also visit the bereaved families and offer condolences on her behalf.

Mian Raza Rabbani talks of
three-pronged strategy of rulers to chase and hound opposition
Warns against social and political consequences of
pushing opposition to the wall.
Islamabad August 20, 2005:
Mian Raza Rabbani leader of the opposition in the Senate has expressed
serious alarm over the new wave of intimidation and harassment let loose by
the regime against political opponents and warned that if not ended
immediately the new wave of repression would result in irreversible
polarisation endangering the integrity of the federation.
He stated this in a statement today reacting to the incident of firing on
Nisar Khuro Opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly when the latter was
addressing a corner meeting of political workers in Larkana on Friday. Nisar
Khuro escaped unhurt in the aborted murderous attack.
Mian Raza Rabbani said that the rulers had taken the rigging in local polls
to unprecedented pitch so much so that they were now seeking to silence
those who exposed the manipulations and gerrymandering.
He said that Nisar Khuro was exposing the fraudulent polls at the corner
meeting when he was fired upon by some hired goons of the rulers who later
fled under cover of the protective agencies.
He said that the regime had adopted a three pronged strategy to crush and
hound the opposition.
First, the opposition leaders were physically attacked to scare them from
supporting the PPP and Mohtarma Bhutto. PPP leaders Yousuf Talpur, Ghulam
Qadir Palijo and Sassi Palijo were physically attacked by unknown assailants
during election campaign of the awam dost candidates, he said.
Second, leading political opponents were framed in false and fabricated
murder and other criminal cases to bog them down in running from court to
court and from city to city. False murder and other criminal cases had been
instituted against MNAs Pir Aftab Shah Jillani and Naveed Qamar, ex Minister
Mohsin Shah, ex Nazim Makhdoom Rafiquz Zaman and MPA Sassi Palijo.
Third and worse, the rulers had now resorted to manipulating the election
results after the polls to show that the winners had actually lost the
elections.
Giving examples Raza Rabbani said that in the UC 2 Liaquatabad Ramzan Malik
was declared successful by the returning officer and the results announced
on the media but now he was being denied victory through manipulation of
results.
Likewise, Rafiq Suleman in UC 3 Liyari, Muhammad Bakhsh in UC 3 Gudap,
Ashraf Himayati in UC 2 Rehri, Allah Bakhsh in UC 6 Kemari and Muhammad
Niazii UC 9 Site Town were formally declared successful as Nazims by the
respective poll officials and this fact was also announced on the electronic
and print media. But official results have now been withheld and the
candidates have been told that the initial reports of their having won were
not correct.
"This is manipulation and rigging unprecedented the political and social
fall out of which would be disastrous for social cohesion and national
integration".

Mohtarma
Bhutto condemns denial of treatment to Peer Mukarram
Islamabad August 21, 2005:
Former Prime Minister and chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto has condemned the denial of medical facilities to PPP leader
Peer Mukaramul Haq in Jail and described it as inhuman and smacking of
vendetta.
Pir Mukarram the husband of the PPP Punjab MPA Farzana Raja was in detention
in a NAB case and under treatment in a hospital in Islamabad under medical
advice. However when his wife Farzana Raja continued to stridently criticize
the government he was forcibly shifted against medical advice from the
hospital in the federal capital to jail in Mianwali about two months ago.
Lately Peer Mukarram who is a diabetic complained of high sugar level upon
which the jail doctor advised that he be shifted to any jail where the
facility of a teaching hospital or a District headquarter hospital were
available.
Farzana Raja has complained that the doctor’s report coming during local
bodies’ polls embarrassed the rulers who asked the doctor to modify it.
Refusing to bow to the pressure the jail doctor resigned his job and left
the town. The Mianwali jail is now without a qualified doctor and there is
only one dispenser who looks after the medical needs of several hundred jail
inmates.
Peer Mukarram has also applied for urgent bail on medical grounds in the
Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court through Advocate Dr. Babar Awan
but in the absence of a division bench during summer vacations the bail
application will come up for hearing after the court vacations.
In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that denial of treatment
to Peer Mukarram was not only denial of a basic human right but was also
cruel, inhuman and degrading to the perpetrators. She said it was a
manifestation of political vendetta in the extreme.
The former Prime Minister demanded of the regime to immediately provide
medical care to Peer Mukarram in the light of the medical report and warned
that if anything happened to him the rulers will be responsible for the
consequences.
She also asked the human rights bodies and members of the legal fraternity
to raise voice against this injustice and cruelty and force the regime to
desist from perpetrating such crimes against political opponents.

Mohtarma Bhutto shocked over
the murder of Derek Cyprian Demands judicial probe and arrest of criminals
Islamabad August 21, 2005: Former Prime
Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto has said that it was strange that the regime had adopted a casual
attitude towards the murder of a former federal minister.
Former federal minister in an earlier Musharaf Cabinet and a Christian
leader Derek Cyprian was kidnapped in Lahore last week and remained untraced
for three days. Subsequently his dead body was recovered decomposed and with
his hands and feet tied besides marks of strangulation around his neck.
In her compliant lodged with the police the daughter of the deceased had
also stated that late Derek Cyprian used to receive threatening phone calls
placed by some unknown callers for several days before the incident.
In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that an impartial
judicial inquiry was necessary to investigate the matter. She was shocked
That the regime had failed to take stern action following the gruesome
murder. She said that it was important for the regime to show it was not
involved in the matter by ensuring that the crime was investigated and the
murderers punished.
"The kidnapping and cold blooded murder of a former federal minister and a
Christian leader in the capital of the country's largest province only shows
the worsening law and order situation in the country", Mohtarma added.
Mohtarma Bhutto said that it was most unfortunate that the rulers spent time
and energy in chasing political opponents but had no time for performing
their basic duty of protecting the honor, life and property of citizens.

Pakistan's
pro-Musharraf parties score early wins
By Simon Cameron-Moore
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's government
parties claimed early wins while opposition groups cried foul as unofficial
results poured in on Saturday following the first round of Pakistan's local
elections.
Political parties could not contest district council elections, but they
openly showed which candidates were theirs even if colors and symbols were
barred from campaigns.
At least 16 people were killed and hundreds injured in sporadic violence
during Thursday's voting.
With general elections due in 2007, parties want district leaders in place
who can influence voting for seats in provincial and national assemblies.
It matters for President Pervez Musharraf, one of the West's main allies in
a global war on terrorism, as he will seek re-election by the assemblies and
the Senate that emerges from the vote in two years' time.
The chief minister of Punjab reckoned the ruling Pakistan Moslem League (PML-Q),
the party backed by Musharraf, had scored a landslide in the most populous
of Pakistan's four provinces.
"Eighty percent of the winners are candidates supported by us. The PML has
come out as a strong political force, and its impact would be visible in the
2007 general elections," Punjab's Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi said.
In southern Sindh province, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a junior partner
in government, was sure of wresting Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, from
Islamist parties who won in 2002.
"We have won in 110 out of the 178 union councils in Karachi," Kunwar Khalid
Yunus, a central leader of the MQM and a member of the National Assembly,
told Reuters.
Democracy has had a sorry history in Pakistan. The military
has ruled for more than half the country's 58 years since independence.
General Musharraf took power in a popular and bloodless military coup in
1999, and the two civilian prime ministers from the 1990s, Nawaz Sharif and
Benazir Bhutto, live in exile.
Successes in these polls appeared patchy for Sharif's Pakistan Moslem
League-N and Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party, but political analysts believe
they still possess popular support.
ISLAMISTS BRUISED IN TRIBAL PROVINCES
In the two tribal-dominated provinces of Baluchistan and North West
Frontier, there were signs that conservative Islamist parties' grip on power
was also in danger of slipping.
Banded together under the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the Islamist
parties became the largest opposition block after scoring their largest ever
gains in 2002, thanks in part to a backlash against the U.S.-backed
overthrow of the Taliban's Islamist government in neighbouring Afghanistan a
year earlier.
The PML-Q was leading in Baluchistan, while in the North West Frontier
Province the MMA's dominance has been cut by another opposition group, the
Awami National Party, which wants more autonomy.
Opposition groups hurled accusations of widespread fraud as votes were
counted for the first round of voting held two days ago, but an Election
Commission official said on Saturday "absolutely no complaints have been
received".
Voting was held in 53 districts nationwide, the turnout was officially put
at 50 percent -- for women voters it ranged from 43 percent in Punjab to 16
percent in Frontier province.
Official results are expected late on Saturday.
A remaining 56 districts will be contested in August 25.
Councillors elected in the first two rounds will elect powerful district
chiefs on September 29, in a third and final phase of the local elections.
Musharraf introduced district council elections in 2002 for the first time
in Pakistan's history, and says they are meant to create grassroots
democracy. As part of the reforms 33 percent of seats in district councils
were reserved for women.

Ishaq meets Benazir Bhutto
Friday August 19, 2005 LONDON: August 20
(Online): President Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Azad Kashmir Sahibzada
Ishaq Zaffar called on PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto at her residence here
on Friday.
During one and half hour meeting, they discussed political situation in
Kashmir and Pakistan besides ongoing Kashmir freedom movement.
Later talking to reporters, AJK PPP president said Ms Bhutto would take the
final decision regarding the selection of party's candidate to contest
upcoming Kashmir Council Polls after the meeting of party's Parliamentary
Committee.
However, PPP Secretariat, Islamabad received twenty-two applications and
party's Central Secretariat, London received one application of the
candidates aspiring to contest elections of Kashmir Council, he noted.
Sahibzada Ishaq said PPP chairperson has approved three names to contest
polls for the seat falling vacant in Muzaffarabad constituency after the
death of senior AJK minister Mumtaz Ali Gillani.
Farooq Ahmed will contest elections on vacant seat while Muhammad Hanif, the
PPP (Muzaffarabad) president and Adil Bashir are the covering candidates, he
added.
The AJK PPP president hoped that PPP would got victory in by-polls.

PPPP rejects 'disgraceful'poll
conduct
ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the first phase of
the local government elections, the Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians
(PPPP) Thursday accused the Election Commission of failing to stop the
government from using state machinery to change "the people's verdict".
"We out-rightly reject the polls as the Election Commission remained biased
and was unable to implement its own directives to ensure free, fair and
transparent elections," said the Opposition Leader in the Senate, Mian Raza
Rabbani, while talking to The News.
He said it is disgrace to call these elections as the massive rigging took
place during the whole process of the elections. The opposition leader in
the Senate said the party is reviewing the whole situation and would make
its next strategy within next few days for the second phase of elections.
He said the party has already issued a detailed report about how the
pre-poll rigging has taken place and also about the political victimization
of the opposition candidates. Rabbani said the party had drawn the Election
Commission's attention about the faulty voters list but it remained silent
and did not take any notice of it.
He said there were reports pouring from the different parts of Interior
Sindh about how the government sponsored candidates' supporters attacked
Awam Dost candidates with the help of police. "Even in Karachi, polling
started late at some of the polling stations on the behest of the provincial
government," he added.
Our Karachi correspondent adds: Addressing a hurriedly called press
conference at Bilawal House, PPPP leaders Taj Haider, Sherry Rehman, Rashid
Rabbani and Rafiq Engineer rejected results of the first phase of local
government elections alleging that these were rigged by the ruling parties
at gunpoint.
They said that armed Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and other ruling
parties' activists occupied polling stations all over Karachi and in
interior Sindh particularly in Tharparkar and filled ballot boxes with bogus
votes.
"It was a systematic rigging in which the MQM and other ruling coalition
parties set up a new trend and robbed the elections," they said and accused
the police of collaborating with the armed activists of the ruling parties.
"It was unfair and partial election and people were disappointed," Taj
Haider said. They said it was surprising that armed activists of MQM moved
freely in polling stations in presence of army and rangers. Polling agents
of Awam Dost candidates were forced out of polling stations and armed
activists of ruling parties not only threatened them but also voters.
They alleged that flouting the ban of chief election commissioner,
ministers, advisers and members of parliaments of the ruling parties entered
polling stations with armed activists and supervised rigging.
Rejecting the CEC claim that turnout at the polling in Karachi was 50
percent, they put the turnout at 10 to 15 percent.
Criticizing the rulers, the PPPP leaders said that this election violated
the sanctity of ballot and democratic process. 150 complaints were send to
CEC about serious violation and rigging but no action was taken, they
alleged.
They said that rangers arrested some armed activists of a ruling party
occupying the SMS School on gunpoint and recovered 15 books of ballot
papers. They said people saw on TV channels that teenagers were casting
votes. In most of the polling stations, poling staff allowed vote without
checking National Identity Card.
Sherry Rehman said in polling stations where Awam Dost candidates were in
strong position, balloting was started two to three hours late and despite
complaints to CEC no action was taken.
She said in interior Sindh armed activists of allied parties forced out even
women polling agents. Two PPPP women MPAs Sassi Palejo and Humaira Alwani
were also tortured in Thatta. PPPP city chief Rashid Rabbani said ballot
boxes were stuffed with votes late Wednesday night, adding the party rejects
the result of these polls as fraud.

KARACHI: PPP
terms poll process ‘a farce’
KARACHI: The Pakistan People’s Party has
rejected Thursday’s electoral process in the first round of the second local
body elections, alleging that “a fraud had been imposed on people through
the government-nominated constellation.”
Senator Taj Haider, head of the PPP’s election monitoring cell, announcing
his party’s decision, also contested the Election Commission’s claim of 50
per cent turnout in Karachi and other parts of the province.
He was of the view that due to the difficult and time-consuming voting
procedure, the turnout remained thin in most parts of the city. “Therefore,
the EC’s claim of 50 per cent turnout is a farce.”
He argued that such a fraud was made possible because the EC did not take
notice of the complaints lodged with it. This, he added, had also encouraged
ballot fixing. The PPP leader alleged that at many places, polling agents of
Awam Dost candidates had forcibly been evicted from polling stations which,
he claimed had later been taken over by Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s activists
and its proxy volunteer corps.
He alleged that massive rigging had been resorted to at the women’s polling
station in UC Kaloi, District Tharparkar, where the chief minister’s cousin,
Arbab Anwar, had been sitting to supervise the stuffing of ballot papers and
deny voters the right of secret ballot.
Ms Sherry Rahman, head of the PPP’s policy planning, claimed that rigging
and ballot stuffing had taken place at polling stations 16 and 17 at Karachi
Milk Plant (UC 4), Gulshan Town.

PPP issues 5th
fact sheet regarding local bodies elections
Islamabad: "General Musharraf has
rendered the Election Commission irrelevant and powerless by allowing his
lackies to flout election laws and giving a free hand to the King's party to
carryout pre-poll rigging with impunity". This was said by Nazir Dhoki, the
Media Coordinator PPP Monitoring Committee for local bodies elections while
issuing the fifth fact sheet regarding incidents of victimisation of Awam
Dost Candidates, their supporters and PPP workers.
The fact sheet details victimisation incidents in Punjab and Sindh provinces
where on the behest of provincial governments police has continued harassing
and victimising Awam Dost Candidates at every level. The fact sheet says
that the Chief Minister Punjab has crossed every limit to pressurise Kaira
family, Ghazanfar Gul and his family and the family members of Chaudhary
Mazhar in Gujrat. Members of these families have been arrested and their
business outlets have been closed down.
Nazir Dhoki said that the failure of Election Commission to take any action
against General Musharraf, Prime Minsiter Shaukat Aziz, Chief Minister Sindh
and Punjab Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Chaudhry Pervez Ilahi, Federal Ministers,
Ministers of state and advisors of the regime who have violated every
election law during the election campaign is a proof of its inability to
hold free, fair, transparent and impartial elections. All of them announced
development projects in public gathering during the election campaign
despite ban on the announcement of such projects by the Election Commission.
Awam Dost Candidates and their supporters were kidnapped in various
districts in Sindh and they were detained for prolonged period of time,
tortured and forced to withdraw from the race but the Election Commission
remained unmoved.
The fact sheet says that General Musharraf has admitted that he fully
supports Arbab Ghulam Rahim whereas Arbab Ghulam Rahim has turned Sindh
province to a police state. DPOs have been involved in picking up Awam Dost
Candidates, their proposers, seconders, and supporters and conducting of
raids on the houses to harass their families.
Awam Dost Candidates Nawab Khan Babbar and Noor Khan Brohi were kidnapped in
Sanghar Police raided several villages in Sanghar including Rukan Bara,
Jehan Khan Babbar, Saeed Khan Babbar, Ainee Chandio Bachayo Rind, Siddique
Mangrio, Pirano Mangrio, Gul Muhammad Babbar and tortured PPP voters
seriously injuring Amina Begum, AllahBachai, Noor Khatoon, Ms. Khairan, Hoor
Bai, Jannat Khatoon, Bakhtawar, Muradan Begum and dozens other. Police
arrested 15 workers and cases have been registered against 39 innocent PPP
supporters. Advisor government of Sindh, Ghulam Rasool Unar is harassing
Awam Dost supporters. The goons of King's party attacked Awam Dost Candidate
Amanullah Dahri in Daulatpur and his hotel was ransacked. Police has
initiated cases against over 50 workers in Sakrand and raids are being
conducted on their homes. In Thatta, case have been registered against 192
Awam Dost Candidates and PPP supporters including Ghulam Qadir Palijo and
member Sindh assembly Sassi Palijo. In Tando Mohammad Khan, cases against
200 candidates and PPP workers have been initiated including former
provincial minister Syed Mohsin Shah Bokhari. Several employees of education
department have been suspended in Naushehro Feroz because their relatives
are Awam Dost Candidates. Member national assembly Pir Aftab Shah Jilani has
been stopped from visiting Sindhri where police raided houses of 23 Awam
Dost Candidates and PPP office bearers including candidate for Nazim,
Chaudhry Ahsanul Haq. Six employees of Chaudhry Ahsan have also been
detained.
Nazir Dhoki has appealed to all democrats on the election day to cast their
votes and be vigilant to stop any effort of rigging by the King's party. He
said that the candidates, their polling agents and the people would not let
the military regime and the King's party to change the results. He said that
tomorrow would be the beginning of new era if the elections are free, fair,
transparent and impartial.

PPP accuses CM of rigging
KARACHI: The opposition
PPP has accused that the brothers and cousins of Sindh Chief Minister Arbab
Rahim and allied parties of the Sindh government were involved in election
rigging by using all illegal and third degree methods for stuffing ballot
papers in Karachi and other districts of the province.
The party accused this in a white paper (Dhandlinama) released on Thursday,
blaming that the sanctity of the ballot paper was violated as the armed
activists of these parties occupied the polling stations and denied the
right of secret ballot even to women voters.
According to PPP, Tharparker witnessed record rigging as Arbab Khalique,
brother of the chief minister, and his other cousin forced the voters to
show them the ballots to know for whom they cast the votes. The party
claimed that the polling agents of the Awam Dost candidates were kidnapped,
adding that the presiding officers, polling agents and Arbab’s men started
stuffing the ballots. The CEC and other authorities were informed of the
incidents in the morning but no action was taken, it alleged.
The rigging also took place in Chore Town, Umerkot, Allahbaksh Samejo,
Aabloor and Biterwah UCs, Chachro tehsil, Tharparkar, where the Chief
Minister’s henchmen threatened Awam Dost candidates and supervised the
stuffing of ballot papers openly, denying the voters the right of secret
ballot, while Awam Dost voters were not allowed to enter in the polling
stations, it said.
The party claimed that the Advisor to the Sindh CM, Jadam Manghrio’s
brother, forcibly closed down the polling station in the presence of the
Presiding Officer in polling station, Walidad Pali, UC Atta Mohammad Pali,
Umerkot District.
The party claimed that a havoc was created in District Tharparkar by the
Chief Minister himself. In six different UCs of the district - UC Malanhar
Veenha, UC Kaloi (being contested by CM’s elder brother), UC Kheesar, UC
Vijhuar and UC Rajpzo - agents of all Awam Dost candidates were thrown out
of the polling stations. In UC Kheensar the polling lists with the agents
were grabbed and torn to pieces.
The party pointed out that votes were stuffed in polling stations 16 and 17
at the Milk Plant in UC 4, Gulshan Town, Karachi, where polling started only
at 9.15am, when the Muttahida Qaumi Movement supporters arrived. After the
polling began, no Awam Dost voter was allowed in the women’s booths. The
Presiding Officer also told Awam Dost voters that their names did not exist
on the voters list in that station.
In Polling Station 3, Government Girls Primary School, UC 13, Baloch Goth,
Orangi Town, the Muttahida’s armed gangs forcibly evicted the women polling
agents.
The voters of the Awam Dost candidates were also forcibly evicted from
polling stations No. 20, 21, 22 and 23, UC 11, Lyari Town.
The party said that all the Awam Dost women polling agents were evicted from
the polling booths by the Muttahida activists from all the polling stations
in UC 7, Usmanabad, Dharamsiwara, Saddar Town. In Polling Station GBSS,
48-H, Chakra Goth UC 3, Korangi Town, the Muttahida workers entered the
polling booths and openly stamped ballot papers in their candidates’ favour.
The Awam Dost’s chief polling agent was severely beaten up and barred from
intervening and objecting to this open aggression. The Polling Station 5,
Ali Bhai School in UC 3 Gulshen Iqbal Town, Karachi, was occupied by
Muttahida activists who did not allow anybody except their party voters, the
PPP alleged.
In UC-3 Korangi, Muttahida activists occupied 80 percent of polling stations
and stamped the ballot papers.
The PPP said all polling stations were occupied by the administration-backed
terrorists in UC4 Mohammad Nagar, Orangi Town and polling agents of Awam
Dost were beaten up and thrown out of the polling stations. The same
incident also took place in Sadar.
It further said a Muttahida minister Mustafa Kamal threatened the staff and
Awam Dost polling agents in UC 12, while in Jamshed Town armed activists
entered the ladies booths and stamped ballot papers in polling station No.
20, Major Ziauddin Shaheed School, Nazimabad 2, Karachi UC9 in Mujahid
Colony, Liaquatabad Town.
The PPP accused that "Muttahida terrorists with the help of local police
impounded public transport in Karachi last night to ferry its voters to the
polling stations while the party brought teenage voters to add to their
party vote count.

Pakistan's opposition accused
President Pervez Musharraf's government of electoral fraud
By Faisal Aziz
ISLAMABAD, Aug 19 -
Opposition officials accused President Pervez Musharraf's government of
electoral fraud on Friday as votes were tallied after the first round of
voting in Pakistan's local elections.
At least 15 people were killed and hundreds injured in sporadic violence
during Thursday's voting for district councillors that will help determine
the make up of the government that emerges from general elections in 2007.
The three-phase local elections are officially being held on a non-party
basis, but factions have openly backed candidates to build their power bases
ahead of the general election.
Analysts have said the polls could determine whether Musharraf incorporates
liberal opponents in a future government.
However, the best-selling Jang newspaper said preliminary unofficial results
showed pro-Musharraf parties ahead in the most populous Punjab province and
Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, and Islamist parties leading in regions
they already dominated.
The main liberal opposition party, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of
self-exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, accused the government of
"massive irregularities".
Qaim Ali Shah, a member of the PPP's central executive committee, said the
polls had been rigged "in a naked and brutal manner" and demanded a new vote
under independent supervision.
"The Election Commissioner is saying there was 50 percent turnout. It's
strange he is saying this when the counting is yet to be completed. It
appears everything was predetermined."
COMMISSION REJECTS CHARGES
Another senior PPP official, Taj Haider, put the turnout at no more than 12
percent. "It's a different thing how many votes go into the ballot box and
how many come out," he said.
A senior member of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the main grouping of
Islamist parties, made similar accusations.
"Some ballot boxes were full even before the polling started," said
Naimatullah Khan, a former district chief of Karachi. "It was a complete
network of irregularities."
Election Commission official Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad denied this, saying:
"The elections were completely free and fair."
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it had reports that women were
not allowed to cast votes in some areas of Islamist-dominated North West
Frontier Province, and demanded the elections be held again in such areas.
Violence broke out in some areas despite the deployment of tens of thousands
of troops to maintain security.
Voting was held in 53 districts nationwide and will be held in the remaining
56 on Aug. 25. Dilshad said official results from the first round were
expected to take several days.
On Sept. 29, councillors elected in the first two rounds will elect powerful
district chiefs, whose influence will be significant in elections for
national and provincial assemblies that will choose a president for a
five-year term later in 2007.
Aides say Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism who seized
power in a bloodless 1999 coup, will stand in the next presidential
election. He is widely expected to win, but what sort of coalition he will
work with remains unclear.
Like other military leaders, Musharraf has in the past relied on the backing
of religious conservatives but they have fallen out and he has urged voters
to shun the Islamists who won power in North West Frontier and Baluchistan
in 2002 general election.
Analysts say a poor overall showing by candidates backed by the ruling
Pakistan Muslim League could make Musharraf more amenable to a deal with
liberal forces, such as Bhutto's party.

Pakistanis vote amid claims of
election rigging
By Jo Johnson in Islamabad and Farhan Bokhari in Peshawar
Military-ruled Pakistan began holding nationwide elections for the first
time in three years on Thursday amid claims of widespread vote-rigging and
of women being barred from casting ballots in many constituencies across the
Islamist-dominated North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
The two-phase elections to municipal councils are a key step in the
country's slow-moving return to full democracy six years after a military
coup by General Pervez Musharraf and will setthe stage for the vital
elections for provincial and national legislatures planned for 2007.
The direct voting, which concludes next Thursday, is seen as a critical test
of strength of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), the “King's
party” that backs Gen Musharraf, who is in ever greater need of political
support as he attempts to crack down on Islamic extremism.
A strong performance by the PML (Q) will influence the extent to which a Gen
Musharraf feels the need to broaden his political base by reaching out to
the exiled leaders of the two main liberal political parties, the Pakistan
People's party of Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz
Sharif.
“If the PML (Q) does well, it can persuade President Musharraf that he can
afford only to rely on them and does not need a reconciliation with other
parties,” says one western diplomat who has been pushing the Pakistani
leader to strengthen his position by winning over the centre-left PPP.
He added: “Our analysis shows he would be unableto win the 2007 elections
with only the support ofthe PML (Q) and that this might in turn compel himto
manipulate the 2007elections to get a working majority.”
Voter turnout has been falling in Pakistan because of widespread pre-poll
rigging and this election, which has been relatively calm, is expected to
follow the pattern. “People are getting less interested because they know
votes are rigged,” said another western diplomat. “In the 1970s the turnout
would be 50-60 per cent. Now it's in the low 40s.”
The recent return to Pakistan of Ms Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari saw
some PPP party workers jailed under anti-terrorist legislation. Women's
organisations in Punjab, a province controlled by the ruling PML (Q), have
complained they have been prevented from campaigning.
In parts of the NWFP, ruled by the main alliance of Islamic parties known as
the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), councils of elders have moved to ban
women from voting and have resisted apparently weak government pressure to
reverse their decisions.
In one polling station in Peshawar, the NWFP capital, western election
observers found more than 300 votes cast by men from a total of more than
700 registered voters butonly eight women had cast votes from more than 500
registered.

PPP issues 5th fact sheet regarding local bodies
elections
Islamabad, 17 August 2005: "General
Musharraf has rendered the Election Commission irrelevant and powerless by
allowing his lackies to flout election laws and giving a free hand to the
King’s party to carryout pre-poll rigging with impunity". This was said by
Nazir Dhoki, the Media Coordinator PPP Monitoring Committee for local bodies
elections while issuing the fifth fact sheet regarding incidents of
victimisation of Awam Dost Candidates, their supporters and PPP workers.
The fact sheet details victimisation incidents in Punjab and Sindh provinces
where on the behest of provincial governments police has continued harassing
and victimising Awam Dost Candidates at every level. The fact sheet says
that the Chief Minister Punjab has crossed every limit to pressurise Kaira
family, Ghazanfar Gul and his family and the family members of Chaudhary
Mazhar in Gujrat. Members of these families have been arrested and their
business outlets have been closed down.
Nazir Dhoki said that the failure of Election Commission to take any action
against General Musharraf, Prime Minsiter Shaukat Aziz, Chief Minister Sindh
and Punjab Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Chaudhry Pervez Ilahi, Federal Ministers,
Ministers of state and advisors of the regime who have violated every
election law during the election campaign is a proof of its inability to
hold free, fair, transparent and impartial elections. All of them announced
development projects in public gathering during the election campaign
despite ban on the announcement of such projects by the Election Commission.
Awam Dost Candidates and their supporters were kidnapped in various
districts in Sindh and they were detained for prolonged period of time,
tortured and forced to withdraw from the race but the Election Commission
remained unmoved.
The fact sheet says that General Musharraf has admitted that he fully
supports Arbab Ghulam Rahim whereas Arbab Ghulam Rahim has turned Sindh
province to a police state. DPOs have been involved in picking up Awam Dost
Candidates, their proposers, seconders, and supporters and conducting of
raids on the houses to harass their families.
Awam Dost Candidates Nawab Khan Babbar and Noor Khan Brohi were kidnapped in
Sanghar Police raided several villages in Sanghar including Rukan Bara,
Jehan Khan Babbar, Saeed Khan Babbar, Ainee Chandio Bachayo Rind, Siddique
Mangrio, Pirano Mangrio, Gul Muhammad Babbar and tortured PPP voters
seriously injuring Amina Begum, AllahBachai, Noor Khatoon, Ms. Khairan, Hoor
Bai, Jannat Khatoon, Bakhtawar, Muradan Begum and dozens other. Police
arrested 15 workers and cases have been registered against 39 innocent PPP
supporters. Advisor government of Sindh, Ghulam Rasool Unar is harassing
Awam Dost supporters. The goons of King’s party attacked Awam Dost Candidate
Amanullah Dahri in Daulatpur and his hotel was ransacked. Police has
initiated cases against over 50 workers in Sakrand and raids are being
conducted on their homes. In Thatta, case have been registered against 192
Awam Dost Candidates and PPP supporters including Ghulam Qadir Palijo and
member Sindh assembly Sassi Palijo. In Tando Mohammad Khan, cases against
200 candidates and PPP workers have been initiated including former
provincial minister Syed Mohsin Shah Bokhari. Several employees of education
department have been suspended in Naushehro Feroz because their relatives
are Awam Dost Candidates. Member national assembly Pir Aftab Shah Jilani has
been stopped from visiting Sindhri where police raided houses of 23 Awam
Dost Candidates and PPP office bearers including candidate for Nazim,
Chaudhry Ahsanul Haq. Six employees of Chaudhry Ahsan have also been
detained.
Nazir Dhoki has appealed to all democrats on the election day to cast their
votes and be vigilant to stop any effort of rigging by the King’s party. He
said that the candidates, their polling agents and the people would not let
the military regime and the King’s party to change the results. He said that
tomorrow would be the beginning of new era if the elections are free, fair,
transparent and impartial.

PPP
files reference against SAF Officials
Islamabad, 16
August 2005: Pakistan Peoples Party has filed a reference against
12 high officials of SAF games under Section 5 and 18 (b) Sub-Section-ii of
the National Accountability Bureau (NAb) Ordinance 1999, against the holders
of public office for punishment under Section 10 of NAB Ordinance for
causing huge financial loss to the national exchequer by corruption and
corrupt practices.
Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, MNA advocate High Court on behalf of Pakistan
Peoples Party has nominated Lt. Gen. Arif Hasan, Chairman SAF Games, Amjad
Javaid, Chief Of Staff and Chief Coordinating Officer, Col. Syed Mujtaba
Tirmizi, Information and Media Director, Ahmed Riza Siddiqi, Administration
Director,. Abid Hussain Bhatti, Communication Director, Col. (Retd) Muhammad
Yahya, Technical Director, Col. Mansoor Abbas, Procurement Director, Col.
Umer Farooq, Information Technology Director, Col. Azhar Deen, Finance &
Marketing Director, Brig. Arif Rasul Qureshi, Ceremonies Director, Brig.
Khalid Rasheed Lodhi, Protocol Director, Lt. Col. Usman Saeed as respondent
of the complaint.
The reference giving ground reads that as reported in the daily "The Dawn"
dated 27-3-2005, "The Law" dated 1-6-2005 (Copies of Press Clippings
enclosed) & Audit Report on Accounts of Federal Government -
(Civil) Audit Year 2003-2004 Vol - B from Page 21 to 26 issued from the
office of the Auditor General of Pakistan, Islamabad claimed that
Respondents were deeply involved in corruption of Millions Rupees in SAF
Games.
That the respondents gave underhand benefits to private organizations
through verbal agreements as revealed in Audit Report of the Auditor General
of Pakistan.
That the respondents accepted that they failed to recover Rs 9.45 millions
from ARY in violation of an amendment in contract clauses and some clauses
of previous contracts were not implemented.
That according to article 3.17 and 504 (h) of principle agreement entered
into by Chairman 9th SAF Games with M/s Interflow Communications
(Private) Limited, and 30% of the sale proceeds of Hero Cards Scheme was
required to be credited into SAF Special Bank Account, but a sum of Rs 16.98
million was yet to be realized by the respondents according to para 2.2 page
22 of Audit Report 2003-2004.
That according to para 2.4 page 23 of Audit Report 2003-2004, the
Sponsorship Agreement was granted to M/s Pakistan Moblink Communication
Company Limited on 31-8-2001 for setting up the Gun Club for Rifle Shooting.
Under this agreement M/s Moblink were declared as official sponsors of the
9th SAF Games and the whole project to promote their business through
advertisements, promotional signboards & banners. They were to pay Rs 3.5,
1.5 and 7.0 million respectively. The payment was made only for
advertisements and promotional signboard. However Rs. 7.0 million was not
paid.
That failure to return loan of Rs 150.0 Million to the Ministry of
Minorities, Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs that was released
from SAVER Fund by the Ministry for the preparation of 9th SAF Games vide
para 205 on page 24 of the Audit Report.
That loss of Rs 220,150 due to embezzlement of 22,015 post cards (Rs 10 per
card) was found in the inventory of post cards vide para 2.7 on page 25 in
the Audit Report of 2003-2004.
The reference asking Chairman NAB to take action says, "As such the Chairman
of the National Accountability Bureau is called upon to initiate
investigation in connection with matters set out herein above and further
proceed to file a Reference against respondents for violating the provisions
of Section 9 of the NAB Ordinance 1999 punishable under Section 10 of the
NAB Ordinance in competent court of law and proceed against those concerned
for violating Section 9 of the NAB Ordinance 1999."

Mohtarma
Bhutto condoles death of Begum Shamsuddin
Islamabad, 16
August 2005: Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto called on former Additional
Secretary to the Prime Minister Siraj Shamsuddin in London to condole the
death of his Mother Begum Shamsuddin. Late Begum was the widow of Shamsuddin
Ahmad, Deputy Collector of Customs who expired the other day.
Begum Shamsuddin was the first lady from Rajastan, India, to have completed
a Masters degree from University of Lucknow. She taught at prestigious
institutions including Aligarh Muslim University Women’s College at Aligarh
and Lamartiniere School in Calcutta. After Partition she served as
Directress, Physical Education, Government of Punjab.
Begum Shamsuddin was the Founder President of Women’s Voluntary Association
(W.V.A) in East Pakistan and did volunteer work serving the poor by
participating in the Food and Education Programme for women and children.

PPP reacts
to General Musharraf’s statement
Islamabad, August
16 2005: Sherry Rehman, MNA and Coordinator of the Policy
Planning Committee of the Pakistan Peoples Party has sharply reacted to the
assertion of General Pervez Musharraf that PPP has lost support, adding that
another General Zia had also dreamt the same but he vanished into thin air
while the PPP remained in the heart of the majority of masses.
In a press statement issued here, the PPP MNA said that her party remains
the most popular liberal political force of the country despite facing the
worst form of victimization at the hands of three consecutive dictatorial
regimes. "Dictatorship has always wanted to disperse the nation into smaller
political segments for its own interests but the PPP has kept the federation
of Pakistan politically united," she added.
She pointed out that no sane nation including Pakistan could allow tin-pot
dictators to dictate what national interests were as Musharraf is doing
here, advancing only his own agenda of clinging on to the power and
promoting one-man rule in the country. Pakistan was not created to be held
hostage by a gun-toting general.
Sherry Rehman said that the PPP had given this country a stable foundation
and consensus constitution, during the democratically elected Prime
Ministers Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto. The whole
nation bears this in mind and would never accept the so-called statement of
national interest spouted everyday by anti-democratic forces. General
Musharraf is out to make Pakistan a garrison state, and this scale of
election rigging to exclude the PPP is being done to pave the way for his
unlimited tenure in power.
The PPP leader further pointed out that Pakistan was neither made by the
generals nor has General Musharraf sacrificed even a single drop of blood
for the country, as compared to the PPP which sacrificed even the life of
its founder and its leadership. The PPP has sustained the worst forms of
victimizations with no match in contemporary politics.
The PPP is not afraid of opposition politics nor of oppression and
victimization at the hands of the General's henchmen.

PPP apprises
CEC of abduction of candidates in Gujrat and election rules violation by CM
Punjab
Islamabad, August
15, 2005: Pakistan Peoples Party has asked the Chief Election
Commission to assert his authority in stopping the Chief Minister Punjab
from violating election laws and end to police excesses.
Kamran Zafar, the Member PPP Monitoring Committee for Local Bodies Elections
in a letter apprising the CEC of the violations committed by the Chief
Minister Punjab, Chaudhry Pervaiz Illahi, wrote, "He made a public
announcement at Rahim Yar Khan declaring Mr. Bashir Cheema as PML-backed
candidate for District Nazim Bahawalpur for a second term. A similar
announcement was made for retaining Mr. Ali Akbar Wains as District Nazim
Bahawal Nagar. The Chief Minister is also receiving delegations of Local
Bodies seat hopefuls at the Chief Minister’s house in Lahore and assuring
them success for the seat of District Nazim in Local Bodies Elections, as he
did in the case of Mr. Abdul Rehman Kanjo of Lodhran. Suffice it to say that
the Chief Minister has thrown the Electoral Laws and Code of Ethics to the
winds."
He further wrote regarding police excesses in Gujarat wrote that on the
morning of 14 August, Nasrullah Warriach, SHO Police Station Jalalpur Jattan
Saddar, Gujrat picked up two Nazim and one Naib Nazim candidated for
Machhiwal Union Council. Muhammad Akbar, ex. Nazim and now contesting again,
Babu Muhammad Akbar candidate for Naib Nazim and Amjad candidate for Nazim
from Machhiwal council were picked up from their homes and are now in the
police custody. They are being asked to withdraw or face the consequences.
They are being asked to withdraw from contest or face the consequences. Last
week the same SHO had picked up Abdul Rehman Gondal, candidate for Nazim
from Union Council Mandiala and a bogus case was registered against him and
finally he withdrew from contesting eletions. In another incident in Gujrat
city Anjum Mir a Naib Nazim candidate was picked up from his house at
midnight in presence of his old mother, by the Civil Lines police. His
brother was also picked up in the morning. Mir Anjum is still missing and is
not found in any police station. Reportedly he is being kept in a hiding to
extract his withdrawal but he is still resisting.
Kamran Zafar asked the CEC to take immediate action before it is too late.

Naheed Khan’s rejoinder to General Musharraf
Islamabad, 13
August 2005: Naheed Khan MNA, the Political Secretary to the
Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has challenged
General Musharraf to take off his military uniform and contest election
against any PPP worker from any constituency in the country.
Reacting to General Musharraf’s assertion that the popularity of PPP is
fading, Naheed Khan said that General Zia in the past had also tried to
crush the PPP and had meted out extreme atrocities against party leadership
and workers but all his dreams to quell the party were shattered. Naheed
Khan said that every dictator hallucinates that he is all powerful because
in reality dictators are frightened of popularity of peoples’ leader. This
is the reason, General Musharraf is erecting hurdles in the way of Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto’s return to the country, she said.
Naheed Khan said that General Musharraf surrounded by security agencies has
no means to gauge the popularity of any political party. He should come out
on the streets and only then he will find that an overwhelming majority of
Pakistani citizens is with the Pakistan Peoples Party and has confidence on
the leadership of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Naheed Khan said that there was
another dictator in Pakistan named Ayub Khan who had established his own
Functional Muslim League, which vanished as soon as he was forced to leave
power by the people.
Naheed Khan said that this assertion by General Musharraf proves that he is
frightened of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and her party because people of
Pakistan are with the party under the leadership of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.

Mohtarma
Bhutto condoles death of former Advisor Qurban Ali
Islamabad August
13, 2005: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan
Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has expressed grief over the death of
Qurban Ali former advisor to Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and member federal
council of the Pakistan Peoples Party from Northern Areas.
Qurban Ali who was also ex-President of the Pakistan Peoples Party Northern
Areas passed away the other day due to sudden cardiac arrest.
In a condolence message today the former Prime Minister said that she was
deeply grieved to learn about the death of Qurabn Ali. She said that late
Qurban Ali was with the Party for the past three decades and served the
people and the cause of the Party with great dedication and distinction.
"Qurban Ali’s sacrifices, commitment and dedication will serve as a source
of inspiration to the people who suffer for the cause" she said and added,
"his great services will be long remembered".
Mohtarma Bhutto also prayed for eternal peace to the soul of Qurban Ali and
patience to members of the bereaved family to bear the loss with equanimity.

Mohtarma Bhutto felicitates nation on Independence Day
Urges people to rededicate themselves to the ideals for which Pakistan was
created
Islamabad 13 August 2005-Former Prime
Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto has said that on the country’s 58th Independence Day being celebrated
on August 14 there was little to rejoice as the country and its institutions
had been hijacked by a few and the dream dreamt by the founding fathers for
the teeming millions had gone sour.
"Ordinarily today should be a day of rejoicing and celebrations to mark the
emergence, fifty eight years ago, of a separate homeland wherein we could
live in freedom and shape our lives according to our values.
"But as we look around we find that there is little to celebrate and little
to rejoice.
"Myopic adventurers have hijacked the country and its institutions. A few
individuals have re-written the Constitution with the sole aim of
perpetuating themselves in power. A uniformed general has sneaked into the
Presidency via a fraudulent referendum.
"Worse still, the judiciary was assaulted as half of the Supreme Court was
sacked when judges refused to take oath of allegiance to an individual
rather than to the Constitution. Elections were stolen and power transfer
manipulated so as to retain the real power in the hands of the few
unelected. The process of stealing elections and denying the people their
right to choose their representatives still continues as the local bodies
elections draw close.
"Pakistan was envisaged to be a country where sovereignty of the elected
Parliament, supremacy of Constitution, rule of law and respect for human
rights were to reign supreme. It was envisaged to be a country where there
would be social justice and economic opportunities for all. "It is a sad
thought that on this Independence Day we find those ideals and principles
stand trampled.
"Perpetual military rule has been foisted on the country in the name of
‘sustainable democracy’. A few powerful individuals have hijacked economic
opportunities while the ordinary people groan under grinding poverty and
un-employment. Tenants have been dispossessed of their lands and subjected
to unspeakable atrocities. Poor people are committing suicides due to
joblessness and poverty as the rulers continue to grab lands and plots and
convert state lands into golf courses for their pleasure. A new political
code of conduct has been written; to reward turncoats and punish and banish
those who refuse to play to the tune.
"Pakistan was supposed to be a state in which every one was equal before law
in accordance with the principles of Islam and all civilised societies.
Unfortunately a handful of generals who have seized the state apparatus have
placed themselves above the law and the Constitution. This is a blatant
negation of the Quaid’s vision who declared ‘we all are citizens and equal
citizens of our state’. It must be reversed. It will be.
"So on this auspicious occasion while I wish to compliment all Pakistanis I
also urge them to rededicate themselves to the principles of democracy,
human rights and economic opportunities for all. The PPP believes that the
country can be saved from internal and external dangers only through
democracy and addressing the problems of poverty and unemployment of the
teeming masses

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns registration of false murder cases against PPP MNA
Urges judiciary to take suo moto notice of political victimisation
Islamabad August 13, 2005:
Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto has condemned the institution of murder cases against PPP MNA
Pir Aftab and his brother Shafqat Shah Jillani in Mirpurkhas in Sindh to
send a message of terror among the Awam dost candidates in the local bodies
elections.
PPP MNAs from Mirpurkhas region, including Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jilani,
Nawab Talpur, Syed Qurban Ali Shah and MPAs Shameem Ara Phanwar, Syed Irfan
Ali Shah and Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Talpure, have been exposing before the media
and he international community how the Arbab Rahim government inSindh was
indulged in massive rigging of the LB polls. Two days ago Pir Aftab Shah MNA
strongly denounced the rigging in the local polls to ensure a clean sweep in
District Tharparkar for the Arbab Group and in District Umerkot for the
group of Speaker Sindh Assembly Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah backed by PML(F).
No sooner did he issue the charge sheet the PPP MNA was involved in a murder
case and a false case instituted against him.
Almost simultaneously PPP leaders Yousuf Talpur, district President Ali
Mardan Shah, former provincial Minister Munawar Talpur and other PPP leaders
were travelling in the area after complaints of harassment from awam dost
candidates were attacked and fired upon by a gang of supporters of the
candidates of King's Party. No case was however registered against the
attackers.
In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that the registration of
murder cases against Pir Aftab Jillani, murderous attacks on the PPP leaders
and the blatant claims by Sindh chief minister that the PPP has been wiped
from his district Thar exposed the true face of the rulers and their claims
of a level playing field. She said that these incidents proved that the
rulers were hell bent upon intimidating the awam dost candidates in the
local polls so that the candidates of the King's Party made a clean sweep.
"This is the limit of high handedness" she said and urged the human rights
bodies and international organisations to take note of such incidents.
Mohtarma Bhutto demanded the immediate withdrawal of murderer case against
Pir Aftab Shah and others. She said that the awam dost candidates would not
be deterred by such tactics and would not abandon the field to the King's
party. She also asked the Party leaders to provide legal support to the awam
dost candidates who are victims of highhandedness of the administration.
The former Prime Minister also asked the administration to remain neutral
and dispense justice according to the law and warned that those
transgressing their official duties and acting as partisan politicians at
the instance of the provincial administration would have to face
accountability.
Mohtarma Bhutto also urged the judiciary to take suo moto notice of these
incidents of high handedness and victimisation of opposition MPs and awam
dost candidates..

Rape victim
Dr. Shazia Khalid met Mohtarma Bhutto in London
Islamabad, 13
August, 2005: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson Pakistan
Peoples Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto met with Dr. Sahzia Khalid the
Pakistani rape victim in London to show solidarity and sympathy with her.
Mohtarma Bhutto praised Dr. Shazia and said that her courage had given hope
to millions of Pakistanis that crimes against women would no longer be
neglected.
Mohtarma Bhutto said on the occasion that the PPP would continue to raise
voice against injustices the women and demand that justice be done to
victims like Dr. Shazia Khalid, Mukhtaran Mai and countless others.

PPP
demands actions against violators of Election Laws
Islamabad, 13
August 2005: Pakistan Peoples Party has apprised the Chief
Election Commissioner of the police brutality and highhandedness meted out
to the Awam Dost Candidates and asked to take necessary action against the
concerned members of police and administration.
Kamran Zafar, Member PPP Monitoring Committee for local bodies election in a
letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner informed him regarding
kidnapping of Jalal Bajeer, the Awam Dost Candidate for UC Kheensar, Tehsil
Chachro, District Tharparkar by the armed goons of Arbab from Mithi
recently. The candidate was taken to Umerkot where he was severely tortured
by the kidnappers who demanded him to withdraw from the contest.
Kamran Zafar wrote that this is one of the dozens of incidents which clearly
indicate the atmosphere of coercion and repression in Sindh during the
election campaign. He demanded the CEC to take immediate notice of such
incidents and action against the violators of election rules.

PPP accuse
government of planning massive rigging in the elections
Islamabad, 11 August 2005: Media
Coordinator of the PPP Monitoring Committee for local bodies elections,
Nazir Dhoki has said that massive rigging has been planned in Mirpurkhas,
Sanghar, Tharparker and Umerkot by the regime and the Chief Minister and his
associates have issued directives to the bureaucrats in this regard.
Nazir Dhoki in a statement said that it is despicable that PPP MNA Pir Aftab
Shah Gilani and his brother Shafqat Shah Gilani have been booked in a false
murder case to dampen the election campaign of the Awam Dost Candidates in
Mirpurkhas region. The Chief Minister Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim has
frequently visited Mirpurkhas region to organise rigging in the elections.
Nazir Dhoki said that the Election Commission has failed to take any action
on the hundreds of complaints filed by Awam Dost Candidates, their proposer,
seconders and supporters which has encouraged Arbab Ghulam Rahim to use
force against his opponents and he has publicly threatened opposition of
dire consequence.
Nazir Dhoki said that the Awam Dost Candidates would not surrender before
the despotic regime and would continue to expose the rigging by the
administration, use of force by the police on the behest of Chief Minister,
Ministers and other government functionaries.
Nazir Dhoki demanded of the CEC to take immediate action and stop the
government functionaries from intimidating and victimising the opposition.
He appealed to the Human Rights Organisations and national and international
observers to take note of victimisation of the Awam Dost Group and raise the
issue with the Election Commission.

PPP seeks
clarification on reports of amendments in the Constitution
Nazims being turned into Electoral College for President
Islamabad August 12, 2005:
The Pakistan Peoples Party has asked the regime to clarify whether
the Constitution was being further amended to turn the nazims into an
Electoral College for the election of the President.
In a statement today spokesperson of the PPP said that the Party has learnt
from reliable sources that legal experts of the regime were working overtime
to finalise draft of Constitutional amendments.
"The massive rigging in the local bodies’ polls lends credence to the
reports that it is a prelude to further amend the Constitution to suit the
agenda of the rulers and create a semblance of popular acceptability through
election by nazims".
It appears that the rulers believe that the new plan of the nazims electing
the President will help in addressing a serious concern of the international
community about Musharraf’s legitimacy as President, he said.
The spokesperson said that General Musharraf first tried the referendum
route to seek legitimacy but legitimacy eluded him despite claims of a
massive win. Then he tried the route of the Parliament, which too was
exposed by the opposition for its fraud.
The opposition filed petition exposing how MPs in London were counted as
present and voting in the Parliament and how the proportion of provincial
seats was wrongly counted to make the defeat appear as win, he said.
The spokesman asked the rulers to confirm or deny whether it was still
working on a new set of constitutional proposals that will further the
military dictatorship in the country.

PPP issues
fourth fact sheet regarding local bodies elections
People would not accept results of rigged elections—Nazir Dhoki
Islamabad, 12 August 2005:
"Massive pre-poll rigging, incidents of victimisation and intimidation of
Awam Dost Candidate and their supporters the inability of the Election
Commission to take measures to stop government functionaries and the King’s
party from violating election laws would make the forthcoming local bodies
elections a complete fArce."
This was said by Nazir Dhoki, the Media Coordinator of the PPP Monitoring
Committee for local bodies elections in a statement while issuing the fourth
fact sheet regarding local bodies election. He said that it is unfortunate
the Secretary Election Commission is of the view that 97 percent of the
complaints were baseless whereas the fact is that the Election Commission
has failed to take any action against the violators of the election laws
including General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Chairman
Senate Mohammad Mian Soomro, Chief Ministers of Punjab and Sindh, Federal
and provincial minister and the government functionaries.
Nazir Dhoki said that issuing notices to two ministers by the Election
Commission is just an eyewash. No action has been taken against any DCO or
DPO for initiating false cases against PPP leaders, Awam Dost Candidates,
their proposers, seconders and supporters. A false case against three
hundred PPP workers has been registered in Mirpurkhas where a false murder
case against PPP MNA Pir Aftab Shah Gilani and his brother has already been
initiated. When a conscious police officer Mohabbat Khan Mari refused to
register false cases against Awam Dost Candidates, he was suspended by the
Chief Minister Sindh. The relatives of opponents of Mrs. Saeeda Soomro in
Jacobabad were summoned in the police station and threatened of dire
consequences if their candidates do not withdraw from the race. In Khairpur
provincial minister Saddaruddin Shah Rashdi has established election office
at the DCO house and using the administration and police for his candidates.
Police detained Awam Dsot Candidate Ali Gul Buzdar in Khairpur. An
atmosphere of fear has been created in the entire Khairpur district and Awam
Dost Candidates are receiving death threats.
The fact sheet says that an attempt on the lives of PPP MNA Nawab Yousuf
Talpur, Mir Munawwar Talpur and Ali Sardar Shah when they were fired upon in
Umerkot. The Chief Minister Sindh is protecting the attackers and has issued
directives to the police not to register any case. In Dadu district, on the
behest of federal minister Liaquat Jatoi, employees of WAPDA are being
suspended because their relatives are contesting election against King’s
part candidates.
Fact sheet further says that the petrol pump of Ali Akbar in Naushero Feroz
has been sealed because he is supporting Awam Dost Candidates. Forest
Officer Sibghatullah Ansari has been suspended because his son Kamran Ansari
is contesting in Hala as an Awam Dost Candidate.
Nazir Dhoki said that the Election Commission failed to take any action
against Chief Minister Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim dspite his open threat to
opposition which indicates that the Election Commission is totally helpless
and powerless. In Karachi and other urban areas of Sindh, the MQM is openly
violating election laws and using state resources in the election campaign
but the Election Commission is totally unmoved. MQM is taking out rallies
and holding public jalsas everyday whereas a case against Makhdoom
Rafiquzzaman has been registered for taking out a rally. Nazir Dhoki warned
the regime and the Elections Commission that people would not accept the
results if the rigging continues and the Election Commission would be held
responsible for any consequences.

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns attack on PPP leaders in Sindh
Says gerrymandering had crossed all limits
Islamabad August: Former Prime Minister
and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has
condemned the attack on the convoy of led by PPP leader and former federal
Minister Yousuf Talpur on Tuesday in Samaro in district Umarkot in Sindh.
PPP leaders Yousuf Talpur, district President Ali Mardan Shah, former
provincial Minister Munawar Talpur and other PPP leaders were travelling in
the area after complaints of harassment from awam dost candidates when they
were attacked and fired upon by a gang of supporters of the candidates of
King's Party in the local bodies' polls.
Yousuf Talpur and other victims tried to file report in the police station
against the attackers whom they had identified but the police refused to
register the case.
Yousuf Talpur has said that the gang had also previously attacked the PPP
workers some ten days ago but the police had not registered the case against
them.
He said that in Mirpurkhas also following a clash during electioneering FIR
was registered against PPP MNA Pir Aftab Shah and other PPP workers. A PPP
worker Ghulam Haider Narejo was presented before court in injured conditions
and was given into police remand. But no case was being registered against
those who attacked the PPP convoy.
In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that the attack on the
PPP leaders on Tuesday had once again demonstrated how the rulers were hell
bent upon intimidating the awam dost candidates in the local polls to pave
way for the candidates of the King's Party.
"Gerrymandering has crossed all limits and claims of level playing field and
even handedness have been exposed badly" she said and urged the human rights
bodies and international organisations to take note of such incidents.
Mohtarma Bhutto said that the awam dost candidates would not be deterred by
such tactics and would not abandon the field to the King's party. She also
asked the Party leaders to provide legal support to the awam dost candidates
who are victims of highhandedness of the administration.
The former Prime Minister also asked the administration to remain neutral
and dispense justice according to the law and warned that those
transgressing their official duties and acting as partisan politicians at
the instance of the provincial administration would have to face
accountability.
Mohtarma Bhutto also urged the Chief Election Commissioner to take note of
these latest incidents of political victimisation of the awam dost
candidates.

PPP indicts government of planning massive rigging in the elections
Islamabad: Media Coordinator of the PPP
Monitoring Committee for local bodies elections, Nazir Dhoki has said that
massive rigging has been planned in Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Tharparker and
Umerkot by the regime and the Chief Minister and his associates have issued
directives to the bureaucrats in this regard.
Nazir Dhoki in a statement said that it is despicable that PPP MNA Pir Aftab
Shah Gilani and his brother Shafqat Shah Gilani have been booked in a false
murder case to dampen the election campaign of the Awam Dost Candidates in
Mirpurkhas region. The Chief Minister Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim has
frequently visited Mirpurkhas region to organise rigging in the elections.
Nazir Dhoki said that the Election Commission has failed
to take any action on the hundreds of complaints filed by Awam Dost
Candidates, their proposer, seconders and supporters which has encouraged
Arbab Ghulam Rahim to use force against his opponents and he has publicly
threatened opposition of dire consequence.
Nazir Dhoki said that the Awam Dost Candidates would not surrender before
the despotic regime and would continue to expose the rigging by the
administration, use of force by the police on the behest of Chief Minister,
Ministers and other government functionaries.
Nazir Dhoki demanded of the CEC to take immediate action and stop the
government functionaries from intimidating and victimising the opposition.
He appealed to the Human Rights Organisations and national and international
observers to take note of victimisation of the Awam Dost Group and raise the
issue with the Election Commission.

Zia moves
disqualification reference against CM
Opposition leader says CM had Rs 38m in loans written off
LAHORE:
Qazim Zia, the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, has moved a
reference to the assembly speaker for the disqualification of Chief Minister
Pervaiz Elahi for allegedly getting Rs 38 million in loans written off.
Raja Basharat, the provincial law minister, said in response that Zia was
trying to pre-empt legal action against himself for alleged involvement in a
housing scam, and the opposition leader would be charged in civil and
criminal proceedings.
Zia, who is Punjab president of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said at a
press conference on Tuesday that United Bank Limited wrote off a loan of Rs
16 million to Mr Elahi’s SPARCO Industries in 2002. Muslim Commercial Bank
wrote off a loan of Rs 22 millions to the Punjab Sugar Mills Vehari, he
said.
He said under Article 63(2) Q of the constitution, members of national and
provincial assemblies could not get loans of more than Rs 2 million written
off. He said the speaker was constitutionally bound to forward the reference
to the Election Commission within 30 days of receiving it.

APC on
pre-poll rigging:
Opp may resign from parliament
* To file references against president, PM
* Calls for grand alliance
ISLAMABAD: Leaders of the Alliance for
the Restoration of Democracy and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal said for the first
time on Thursday that they were considering resigning from parliament.
This emerged at an all parties conference (APC) organised by the ARD and
attended by over 60 representatives of political parties, bar councils and
HR bodies.
A joint declaration said the opposition would file references against
President Musharraf, PM Aziz, CMs, ministers and others for their alleged
involvement in pre-poll rigging. The opposition parties called for a Grand
National Alliance to oust Musharraf from power.
The APC demanded the appointment of a consensus-based chief election
commissioner with full authority to conduct free and fair elections. The
government should cancel the postings made after the announcement of the
local elections schedule and cancel the unopposed election of local
government representatives, it said.
Fakhar Imam, former NA speaker, advised parliamentarians to resign from
parliament because it had failed to play its role in national affairs.
Amin Fahim, ARD chairman, accused the government of using state machinery in
campaigns for candidates backed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League. He
said the government had “set new records” for pre-poll rigging while the
chief election commissioner had been a “silent spectator”.
Raja Zafarul Haq, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chairman, said the
rigging of local polls was a “rehearsal” for what would happen ahead of the
next general elections.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, MMA president, urged opposition parties to form a joint
strategy for the upcoming elections. He accused the Muttahida Quami Movement
(MQM) of practising “bloody politics” in Karachi and feared violence on
polling day.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the MMA said Gen Musharraf was confronting the
religious parties only to please the United States.

PPP calls
on CEC to resign
LAHORE - While leveling serious
allegations of unprecedented pre-polls rigging on the ruling party, the PPP
has demanded the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to resign, for what it
terms, his failure to take stock of the situation and adopt concrete
measures.
The local bodies candidates enjoying support of the ruling PML (Q) have
every sort of official machinery at their disposal to rig the elections and
to defeat their rivals by hook or crook, alleged office bearers of the PPP
Human Rights Committee and PPP Punjab Election Monitoring Cell while
addressing a press conference Wednesday.
The officials of electronic media are also not lagging behind the official
machinery to project the official candidates and to check the way of the
true representatives of the people to the power, said the office- bearers
including S.M.Masud, Muhammad Kazim Khan, Raja Mahmood Akhtar, Mian
Muhammmad Jahangir, Ch Muhammad Ishaq, Shahid Mahmood Bhatti, Abdul Sadiq
Choudhary and others.
They said the government in order to give impetus to the campaign of its
favourites has also deferred the senate session. They particularly mentioned
about Sindh where, they blamed, the Chief Minister is in the forefront to
run the election campaign of the official candidates, and has gone to as far
as kidnapping and pressurising the opponents candidates. This all runs
contrary to the assurance which the Election Commissioner had extended to
the American Ambassador and other diplomats about fairness, and transparency
of the LB elections. They have also accused the government of keeping the
CEC under the pressure and added, circumstances warrant the CEC should quit
the office on moral ground as well as to serve the cause of democracy in the
country.
The office holders have also blamed the Chief Minister Punjab for going
ahead with a worst kind of horse trading in the province. The CM is
releasing all development funds to the candidates of his party and added,
the pre-polls situation adumbrates that the local government election will
not be better than the referendum held by the Martial Law of Ziaul Haq and
General Pervez Musharraf for the presidential office.
They said what the rulers are doing with respect to the LB election has
badly tarnished the image of Pakistan at the international level. The
speakers also expressed their reservations about the electoral rolls being
used in the current LB polls.
RO’s decision invalidated
The Lahore High Court while setting aside the District Returning Officer
decision has allowed Syed Zakir Hussain Shah and Rana Arshad to contest the
election respectively for the office of Nazim and Naib Nazim in the Union
Council 2 Phoolnagar.
Earlier the DRO had rejected their nomination papers on the ground that Naib
Nazim matriculation certificate was not genuine.
Before the LHC, Dr A Basit argued for the petitioner that matriculation
certificate of the petitioner was valid but his opponent candidate had
manipulated the Board record pertaining to his client.
The counsel also presented material to prove to the point that petitioner
was holding a genuine matriculation certificate. The court after hearing the
petitioner counsel allowed the said two to contest elections.

PPPP fears
election violence in Gujrat
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s
Party-Parliamentarians (PPP-P) on Tuesday fear that there might be violence
on the local election day in Gujrat and asked the government to declare the
area sensitive along with six other districts in Punjab.
PPP-P leaders Qamaruz Zaman Qaira, Nawabzada Ghunfar Ali Gul and Mazhar
Hussain demanded this in a press conference. They alleged that the
Chaudhries in Gujrat politically victimised opponents, saying it was the
worst ever pre-poll rigging. They also presented a list of party workers and
leaders who had either been kidnapped or harassed by the administration.
They called upon the chief election commission to visit Gujrat and listen to
their complaints and added that they would quit politics if any of the
allegations made against the regime were proven false. “Even the district
returning officers and returning officers do not pay attention to our
complaints,” he said.
“I fear bloodshed in Gujrat on the polling day. Therefore government should
declare the district sensitive and provide protection,” said Nawabzada
Ghunzfar Ali Gul.
He accused the Punjab chief minister of creating a civil war-like situation.
He also accused him of sheltering criminals and using them to harass people
to get their candidates elected unopposed.
He said that the Chaidhreis used the state machinery to get desired results.
Qamaruz Zaman Qaira said that his family was being victimised for opposing
the chaudhries in local polls. “I want to make it clear that we neither
expect courts to do justice nor the chief election commissioner because they
were working on the government’s advice,” he said.
He alleged that the district police officers and the district coordination
officers worked in favour of the Chaudhries and were involved in land
grabbing and kidnapping opposition candidates.
Although Chaudhries had reached the top slot in the government, he said they
still indulged in “thana and putwari” politics and concoct cases against
opponents.
He also accused the Punjab chief minister to have influenced the release of
criminals, who rob people without fear. “They are in fact working under the
command of their ‘real commander’ (the Punjab chief minister),” he said.
PPPP workers to offer voluntary arrests against victimisation: Fahim
JAMSHORO: PPPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim here on Tuesday alleged that
official machinery was being used to rig the forthcoming local bodies (LB)
elections.
He was addressing a party meeting held here on Tuesday to review
arrangements for the LB polls. The meeting was attended by Dr Makhdom
Rafique, MPA Makhdom Jamil, Syed Shah Muhammad Shah, Syed Ali Muhammad Shah
and Pir Yasin Shah Rashdi, besides a large number of local office-bearers
and workers. The meeting condemned victimisation of the opposition
candidates.
Later addressing a press conference, Fahim and other PPP leaders said
police, on the orders of the present rulers, were harassing the Awam Dost
candidates everywhere in the country to make them change their loyalties. He
said party workers would face these atrocities in a democratic way. Fahim
said thousands of party workers would soon offer voluntary arrests
throughout the country against the political victimisation of their leaders.
He said the government was openly violating the code of conduct announced by
the Election Commission to win the elections. He said they had informed the
chief election commissioner about the victimisation of Awan Dost candidates,
besides involvement of federal and provincial ministers in the election
affairs.
An all parties conference (APC) had been called on August 11 by the Alliance
for Restoration of Democracy to discuss the pre-poll rigging by government
functionaries. Responding to a question, the PPPP leader said the APC would
not discuss boycott of the forthcoming LB polls.
He alleged that some government officials, who were relatives of the
candidates participating in the LB polls, had been called to the Chief
Minster House, where they were threatened and pressured to change their
affiliations.
He advised the bureaucracy not to follow "illegal orders" of the government,
otherwise they would be taken to task. He dispelled the impression of seat
adjustment with the PML-N in Matyari district.
Later, a protest march was held, which started from the Makhdom House and
ended at the PPP Secretariat Hall.

BB concerned over baton charge on teachers in Sindh
KARACHI: Former Prime Minister and
Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Benazir Bhutto has expressed
concern over the baton charge on school teachers in Sindh and demanded an
end to state repression and brutalities against the civil society.
Schoolteachers in Sindh employed on contract have been demanding
regularisation of their services. On Saturday teachers from interior Sindh
gathered in Karachi and along with other teachers marched towards the Chief
Minister's house to press for their demands. However, the police baton
charged the protesting teachers to break their demonstration.
In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that she was shocked to
see the pictures showing brutal treatment meted out to the teachers by the
Karachi administration. She said that teachers helped shape the lives of the
youth in whose hands lay the future of the country. "It is most unfortunate
that they should be so assaulted merely for airing their grievances against
blatant injustice".
She said that the demand of the protesting teachers to be regularized was a
genuine one and asked the rulers to regularize the service of teachers
employed on contract basis.
She recalled that the PPP government had regularized the services of
teachers and doctors who were recruited on contract basis. "It is important
that economic and job opportunities are fairly and justly distributed among
various segments of society otherwise the deprived would feel alienated
resulting in chaos".
She also sympathized with the teachers who were roughed up by the law
enforcing agencies and assured them of the support of the civil society and
the PPP.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim demands withdrawal of cases against Benazir
ISLAMABAD,
August 10: Vice Chair PPP and Chairman ARD Makhdoom Amin Fahim
has demanded the withdrawal of all politically motivated cases against the
Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and other leaders and the holding of free
and fair elections in which all leaders and parties are allowed to
participate with a level playing field.
In a statement Tuesday he said that the crisis engulfing the country had
deepened which can be resolved only by seeking the mandate of the people and
allowing the genuine leaders of the people end their exile and return to the
country to lead the nation out of crisis and despondency.
"The PPP demands that the political issues including reversion to the
Constitution, end of militarisation and withdrawal of the fake and
fabricated cases instituted to re-engineer Pakistan's political landscape be
addressed seriously if the country is to be extricated out of the morass".
He said that the regime withdrew cases against the parasitical political
class, the MMA leaders in Baluchistan and Frontier and also against the MQM
leaders to achieve its agenda of political re-engineering. He said that for
this purpose NAB was being used as a political tool and NAB officials had
allowed themselves to be used as such.
Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that a different yardstick was used for the PPP and
Benazir Bhutto because the Party and Mohtarma had refused to submit to
political blackmail and the rewriting of political landscape of the country
on the terms of the dictators.
He said that the post election 2002 political structure was standing on
sandy foundations as it had been contrived by using NAB to create artificial
majority of the King's Party by breaking the mainstream political parties.
He said that the regime went to the extent of creating a one vote majority
for the King's Party by lifting ban on an MNA belonging to a banned
religious extremist outfit who was released from jail to vote for the
establishment's candidate.
"This charade must come to an end now".

Washington Ready to Stop Backing UNIFORMED Musharraf
By Wajid Shamsul Hasan
LONDON, August 8: In my last article:
"Pakistan getting too hot for the Generals to handle", I had underscored
that the "justification of evil on the ground of expediency" by top world
leaders, "has converted God's little earth into a cesspool of intrigue,
machinations and chicanery now even beyond their own control."
While I would be the last person to subscribe to the view that democracy can
only come to Pakistan via Washington, a large number of our opinion makers
believe that it is the United States that calls the shots in Pakistan and
holds the whip that makes our military establishment wag its tail. Since it
has been the main provider of the shield of legitimacy to military rulers
from the day we had the first martial law in October 1958, we have seen
American preference to generals rather than democratically elected
politicians. Even when it comes to American aid, the ratio of assistance to
the dictators is four times more than the civilian governments. That,
perhaps, has been one of the key reasons that genuine restoration of
democracy in which "we the people" are the sole arbiters of power remains an
elusive dream.
It was not love for democracy among the generals that had seen the
restoration of some semblance of democracy in Pakistan following General
Zia's fatal fall from the sky. They could not impose another martial law in
August 1988 when the entire world had been romancing with the democratic
dream. It would not have fitted in the American agenda for a democratic
Eastern Europe and Central Asian Republics. They made a tactical retreat,
allowed elections, manipulated them to deny PPP leader Benazir Bhutto an
otherwise assured landslide.
An assertive democratic Benazir Bhutto, much like her father, was not their
ball game. They had her removed to switch on yet another round of musical
chairs that ended in two terms, actually two half terms, both to her and
Mian Nawaz Sharif as prime ministers. Throughout these half terms the
Praetorian power wielders orchestrated unproven corruption charges and
instability from behind the curtain. When they saw that time was ripe to
strike, they struck and now in coming October General Pervez Musharraf would
be completing his sixth year as absolute ruler of Pakistan, much more than
the two terms of each elected prime ministers.
Like Zia General Musharraf also used Afghanistan to further implement the
Praetorian dream of converting Pakistan into a garrison state, a country for
the military, of the military and run by the military. Its intelligence
apparatus, ISI-employed Taliban, foreign and local Jihadis trained and armed
by it from the stacked up funds received in tonnes from the United States
during the 80s, created a situation when Washington would forget all about
its commitment to democracy as a global phenomenon and support to the hilt
yet another military dictator.
After the invasion of Baghdad to restore democratic rights of the Iraqi
people by toppling Saddam Hussain (the only defence for the Anglo-American
invasion in the absence of the weapons of mass destruction), further
democratization of the Palestinian State Authority and President Bush's
Scheme for the democratization of Middle East, Washington's continued
support to a military dictator in Pakistan, whom it had earlier declared a
pariah, has been a constant source of embarrassment.
To correct this selectivity in its foreign policy, my last article urged
that, "Both Washington and London must get down to tell Musharraf point
blank that he cannot combat terrorism by isolating the great majority of the
people in his country by denying it its democratic right to vote in a
government of its choice. By keeping former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto
and Nawaz Sharif out of the mainstream politics, he has given an open field
to the religious parties and extremists to call the shots. Hasba is yet
another step towards Talibanisation of Pakistan and a powerful manifestation
of Mulla-Military alliance."
Washington would do well to listen to American experts like Stephen P. Cohen
who can see Pakistani population's "growing alienation" from the United
States that feeds into support for extremism. And this growing
anti-Americanism obviously is due to absence of democracy and a level
playing field for popular leaders like Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz
Sharif who continue to command the support of the majority in the masses.
It is encouraging to note that after all observations are being heeded to.
The recent declaration of the American Assistant Secretary of State
Christina Rocca in Islamabad that it was the 'US policy that free and fair
elections, a level-playing field and return to full democracy was the key to
long-term prosperity and stability in Pakistan' shows that there is a
growing realization where things have gone wrong.
In her Washington-Islamabad video conference with senior journalists, Ms
Rocca said that the US administration did not believe that the President's
uniform guaranteed success of war against international terrorism and that
it ensured that Pakistan's nuclear assets would not fall into the hands of
fundamentalists.
Washington has at last started seeing through General Musharraf's game of
misleading the international opinion in insisting that his uniform was
essential for stability and fight against terror. The earlier the Bush
administration realizes that political stability comes only with legitimacy
backed by general will and not by tin pot generals the better.
Musharraf occupies Presidency through Saddam-like referendum and he wields
power on the basis of a contrived, distorted, fractured constitution that
has no legitimacy left. Besides, he is also at war with the entire civil
society as a result of which there is no consensus behind him.
Notwithstanding the view spinned by Musharraf's media mongers that Ms
Rocca's pronouncements should be dismissed lightly since she does not occupy
a very high position in the American power hierarchy, her assertions
definitely carry a new message that could not have been made without higher
approval especially when it is much in line with the earlier statement of
the world's most powerful woman, US Secretary of State Condi Rice, who had
underscored the importance of free and fair elections and genuinely
representative government when she visited Islamabad last.
Ms Rocca's statement definitely assumes special significance due to the
timing and the venue of the video-conference held amidst wide scale reports
of most blatant pre-poll rigging in the local bodies elections. Ms Rocca's
remarks for the need for a level playing field essential not only for the
local bodies elections, but also for the 2007 general elections, require no
interpretation. Washington was "very clear about it publicly and privately,"
indicating that this concern had been conveyed to the government also
through proper channels.
This wind of change has been widely welcomed in Pakistan. People would
acknowledge generously the return of democracy no matter how it comes.
However, our military establishment, to save the people of embarrassment of
receiving democracy delivered in an American gift wrap, should rise to the
occasion and come to terms with the genuine political leadership that lives
in exile per force, hold earliest free and fair elections and go back to the
barracks where they belong, with some respect and dignity intact rather than
go with mud on its face.

PPP
debunks Chaudry Shujat’s remarks
Islamabad August 7, 2005: Central Secretary Information of PPP
Mr. Taj Haider has termed the statement of Chuadhry Shujaat Hussain claiming
that he had gone to Mr. Makhdoom Amin Fahim with the offer of forming
government in Sindh, but Makhdoom Sahib had put forward the condition of
withdrawal of cases against the PPP leadership, nothing but a pack of
shameless lies.
In a statement today Taj Haider said that the obvious purpose behind the
statement of Chaudhry Shujaat is to cover up his own anti-democratic role
and anti-Sindh role in the matter and to defame PPP and its leadership.
He said that it was well known to all that in spite of historic rigging of
the 2002 elections PPP had emerged as the majority party and it was its
constitutional right to form the government in Sindh.
Taj Haider said that the inaugural session of the Sindh Assembly was
repeatedly postponed as Choudhry Shujaat Hussain accompanied by the sleuths
of the agencies unleashed a despicable sequence of pressurizing members of
Sindh assembly and buying their loyalties to create an artificial majority
for a PPP turncoat and to install him as Chief Minister Sindh.
Earlier Choudhry Shujaat Hussain and the agencies had played the same game
of bribe and blackmail to manufacture post-elections, an entire new party
consisting of PPP turncoats to artificially create a one vote majority for
their candidate for the Prime Minister’s slot. And for that one vote
majority too, an MNA belonging to a banned religious extremist outfit had to
be released from detention on the condition that he would vote for the
establishment’s candidate, he said.
Mr Taj Hiader said that the Establishment had made many offers Mr. Makhdoom
Amin Fahim with the condition that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto be abandoned but
these immoral offers were turned down by the Makhdooms.
The false cases against Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Senator Zardari have
been instituted with the purpose of pressurizing them and are a reminder of
how judicial processes have been perverted. PPP demands an end to this
mockery and blackmail. In the face of irrefutable evidence, the Supreme
Court of Pakistan gave a historic verdict pointing out the malafide and for
the first time in the history of Pakistan two judges of the higher Judiciary
had to tender their resignations, he said.
The PPP leader said that there was never any question of making these false
cases a bargaining chip. Millions and millions in public money have been
most fraudulently pocketed under the cover of pursuing these false cases.
He said that it was a matter of record that Choudhry Shujaat Hussain himself
declared as interior minister on more than one occasion the drug case
against PPP leadership as being false and concocted. It is for him to
explain the real purpose behind these false cases as also the real hands on
whose behest these false cases had been instituted, he said.

PPP
demand CEC to take notice of pre-poll rigging in Sindh and Punjab
Islamabad, 07
August 2005: Pakistan Peoples Party has issued the third fact
sheet regarding incidents of pre-poll rigging and demanded of the Election
Commission to file cases of kidnapping of Awam Dost candidates against Chief
Minister Sindh, Arbab Ghulam Rahim and the federal minister Liaqat Jatoi and
take action against DCOs and DPOs of Larkana, Qamber, Dadu, Jamshoro,
Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Thar, Thatha, Nawabshah, Hyderabad, Matyari, Badin,
Naushehro Feroz, Gothki, Sukkur, Shikarpur and Jacobabad in Sindh and Gujrat
and Attock in Punjab for their illegal interference in the electoral
process.
Issuing the fact sheet, the media coordinator of the Central Monitoring
Committee for local bodies elections said that Awam Dost candidates are
being harassed by the administration in Attock and Gujrat where false cases
are being registered against the Awam Dost candidates, their supporters and
the PPP workers. In Gujrat the family of Qamar Zaman Kaira MNA is being
targeted and his brother Nadeem Kaira, the former Tehsil Nazim is still
languishing in prison on false charges. False cases have also been
registered against Awam Dost candidates Mazhar uz Zaman, Naeem Malik and
Arshad Chaudhry in Gujrat. Police raided the office and the house of Dr.
Naeem Awan in Hazro, Attock and he has been threatened of his life to
withdraw his candidacy.
Nazir Dhoki said that in Sindh province, the Chief Minister is using all
state resources to harass Awam Dost candidates and all the DPOs and DCOs are
obeying the illegal orders of the Chief Minister. The federal minister
Liaqat Jatoi is involved in kidnapping of the Awam Dost candidates and a
senior civil judge recovered kidnapped candidates Koral Agro, Akbar Chandio
and Mubarak Sario from the property of Liaqat Jatoi which proves minister’s
involvement in Kidnapping. Nazir Dhoki said that government ally MQM is
spending taxpayers’ money on election campaign. False case has been
registered against Makhdoom Khaliq-uz-Zaman. The DCOs and DPOs are acting as
election agents for the King’s party. DPOs are pressurising Awam Dost
candidates to withdraw from the elections and join the King’s party, Nazir
Dhoki concluded.

Pakistan must ask US for nuclear deal, says Sen Khawaja
By Khalid Hasan
Daily Times August 8, 2005 WASHINGTON:
Citing the India-United States nuclear deal as a precedent, Pakistan must
urge the United States for extending similar assistance to it for meeting
the country’s growing energy needs, Pakistan People’s Party Senator Akbar
Khawaja told Daily Times.
Khawaja said the government should bring into confidence all
parliamentarians on such national issues, no less than the leaders of the
mainstream parties living in exile. He said the Indo-US deal could have an
adverse effect on Pakistan’s future relationship with India, Afghanistan and
the Central Asian states. This shift in US policy had also brought new
pressures to bear on Pakistan’s civil and military assets.
The PPP lawmaker said collective efforts are necessary to deal with
challenges facing the nation today such as perceptions of terrorism, human
rights abuses, economic deprivation of the people and the disturbing spread
of poverty. There are suspicions among Pakistan’s Western allies that
Genenral Pervez Musharraf’s support for the war against terrorism may not be
as sincere as he makes it out to be and that his government is unwilling to
bring political stability to the country or to improve its democratic and
human rights credentials. He pointed out the 7/7 bombings in London,
expatriate communities of Pakistanis in the United Kingdom and the United
States were experiencing greater difficulties because of the widespread
perception that the roots of Islamist militancy lie in Pakistan.
Turning to the ongoing local council election process, Senator Khawaja said
there was a perception among the general population that there has been
“pre-poll rigging.” The fact has to be faced that rising unemployment and
poverty, coupled with frustration over corruption, is driving the young
towards extremism. The human rights situation in country is worsening.
Crackdowns on political opponents, the media and civil society have only
sharpened the focus on these issue. There is much criticism of the fairness
and even-handedness of the of the accountability process. Public confidence
in the judicial system is waning rapidly. Concerns are being raised about
the effectiveness of the position of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz who appears
to be stuck in a loop given the inordinate delay in the NFC award. This
situation will prove to be untenable, he added.
Khawaja stressed that Pakistan’s socio-economic agenda is heavily dependent
on its Western allies. As such, stronger measures were needed to mount
effective collective responses to the evolving threats by bringing in basic
changes to the present system, he said. In addition to the suppression of
extremist group, the country must take measures to improve the national
image. Some of the steps needed in that area are: reform of the judicial
system to ensure supremacy of the rule of law, amendment of the NAB
ordinance, including the institution of norms of accountability at all
levels, strengthening of parliamentary governance through an effective
committee system, reform of the Election Commission, enhancement of the
socio-economic effectiveness of all policies, programmes and practices, and,
finally, the bringing about of a grand national reconciliation so that
Pakistan can move forward as a nation united, not a nation divided, as at
present it is, he said.

Musharraf's Contradictory Crackdown on Radicals
By N.C. Aizenman
LANDI ARBAB, Pakistan -- As Pakistani
security forces rounded up hundreds of suspected Islamic militants last week
in the wake of the bomb attacks in London, Ibrahim Qazmi, a slightly built
28-year-old cleric with a wispy black beard, leaned on a pillow in his
herbal remedy shop in northwest Pakistan and smiled skeptically.
In 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Qazmi and scores of his
associates in Sipah-i-Sahaba, or Army of the Prophet's Followers, were
arrested in a crackdown announced by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's
president, who vowed to crush the network of radical Islamic groups that had
flourished in the country for years.
But just 10 days later, Qazmi said, he and the others were released without
charges. Although their group was banned for fomenting sectarian violence,
they simply changed its name and revived it. Their top leader was elected to
the National Assembly, and Qazmi was elected to the legislature of the
North-West Frontier Province, now dominated by fundamentalist Islamic
parties preparing to establish a morals police force.
"So you see, despite the ban, we have only gotten stronger," Qazmi said with
a chuckle.
The story of Qazmi underscores Musharraf's contradictory record as one of
the most important allies in President Bush's war on terrorism.
Since 2001, Musharraf's government has arrested or killed more than 700
suspected al Qaeda members. Last week, as Pakistani authorities investigated
several radical Islamic groups for possible links to the London bombers,
Musharraf told journalists his government had "completely shattered al
Qaeda's vertical and horizontal links" within Pakistan.
But when it comes to eliminating homegrown extremist groups, the commitment
is less clear.
Since 2003, Musharraf has been allied with a coalition of radical Islamic
parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Forum, which has
helped him cement his power. The government has banned 16 domestic radical
groups and arrested thousands of suspected fighters, but most of them were
quietly released.
Critics charge that the government has been slow to implement a pledge to
review the finances and curriculums of thousands of religious schools, or
madrassas . Most have no links to violence, but analysts say that some have
served as breeding grounds for Islamic fighters. Two suspects in the July 7
London transit bombings were young men of Pakistani origin who had recently
visited Pakistan.
Similarly, although the Pakistani army killed more than 300 militants in a
campaign against al Qaeda bases near the Afghan border last year, it has
since proved unable or unwilling to stop fighters from the ousted Taliban
militia from slipping back into Afghanistan to launch bombings and attacks.
"The crackdown after September 11, 2001, was just window dressing for
Western consumption," said Afrasiab Khattak, a human rights activist in the
northwestern city of Peshawar. "None of the top Pakistani leaders were
arrested."
Although Musharraf defended his anti-terrorism record in a speech last week,
he also said that "restraining factors" such as an unstable economy and
tension with India over the Himalayan province of Kashmir had limited his
ability to go after domestic militants. Now, he said, "we need to act
against the bigwigs of all the extremist organizations."
But analysts said Musharraf's resolve would likely continue to be
counterbalanced by the same domestic political problems that have bedeviled
him in the past.
One is the Pakistani military's reluctance to defang militant organizations
that were sponsored by government intelligence agencies in the 1980s as
proxy fighters against Indian troops in Kashmir. Since then, many Kashmiri
groups have linked up with members of al Qaeda to attack Western targets.
One such group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, is affiliated with a madrassa where one of
the suspected London bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, may have studied for several
months, according to news accounts. Another group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, has
been blamed for two assassination attempts against Musharraf.
"These groups have all increasingly morphed together," Peter Bergen, a
Washington-based expert on Islamic terrorism, said in a telephone interview.
"It's like a pickup basketball game where anybody who is available for a
particular operation will do it."
But a Pakistani intelligence official said many military and political
leaders believe the Kashmiri militant groups are still a vital lever against
India. The idea of Pakistani authorities "nabbing the people who challenged
the Indian army in Kashmir . . . sounds scary to all decision-makers," the
official said.
Thus, even after the government banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, its leader continued
to preach openly and attend rallies in Islamabad, the capital. A recent
Pakistani press report described a training camp for Kashmiri militants just
60 miles from Islamabad. If Musharraf tried to move against such camps,
observers said, he could be undermined by religious conservatives inside the
military.
"Even if I were to give him the benefit of the doubt, I don't think he has
the structures in place to implement such policies," said Sen. Raza Rabbani,
a leader of the moderate Pakistan People's Party.
Musharraf must also contend with scattered public support for Taliban
insurgents fighting in Afghanistan, as well as resentment toward the United
States fueled by its policies in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
On a recent afternoon, worshipers streaming out of a mosque in the northern
city of Peshawar expressed strong sympathy for Taliban fighters. One, Jamil
Khan, a postal worker, said the United States "just wants to spread
Christianity" in Afghanistan. "Pakistan should be helping the Taliban," he
added. "Musharraf is just an agent for America."
Such sentiments helped the MMA, the coalition of Islamic parties, win 20
percent of seats in the 2002 National Assembly elections, as well as a
controlling majority in the North-West Frontier assembly. Although this was
a setback for Musharraf's moderate policies, the need for legitimacy drove
both sides to form an alliance in 2003.
The MMA agreed to help pass a constitutional amendment that would allow
Musharraf to remain both president and head of the military; in exchange,
Musharraf agreed to recognize the MMA as the official opposition in
parliament. Now, religious figures who once trained Taliban adepts in their
madrassas have become powerful politicians.
"The people who created the Taliban are now effectively running half of
Pakistan," said Samina Ahmed, an Islamabad representative from the
International Crisis Group, a research organization based in Brussels.
Many Pakistanis worry that the MMA is trying to re-create Taliban rule. In
June, the North-West Frontier assembly passed a law allowing religious
ombudsmen to fine or jail people for conducting "entertainment shows" near
mosques and "indecent behavior at public places."
Qazi Hussein Ahmed, who heads the dominant party in the MMA coalition, said
that his group had criticized some extreme Taliban practices and that
terrorist attacks on innocent civilians were prohibited by Islam. But he
also said Kashmiri militants were justified in their "holy war" against
India, and he implied the same of Taliban insurgents fighting the
U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan is an occupied country," Ahmed said. If there is no peaceful
way to remove foreign troops, "it's inevitable that violent approaches will
be adopted. I won't say this is compatible or incompatible with Islam."
Aides to Musharraf said his relationship with the MMA had recently grown
strained. The government has appealed to Pakistan's Supreme Court to
overturn the religious ombudsman bill, and the MMA has protested the arrests
of suspected militants. But to Islamic radicals like Qazmi, the future still
looks solid.
"It will be difficult for the government to really ban us," he said
confidently, sitting in a shop crammed with religious texts and tapes.
Musharraf, he said with disdain, is a "tool in the hands of Western forces"
but still incapable of stopping the radical Islamic movement at home. "If we
wanted to, we could bring life in Pakistan to a standstill and take
control."
Special correspondent Kamran Khan in Karachi contributed to this
report.

London Metropolitan University Pakistan scholarship awarded
Islamabad, 6
August 2005: London Met has awarded Pakistani student Sadaf Zafar
the Benazir Bhutto scholarship to study at the University.
The scholarship for Pakistani women, which is run in conjunction with former
Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, provides free tuition
at the University.
Sadaf, who has over seven years of experience in HR within
telecommunications, will be studying for an MBA programme starting in
September. She said: "It’s my great pleasure to receive this prestigious
scholarship. I will do my best to become a valuable addition to London Met
as well as to my country."
The scholarship winner was grateful for the work that the former Prime
Minister has one for women in her country. "I really appreciate Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto for her efforts for the betterment of Pakistani women," she
said. "If women in Pakistan are continued to be encouraged like this, they
can do wonders." Benazir Bhutto commented: "I congratulate Sadaf on winning
the scholarship and wish a successful beginning to the MBA programme. We
will look forward to the continued hard work for a successful career during
the years ahead."
This is the fourth year that the University has offered a full scholarship
to a female Pakistani student through its scholarship programme with Benazir
Bhutto.

Signs
That Washington is Ready to Stop Backing Musharraf
By Wajid Shamsul Hasan
LONDON, August 8: In my last article:
"Pakistan getting too hot for the Generals to handle" (SAT, August 2), I had
underscored that the "justification of evil on the ground of expediency" by
top world leaders, "has converted God's little earth into a cesspool of
intrigue, machinations and chicanery now even beyond their own control."
It was pleaded that if the deepening world disorder has to be arrested,
preference to double standards and selective justice will have to be given
up. Most of the article was concerned about the situation in Pakistan
following the London bombings of the last month that had once again
catapulted Pakistan as the epicenter of global terrorism. It was emphasis ed
that only a total national effort, mobilization of the masses and the best
political brains can steer Pakistan out of the stormy oceans.
While I would be the last person to subscribe to the view that democracy can
only come to Pakistan via Washington, a large number of our
intellectuals/academics and opinion makers believe that it is the United
States that calls the shots in Pakistan and holds the whip that makes our
military establishment wag its tail. Since it has been the main provider of
the shield of legitimacy to military rulers from the day we had the first
martial law in October 1958, we have seen American preference to generals
rather than democratically elected politicians. Even when it comes to
American aid, the ratio of assistance to the dictators is four times more
than the civilian governments. That, perhaps, has been one of the key
reasons that genuine restoration of democracy in which "we the people" are
the sole arbiters of power remains an elusive dream.
Pakistan had the first taste of some democracy at the end of Cold War.
Decline and subsequent demise of the Soviet Union had opened floodgates of
change worldwide in favor of democratic movements. It was not love for
democracy among the generals that had seen the restoration of some semblance
of democracy in Pakistan following General Zia's fatal fall from the sky.
They could not impose another martial law in August 1988 when the entire
world had been romancing with the democratic dream. It would not have fitted
in the American agenda for a democratic Eastern Europe and Central Asian
Republics. They made a tactical retreat, allowed elections, manipulated them
to deny PPP leader Benazir Bhutto an otherwise assured landslide.
An assertive democratic Benazir Bhutto, much like her father, was not their
ball game. They had her removed to switch on yet another round of musical
chairs that ended in two terms, actually two half terms, both to her and
Mian Nawaz Sharif as prime ministers. Throughout these half terms the
Praetorian power wielders orchestrated unproven corruption charges and
instability from behind the curtain. When they saw that time was ripe to
strike, they struck and now in coming October General Pervez Musharraf would
be completing his sixth year as absolute ruler of Pakistan, much more than
the two terms of each elected prime ministers.
Like Zia General Musharraf also used Afghanistan to further implement the
Praetorian dream of converting Pakistan into a garrison state, a country for
the military, of the military and run by the military. Its intelligence
apparatus, ISI-employed Taliban, foreign and local Jihadis trained and armed
by it from the stacked up funds received in tonnes from the United States
during the 80s, created a situation when Washington would forget all about
its commitment to democracy as a global phenomenon and support to the hilt
yet another military dictator.
After the invasion of Baghdad to restore democratic rights of the Iraqi
people by toppling Saddam Hussain (the only defence for the Anglo-American
invasion in the absence of the weapons of mass destruction), further
democratization of the Palestinian State Authority and President Bush's
Scheme for the democratization of Middle East, Washington's continued
support to a military dictator in Pakistan, whom it had earlier declared a
pariah, has been a constant source of embarrassment and a big spanner in its
move to garner wider acceptability to democracy as a universal movement.
To correct this colossal biased selectivity in its foreign policy, it was
urged in my last article that, "Both Washington and London must get down to
tell Musharraf point blank that he cannot combat terrorism by isolating the
great majority of the people in his country by denying it its democratic
right to vote in a government of its choice. The enormous magnitude of the
terrorism requires a national effort to combat it. By keeping former prime
ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif out of the mainstream politics, he
has given an open field to the religious parties and extremists to call the
shots. The recently passed Hasba Bill by the North Western Frontier
Provincial Assembly and the evils it will unleash in the country should be
nipped in the bud before it acquires the magnitude of a death-knell for the
liberal and democratic forces in Pakistan. Hasba is yet another step towards
Talibanisation of Pakistan and a powerful manifestation of Mulla-Military
alliance."
It was also urged that Washington would do well to listen to American
experts like Stephen P. Cohen who can see and measure Pakistani population's
"growing alienation" from the United States that feeds into support for
extremism. And this growing anti-Americanism obviously is due to absence of
democracy and a level playing field for popular leaders like Ms Benazir
Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif who continue to command the support of the
majority in the masses.
It is encouraging to note that after all observations such as Stephen
Cohen's are not falling like seeds on the stony ground in Washington. It
seems they are being heeded to. The recent statement of the American
Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca in Islamabad amounts to singing
the lion's beard in his den. Ms Rocca's declaration that it was the 'US
policy that free and fair elections, a level-playing field and return to
full democracy was the key to long-term prosperity and stability in
Pakistan' shows that all is not all that bad in Washington and that there is
a growing realization where things have gone wrong.
Besides, in her Washington-Islamabad video conference with senior
journalists, Ms Rocca also brought on record that the US administration did
not believe that the President's uniform guaranteed success of war against
international terrorism and that it ensured that Pakistan's nuclear assets
would not fall into the hands of fundamentalists. "It is a policy we
continue to pursue," she said.
It is better late than never. It is heartening to see that Washington has at
last started seeing through General Musharraf's game of misleading the
international opinion in insisting that his uniform was essential for
stability and fight against terror. The earlier the Bush administration
realizes the better it would be for Pakistan and its war on terrorism that
political stability comes only with legitimacy and the writ of the state
gets acceptability when it is backed by general will and not by tin pot
generals who confess to be anorchous without their uniforms.
Moreover, winning war against terrorists and extremists requires national
consensus that comes with democracy alone.
Musharraf occupies Presidency through Saddam-like referendum and he wields
power on the basis of a contrived, distorted, fractured constitution that
has no legitimacy left. Besides, he is also at war with the entire civil
society as a result of which there is no consensus behind him. Pakistan and
its people can regain their respectability and honor in the comity of
nations when they have a freely and fairly elected government.
Notwithstanding the view spinned by Musharraf's media mongers that Ms
Rocca's pronouncements should be dismissed lightly since she does not occupy
a very high position in the American power hierarchy, her assertions
definitely carry a new message that could not have been made without higher
approval especially when it is much in line with the earlier statement of
the world's most powerful woman, US Secretary of State Condi Rice, who had
underscored the importance of free and fair elections and genuinely
representative government when she visited Islamabad last.
Ms Rocca's statement definitely assumes special significance due to the
timing and the venue of the video-conference held amidst wide scale reports
of most blatant pre-poll rigging in the local bodies elections. Ms Rocca's
remarks for the need for a level playing field essential not only for the
local bodies elections, but also for the 2007 general elections, require no
interpretation. Washington was "very clear about it publicly and privately,"
indicating that this concern had been conveyed to the government also
through proper channels. She reassured her commitment when she said the US
was providing technical assistance with observers along with the rest of the
international community. No wonder many in Islamabad are having sleepless
nights.
This wind of change has been widely welcomed in Pakistan. People would
acknowledge generously the return of democracy no matter how it comes.
However, our military establishment, to save the people of embarrassment of
receiving democracy delivered in an American gift wrap, should rise to the
occasion and come to terms with the genuine political leadership that lives
in exile per force, hold earliest free and fair elections and go back to the
barracks where they belong, with some respect and dignity intact rather than
go with mud on its face.

Opposition Leader in the Senate urges CEC to stop harassment of women
candidates
Islamabad, 6
August, 2005: The Deputy Secretary General Pakistan People Party
and the leader of opposition in the senate, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani has
questioned the assertion of the Returning Officer of Tharparkar who in his
report stated that despite vide publicity no one came to register their
complaints.
Senator Razar Rabbani in a letter addressed to the Chief Election
Commissioner has wrote, "If the Election Commission can guarantee a safe
passage to and from the Returning Officer’s Office and provide reasonable
safeguards against redressal action by the administration a large number of
such complainants will come forward not only in this constituency but
through out the Province of Sindh in particular."
In a separate letter to the CEC, Senator Raza Rabbani has informed him of
the harassment of women candidates in district Thatta. Giving details he
wrote, "Mst. Jannat Jalbani a candidate for the General Council seat in UC-2
Sajawal, Thatta was kidnapped on 30th July, 2005. She returned two days
later. She was a candidate on the Awam Dwst Panel, during her captivity she
was threatened and has now decided not to contest the elections. Mst.
Noorani a candidate for the General Council seat was kidnapped on the 30th
July, 2005 from UC-2 Sajawal. She returned after two days, subsequently on
her return she has refused to contest the said elections. She was a
candidate on the Awam Dost Panel. Mst. Nargis Bano a candidate from UC-2
Sajawal, Thatta, runs a private school. The said school was broken into and
ransacked. She has now been threatened that the school will be burnt if she
contests the election."
Senator Mian Raza Rabbani has urged the CEC to take necessary measures so
that free, fair, transparent and impartial elections can be ensured.

PPP asks CEC to ensure free, fair and transparent
elections
Islamabad, August 6, 2005:
Pakistan Peoples Party has apprised the Chief Election Commissioner of the
serious and outrageous instances of highhandedness and brutality by the
Establishment in Sindh and Punjab and has demanded to ensure free, fair,
transparent and impartial elections.
Kamran Zafar, the Incharge Central Secretariat PPP, in a letter addressed to
the Chief Election Commissioner, giving details of the incident wrote,
"Father-in-law of Awam Dost Nazim candidate Rafiq Khaskheli of UC "Chobandi,
Gharo" was murdered. The murder prompted protest and the protesters blocked
the highway with dead body. Awam Dost councillor candidate Zafar Khokhar was
kidnapped from "Khan Wahan" in "Naushehro Feroz" district. 162 forms of Awam
Dost candidates were rejected in "Larkana" and "Qambar-Shahdad Kot"
Districts. The entire police postings in Kashmore taluka have not only been
made on Mr. Saleem Jan Mazari's choice, but from his tribe members turning
the taluka into a fiefdom and the police force into Levis unit."
He
further wrote, "It is absolutely evident from the postings made in Kashmore
taluka that it has been handed over to a tribal warlord by the Sindh
Government where the police officers take orders from Sardar Saleem Jan
Mazari, and not from the DPO. With the Chief Minister's open support to Mr.
Mazari, the conduct of free and fair elections is out of question, unless
the Mazari force is replaced by neutral police officers. Mr. Mazari is in
the habit of misusing police force during elections for abducting the
election agents of his opponents and taking control of polling stations to
obtain rigged results in his favour. This time, two large Baloch tribes i.e.
Bijarani's and Mazari's supported by other allied tribes will be confronting
each other in the ensuing L.B elections, therefore, there is every
possibility of bloody clashes in view of the highly charged atmosphere
resulting in serious Law & order situation in the district."
Regarding incidents in Tharparkar, the Constituency of Arbab Ghula Rahim,
the Chief Minister Sindh, Kamran Zafar wrote, "In District Tharparkar,
disenfranchisement of Union Council Jhirmirio's voters has been resorted to,
and farcical unopposed election of Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Chief Minister's
brother has taken place in the said Union Council. Unprecedented
victimization, harassment, intimidation and arrest of opponent candidates,
their proposers and seconders has taken place. The situation on ground
warrants that the whole election there, may be declared null and void. The
pre-poll rigging in the Electoral history of the country has registered an
other landmark in Chief Minister's home district, Tharparkar where out of
44, 36 Union Councils have been won by the ruling party without polling.
Incidentally, this is the same district where in 2001 Local Bodies Polls,
not a single Union Council was won by the present clique who had to eat the
humble pie."
Kamran Zafar also apprised the CEC of the instances of police harassment,
kidnapping, arrests and intimidation in Punjab and wrote, "Syed Shahid
Saleem, candidate for Nazim from Union Council No. 24, "Madina", Tehsil
Gujrat has represented that both he himself, and the candidate for Naib
Nazim Mr. Munawar Iqbal were being intimidated for withdrawing their
candidature, and Naib Nazim was picked up by Ch. Shujaat Hussain's brother,
Ch. Shafaat Hussain, and released from captivity only after he had recorded
his statement, withdrawing his candidature according to the wishes of the
Chaudharies of Gujrat."
Kamran Zafar urged the CEC to intervene so that the reign of terror
unleashed on the eve of Local Bodies Polls is put to an end, before it is
too late.

PPP asks NAB to probed Governor Sindh for misuse of power
and corrupt practices
Islamabad, 6 August 2005:
Pakistan People Party has filed a complaint with the Chairman
National Accountability Bureau under section 5 and
18(b) sub-section 11 of the NAB Ordinance against the Governor of Sindh, Dr.
Ishrat-ul-Ebad for corrupt practices.
Advocate Ch. Muhammad Aslam filed this complaint on behalf of the PPP.
Referring to a news item published in the "Daily Telegraph London" dated 12
June 2005, Ch. Aslam wrote, "Governor of the Province of Sindh, appointed by
General Pervaiz Musharaf, has been receiving monetary benefits from the
Benefit Office of the UK even after appointment to the esteemed office of
Governor of Sindh."
He further wrote, "The admission on the part of Dr Ebad, that he and his
family had been receiving the social benefits is apparent misuse of power
and corrupt practice, which could be probed into, in accordance with the
provisions of NAB Ordinance 1999."
Ch. Aslam requested, "the above matter may be investigated and the culprit
may be prosecuted accordingly."

PPP draws attention of Election Commission towards
elections in Kashmore
Islamabad, 5 August 2005: The Media
Coordinator of Monitoring Cell PPP for local bodies’ elections Nazir Dhoki
has urged the Election Commission to take note of what was happening in the
district of Kashmore where all codes for free and fair elections were being
flouted with impunity.
In a statement today Nazir Dhoki said that Kashmore district is comprised of
37 Union Councils from where the PML(Q) MNA Saleem Jan Mazari is contesting
for the post of Zila Nazim. The Sindh government has posted majority of
police officers in the district from Mazari tribe who are close relatives
and friends of Saleem Jan Mazari. Din Muhammad Mazari, Mukhtar Ahmed Mazari,
Raza Muhammad Mazari, Abdul Hakim Mazari, Roshan Din Mazari, Bilawal Mazari,
Barkat Ali Dombki and Qamar Din Mazari have been posed as SHO Kashmore, SHO
Guddu, SHO Geehalpur, SO investigation Kashmore, Incharge Investigation
Guddu, SHO Buxapur and Additional Investigation respectively.
He said that this situation is indicative of the fact that the entire
Kashmore district has been handed over to a war Lord of Mazari tribe and the
administration obeys orders of the warlord. The Chief Minister Sindh is
openly supporting Saleem Jan Mazari.
Nazir Dhoki warned the regime not to start a tribal war in Kashmore as there
is another strong Bijarani tribe opposing Saleem Jan Mazari and any undue
favours to one tribe by the government may result in serious law and order
situation in Kashmore.
He demanded immediate replacement of Mazari police force with neutral police
officers so that any threat of bloody confrontation could be avoided.
He said that despite continuous reminders to the Elections Commission
regarding victimisation of Awam Dost Candidates and their supporters, the
Election Commission has so far failed to take any action. He said that a
candidate for the post of Nazim Bashir Mirani, Union Council Dhadlo, Ghotki,
has been picked up by police officers DSP Ghulam Muhammad Mahar and
Inspector Mitha Khan Mahar. Police is conducting raids to arrest Bashir
Malik, a candidate for the post of Nazim in Union Council Umar Draho, Ghotki.
"If the police and administration continuous to act like this then there is
no chance of a fair, free and impartial elections", he concluded.

Changes in the Local Government Laws have undermined devolution
Islamabad August 5, 2005: The claims of
devolving power to grass roots is a fiction as the changes made in the local
government laws recently have instead of devolving power to the provinces
from the centre empowered the provincial chief ministers at the expense of
the state assembly as well as the councils at the local level.
This has been stated by Raja Pervez Ashraf MNA and PPP leader in a statement
today.
He said that with the latest changes the local bodies have become fiefdoms
of provincial chief ministers instead of empowering the people.
He said that 81 amendments have been made in the Sindh Ordinance, 76 in the
Punjab and similar changes in the Frontier Ordinance.
The main changes involve provisions for the removal of nazims (mayors) and
setting aside of decisions and resolutions of local governments. The system
hitherto was that disciplinary action against a local government had to be
sanctioned by a higher elected body. This system has been revised by giving
extraordinary powers to the provincial chief executives (chief ministers).
The provincial Local Government Commission is a small body of bureaucrats
headed by the provincial minister for local government. Five of the six
members of the commission are government nominees - in other words, they
represent and are dependent on the chief minister. The commission will be a
tool in a chief minister's hands to take control of the local government
network in his province.
This means that Opposition Nazims will be at the mercy of the ruling Chief
Ministers, Raja Prevez Ashraf said.
He said that the procedure for removal of nazims through votes of
no-confidence also has been changed. Now with the changes the matter will
not be referred to union council members, as heretofore, but to be effective
a no-confidence motion will need to be supported by two- thirds majority of
the relevant assembly.
Previously, the initiative for setting aside an order of the district nazim
had to be taken by the Local Government Commission. Now the chief executives
can suspend the Zila Nazim's order and refer the subject to by the Local
Government Commission for endorsement.
The reduction of union council membership from 21 to 13, has entailed a
substantial reduction in the level of women's representation in local
councils. The representation of minorities, peasants and labour will also go
down proportionately adversely affecting participation by discriminated
groups in the political process, he said.
"A fraud has been perpetrated on the people in the name of devolution" he
said.

PPP urges Chief Election Commissioner to ensure
fair elections
Islamabad, August 4, 2005:
Pakistan Peoples Party has apprised the Chief Election Commissioner of the
incidents of victimisation of Awam Dost Candidates, their supporters and PPP
workers and has demanded to take immediate action to ensure free, fair,
transparent and impartial elections.
The member Monitoring Cell PPP for the local bodies elections and Incharge
Central Secretariat, Kamran Zafar in a letter addressed to the Chief
Election Commissioner has said, "Police tried to arrest ADP Nazim candidate
Dur Mohammad Palari in Jamshoro court and eight persons, including women
were injured in fight and resistance. Police tore the cloths of Nazim.
Police registered a case under Anti-Terrorism against Malik, Talpur, Shoro
and others. Raids were conducted at the house of PPP candidates and their
proposers. Many have gone underground."
Giving details of other incidents of victimisation the letter reads, "Awam
Dost Group Naib Nazim candidate Shah Hussain Shah was kidnapped. Wali Dino,
a proposer of ADP Nazim pair Ali Ghulam and Deen Mohammad of UC Chhabralo,
Tehsil Tando Bago, Badin was arrested on fish theft charges. Abdul Hakeem
Brohi, Awam Dost Nazim candidate for UC Chhango Rajuja, Garhi Yasin, was
nominated in a murder case. Hakeem Brohi, Awam Dost Nazim candidate for UC
Chhango Rajuja, Garhi Yasin, was nominated in a murder case."
Regarding similar cases in Punjab and the newspaper reports, the letter
reads, "Monday, August 1, 2005 The Nation declares, 3 PML-backed UC Nazims
elected unopposed" The Punjab Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and
Local Bodies Muhammad Bashrat Raja is quoted in the story as saying. ``In
Rawalpindi District, three Union Council Nazims and Naib Nazims having the
backing of Pakistan Muslim League were elected unopposed, while some 25
councillors on minority seats in various union councils also return
unopposed." The same newspaper of the same date carries a report about
Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Ghulam Sarwar
Khan holding a public gathering in Union Council Bajnial on Sunday, where he
discussed the upcoming developmental project of road linking different areas
of the district as well as setting up of private phone exchange and
provision of Sui gas to the area."
Kamran Zafar urging the Chief Election Commissioner to take notice of these
incidents wrote, "Such blatant disregard for the Code of Conduct issued by
the Election Commission of Pakistan does not inspire confidence in the minds
of the Pakistani citizens. You are requested to please take notice of the
above excesses and irregularities and oblige."

PPP delegation delivers condolence message of Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto to Saudi Embassy
Islamabad, 4 August 2005: A Pakistan
Peoples Party delegation called on to the acting Ambassador of Saudi Arabia
today Thursday to condole the death of Saudi King Shah Fahad and to deliver
a condolence message by the former Prime Minister Chairperson Pakistan
People Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
The delegation was headed by Coordinator Foreign Liaison Committee PPP,
Senator Enver Beg and members national assembly Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari
and Fauzia Habib as its members.

EDITORIAL:
Cover-ups and denial strategy won’t do for Pakistan’s image
Daily Times
August 6, 2005
First it was Mukhtar Mai, now it is Dr Shazia Khalid. When a group of
Pakistani-Americans and an NGO invited Mukhtar Mai to New York to address a
gathering and get an award for her courage in the face of social oppression,
the government — in fact General Pervez Musharraf himself — decided it was
essential to stop her from going abroad “to save Pakistan’s image”. That
decision, as we have noted before, was ill-advised. Unfortunately, our worst
fears materialised when the international press started to whip the
Musharraf regime for “oppressing a rape victim” and, in the process, also
began to present Pakistan as a medieval country where women did not have
space to breathe. One columnist in The New York Times — who had earlier come
to Pakistan and written about Mukhtar Mai — especially took it upon himself
to highlight her case, this time proving that tragedies like hers keep
visiting Pakistan partly because of what the governments in this country
can, and actually, do. The story regarding the columnist is also
instructive. After he had visited Pakistan and written about various issues,
including the Mukhtar Mai episode, his later request for a visa was denied
by the Pakistani government. It was as ill-thought a decision as the one to
prevent Mukhtar Mai from going abroad. In this day and age, no one can stop
the media from reporting by banning the entry and exit of journalists.
Now, the same columnist has written about Dr Khalid who was raped while she
was working at a hospital in Sui, Balochistan. The Musharraf regime tried to
hush up that case, too. The incident sparked unrest in the area, which fed
into the larger trouble in Balochistan. Additionally, initial suspicion fell
on an army officer and some of his personnel. Again, the government
erroneously thought that the best way to handle the situation was to keep Dr
Khalid away from the media and to get her out of the way as soon as
possible. A couple of months after the incident, Dr Khalid was dragged to a
plane to London and told to shut up or else. Of course, she hasn’t. Indeed,
she has gone and spilled the beans to none other than the NYT journalist
estranged from the Pakistan government.
There is a common denominator in these three events: Mukhtar Mai’s going
abroad, the denial of a visa to a foreign journalist deemed “hostile” to
Pakistan and sending Dr Khalid away. In all three, the government acted
foolishly by thinking that the best way to avoid bad publicity was to
pretend that nothing had happened or to put a lid on it. It is time General
Musharraf realised that his policy has not worked; instead it has redounded
to our disadvantage and battered the image of the country as well as that of
General Musaharraf himself. General Musharraf must also ask himself why,
despite being a strong US ally and claiming that he is very popular abroad,
he should constantly come in for stick from the US and international media.
Surely, rapes happen everywhere in the world, including the United States.
In neighbouring India, much worse has happened and continues to happen. Why
does Pakistan get the short end of the stick? It is certainly not because
the Indian government or media keep a lid on it. Far from it. It is so
commonplace that the international media has lost interest in it. It is not
a novel item to be reported and the Indian government isn’t constantly
trying to cover it up and thereby making news. General Musharraf keeps
asking this question but clutches at the wrong bureaucratic and autocratic
answer every time.
Cover-ups do more harm than good. Worse, in today’s world, there can be no
cover-ups. General Musharraf knows that there is much that is wrong with
Pakistan, as it is with other countries. He should consider people who
highlight these wrongs as his allies rather than as his adversaries. Denying
journalists visas, preventing people from going abroad or actually bundling
them off in planes and spiriting them abroad in order to silence them is not
the solution — it is part of the problem. Building the image means making
clear to the world that despite problems the government is earnest in trying
to solve them. If Mukhtar Mai had been allowed to go to New York and the
government had facilitated the travel and given her a discreet minder, none
of the bad press would have come Pakistan’s way. The same is true in the
case of Dr Khalid. It is time the government chucked its strategy of denial.

PPP slams non-bailable arrest warrants for Zardari
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has criticised the
issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants for Asif Ali Zardari in the BMW
case as perversion of the judicial process to harass political opponents,
said PPP Deputy Parliamentary leader MNA Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday.
According to a statement, the Rawalpindi Accountability Court had issued
non-bailable arrest warrants for Zardari in the BMW car reference and
directed prosecution to arrest him and present him before the court on
August 26.
Pervez said Zardari had submitted an application with a medical certificate
about his health problems and sought exemption from personal appearance in
the case. He said the insistence by the National Accountability Bureau’s
(NAB) prosecutors to issue arrest warrants without observing the legal
formality of issuing notice showed the NAB’s policy of blackmailing
political opponents.
He said the double standards by the NAB had exposed that it was a tool of
political manipulation and coercion in the government’s hands. He said the
NAB was staffed by the remnants of jihadis of a Zia era that had set before
itself the agenda of persecuting the PPP.
“NAB is acting as a political arm of the government to re-design Pakistan’s
political landscape,” he added. Meanwhile, a PPP delegation called on to
acting ambassador of Saudi Arabia to condole the death of the late Saudi
King Shah Fahd and to deliver a condolence message by PPP chairperson
Benazir Bhutto. PPP Coordinator Foreign Liaison Committee Senator Enver Beg,
National Assembly members Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari and Fauzia Habib led
the delegation.

ARD not to hammer out any deal with military rulers
ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has reiterated ARD will
never strike any deal with military rulers and the alliance will go for any
deal only with the people of Pakistan.
" ARD will never go for any deal with the military rulers. Whenever a deal
is hammered out , it will be only with the masses of the country", she said
this while talking to PML-N MNA, Memoona Hashmi in London, a statement
issued here on Thursday said.
Benazir underlined that rulers were fearful of ARD. Therefore, they continue
on propagating about a deal to bring cracks in the alliance.
Paying rich tributes to Javed Hashmi on his write up "Haan Main Baghi Hoon",
she said Javed Hashmi was not only a courageous politician but also was a
bold writer. The dauntless stance taken by Javed Hashmi in the struggle for
restoration of democratic order in the country has inculcated courage in the
workers.
Dubbing ARD a vital and positive step, Benazir said this alliance would
serve as a milestone in the revival of democracy in the country. All the
bids on the part of rulers to create breaches in opposition alliance will be
thwarted, she remarked.
ARD will remain in place unless constitution is fully restored and country
returns to real democracy , she declared. Under ARD code of conduct both PPP
and PML- N will cooperate with each till the completion of their term if
they are voted to power.
She asserted Javed Hashmi will soon be set free with popular force.

Idle
Comment
By:L. E. Brown Jr., The Sampson Independent
Proof that international treaties don't work can be found in
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a pet project of Jimmy Carter when he
played president on TV, and of many other progressive liberals.
Since the treaty was first put in place, establishing five "declared"
nuclear powers - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - the
number of countries with nuclear weapons has doubled.
The nuclear club now includes India, which has developed and tested nuclear
weapons since the 1970s, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Iran is doing so
now.
Under the treaty, countries can only get help building nuclear power plants
if they sign the treaty.
India has not signed, yet President Bush has promised to help India build
nuclear power plants.
At the same time, Bush finds it convenient to cite the treaty as he opposes
Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs.
One can certainly see the logic in what such people as former Pakistani
Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the architect of Pakistan's nuclear
program, have said. According to an article written by Pervez Hoodbhoy, a
professor of nuclear and high-energy physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in
Islamabad, Bhutto pointed out in his death cell - he was hanged two years
later - that only privileged nations were allowed to have nuclear
capabilities.
Hoodbhoy said Bhutto made the statements long before Sept. 11 and that
Bhutto wrote in 1977: "We know that Israel and South Africa have full
nuclear capability. The Christian, Jewish and Hindu civilizations have this
capability. The communist powers also possess it. Only the Islamic
civilization was without it, but that position was about to change."
And, according to Hoodbhoy, in 1992 the Iranian vice president said, "Since
Israel continues to possess nuclear weapons, we, the Muslims, must cooperate
to produce an atomic bomb, regardless of U.N. efforts to prevent
proliferations."
However, Hoodbhoy maintains that the danger of a nuclear conflict comes not
from any Muslim state but from radicalized individuals within the states. He
says that the decision to use atomic weapons against U.S. targets has
already been made and that the sites will be chosen by pious men with
beards.
L. E. Brown, Jr. can be reached at 910-592-8137, ext. 20. or email
sicity@intrstar.net

Dubai incident
only “the tip of the iceberg”,
warns PPP
senator
By Khalid Hasan
Washington: What happened to Maulana
Fazlur Rehman at Dubai airport is “only the tip of the iceberg” and should
“make up all sit up and think,” according to Senator Dr Abdullah Riar of the
Pakistan People’s Party.
He said in a statement that the sense of concern felt at the Leader of the
Opposition’s deportation from Dubai was understandable but the incident was
disturbing since it was symptomatic of the state in which the Muslims of the
world found themselves today. It was unfortunate that they were increasingly
being associated with violence in the name of religion. He said the incident
in Dubai should lead to “soul searching” on the part of the leadership in
Pakistan. The country’s image is being targeted due to “a historic baggage
of wrong priorities and a distorted view of life promoted by a small
minority in the country.”
The PPP senator said, “ We should make every effort to correct the image
that Muslims are to be associated with a narrow vision of life and the
desire to impose their beliefs on others. In the global village of six
billion people, no one segment has the right to dictate its way of life to
others. We all need to live in peace, amity, tolerance and respect for each
other. We should be prepared to adapt and to accommodate points of view with
which we may not be in agreement.
We should live and let live. We should not harp on ideological divides which
can only tear apart the basic fabric of civil society.”
Dr Riar said Pakistan is at the centre of the global alliance against
terrorism. At the same time, is being accused of being “fertile training
ground” for those who commit acts of terror around the world. It is time for
Pakistan and its political and religious leadership to engage in
introspection and undertake corrections where corrections are needed. “The
world has neither patience nor time to indulge us. There is going to be no
grace period for those who indulge in doublespeak and whose words and
actions are marked by a wild gulf,” he observed. He said, “We must
unequivocally condemn terrorism and terrorist actions. We should take charge
of civil society to purge it of radicalism and extremist ideas. Time is no
longer on the side of those who believe, practise and sponser what they
mistakenly call Jehad. Suicide bombings and acts of wanton violence which
take innocent lives, including the lives of Muslims, are not the answer to
the Ummah’s problems. These energies should instead be channeled to fight
illiteracy, disease and poverty.
The PPP senator said the nation must work together to reclaim Pakistan’s
good name and rehabilitate its image as a forward-looking country of immense
potential and dynamism. All those who believe in a progressive, democratic
and moderate society should join hands and work for the greatness and glory
of Pakistan. This is the time when the nation should be brought together. As
such, Gen. Musharraf should turn a new leaf and free himself of his bias
against mainstream political forces that believe in democracy as manifested
through the freely-expressed will of the people. It is time to mobilise the
160 million people of Pakistan to shun extremism and radical views of life
so that the country can return to the path from which it has strayed. No
single individual can be the remedy of every ill that plagues our society.
Anyone who believes that is headed for failure with dire consequences for
the country and the nation, he added.

PPP criticises non-bailable arrest warrants against Senator Asif Zardari
Islamabad August 4, 2005:
Pakistan Peoples Party has criticised the issuance of non bailable
arrest warrants of Senator Asif Ali Zardari in the BMW case as perversion of
judicial process to harass and hound political opponents.
The Accountability Court Rawalpindi has issued non bailable arrest warrants
of Mr Asif Zardari in the BMW car reference and directed prosecution to
arrest him and present him before the court on August 26.
In a statement today Raja Pervez Ashraf MNA and deputy parliamentary leader
of the Party in the National Assembly said that Asif Zardari had submitted
an application supported by a medical certificate about his health problems
and sought exemption from personal appearance in the case. The former
Senator was also represented by one of his defence counsels yet the non
bailable arrest warrants were issued..
He said that the insistence by NAB prosecutors to issue arrest warrants even
without observing the legal formality of issuing a notice showed the
desperation of NAB and its policy to blackmail and intimidate political
opponents.
Raja Pervez Ashraf said that the NAB was staffed by the remnants of Jehadis
of Zia era that had set before itself the agenda of persecuting the PPP as
the known opponents of jehadi way of resolving national and international
conflicts.
The PPP leader said that NAB was acting as political arm of the rulers to
re-engineer Pakistan’s political landscape.
Illustrating this he said that in reply to a question in the Senate on
December 5, 2003 the NAB had said that a three star general of the Army who
was heading a civil department was being investigated for amassing assets
beyond known means. While those investigations still continue for the past
several years and the ex Lt General roams free the PPP opponents of the
regime were being chased and hounded by perverting the judicial process, he
said.
Such double standards employed by the NAB had thoroughly exposed it as no
more than a tool of political manipulation and coercion in the hands of the
rulers, he said.

Election Monitoring Committee circulates code of conduct among awam dost
candidates
Asks awam dosts to be vigilant and bring to attention code violations
Islamabad August 03, 2005: The Election Monitoring Committee
of the Pakistan Peoples Party has asked all awam dost candidates contesting
local bodies’ polls to be vigilant before and during polls and bring to the
attention of the Committee all incidents of polls rigging so that these are
taken up with appropriate authorities and also highlighted in the media.
The Election Monitoring Committee today also circulated among all awam dost
candidates the election code announced last month by the election Commission
and asked them to immediately notify the breach of any provision of the
election code.
In a statement today the Media Coordinator of the Election Monitoring
Committee Nazir Dhoki reminded the awam dost candidates that according to
the election code issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan ‘a candidate
or his/her agent will not stop any other rival candidate from holding a
corner meeting or try to stop or disrupt any corner meeting of any other
rival candidate’. He said that any bid by the election candidates of the
King’s Party to stop them from holding corner meetings but be resisted
lawfully and brought to the attention of the returning officer as well as
the Monitoring Committee.
Similarly according to the code a candidate or his/her agent will neither
stop any candidate from distributing handbills or leaflets nor try to
disrupt or interrupt speeches of rival candidates, he said.
Nazir Dhoki said that the Party had received credible information that one
of the strong arm tactics used by the King’s Party would be to carry
firearms, indulge in aerial firing and use explosives at corner meetings. He
said that the code of conduct forbids use of firecrackers and other
explosives at corner meetings and the awam dost candidates should not be
intimidated by such show of force.
He said that the code also barred candidates or their supporters from
deliberately levelling baseless and concocted accusations against their
opponents or make the opponent’s personal life a part of their campaign and
added that if the King’s Party resorted to such underhand tactics the matter
should be immediately reported to the concerned authorities and also the
election committee of the party.
Nazir Dhoki said that the Election Monitoring Committee will set up a hot
line of communication to facilitate the awam dost candidates bringing to its
attention instances of violation of the code of conduct.

PPP welcomes Rocca’s remarks on democracy in Pakistan
Says there is not alternative to fair elections and level playing field
Islamabad August 3, 2005: The Pakistan
Peoples Party has welcomed the remarks of the US Assistant Secretary of
State Christina Rocca it was the ‘US policy that free and fair elections, a
level-playing field and return to full democracy was the key to long-term
prosperity and stability in Pakistan’.
Christina Rocca made these remarks while answering questions from senior
Pakistani journalists during a Washington-Islamabad video conference on
Tuesday.
She also said that the US administration did not believe that the
president’s uniform guaranteed success of war against international
terrorism and that it ensured that Pakistan’s nuclear assets would not fall
into the hands of fundamentalists
"It is a policy we continue to pursue," she said.
In a statement today spokesman of the Party said that the PPP has all along
believed that General Musharraf was misleading the international opinion in
insisting that his uniform was essential for stability and fight against
terror.
He said that political stability comes only with legitimacy. Winning war
against terrorists and extremists requires national consensus that comes
with democracy alone.
General Musharraf who has entered Presidency through referendum and
re-written the Constitution has no legitimacy. He is also at war with the
entire civil society as a result of which there is no consensus behind the
General, he said.
The spokesman said that without fair and free elections in which all
political parties and leaders are allowed to participate and which are held
under an independent Election Commission with representation from the Human
Rights Commission the goal of stability will continue to elude the nation.
"The PPP welcomes the realization that there is no alternative to fair
elections, a level-playing field and return to full democracy for Pakistan’s
stability".
The Party hopes that the dynamics of this reality will soon remove the fog
from the thinking of military rulers, he said.
"The absence of alternatives should make the mind clear; the sooner the
better", the spokesman said.

PPP denounces General Musharraf’s plea to people to vote for PML candidates
Islamabad August, 1, 2005: The Pakistan
Peoples Party has denounced General Muhsaraf’s plea to the people to vote
for PML candidates in the local bodies elections as a grave and blatant
violation of the code of conduct and asked the Election Commission to take
note of it and take appropriate action.
Addressing a public meeting in Swat on Saturday General Pervez Mushaarf
asked people to vote for the PML candidates in the forthcoming elections.
In a statement today Nazir Dhoki member of the Election Monitoring Committee
of the PPP said that the Election Commission had on July 13 issued a Code of
Conduct. According to the clause 16 of the code ‘the Local Government
Elections will be held on a non party basis’.
Nazir Dhoiki asked as to whether the Chief Executive of the country was not
aware of this fact or whether the dictator deliberately disregarded with
contempt the orders of the Election Commission believing that he can get
away with it as he got away with contempt of the Constitution of the
country.
The Media Coordinator of PPP Election Monitoring Committee said that the
General’s categorical plea to the people to vote for the Pakistan Muslim
League candidates was a proof that the King’s Party had put up candidates in
LB polls in violation of the Election Commission’s code of conduct.
"This is nothing but double standards, one for the King’s Party and the
other for the opposition", he said.
Nazir Dhoki asked the Chief Election Commissioner to call for the tape
recording of the speech of General Musharraf to verify for himself the
veracity of what has been reported in the press today with reference to
voting for the PML candidates in the elections. He said that General
Musharraf’s statement was a direct interference in the electoral process, a
public admission of the fact that the King’s Party had formally nominated
candidates in election in violation of the code of conduct and an
unprecedented contempt of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
If the Election Commission fails to take notice of this people will be
constrained to believe that the election laws were framed and the code was
made only to give an edge to the King’s Party at the cost of opposition
political parties.
He said that the Acting Chief Election Commissioner on Saturday warned that
action will be taken against the violators of poll code. There could be no
greater contempt for the Election commission when on that very day the
General publicly asks people to vote for Party candidates put up by the
King’s Party, he said.
"The people would now watch whether and what action is taken against the
violation of polls code or whether the warning of the election commission
was the usual sound and fury signifying nothing", Nazir Dholki said.

PPP issues fact sheet regarding victimisation of Awam Dost Candidates and
their supporters
Islamabad, 1 August 2005: Pakistan
People Party has asked the Chief Election Commissioner to take note of
victimisation of Awam Dost Candidates and their supporters all over the
country especially in Sindh and Punjab provinces and the use of government
resources by the ministers and advisers of the government.
The Media Coordinator of the Central Monitoring Committee for the Local Body
Elections PPP, Nazir Dhoki issuing the second fact sheet regarding cases of
victimisation against the Awam Dost Candidates and their supporters said
that these cases have been already brought to the notice of Election
Commission. He said that it seems that the Election Commission is helpless
in stopping the government functionaries from committing gross violations of
the election laws.
Detailing the cases the fact sheet says, after Punjab and Sindh, General
Pervez is campaigning in NWFP for the pro-government candidates and
addressed a public meeting in Swat asking people to vote for PML(Q)
candidates. Governor Punjab and adviser to Prime Minister Ms. Nilofar
Bakhtiar are distributing monies from Baitul Mal fund for getting support
for the pro-government candidates. Police and administration are hounding
and harassing Awam Dost Candidates and PPP workers. Candidate for Naib Nazi,
Union Council Adowal Mirza Abid was kidnapped from session court on the day
of scrutiny. Policy arrested candidate for Naib Nazim Azhar Hussain in
Gujrat. Police snatched vehicle of candidate for Nazim, Zafar Iqbal in
Gujrat. Candidates supported by Alliance for Restoration of Democracy are
being threatened and forced to withdraw their nomination papers.
The fact sheet says that MQM is openly threatening Awam Dost Candidates in
Karachi. Proposer of Nazim, Union Council 11, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Abdul Hameed
was kidnapped from the PPP Office Karachi. False cases have been registered
against candidate Naib Nazim Jamshed Town, Jamshed Ghani and Aurangzeb.
Similarly false cases have been registered against candidates for Nazim and
Naib Nazim Union Council Ranipur in Khairpur, Hakim Ali Dayo and Abdul
Khaliq Bhutto. Candidate for Nazim and Naib Nazim, Union Council Sadarji
Bhattiyoon have been kidnapped and similarly police kidnapped their
proposers.
Nazir Dhoki said that candidate for Nazim Deparja, Khadim Sehto has been
arrested by the police and false cases have been initiated against several
other Nazims, Naib Nazims and their supporters including Niaz Solangi of
Gadeji. Police is detaining candidates and DPOs are carrying out these
illegal acts on the behest of Chief Minister Sindh and other government
functionaries. The candidate of Naib Nazim, Union Council Sami, Ghulam
Sarwar Tunio has been arrested by the police so that his nomination papers
are rejected. Police has also arrested Sikandar Ali Bhanban, the candidate
for Nazim in Union council Sandan.
The fact sheet says that Police is targeting and harassing Awam Dost
Candidates and their supporters in Dadu and Jamshoro on the behest of Chief
Minister Sindh and the Federal Minister Liaquat Jatoi. Police tried to
arrest Dur Muhammad Palari in the office of Returning Officer Jamshoro.
Police tortured his supporters and injured several of them including three
women. Police also snatched gold lockets, money and mobile phones from them.
Awam Dost Candidates in Union Council Shah Panjo, Bashir Lakho and Akbar
Chandio, and candidate for Naib Nazim Nau Goth, Koro Khan have been
arrested. Policed arrested Bakhshal Solangi, the candidate for Nazim, Union
Council Sindhi Batra and raided his house and took away money and other
valuables from his house. The police also arrested his proposers Ali Gohar
Bhurguri and his wife. Police raided the house of Mubarak Sariyo, the
candidate of Naib Nazim, Union Council Kukar and harassed women in the
house. Awam Dost Candidate Liaquat Khoso has been arrested in Union Council
Goro. Police is carrying out raids to arrest PPP leader Dr. Imam Din in
Nasirabad, Larkana to keep him out of campaigning in the elections. Police
raided the house of Hussain Bux in Union Council Depra and arrested Ahmed
Khan, the candidate of Nazim. Attempt was made to kidnap Shams Abbasi and
Ali Gohar by the supporters of PML leader Shabbir Chandio.
Nazir Dhoki said that all the complaints have been sent to the Elections
Commission but so far no action has been taken. He demanded immediate
release of the arrested and initiation of cases against the DCOs and DPOs of
the area where these atrocities have taken place.

PPP asks
Election Commission to take measures for holding free and fair elections
Islamabad, 02 August 2005: "Failing to
take action against the violators of election laws has exposed the inability
and impotency of Election Commission to hold free, fair, transparent and
impartial elections". Naheed Khan, member national assembly and the
political secretary to the chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto, said this in a statement today.
Naheed Khan said that the Monitoring Committee of the party has so far
issued two detailed fact sheets regarding violation of election laws by the
government functionaries and the King’s party and victimisation of Awam Dost
candidates and their supporters but the Election Commission remained unmoved
which reflects that the Commission is totally helpless and powerless to stop
these gross violations by General Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz,
Governors and Chief Ministers of Sindh and Punjab, Federal and state
ministers, advisers and the office bearers of the King’s party. The
Commission has also failed to stop the incidents of victimisations against
Awam Dost candidates, their supporters and PPP workers.
She said that the Commission also did not take any action against the people
who publicly announced disenfranchising women of their right of
participation in the elections in Dir and Batagram. It was the duty of the
Commission to probe the situation and take measures to ensure women
participation but it did not do so which indicates its incapacity to hold
free and fair elections in the country. This is the reason that the PPP has
been demanding formation of an independent election commission with the help
of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Naheed Khan said.
Naheed Khan condemned the government functionaries for illegally interfering
and using state resources in the elections and their efforts to stop the
Awam Dost candidates to participate freely in the elections. She also
condemned institution of cases and arrests of Awam Dost candidates, their
proposers and seconders and supporters. She said that it is shameful that
the houses of several candidates and their supporters are being raided by
the police and security personals in plain clothes and women are being
harassed every day.
Naheed Khan demanded immediate release of all the arrested political workers
and withdrawal of cases against them so that the elections could take place
peacefully. She warned the regime of dire consequences if the people are not
allowed to freely express their choice and choose their own candidates
without any pressure and threat. Naheed Khan said that the party is keeping
all record of the government functionaries who are involved in those
violations and atrocities or helping the King’s party and would hold all of
them accountable in due course of time.

NAB as seen from the parliament
Farhatullah Babar
The News Tuesday August 02, 2005: The
National Accountability Bureau has often been accused of being more of a
tool for political victimisation than an instrument of accountability. The
draconian provisions of the NAB Ordinance and the selective manner in which
these have been applied has also come under criticism. But, politics apart,
let us take a look at the NAB from the vantage point of Parliament.
On December 5, 2003, a question was asked about the military officers
working in civil departments against whom cases had been registered by the
NAB during the previous two years. The 14 military officers on the list
included a former lieutenant general heading a civil department, as being
"under investigation for accumulating assets beyond his means." The endless
investigations apparently still continue, while the lieutenant general roams
free, unlike politicians under investigation.
Another question on the same day was about the expenses on foreign trips
made by NAB officials. Forty-eight foreign trips had been undertaken by NAB
officers at public expense during the previous two years, costing over Rs10
million. One senior officer alone made 16 foreign trips that cost the
exchequer some Rs3.3 million.
Twenty-five of these visits were undertaken for participation in seminars,
conferences and conventions in various world capitals. The officials made
three trips to Riyadh and Dubai to attend Pakistan Day celebrations, to make
presentations to the Pakistan Executive Group, and to address members of PPF,
whatever that means.
A senior officer of the Bureau, during several journeys to European
countries, also travelled to Dubai ten times, the purposes of the trips not
being explained in most cases. While visits at public expense to world
capitals for "attending conferences and seminars" may be understandable,
what purpose did the ten trips to Dubai serve?
On Dec. 9, 2004, Senator Sanaullah Baloch asked how much money had been
recovered under plea bargains from politicians and civil and military
officers on the orders of the court. It was revealed that whereas an amount
of Rs432 million had been recovered from politicians, nearly two billion
rupees had been recovered from the civil-military bureaucracy under pleas
bargain. Who said the politicians were the most corrupt segment of society?
On Dec. 2, 2004, a questions was asked about the status of NAB cases against
sitting members of Parliament, if any. Nine sitting MPs were named against
whom there were cases of corruption, misuse of authority and accumulation of
assets beyond their known sources of income.
Some of the cases were under trial, some under investigation, some"under
process," whatever that means, and some closed for undisclosed reasons.
Federal ministers Faisal Saleh Hayat, Aftab Sherpao, Rana Nazir Ahmad,
Jehangir Khan Tareen and Liaquat Ali Jatoi were named in the list. All had
been the target of the NAB until they joined the King's Party, were rewarded
with ministerial jobs and let off the hook.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Syed Mushahid
Hussain, had also been named as being involved in a case of "misuse of
authority." The case was closed in May 2002 after over two years of
investigation, the government said in its reply.
Just when the opposition asked why cases were closed on the eve of the
general elections, Mushahid Hussain rose in the House and challenged the
NAB. He stunned everyone by saying that he had not even been informed of any
case against him let, alone his being under investigation, and the case
closed after such investigations.
A privilege motion was filed against the NAB for misleading the House. The
meeting was scheduled for Dec. 22 and the chairman of the NAB summoned to
attend it. At midnight on Dec. 21, panic telephone calls by the Senate
Secretariat informed the members that the meeting had been cancelled, but no
reason was given.
When the meeting was rescheduled for Jan. 6 this year, the chairman of the
NAB was exempted and not called to attend it. Does it require too much
imagination to guess why the first meeting was cancelled and why the
chairman was not asked to attend the rescheduled meeting?
The opposition protested and asked that the meeting be adjourned to another
date and the chairman directed to appear in person to answer some questions.
As they staged a walkout the government lost no time in rushing through the
procedure to reject the privilege motion. Who hides what, and from whom?
During a reply to a question last Feb. 15, it transpired that the NAB had
paid Rs390 million as fees to lawyers during the past five years. The
expenditure incurred on the boarding and lodging of NAB officers to
represent the Bureau in the courts was in addition to this amount.
Various provisions of the NAB Ordinance have been likened by legal experts
to the notorious POTO in Indian Kashmir that Pakistan has been condemning at
all international forums. But while the POTO has been disbanded the NAB
Ordinance continues to be applied with relish.
This emerged in dramatic form when sometime ago the Supreme Court asked the
NAB's chief prosecutor whether petitioner Siddiq ul Farooq, the information
secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), was in NAB custody and what
the status of investigations against him was. In reply, the prosecutor
general admitted that the petitioner was in NAB custody. But he added that
he could not inform the Court about the case, because after being arrested,
Siddiq ul Farooq had been "dumped somewhere," and he did not where he was
kept or what the status of investigations was.
The draconian provision requiring an accused to prove innocence has also
been applied against the political class with sadistic pleasure. In an
interview with The News sometime ago a former chairman of the NAB gleefully
remarked that it was not the Bureau's task to prove charges against the
corrupt, "the accused must prove his innocence."
A two-dimensional view of the NAB that emerges from the vantage point of
Parliament is: One, if after spending nearly Rs400 million rupees on lawyers
and over Rs10 million on 48 foreign trips, it is found that civil-military
bureaucracy is more corrupt than politicians, although it has the audacity
to assert that politicians were more corrupt than others. Two, while the NAB
is carrying out investigations -- open or secret -- an accused may roam
free, be made a cabinet minister, or "dumped" and forgotten.
The writer is a PPP Senator and member of the Defence Committee of the
Senate.

Mohtarma Bhutto condoles death
of King Fahd
Islamabad August 02, 2005: Former Prime
Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto has condoled the death of King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz and paid tributes
to the late Saudi monarch who died Monday.
In a statement today she said that the Pakistan Peoples Party, as indeed the
people of Pakistan, had received the news of the late King's passing with
profound sorrow.
Not only was King Fahd the Ruler of a strategically important country with
vast oil reserves but he was the Custodian of the two Holiest sites of Islam
she said and added that this had earned him a special place in the hearts of
Muslims worldwide. She recalled the unprecedented renovation and extension
of Islam’s two holiest sites in Makkah and Madinah under his leadership,
which had rightly earned him the title of "Custodian of Haramain Sharifain".
The former Prime Minister said, "King Fahd was a man of vision who wisely
led his countrymen for a quarter of a century as king". She recalled that
King Fahd had tried to save the life of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
during a dark period in the history of Pakistan.
Mohtarma Bhutto said that King Fahd was an internationally respected
statesperson who played a critical role in regional stability.
King Fahd who led Saudi Arabia for the past 23 years ascended the throne in
1982 after seven years as crown prince.
She said that Pakistan- Saudi Arabia relations acquired new dimensions and
grew from strength to strength during the rule of the late monarch.
She prayed for Allah’s blessings on the soul of King Fahd and expressed the
hope that relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will continue to grow
in the years ahead.

|
 |


Words of Shaheed
|
There was a great Prime Minister, the first Prime Minister, the father
of the present Prime Minister of India, who said, "We were too old, we
were too tired to oppose Pakistan, and Pakistan had to come into being.
But we hope that one day we will get together gain." I too hope so, not
that Pakistan will emerge as subservient to India but in the sense that
we will get together again as equal friends, in a common fraternity,
living in a common subcontinent and sharing the common effort of seeing
that poverty, ignorance and misery are wiped out. If there are any two
countries in world that are the poorest in the world, they are Pakistan
and India. Our resources might be tremendous, but the fact is that we
two are the poorest in the world. Yet in the last 24 years, we have gone
to war three times. Three times there has been conflict in the
subcontinent. I remember that Prime Minister of the Soviet Union once
telling me that even rich nations try to avoide war; poorer nations
should make a greater attempt to avoid war.
Speech at the Security Council, New York
December 12, 1971 |
|