December 2005
Indicted lobbyist
represented Pak Army
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: Jack Abramoff, a
high-profile Washington lobbyist being investigated for graft and other
corrupt practices, at one time counted the Pakistan Army as one of his
clients, though the then prime minister of the country did not know it.
According to a report published on Thursday in the Washington Post, Abramoff
turned up as a representative of the Pakistani military when then prime
minister Benazir Bhutto went to Washington in 1995 to seek the return of
$600 million Islamabad had paid for 28 F-16 fighters.
“Bhutto’s Washington lobbyists were at the Pakistani Embassy savouring her
successful meeting with President Bill Clinton when a man in a suit made a
mysterious entrance. ‘Suddenly, this portly guy steps in and sits down. He
says nothing,’ recalled one of the lobbyists.
The Americans asked him to introduce himself. He folded his arms and
refused. ‘Finally, he says, “I am Jack Abramoff,”’ recalled the lobbyist, a
well-connected Democrat. They had never heard of him. Abramoff explained
that he was ‘close to Newt (Gingrich, then speaker of the House of
Representatives).’ The astonished lobbyists for Bhutto learned that Abramoff
had travelled to Islamabad and had sold his services to the Pakistani
military without the prime minister’s knowledge.”
How a Well-Connected
Lobbyist Became the Center of a Far-Reaching Corruption Scandal
Jack Abramoff liked to slip into dialogue
from "The Godfather" as he led his lobbying colleagues in planning
their next conquest on Capitol Hill. In a favorite bit, he would mimic an
ice-cold Michael Corleone facing down a crooked politician's demand for a
cut of Mafia gambling profits: "Senator, you can have my answer now if you
like. My offer is this: nothing."
The playacting provided a clue to how Abramoff saw himself -- the power
behind the scenes who directed millions of dollars in Indian gambling
proceeds to favored lawmakers, the puppet master who pulled the strings of
officials in key places, the businessman who was building an international
casino empire.
Abramoff is the central figure in what could become the biggest
congressional corruption scandal in generations. Justice Department
prosecutors are pressing him and his lawyers to settle fraud and bribery
allegations by the end of this week, sources knowledgeable about the case
said. Unless he reaches a plea deal, he faces a trial Jan. 9 in Florida in a
related fraud case.
A reconstruction of the lobbyist's rise and fall shows that he was an
ingenious dealmaker who hatched interlocking schemes that exploited the
machinery of government and trampled the norms of doing business in
Washington -- sometimes for clients but more often to serve his desire for
wealth and influence. This inside account of Abramoff's career is drawn from
interviews with government officials and former associates in the lobbying
shops of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP and Greenberg Traurig LLP; thousands of
court and government records; and hundreds of e-mails obtained by The
Washington Post, as well as those released by Senate investigators.
Abramoff, now 47, had mammoth ambitions. He sought to build the biggest
lobbying portfolio in town. He opened two restaurants close to the Capitol.
He bought a fleet of casino boats. He produced two Hollywood movies. He
leased four arena and stadium skyboxes and dreamed of owning a pro sports
team. He was a generous patron in his Orthodox Jewish community, starting a
boys' religious school in Maryland.
For a time, all things seemed possible. Abramoff's brash style often clashed
with culturally conservative Washington, but many people were drawn to his
moxie and his money. He collected unprecedented sums -- tens of millions of
dollars -- from casino-rich Indian tribes. Lawmakers and their aides packed
his restaurants and skyboxes and jetted off with him on golf trips to
Scotland and the Pacific island of Saipan.
Abramoff offered jobs and other favors to well-placed congressional staffers
and executive branch officials. He pushed his own associates for government
positions, from which they, too, could help him.
He was a man of contradictions. He presented himself as deeply religious,
yet his e-mails show that he blatantly deceived Indian tribes and did
business with people linked to the underworld. He had genuine inside
connections but also puffed himself up with phony claims about his access.
Abramoff's lobbying team was made up of Republicans and a few Democrats,
most of whom he had wined and dined when they were aides to powerful members
of Congress. They signed on for the camaraderie, the paycheck, the
excitement.
"Everybody lost their minds," recalled a former congressional staffer who
lobbied with Abramoff at Preston Gates. "Jack was cutting deals all over
town. Staffers lost their loyalty to members -- they were loyal to money."
A senior Preston Gates partner warned him to slow down or he would be "dead,
disgraced or in jail." Those within Abramoff's circle also saw the danger
signs.
Their boss had become increasingly frenzied about money and flouted the
rules. "I'm sensing shadiness. I'll stop asking," one associate, Todd
Boulanger, e-mailed a colleague.
Abramoff declined to comment for this article. "I have advised my client not
to speak, except in court," said Neal Sonnett, one of his attorneys. A
friend of two decades, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), defended Abramoff:
"I think he's been dealt a bad hand and the worst, rawest deal I've ever
seen in my life. Words like bribery are being used to describe things that
happened every day in Washington and are not bribes."
Few of those interviewed would agree to be quoted on the record because of
the ongoing investigation by a Justice Department task force. But some who
spoke on the condition of anonymity said they look back in amazement at the
heady days of Abramoff's rise.
"We weren't outside the box," the former Preston Gates colleague said. "We
were outside the universe."
Hints of Trouble
A quarter of a century ago, Abramoff and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist
were fellow Young Turks of the Reagan revolution. They organized
Massachusetts college campuses in the 1980 election -- Abramoff while he was
an undergraduate at Brandeis and Norquist at Harvard Business School -- to
help Ronald Reagan pull an upset in the state.
They moved to Washington, maneuvered to take over the College Republicans --
at the time a sleepy establishment organization -- and transformed it into a
right-wing activist group. They were joined by Ralph Reed, an ambitious
Georgian whose later Christian conversion would fuel his rise to national
political prominence.
Soon they made headlines with such tactics as demolishing a mock Berlin Wall
in Lafayette Park, where they also burned a Soviet leader in effigy. "We
want to shock them," Abramoff told The Post at the time.
They forged lifelong ties. At Reagan's 72nd-birthday party at the White
House, Reed introduced Abramoff to his future wife, Pam Alexander, who was
working with Reed. She eventually converted to Judaism and embraced the
Orthodox beliefs Abramoff had adopted as a teenager.
Even in those early days, there were hints of the troubles to come. "If
anyone is not surprised at the rise and fall of Jack Abramoff, it is me,"
said Rich Bond, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Abramoff and his crew busted the College Republicans' budget with a 1982
national direct-mail fundraising campaign that ended up "a colossal flop,"
said Bond, then deputy director of the party's national committee. He said
he banished the three from GOP headquarters, telling Abramoff: "You can't be
trusted."
Shortly thereafter, Abramoff was running Citizens for America, a
conservative grass-roots group founded by drugstore magnate Lewis E. Lehrman.
Abramoff was in frequent contact with Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, the
Reagan White House's Iran-contra mastermind, about grass-roots efforts to
lobby Congress for the Nicaraguan contras, according to records in the
National Security Archive.
One of Abramoff's most audacious adventures involved Jonas Savimbi, the
Angolan rebel leader who had U.S. support but was later found to have
ordered the murders of his movement's representative to the United States
and that man's relatives. With Savimbi, Abramoff organized a "convention" of
anticommunist guerrillas from Laos, Nicaragua and Afghanistan in a remote
part of Angola.
Afterward, Lehrman fired Abramoff amid a dispute about the handling of the
group's $3 million budget.
Abramoff also worked on behalf of the apartheid South African government,
which secretly paid $1.5 million a year to the International Freedom
Foundation, a nonprofit group that Abramoff operated out of a townhouse in
the 1980s, according to sworn testimony to the South African Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.
At the same time, Abramoff dabbled as a Hollywood producer, shepherding an
anticommunist movie, "Red Scorpion," starring Dolph Lundgren, filmed in
Namibia, which was then ruled by South Africa. Actors in the film said they
saw South African soldiers on the set. When the film was released in 1989,
anti-apartheid groups demonstrated at the theaters. The movie ran into
financial difficulty during and after production, but Abramoff produced a
sequel, "Red Scorpion 2."
Mysterious Entrance
When Republicans wrested control of the House from the Democrats in 1994,
Abramoff turned his focus back to Washington politics. With Norquist's help,
he reinvented himself as a Republican lobbyist on heavily Democratic K
Street.
Norquist was one of the intellectual architects of the Republican Revolution
and a muse for its leader, Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), soon to be speaker of the
House.
Abramoff also counted on his father, who had a wealth of connections from
his days as president of the Diners Club credit card company. Frank Abramoff
had once looked into operating a casino in the Commonwealth of the Northern
Mariana Islands, U.S. territory that includes Saipan. He introduced his son
around, and the Marianas became one of the first important clients of the
new lobbyist.
Soon the younger Abramoff developed a key alliance with Rep. Tom DeLay, a
conservative Republican from Texas who was working his way up in the House
leadership. The two met at a DeLay fundraiser on Capitol Hill in 1995,
according to a former senior DeLay aide. The aide recalled that Edwin A.
Buckham, then DeLay's chief of staff, told his boss: "We really need to work
with Abramoff; he is going to be an important lobbyist and fundraiser."
DeLay, a Christian conservative, did not quite know what to make of Abramoff,
who wore a beard and a yarmulke. They forged political ties, but the two men
never became personally close, according to associates of both men.
Almost from the start, Abramoff struck some rival lobbyists as a strange
figure who operated on the margins. He even turned up as a representative of
the Pakistani military when Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto went to Washington
in 1995 to seek the return of $600 million the Islamabad government had paid
for 28 F-16 fighters. The sale had been blocked by the U.S. government over
concerns about Pakistan's nuclear program.
Bhutto's Washington lobbyists were at the Pakistani
Embassy savoring her successful meeting with President Bill Clinton when a
man in a suit made a mysterious entrance.
"Suddenly, this portly guy steps in and sits down. He says nothing,"
recalled one of the lobbyists. The Americans asked him to introduce himself.
He folded his arms and refused.
"Finally, he says, 'I am Jack Abramoff,' " recalled the lobbyist, a
well-connected Democrat. They had never heard of him. Abramoff explained
that he was "close to Newt."
The astonished lobbyists for Bhutto learned that Abramoff had traveled to
Islamabad and had sold his services to the Pakistani military without the
prime minister's knowledge.
In the Senate, Abramoff befriended Republicans and their staffers, along
with some Democrats on the appropriations committees. In August 1999, he
signed up for the National Republican Senatorial Committee's "Tartan
Invitational," in which a half-dozen Republican senators and their aides
spent a few days with about 50 lobbyists golfing at the exclusive St.
Andrews Links in Scotland.
The following year, Abramoff figured out how to use his clients to fund his
own trips to St. Andrews with lawmakers. The first guests were DeLay and his
aides.
Team Abramoff
With Norquist's help, Abramoff secured a spot on the transition team for the
Interior Department after George W. Bush was elected president in 2000. He
tried to place several officials in Interior, including an unsuccessful
attempt to land a former Marianas official in the top spot overseeing U.S.
territories.
He was able to befriend J. Steven Griles, the deputy interior secretary,
e-mails and interviews show. By the sum mer of 2001, Abramoff was referring
to him in an e-mail to a client as "our guy Steve Griles." Federal
investigators are now looking into whether Griles interceded on behalf of
Abramoff and improperly discussed a job with the lobbyist while in a
position to affect his clients. Griles denied any wrong doing in recent
testimony to the Senate.
Abramoff's team also cultivated Roger Stillwell, the Marianas desk officer
at the Interior Department. In a recent interview, Stillwell said he
accepted dinners at Abramoff's restaurant, Signatures, and tickets to
Washington Redskins games. But he said that all those actions occurred while
he was a contract employee at Interior, not a federal worker. He also said
he sent Abramoff copies of e-mails he sent to his boss, but he noted that
none of them contained confidential information and that "there's nothing
wrong with doing that."
Abramoff wallowed in his access, real and imagined. When his crack
administrative assistant Susan Ralston bolted for a position with White
House political adviser Karl Rove, Abramoff told colleagues he had gotten
her the job even though it was Ralston's old boss, Reed, who made it happen,
her former colleagues said.
Even glowing profiles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal noting
Abramoff's extensive influence and impressive income were not enough.
Abramoff quietly paid op-ed columnists thousands of dollars to write
favorably about his clients, including one writer for Copley News Service
who disclosed this month that he had been paid for as many as two dozen
columns since the mid-1990s.
Abramoff drove his colleagues hard, often e-mailing them late into the
night. Many more than doubled their Hill pay when they went to work with
him, some earning salaries of $200,000 to $300,000.
"He hired a bunch of white, middle-class Irish Catholic guys who wanted to
exceed their parents' expectations," said one of the young lobbyists who
himself fit that description. "He was always pushing, demanding. He would
say, 'We are a family, we will work 24 hours a day, we will win.' "
Team Abramoff included former staffers to DeLay, as well as to Sen. Conrad
Burns (R-Mont.), head of the Senate Appropriations panel's Interior
subcommittee; Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the House
Administration Committee; Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), who has served
on the key House committee that oversees tribes; and Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.),
now minority leader.
Abramoff gathered his troops for strategy meetings that were "a great show,"
rollicking forums where ethical niceties were derided with locker room
humor, recalled a former Preston Gates colleague. "Jack would say, 'I gave
that guy 10 grand and he voted against me!' " the former associate recalled.
Bill padding was openly discussed, according to Abramoff's Greenberg Traurig
e-mails that have been released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. For
example, in April 2000, Abramoff had lobbyist Shawn Vasell working on a
monthly invoice to the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, telling him to
"be sure we hit the $150k minimum. If you need to add time for me, let me
know."
An exasperated Vasell e-mailed back: "You only had 2 hours. We are not even
close to this number . . . ." Abramoff's solution: "Add 60 hours for me,"
and "pump up" the hours for three or four other lobbyists.
The Choctaws were one of a half-dozen Indian tribes who gave more than $80
million to Abramoff between 2000 and 2003. Not only were the tribes paying
Abramoff's lobbying firm, they were also paying Abramoff's secret outside
partner, Michael Scanlon, who charged the Indians millions of dollars for
public relations work and split the money with Abramoff. Scanlon's public
relations fees did not have to be disclosed under lobbying rules, thus
making it possible for the magnitude of their take from the tribes to be
kept from public view. The two dubbed their scheme "Gimme Five," according
to e-mails in which Abramoff disparaged their clients as "morons" and
"troglodytes."
E-mails show that Abramoff put his money into an array of political and
personal projects.
The nonprofit Capital Athletic Foundation, for example, allowed him to
schmooze with Washington's movers and shakers at charity affairs. He put a
congressional spouse -- Julie Doolittle, wife of the California lawmaker --
on his payroll to plan at least one event. The congressman's office has said
that there was no connection between his wife's work and official acts.
The foundation was ostensibly created to help inner-city children through
organized sports. There is no evidence money went to city kids, but the
foundation did fund some of Abramoff's pet projects: a sniper school for
Israelis in the West Bank, a golf trip to Scotland for Ohio congressman Ney
and others, and a Jewish religious academy in Columbia that Abramoff founded
and where he sent his children to be educated.
Another Abramoff financial vehicle was the nonprofit American International
Center, a Rehoboth Beach, Del., "think tank" set up by Scanlon, who staffed
it with beach friends from his summer job as a lifeguard. The center became
a means for Abramoff and Scanlon to take money from foreign clients that
they did not want to officially represent. Some of the funds came from the
government of Malaysia. Banks and oil companies there were making deals in
Sudan, where U.S.
companies were barred on human rights grounds. Sudan was among several
oil-rich nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East that Abramoff eyed as
venues for lucrative energy deals. Abramoff told associates he wanted to
become a go-to person for U.S. companies seeking to do business with
oil-patch nations.
But by early 2003, Abramoff's private dealmaking had spiraled out of
control. His religious academy was draining his income, and his restaurants
were hemorrhaging money. He told Scanlon in an e-mail that February that he
was at "rock bottom" and needed funds immediately. By the next day, he was
frantic. "Mike!!! I need the money TODAY! I AM BOUNCING CHECKS!!!"
THE FAST RISE AND STEEP
FALL OF JACK ABRAMOFF
By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi - Washington Post Staff Writers
'Enron of Lobbying'
Thursday, 29 December 2005: To
Abramoff's rivals in the niche world of tribal lobbying, however, he was
still a confounding success.
Team Abramoff was stealing away tribal clients from other lobbyists and
charging fees of $150,000 a month or more -- 10 or 20 times what the Indians
had been paying to others. Team members did it by touting their ties to
powerful Republicans on Capitol Hill and stoking tribal worries that
Congress might try to tax casino proceeds. Abramoff and Scanlon also quietly
got involved in tribal elections.
Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.), the ranking Democrat on the Indian Affairs
Committee, remembers first hearing "vague complaints" about Abramoff in June
2003 from three Democratic lobbyists. The tribes had traditionally supported
Democrats, but Abramoff was capturing them for Republicans, getting them to
boost their contributions and give two-thirds to his party.
There was even more buzz on Capitol Hill about Scanlon, the gregarious
former DeLay press aide who had become a multimillionaire almost overnight.
His old friends were astonished that Scanlon, then in his early thirties,
was traveling to the beach by helicopter and living in a waterfront Rehoboth
mansion that he bought for nearly $5 million in cash. A Louisiana paper, the
Town Talk of Alexandria, reported in September 2003 that the Coushatta tribe
paid Scanlon's public relations firm $13.7 million, a figure that amazed
tribal lobbyists as well as some of Abramoff's colleagues. It was around
that time that one colleague, Kevin Ring, learned from one of Abramoff's
assistants that his boss was secretly getting money from Scanlon, according
to a source privy to the conversation.
"This could be the Enron of lobbying," Ring told the colleague.
Rival lobbyists, including some Republicans, were comparing notes about what
they considered Abramoff's outrageous conduct.
One of them contacted The Post in fall 2003. In early 2004, The Post
published a detailed account of Abramoff's tribal lobbying, showing how four
of Greenberg Traurig's Indian clients had paid $45 million, most of it in
fees to Scanlon's firm. Within weeks, Greenberg initiated an internal
investigation, Abramoff was ousted and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee
began its own inquiry, which unearthed hundreds of incriminating e-mails
from Abramoff's Greenberg Traurig computer files.
Abramoff had another problem that few people in Washington knew about. He
and another old friend from College Republican days, Adam Kidan, had
purchased in 2000 a fleet of Florida casino boats for $147.5 million. By
2004, SunCruz Casinos was bankrupt, and the two men were being sued by
lenders for $60 million in loan guarantees, accused of faking a wire
transfer for the $23 million they had promised to put into the deal.
Even more serious, Abramoff and Kidan were targets of a Florida federal
grand jury investigating the SunCruz wire transfer. And local authorities
were probing the gangland-style slaying of the man who had sold them the
cruise line, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis.
Greenberg Traurig officials have said that they asked Abramoff to resign in
March 2004 over unauthorized personal transactions. They have noted that
they had no knowledge of his financial arrangement with Scanlon before they
received inquiries from The Post.
However, two months before the firm requested Abramoff's resignation,
Greenberg lawyers representing Abramoff in the SunCruz bankruptcy summoned
Scanlon to the firm's Miami headquarters to ask about the relationship,
according to two people close to Scanlon. Scanlon told them he had paid
Abramoff $19 million out of the money he had received in public relations
fees from tribal clients. Cesar L. Alvarez, president and chief executive of
Greenberg Traurig, said the firm will not comment on any meeting with
Scanlon.
By the spring of 2004, the Justice Department had launched an investigation
of Abramoff and Scanlon that quickly developed into a multi-agency task
force.
Pressure to Plead
Nearly two years later, Abramoff's legal troubles appear to threaten the
careers of many of his colleagues and political allies. Sources familiar
with the Justice Department investigation say that half a dozen lawmakers
are under scrutiny, along with Hill aides, former business associates and
government officials.
Two of Abramoff's former business partners -- Scanlon and Kidan -- have
pleaded guilty and have agreed to testify about bribery and fraud in Florida
and Washington.
Three men have been arrested in the Boulis killing. Two of the three were
Kidan's associates; one of them is known to law enforcement as an associate
of the Gambino crime family.
Another former Abramoff associate, David H. Safavian -- most recently head
of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the Office of Management and
Budget -- has been indicted on five felony counts of lying to federal
investigators about his dealings with Abramoff while he was chief of staff
at the General Services Administration.
Within the past year, Abramoff began selling off assets such as his
restaurants and has told his lawyers he is broke. He faces the possibility
of lengthy prison sentences and stiff financial penalties that could be
reduced if he cooperates.
All these developments have added to the pressure on Abramoff to reach his
own deal before the SunCruz trial begins on Jan. 9.
Alan K. Simpson (R), the former Wyoming senator who was in Washington during
the last big congressional scandal -- the Abscam FBI sting in the late 1970s
and early 1980s, in which six House members and one senator were convicted
-- said the Abramoff case looks bigger. Simpson said he recently rode in a
plane with one of Abramoff's attorneys, who told him: "There are going to be
guys in your former line of work who are going to be taken down."
Dozens of lawmakers -- who were showered with trips, sports and concert
tickets, drinks and dinners -- are returning campaign contributions from
Abramoff and his clients and calling him a fraud and a crook.
Burns, one of half a dozen legislators under scrutiny by the federal
Abramoff task force, returned $150,000 in campaign contributions this month.
"This Abramoff guy is a bad guy," Burns told a Montana television station.
"I hope he goes to jail and we never see him again. I wish he'd never been
born, to be right honest with you."
Former Republican congressman Mickey Edwards (Okla.), usually a defender of
lobbying and Congress, said there have always been members who get caught
"stuffing money in their pants." But he said this is different -- a
"disgusting" and disturbingly broad scandal driven by lobbyists whose
attitude seemed to be "government to the highest bidder."
"This is at a scale that is really shocking," said Edwards, who teaches
public and international affairs at Princeton. "There is a certain kind of
arrogance that in the past you might not have had. They were so supremely
confident that there didn't seem to be any kind of moral compass here."
Researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.
Mohtarma Benazir
dispels impression of PPP support to Kalabagh dam construction
Islamabad, December 27, 2005:
PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto has stressed the need for construction of
small dams to overcome water shortage problem in the country.
According to VOA, Benazir said, "it is absolutely wrong that PPP government
favored the construction of Kalabagh dam, however a suggestion came about
the construction of Indus Dam. When the suggestion reviewed, it was found
that it was same as Kalabagh Dam with a new name".
"As the three provinces have given the decision against the construction of
Kalabagh dam then it was necessary to search alternative sources of for
construction of big water reservoirs, she said adding that, we gave the
priority to construction of small dams", she observed.
She went on to say that Kalabagh dam was not perennial dam. She further
added that she hoped President General Musharraf would also review his
decision in this regard.
"If it is not in the interests of Pakistan, it is unconstitutional. I think
he will abandon it and will give top priority to the construction of small
dams in the country or other alternative to remove the water shortage from
the country", she stressed.
PPP apprises HR
Organisations of regime’s support for criminals
Islamabad, 22 December 2005:
Pakistan Peoples Party has apprised the International Human Rights
Organisations of the acts of harbouring criminal elements by the members of
regime with a view to rig elections and contributing to the deteriorating
law and order in the country.
Fauzia Wahab MNA and Central Coordinator Human Rights Cell, Pakistan Peoples
Party in a letter to the International Human Rights bodies wrote, "An
example is the recovery of a kidnapped persons from the premises of a
parliamentary secretary belonging to the ruling Party. His name is Khalid
Asgher Ghurral. According to media reports, the city police raided the
parliamentarian's house on November 14, 2005 in search of the kidnapped man.
Amongst the criminal elements were two proclaimed offenders and five
criminals who had found refuge in the house of the Parliamentarian. The car
used in the kidnapping was an official government car with the identifying
green number plate of LHR-2515 which must have belonged to the
Parliamentarian. The raid took place on the Police complaint of the father
of the victim who accused the Parliamentarian kidnapping his son. No action
has been taken against the Parliamentarian despite the Police complaint, the
recovery of the kidnapped person from his house, the identification of the
car used in the kidnapping and the presence of several criminal elements. In
fact the Parliamentarian has had the arrogance to deny that any raid took
place on his house. However, the said raid and recovery were confirmed by
the local Gujrat Police as well as Deputy Superintendent Police Mahmood
Hassan Qureshi, in charge operation for the recovery of Tayyab son of Bashir
Ahmad."
She asked the human rights bodies to raise their voice against victimisation
of real political leadership in Pakistan and wrote, "We are drawing your
attention to this matter so that you may raise your voice to put an end to
political victimisation through the present establishment NAB and instead
support a transparent and impartial accountability system that can catch
criminal elements who try to hide behind dictatorial regimes and thus invite
and perpetuate dictatorship. The immunity given to corrupt elements under
the Musharaf regime makes a mockery of the Musharaf oath of good governance
as the "reason de etre’ for the military coup of 1999. The revelation of a
Pro Musharaf Parliamentarian's involvement in abduction and kidnapping with
impunity is another glaring example of how the people of Pakistan suffer
under a regime which denies them their fundamental right to elect their own
government freely."
"The Human Rights Cell of the Pakistan Peoples Party would like you to take
up the issue of the two corrupt parliamentarians cited here as well as raise
your voice against the excesses of the present accountability bureau while
supporting the establishment of one which can take to task those corrupt
elements of the last six years that have flourished while Musharaf exploits
the war against terror to perpetuate his dictatorship", she concluded.
Punjab is with smaller
provinces on Kalabagh Dam issue —Naheed Khan
Islamabad, 23 December 2005: Political
Secretary to the Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto
and member national assembly Naheed Khan has asked the government not to
tread a path which could be detrimental to the federation of Pakistan.
In a statement, Naheed Khan said that Pakistan Peoples Party under the
leadership of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has always worked in the interests of
the people and has roots in all the four units of the federation. The regime
should pay heed to the advise of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and should not
insist on building Kalabagh Dam. She said that Kalabagh Dam project is a
disputed project and three out of four units of the federation have rejected
it. Naheed Khan said that Punjab has always supported the federation and
does not support Kalabagh Dam project. She said that Punjab is with the
three smaller units of the federation and would resist any effort to weaken
the federation.
Naheed Khan said that Kalabagh Dam is against the spirit of constitution and
is a conspiracy against federation. She said that the people of Pakistan
would not let this conspiracy jeopardize the federation. She said that
General Musharraf has raised the issue to divide the people of Pakistan to
prolong his rule because he knows in his heart and soul that his days are
numbered.
Stability, my foot!
By: Kamran Shafi
December 22, 2005: According to news
reports, H E Ryan C Crocker, ambassador of the US, spoke at some length to a
group of journalists in Islamabad on November 12. I shall limit myself to
discussing his take on “democracy” in Pakistan, because his remarks on
“banned” militants doing relief work in the quake-ravaged areas are not for
anyone else but the government to answer, being as it is in the firm hands
of Dubya’s tight buddy Pervez Musharraf. This is what the press reports:
The ambassador said, “Pakistan at present did not seem to him like a
military dictatorship. There was much more open discussion now on democracy
and the future of democracy than before, he said, adding the US interest in
Pakistan was in a long term strategic partnership. We cannot sustain it
without sustainable, institutionalised democracy.”
“My belief is that President Musharraf means what he says when he says he
wants stable democracy for Pakistan,” said ambassador Crocker. “I have heard
him speak about his vision for Pakistan; of where he would like the country
to go, and that’s a pretty compelling vision,” he said, and then emphasised
that implementation was very important.” The report goes on: “Crocker said…
from reading Pakistan’s history, Ayub Khan seemed to him a pretty impressive
leader, but what he didn’t do was establish stable democracy.”
Right, let us for the sake of argument, even though much can be said for the
sterling work that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government did for the country
after the debacle of the 1971 war, concede that civilian governments in
Pakistan have not been able to achieve stability. Well then, have military
governments achieved stability?
Ayub Khan’s disastrous East Pakistan policy brought this country stability?
The fact that official, institutionalised corruption first came to be
recognised during his time was a stabilising factor? Yahya Khan’s handling
of the situation in East Pakistan was a model of stability? Zia ul Haq’s
ruinous Afghan policy stabilised the country when heroin and the Kalashnikov
flooded the country?
And when Jihadis were produced by thousands with the US government’s full
complicity and who are now the bane of our lives? The very first time that
this country lost territory to hostile forces in peacetime was when Zia’s
military government was in the saddle and we were caught napping and Siachen
was occupied by India.
As for “the kind of democracy Pakistan had in the last decade,” what does
the ambassador know about the “kind” of democracy this poor country had in
the last decade?
He obviously uses the word “decade” loosely, and means the period of the
elected governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. Now then, because
our American buddies keep a rather close watch on what goes on in Islamabad,
H E should know better than anybody how this country’s venal establishment,
handmaiden to the military-civilian intrigue-machine queered the pitch for
the elected leaders, far more for the non-Punjabi Benazir Bhutto than the
Punjabi Nawaz Sharif.
He should know more than anyone in the world the ugly machinations of Mr GIK
when he sat brooding, Sphinx-like, in the presidency, plotting his next
move, placing his pawns in all the important positions in the government and
choking off the hapless civilian government.
His Excellency should know of the Punjab Government’s open revolt against
the federation, led by the establishment’s then blue-eyed son, Nawaz Sharif,
the chief minister of Punjab no less.
As part of which mutiny Punjab government funds were used to foment
rebellion against the “Sindhi Prime Minister” by printing and distributing
flyers and buttons and bumper stickers and banners exhorting the Punjabis to
wake-up. “Jag Punjabi Jag” was the chilling slogan.
He should know that whenever civilian leaders tried to make peace with
India, the establishment used every trick in the book to trip them up, even
paint them as traitors and worse. I remember so well the time when Rajiv
Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto had almost agreed to a mutual withdrawal from the
icy wastes of Siachen upon which young men of both countries have faced
excruciating, painful, needless death and injury, and the establishment
scuppered it heartlessly.
Blood-curdling stories are legion, of the dastardly acts of the
establishment and its “agencies” in other areas of Pakistani life: of
corrupting malleable politicians with secret service funds; with using
bribery and corruption to make turncoats turn coats repeatedly and often.
And then giving politicians a bad name.
Might I end by asking his excellency if “sustainable, institutionalised
democracy” is at all possible when shenanigans and jiggery-pokery are
employed by the managers, or shall we say the ‘general’ managers of this
present enterprise as a matter of course? Does he think the rigging of
elections will lead to “stability”?
Or that the exclusion of the undisputed leaders of two of the largest
political parties of the country from mainstream politics will help in
“sustainable, institutionalised democracy”? Or that the big general using
the Punjab card to ram through the Kalabagh dam is a stabilising factor?
And, most important of all, does H E think the “War against Terror” can ever
be won without the help of a mass political party operating within pure and
unadulterated democracy?
The writer is a retired Pakistani army officer and a freelance columnist
Mohtarma Bhutto stresses
constitutionalism and rule of law
Islamabad December 24,
2005: Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto
has felicitated the nation on the Quaid’s birth anniversary falling on
Sunday and urged the people to forge unity in their ranks to regain their
democratic and political rights to make Pakistan a shining example of
prosperity and progress.
"On this auspicious occasion I wish to greet the entire Pakistani nation",
she said in a message today.
The Quaid's birthday indeed is a day of rededication to the ideals and
principles of the Father of the nation. But it also is a day of
introspection and reflection to pause and ponder as to what steps we can
take to restore the ideals and principles for which the Quaid created this
homeland of ours, she said.
She said that the Quaid stood for constitutionalism, rule of law, respect
for human rights, tolerance, pluralism and honouring the mandate of the
people.
It is a sad thought that on the Quaid's birthday falling this year, his
ideal of constitutionalism has been negated by the regime trampling the
constitution for personal political agenda.
Manipulating general and local bodies’ elections, entering the Presidency
through the mechanism of unconstitutional referendum, factionalising
political parties, imprisoning persons on political grounds or exiling them
is a departure from the high ideals that led to the vigour and vitality of
the Muslims of the Subcontinent. That vigour gave the strength to face
colonialism and carve out an independent Nation state called Pakistan.
Mohtarma Bhutto said that it is the dream of the PPP to reclaim that spirit
of strength and unleash the creative power of the people through freedom,
justice, the rule of law and an end to terrorism and violence.
The Chairperson PPP said that the Quaid stood for equality before law. The
selective process of accountability was contrary to the vision of Pakistan's
founding Father as was the promulgation of special laws with retrospective
effect and special courts. As a Barrister and a man dedicated to legal
values, Quaid e Azam would be appalled to see how the judiciary’s
independence has been eroded in the homeland he created.
Mohtarma called upon the people of the Four federating units of Pakistan to
unite to reclaim the values that the Quaid e Azam bequeathed to the Nation
as his heritage.
Mohtarma Bhutto
Felicitates Christian Community
Islamabad, 24 December 2005:
Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has felicitated
Christian Community on the eve of Christmas falling on Sunday.
"I wish to felicitate Christians all over the world particularly our
Christian brothers and sisters in Pakistan on the auspicious occasion of
Christmas. It is time for festivity, celebration and rejoicing. It is also a
reminder to all of us of the teachings of Jesus Christ (May Allah be pleased
with him) who always spread the message of love, forgiveness and brotherhood
among the people without any prejudice and discrimination.
"I hope the Christian Community in Pakistan would renew the pledge to follow
the true teachings of Jesus Christ (May Allah be pleased with
him) and will continue to play their positive and constructive role in the
society. They are a law-abiding and loyal community and we are proud of
their tremendous contributions to the advancement and development of the
country.
"On this auspicious occasion I also wish to reiterate the commitment of the
Pakistan Peoples Party to continue to fight along with our Christian
brothers and sisters for the rights of all minorities and deprived people in
the country for establishing a liberal and pluralistic society in Pakistan
in which every citizen is allowed to participate freely in the social,
political and economic development of Pakistan irrespective of his cast,
creed and colour.
"Let me also reiterate on this occasion our pledge that the PPP will
continue to uphold the right of the Christians, indeed of all minorities, to
be treated as equal citizens of the state and allowed to partake in its
development on an equal footing".
Briefing to PPP leadership
about Kalabagh Dam held
Islamabad, 24 December 2005:
A briefing on Kalabagh Dam was arranged at the Central Secretariat Islamabad
to apprise the leadership of Rawalpindi and Islamabad of the issue.
Addressing the gathering the President PPP Parliamentarians Makhdoom Amin
Fahim said that Kalabagh Dam is a conspiracy against federation and an
effort to create hatred for Punjab. This is a play to hide government’s
failure at every level.
The former Chairman IRSA, Engineer Fateh Ullah Khan Gandapur said that the
life of Kalabagh Dam is less than fifteen years and it would not play any
part to improve country’s agriculture production. He said that the
international experts have rejected this project. He said that it will be
detrimental to the smaller provinces. He further said that there are several
alternative projects available which should be explored.
The briefing was attended by Zamurd Khan MNA, Fauzia Habib MNA, Nayyar
Bokhari MNA, Amir Fida Piracha MPA, Agha Riazul Islam, Iqbal Butt, Ibrar
Rizvi, Sardar Salim, Qazi Sultan Mehmood, Rashid Mir, Khalid Nawaz Boby,
Raja Altaf, Shahzada Kausar Gilani, Nargis Faiz Malik, Sahibzada Zulfikar
Ali, Nasir Mir, Ibna Rizvi, Javed Mir, Shabbir Babar, Chaudhri Kamran, Sajid
Abbasi, Khalid Satti, Javed abbasi, Agha Taimur and Asif Akbar.
The meeting passed resolutions demanding to shelve Kalabagh Dam project
forever and to consider alternative projects. Meeting also demanded to
withdraw all false and concocted cases against Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and
her honourable return to Pakistan. The meeting expressed its resolve to
resist Kalabagh Dam at any cost and to pay sacrifices for the rights of the
people.
PPP Labour Wing
organised Christmas function
Islamabad, 24 December 2005:
The Labour Wing of Pakistan Peoples Party, the Peoples Labour Bureau
organised a function on the eve of Christmas in Lahore at the PLB
Secretariat, arranged by incharg PLB Pakistan, Abdul Qadir Shaheen. The
Secretary General PPP Jahanigr Badar was the Chief Guest on this occasion. A
large number of PPP members of Christian Community was in attendance
including Younus Bhatti, Jossef Francis, Aurangzeb Barqi, Hashmat Barkat
advocate, Raja Thomas Albert, Baboo William Roose, Patran Ghani and Sooba
Sarvea.
Addressing the gathering, Jahangir Badar said that the members of Christian
Community have always supported the PPP struggle for democracy, equal rights
for every Pakistani citizen and social and economic emancipation of the
downtrodden of this country. Wishing a very happy Christmas to the Christian
Community in Pakistan he asked the Christian Community to work with the PPP
for honourable return of the most popular leadership, Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto back to the country.
Abdul Qadir Shaheen said that no one would ever be able to stop Christians’
support for the PPP because the PPP has always supported and worked for the
minority rights in Pakistan. He said the days of dictatorship are numbered
and soon Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto would be back in the country to lead
Pakistan to development and prosperity.
PPP has never
supported Kalabagh Dam
Islamabad, 24 December 2005:
A spokesman of Pakistan Peoples Party has refuted the news items and
statements in a section of press and media alleging that the Chairperson
Pakistan Peoples Party former Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto
supported Kalabagh Dam if it was renamed and called Indus Dam.
The spokesman in a statement said that this assertion that Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto ever supported Kalabagh Dam is totally wrong and an effort by the
obscurantist to misguide the people of Pakistan. The fact is that there was
a proposal by certain elements about an Indus Dam. This was dismissed by the
PPP government when it was found out that it was nothing but Kalabagh Dam
renamed. Moreover, no presentation was made to the then Prime Minister,
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto demonstrating that building a dam at Kalabagh was
technically feasible. Kalabagh Dam is not technically feasible as a water
project, the spokesman concluded.
VVIP planes and Saab
surveillance system
Opposition
demands making public Senate body recommendations
Islamabad December 19, 2005: The meeting of the Defense
Committee of the Senate convened today (Tuesday) to further discuss the
purchase of VVIP planes and saab surveillance system from Sweden is
redundant and aimed at achieving some purpose other than stated in the
notice.
This has been stated in a joint statement today by five members of the
Senate Committee on Defense and Defense Production namely Senators Rukhsana
Zuberi, Sardar Mahtab Khan, Mouhim Khan Baloch, Kamran Murtaza and
Farhatullah Babar.
A notice issued by the Senate secretariat Monday morning said that a meeting
of the Committee will be held today (Tuesday) to further discussion of
purchase of VVIP planes and purchase of saab surveillance system. The
meeting is requisitioned by Senators Kamil Ali Agha, Naeem Hussain Chattha,
Asif jatoi and Muhammad Akram, the notice said.
The five senators belonging to PPP, PML (N), MMA and BNP (Awami) said that
the issue of VVIP and Saab surveillance system had already been discussed
threadbare in two sessions of the Committee held on December 2 and again on
Friday December 16. At the last meeting on Friday December 16 the Committee
also finalised its unanimously agreed recommendations, they said.
They pointed out that the unanimous recommendations at the last meeting was
possible due to the efforts of Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and Chairman of
the Committee Nisar Memon themselves who played a positive role. After
finalisation of the agreed recommendations Mushahid Hussain Syed even moved
a resolution hailing Chairman Nisar Memon for his wisdom and thoughtfulness
in striving for consensus. His applause of Chairman Memon was while
heartedly endorsed by them (the opposition members) as well, they said.
After the December 16 meeting and adoption of consensus recommendation the
opposition members refrained from talking to the media as it was agreed that
the Secretariat of the Senate would issue press statement. However, for
unexplained reasons the Senate secretariat did not issue any press release
that evening.
The five senators said that they did not protest even at this breach of
understanding because in any case the recommendations have been minuted and
made part of record.
Some leading national dailies also reported quoting unofficial sources that
the Senate Committee had recommended cancellation of the VVIP deal and
review of the Saab deal. It s pertinent to note that these press reports
were not denied by the Senate Secretariat. "We demand that the joint
recommendation made at the last meeting of the Committee be formally made
public".
They said that the Senate rules also applied to its Committees. According to
Rules 127 and 189 that pertain to resolutions and motions respectively a
motion shall not raise a question substantially identical with one that on
which the Senate has given a decision in the same session.
Since the Committee has already given its decision on the issues of VVIP
planes and the Saab surveillance system it would be futile to reopen it.
The government may seek to reverse the recommendation of the previous
meeting but legitimacy that comes with Parliamentary approval will continue
to elude it, they said.
Mohtarma Bhutto
criticises military deployment in Balochistan
Islamabad December 20,
2005: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson Pakistan Peoples
Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has criticised the deployment of the military
against tribesmen in Balochistan.
In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that the violence in
Balochistan is a direct consequence of the imposition of military rule in
the country. She said that each and every military rule in the country
spawned secessionist tendencies.
"When the Constitution is suspended or altered against the wishes of the
people and the provinces, Pakistan is weakened as the violence in
Balochistan demonstrates".
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said that the General Ayub Khan dictatorship
culminated in the alienation of East Pakistan which led to the creation of
Bangladesh. She said that the General Yahya Khan dictatorship resulted in
the Baloch uprising which the subsequent PPP government had to deal with.
She noted that following the killing of Quaid e Awam, Sindh was ready to
secede but PPP had rescued the Federation.
The PPP Chairperson said that the General Musharraf military dictatorship
has resulted in the use of the military in Waziristan as well as in
Balochistan. She said that the use of force can only further alienate the
people of Balauchistan.
More worrying is the scorn that the Musharraf regime has been pouring on the
provinces by insisting on violating water rights as contained in the
Constitution, she said. She apprehended that if freedom, democracy,
constitutional rule, provincial autonomy and peoples rights were not
restored, the trouble could spread further.
Mohtarma Bhutto called for the formation of an immediate interim government
of national consensus to hold fair elections and transfer power to the
people and to the provinces to save the Federation.
"Our young soldiers are trained to defend the country from foreign
aggression and to defend the Motherland. It is not right that the guns for
the defence of the country should be turned on the citizens of the country",
she said.
Mohtarma Bhutto said, "we should learn the lesson of history that military
rule breeds discontent and disintegration and restore democracy before it is
too late".
It may be recalled that paramilitary forces backed by helicopter gunships
launched a counter-offensive on Baloch tribesmen in Marri areas and also
clashed with tribesmen in Bugti areas on Monday.
Termination
of contract employees from PTCL is a conspiracy against employees: Naheed
Khan
Islamabad, 22 December 2005: Political Secretary to the
Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and member
National Assembly Naheed Khan has strongly condemned the cancellation of the
meeting of standing committee on information technology and
telecommunication scheduled for 23 December 2005 which was to take up the
issue of termination of contract employees from Pakistan Telecommunication
Company Ltd. (PTCL) and demanded of the regime to immediately stop
terminating poor people from their jobs.
In a statement today Naheed Khan said that it was her call attention notice
in the national assembly regarding termination of contract employees
including women in phases, which was sent to the standing committee on
information technology and telecommunication. The meeting of the said
committee was scheduled on 23rd December but was cancelled
without any justification. Naheed Khan expressed her apprehension that the
regime has covertly agreed with the buyer company Etisilat to lay off over
40 thousand employees from PTCL, and termination of contract employees is
part of that conspiracy against employees.
Naheed Khan said that the PPP under the leadership of Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto had provided jobs to the poor people of Pakistan in its two tenures
in government. It is shameful that cases have been initiated against popular
leadership for giving employment to the people. She said that the PPP has
firm resolve to provide job opportunities to the poor people of Pakistan and
would do so again when it comes to power. Naheed Khan said that the
dictatorship always hurt people whereas democracy brings economic well-being
and prosperity to the country.
PPP apprises HR
Organisations of regime's support for criminals
Islamabad, 22 December 2005: Pakistan
Peoples Party has apprised the International Human Rights Organisations of
the acts of harbouring criminal elements by the members of regime with a
view to rig elections and contributing to the deteriorating law and order in
the country.
Fauzia Wahab MNA and Central Coordinator Human Rights Cell, Pakistan Peoples
Party in a letter to the International Human Rights bodies wrote, "An
example is the recovery of a kidnapped persons from the premises of a
parliamentary secretary belonging to the ruling Party. His name is Khalid
Asgher Ghurral. According to media reports, the city police raided the
parliamentarian's house on November 14, 2005 in search of the kidnapped man.
Amongst the criminal elements were two proclaimed offenders and five
criminals who had found refuge in the house of the Parliamentarian. The car
used in the kidnapping was an official government car with the identifying
green number plate of LHR-2515 which must have belonged to the
Parliamentarian. The raid took place on the Police complaint of the father
of the victim who accused the Parliamentarian kidnapping his son. No action
has been taken against the Parliamentarian despite the Police complaint, the
recovery of the kidnapped person from his house, the identification of the
car used in the kidnapping and the presence of several criminal elements. In
fact the Parliamentarian has had the arrogance to deny that any raid took
place on his house. However, the said raid and recovery were confirmed by
the local Gujrat Police as well as Deputy Superintendent Police Mahmood
Hassan Qureshi, in charge operation for the recovery of Tayyab son of Bashir
Ahmad."
She asked the human rights bodies to raise their voice against victimisation
of real political leadership in Pakistan and wrote, "We are drawing your
attention to this matter so that you may raise your voice to put an end to
political victimisation through the present establishment NAB and instead
support a transparent and impartial accountability system that can catch
criminal elements who try to hide behind dictatorial regimes and thus invite
and perpetuate dictatorship.
The immunity given to corrupt elements under the Musharaf regime makes a
mockery of the Musharaf oath of good governance as the "reason de etre' for
the military coup of 1999. The revelation of a Pro Musharaf
Parliamentarian's involvement in abduction and kidnapping with impunity is
another glaring example of how the people of Pakistan suffer under a regime
which denies them their fundamental right to elect their own government
freely."
"The Human Rights Cell of the Pakistan Peoples Party would like you to take
up the issue of the two corrupt parliamentarians cited here as well as raise
your voice against the excesses of the present accountability bureau while
supporting the establishment of one which can take to task those corrupt
elements of the last six years that have flourished while Musharaf exploits
the war against terror to perpetuate his dictatorship", she concluded.
VVIP planes and Saab
surveillance system
Opposition demands making public Senate body recommendations
Islamabad December 19, 2005: The meeting
of the Defense Committee of the Senate convened today (Tuesday) to further
discuss the purchase of VVIP planes and saab surveillance system from Sweden
is redundant and aimed at achieving some purpose other than stated in the
notice.
This has been stated in a joint statement today by five members of the
Senate Committee on Defense and Defense Production namely Senators Rukhsana
Zuberi, Sardar Mahtab Khan, Mouhim Khan Baloch, Kamran Murtaza and
Farhatullah Babar.
A notice issued by the Senate secretariat Monday morning said that a meeting
of the Committee will be held today (Tuesday) to further discussion of
purchase of VVIP planes and purchase of saab surveillance system. The
meeting is requisitioned by Senators Kamil Ali Agha, Naeem Hussain Chattha,
Asif jatoi and Muhammad Akram, the notice said.
The five senators belonging to PPP, PML (N), MMA and BNP (Awami) said that
the issue of VVIP and Saab surveillance system had already been discussed
threadbare in two sessions of the Committee held on December 2 and again on
Friday December 16. At the last meeting on Friday December 16 the Committee
also finalised its unanimously agreed recommendations, they said.
They pointed out that the unanimous recommendations at the last meeting was
possible due to the efforts of Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and Chairman of
the Committee Nisar Memon themselves who played a positive role. After
finalisation of the agreed recommendations Mushahid Hussain Syed even moved
a resolution hailing Chairman Nisar Memon for his wisdom and thoughtfulness
in striving for consensus. His applause of Chairman Memon was while
heartedly endorsed by them (the opposition members) as
well, they said.
After the December 16 meeting and adoption of consensus recommendation the
opposition members refrained from talking to the media as it was agreed that
the Secretariat of the Senate would issue press statement. However, for
unexplained reasons the Senate secretariat did not issue any press release
that evening.
The five senators said that they did not protest even at this breach of
understanding because in any case the recommendations have been minuted and
made part of record.
Some leading national dailies also reported quoting unofficial sources that
the Senate Committee had recommended cancellation of the VVIP deal and
review of the Saab deal. It s pertinent to note that these press reports
were not denied by the Senate Secretariat.
"We demand that the joint recommendation made at the last meeting of the
Committee be formally made public".
They said that the Senate rules also applied to its Committees. According to
Rules 127 and 189 that pertain to resolutions and motions respectively a
motion shall not raise a question substantially identical with one that on
which the Senate has given a decision in the same session.
Since the Committee has already given its decision on the issues of VVIP
planes and the Saab surveillance system it would be futile to reopen it.
The government may seek to reverse the recommendation of the previous
meeting but legitimacy that comes with Parliamentary approval will continue
to elude it, they said.
PPP condemns rigging in
bye-elections
Islamabad, 15 December 2005: Pakistan
Peoples Party Senator Dr. Safdar Abbasi has condemned the wide spread
rigging that took place during the recent bye elections.
He said that in this context, the example of the By-Election in NA-210,
Jacobabad III was one example. The civil administration and police used
brutal force against PPP MNA's, MPA's and workers. Ballot boxes were stuffed
by police the night before the polls.
The PPP calls upon the Chief Election Commissioner to register a criminal
case against Police involved in stuffing of the ballot boxes and send them
to prison to give a warning to other Police officials to desist from
breaking the law by stuffing ballot boxes, he said.
PPP polling agents were abducted, assaulted and arrested by Kashmore police,
criminal cases were lodged against them. Candidate Imran Bijjerani's chief
election agent, Aijaz Jakhrani, was detained at 12:00 and released after
poll hours.
Ballot stuffing took place at such extravagant levels that the ruling
candidates un-official results came to 156000 votes. Even the Election
Commission found this hard to accept and it was rejected by the Chief
Election Commissioner on press and electronic media.
Dr Safdar Abbasi said that the ballot stuffing was so great that according
to it sixty percent of the people voted when even in Karachi, a large
metropolis with easy transport, polling was was not more than 12%. Thus
there was no question of polling in Jacobabad being more than twelve percent
and in all likelihood, given the rugged terrain and difficulty of transport,
even lower.
He further said that despite the massive stamping of ballots, the PPP
candidate won on 114 polling stations. The ruling candidate was wrongly
shown to "win" on 17 polling stations. Winning on 114 stations was shown as
16,400 votes whereas so called "winning" on 147 polling stations was shown
as a mammoth 156000 votes. On polling station Ali Sher Sarki 650 votes had
been Precast in the night before the polling began.
Senator Dr. Safdar Abbasi said that the PPP demands action against the
presiding officer who admitted ballot stuffing to the Assistant Returning
Officer. He said that when the Police and the Presiding Officers are the
ones to fill the ballot boxes and rig elections, then
no election can ever be fair. It therefore demanded from the Election
Commission that it order the arrest and removal from government service of
the Police and the Presiding Officers involved in rigging to prevent them
breaking the law with impunity. For example, PPP candidate visited this
polling station Ali Sher Sarki With Assistant Returning Officer
Kandhkot. Upon questioning By ARO, the presiding officer admitted that three
officials, namely Additional Secretary to Chief Minister Sindh, Ghulam
Sarwar Sarki, DSP and SHO forced him to stuff ballot box. Media persons
representing Kawish Television Network and Sindh Television were also
present. The confession of the concerned presiding Officer was
telecast on TV.
He said that every single polling station had one ballot box missing as per
material invoice. This could not happen without collusion of presiding
officers. The pattern of using Police and Presiding Officers to rig
elections will be used in the General Elections unless the Election
Commission makes an example of those Police and Presiding Officials caught
rigging in the bye elections. PPP polling agents were prevented entry to
polling stations by police in a minimum of 150 polling stations.
Senator Safdar Abbasi said that the violation of the Constitution through
orders to rig the elections amount to treason. Chief Minister Sindh visited
Guddu on 08th December, 2005 and directed civil administration and police to
secure victory of the ruling party candidate by hook or crook. Based on the
reports filed during the Bye election, the PPP has called for declaring the
bye election null and void and for re-election, he concluded.
Swiss case matter of life &
death for regime, not for Mohtarma Bhutto
Islamabad, 14 December 2005: The trumped
up case before a Swiss Magistrate triggered by false allegations by
Islamabad is a matter of life and death for the dictatorial regime and not
Mohtarma Bhutto, said spokesman of the Pakistan Peoples Party in a statement
today.
The spokesman was responding to the claim by Information Minister Shaikh
Rashid Tuesday 'the Swiss case a matter of life and death for the PPPP'.
The Islamabad triggered investigation hearing in Geneva is a matter of "life
and death" for the military dictatorship in its campaign to politically
eliminate Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto for which millions of dollars have been
spent, Senator Farhatullah Babar.
"The fact is that Mohtarma's position is safe in the hands and the hearts of
the people of Pakistan who know that she is being victimized for
courageously standing up for the democratic rights of the people".
She is courageously fighting for the rule of law, for federalism and
egalitarianism while the military dictator is exploiting the war on terror
to further his own dictatorship and usurpation of peoples and provincial
rights, he said.
The spokesman said that the amount of time and money spent on hiring a
battery of lawyers, changing NAB laws with back date and mounting propaganda
campaign showed the extent of terror struck into the regime by her brave
defence of Federalism, Freedom, Human Rights and emancipation of the people
from poverty and exploitation.
For the regime the Islamabad triggered case in Geneva, based on a letter of
request by Islamabad and a false claim that it was an injured Party and on
which huge sums have been spent by engaging a big team of costly lawyers,
the hearing indeed is a 'matter of life and death'.
Senator Farhatullah Babar said that it was the same case in which the
Supreme Court of Pakistan had not only set aside the conviction awarded by
the Trial Court but also observed 'the bias of the trial judge floated on
the surface of record', forcing most unceremonious exit of two judges from
the Bench.
The regime has panicked and that is why the Information Minister has claimed
that the case was a matter of life and death for the PPPP, he said.
Kalabagh Dam: Rabbani
rejects constitutional guarantees
ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: The Pakistan People’s
Party has rejected the assurance of constitutional guarantees offered by
President Gen Pervez Musharraf to allay the misgivings of the people of
Sindh about the construction of Kalabagh Dam.
In a statement here on Wednesday, leader of the opposition in the Senate
Mian Raza Rabbani said it was hard to accept what he said the so-called
assurances of constitutional niceties from a person who had trampled the
Constitution and also got away with it.
“The PPP does not recognize the political and technical committees set up by
the regime to report on the feasibility of the dam building, as they have no
locus in the Constitution and their reports have no meaning whatsoever.”
It is a matter of record that three provincial assemblies have passed
unanimous resolutions against the building of the dam, he added.
Violence grows in
Pakistan's tribal zone, despite Army presence.
Gretchen Peters
The Christian Science Monitor
ISLAMABAD,
PAKISTAN 12/12/2005: Music and TV have been banned. Women are
confined to their homes. Shops must close five times a day for prayers, an
edict enforced by armedreligious police who patrol the streets.
These changes, say local residents and reporters, have come just within the
past few months to Waziristan, a restive region along the Afghan border that
is seen as a possible hideout for Al Qaeda leaders. Last year, under
pressure from the US to clean up the semi-autonomous zone, Pakistan launched
military operations that ended 10 months ago in a peace deal with some rebel
tribes.
Now the harsh edicts and an upsurge in violence suggest that Waziristan is
far from pacified. Observers say it is slipping back into the hands of Al
Qaeda and Taliban militants, despite the 60,000 Pakistani troops and
paramilitaries garrisoned there.
"Since [the deal], the government authority seems to have become weak," says
Rahimullah Yusufzai, a journalist who reports on Pakistan's tribal area.
"The vacuum has been filled by these militants."
In a tally compiled from official sources and newspaper reports, more than
60 pro-government tribal and religious leaders have been killed, two local
journalists have been gunned down, and hundreds more people have fled since
February.
"They do what they feel like doing and there is no one to stop them," says a
local reporter there who left the South Waziristan district capital Wana
after receiving threats from militants. "And it's the foreign elements among
them," he says, referring to Al Qaeda, "who are calling the shots."
Just this past week, a bomb blast in the bazaar in Jandula left 12 dead.
Separately, four paramilitary troops patrolling Wana were kidnapped by
militants.
And in North Waziristan, armed Islamic seminary students clashed with a
group of bandits, killing at least 20. With a ferocity that harkens back to
the early days of the Taliban, the students hung their victims in the
streets of the district capital Miran Shah, stuffing their mouths full of
money.
The violence came days after an unmanned aircraft killed five suspected
militants, including, Pakistani officials say, Abu Hamza Rabia, a top Al
Qaeda figure.
Senior Pakistani officials say it's too soon to jump to the conclusion that
terrorists were behind last week's violence.
"I don't think it should raise eyebrows or concern," says Army spokesman
Maj. Gen. Shaukut Sultan. "It appears these incidents are more related to
local politics between the tribes.... It is more related to that than
terrorism."
But analysts point out that tribal battle lines have been drawn of late
between groups that allied themselves with the Army, and those who sided
with the militants. There is increasing evidence that Arab, Uzbek, and
Chechen fighters linked to Al Qaeda are operating in the area, according to
Mr. Yusufzai and others.
Locals, none of them willing to be quoted, said the militants had gone so
far as to open recruiting offices in North and South Waziristan to recruit
fighters for their "jihad" against the Pakistan Army and US forces in
Afghanistan.
Video released by the militants, and sold in local shops as part of their
recruitment drive, show militants training openly.
The militants have even held public gatherings, the most recent in October
to mark the year anniversary since the Pakistan military bombed a militant
camp in Dela Khula, killing 40 of their comrades.
As part of the February deal, militants pledged to renounce violence and end
attacks in Afghanistan. Yet Afghan officials in the three provinces that
border Waziristan, contacted by the Monitor, say the frequency and
sophistication of cross-border attacks have actually increased.
"They launch suicide attacks, plant bombs, and launch ambushes," says Paktia
police chief Aghul Suleiman Khan. "Increasingly, we see Arab fighters
leading them."
Swiss case matter of life &
death for regime, not for Mohtarma Bhutto
Islamabad, 14 December 2005: The trumped
up case before a Swiss Magistrate triggered by false allegations by
Islamabad is a matter of life and death for the dictatorial regime and not
Mohtarma Bhutto, said spokesman of the Pakistan Peoples Party in a statement
today.
The spokesman was responding to the claim by Information Minister Shaikh
Rashid Tuesday ‘the Swiss case a matter of life and death for the PPPP’.
The Islamabad triggered investigation hearing in Geneva is a matter of "life
and death" for the military dictatorship in its campaign to politically
eliminate Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto for which millions of dollars have been
spent, Senator Farhatullah Babar.
"The fact is that Mohtarma's position is safe in the hands and the hearts of
the people of Pakistan who know that she is being victimized for
courageously standing up for the democratic rights of the people".
She is courageously fighting for the rule of law, for federalism and
egalitarianism while the military dictator is exploiting the war on terror
to further his own dictatorship and usurpation of peoples and provincial
rights, he said.
The spokesman said that the amount of time and money spent on hiring a
battery of lawyers, changing NAB laws with back date and mounting propaganda
campaign showed the extent of terror struck into the regime by her brave
defence of Federalism, Freedom, Human Rights and emancipation of the people
from poverty and exploitation.
For the regime the Islamabad triggered case in Geneva, based on a letter of
request by Islamabad and a false claim that it was an injured Party and on
which huge sums have been spent by engaging a big team of costly lawyers,
the hearing indeed is a ‘matter of life and death’.
Senator Farhatullah Babar said that it was the same case in which the
Supreme Court of Pakistan had not only set aside the conviction awarded by
the Trial Court but also observed ‘the bias of the trial judge floated on
the surface of record’, forcing most unceremonious exit of two judges from
the Bench.
The regime has panicked and that is why the Information Minister has claimed
that the case was a matter of life and death for the PPPP, he said.
Frontier PPP
President lashes at Aftab Sherpao
Islamabad December 13, 2005: Frontier
PPP President Rahim Dad Khan has criticised Interior Minister Sherpao for
being a puppet of his military masters and singing their tune of exploiting
the people's provincial and human rights.
He was responding to Interior Minister Aftan Khan Sherpao’s statement that
General Musharaf was ready to accept PPP without Mohtarma Bhutto.
In a statement today the Frontier PPP President said that it was out of
question to separate Mohtarma Bhutto from the Party and the people. He said
that the people of Pakistan must decide who should govern Pakistan and not
the anti people forces.
Mr.Rahim Dad Khan pointed out that due to the ban on Mohtarma, the PPP in
2002 was without the parliamentary leadership of Mohtarma and had won the
majority. However, the regime postponed the session of the National Assembly
indefinitely and through DG Rangers General Mehdi broke a faction of the PPP
to form a one-member majority government after releasing late Sipah e Sahaba
leader Tariq Azam MNA.
The Sherpao statement that PPP without Mohtarma was acceptable to Musharaf
was thus another lie, he said.
The regime foolishly thought it could repeat 2002 in the next general
elections and were busy approaching different PPP leaders to tell them that
they were acceptable as Prime Minister if they could keep Mohtarma out of
the General Elections and deny the people of Pakistan the chance to vote for
their most popular leader.
He said that by this tactic the regime wrongly thinks that it can divide the
PPP and cause confusion in its ranks. Every PPP leader knows that his own
survival, that of the Party and that of the hard working people of the
country lies in a transition of power from the anti people dictatorship of
Musharaf to the pro people elected democratic government of Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto.
In fact it was clear that while Musharaf was acceptable to international
powers, he was not acceptable to the people of Pakistan who had never freely
voted for him in any election.
He said that Mr. Musharaf had given himself four extensions as army chief
denying many other capable officers the right to become chief as provided by
the Constitution of Pakistan. And while he was busy giving himself
unconstitutional extensions, he was attempting to, again unconstitutionally,
bar the twice elected Prime Minister from appearing before the court of the
people to stand for election a third time.
Mr.Rahim Dad Khan pointed out that many offers were made to Mohtarma to
accept the Prime Ministership to stop her Opposition to military rule that
she had rejected. Consequently she faced political victimisation but refused
to bow down before the military usurpers. He said that the PPP believed in
the path promised by Quaid e Azam for which Quaid e Awam laid down his life,
that is a Federal, democratic and egalitarian Pakistan with full provincial
autonomy, human rights, dignity and emancipation of the people from poverty
and backwardness.
Once Mr. Sherpao too believed in this he said. However, after his Hayatabad
plot scandal and investigation, he switched sides which was most
unfortunate. A true patriot does not change sides but fights for what he
believes in no matter what the obstacles.
Mian RazaRabbani
rejects constitutional guarantees
Says nation cannot be fooled
Islamabad December 13, 2005: Leader of
the Opposition in the Senate and deputy secretary general of the Pakistan
Peoples Party Mian Raza Rabbani has issued the following statement today.
"The Pakistan Peoples Party rejects the assurance of constitutional
guarantees offered by General Pervez Musharraf that he thinks will allay the
misgivings of the people of Sindh about the building the Kalabagh dam.
"It is hard to accept so called assurances of constitutional niceties from a
person who has trampled the Constitution and also got away with it.
"The PPP does not recognise the political and technical committee set up by
the regime to report on the feasibility of the dam building. These
Committees have no locus in the Constitution and their reports have no
meaning whatsoever.
"It is a matter o f record that three provincial assemblies have passed
unanimous resolutions against the building of KBD.
"To say that the dam will be built whether there is consensus on it or not
as General Musharraf has said is the greatest affront to the people of the
federating units and will endanger the integrity of the federation.
"The regime’s antics to raise the non-issue of KBD only to divert public
attention from the serious issues facing the country is condemned in the
strongest terms"
"The PPP was against the Kalabagh Dam because it was not only opposed to the
Federal principle but also it would not resolve the water issue and only add
to the debt burden of the country".
Benazir Bhutto, four others acquitted in PIA illegal appointments reference
KARACHI, December 01: Judge Parkash Lall
of Accountability Court has acquitted PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and
four others in the reference filed against them on their alleged involvement
in making illegal appointments in PIA. The others are PPP-P MNA Naheed Khan,
Col Basit, Abdul Qadir Jamoot and Naeem-ul-Hassan.
The court in a short order announced that prosecution counsel had failed to
present any solid evidence or witness in the case registered under Ehtesab
Act, therefore, the charge in question is not proved against the accused.
They are exonerated honorably.
Reference on making 1397 illegal appointments in PIA was filed against
Benazir Bhutto under Ehtesab Act during the last tenure of former Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Nasir Hussain Jaffery appeared on behalf of the accused. A large number of
PPP workers and leaders were present outside the court at the time of
pronouncement of judgment. They chanted slogans “ Jeeai Bhutto, Jeeai
Benazir as soon as the verdict was delivered.
It may be recalled that the judge of accountability court put off the
decision for three times and eventually rendered the decision in the
evening.
Meanwhile, the PPP has welcomed the verdict of the Accountability Court
Karachi quashing aside the PIA reference against former Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto and termed it as triumph of justice.
The Accountability court number 4 in Karachi on Wednesday honourably
acquitted all the defendants in the case saying g that the prosecution had
failed to establish its charges against the accused.
Besides former Prime Minister other defendants included Naheed Khan, Air
Marshal Umar Farooq former Managing Director PIA, Ghulam Qadir Jamot and
Najmul Hassan a former official in the PM’s secretariat.
The case was based on the regime’s allegations against Bhutto that she had
made appointments in the PIA in violation of the rules and policy.
In a statement today vice chairman of PPP Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that the
Wednesday’s court verdict had proved the political nature of accountability
under General Musharraf. He said that the Party was confident that Benazir
would also be acquitted in all other cases.
Benazir gets 'World Tolerance
Award' from Gorbachev
Islamabad, Nov. 30 (PTI):
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has been conferred the "World
Tolerance Award" 2005 by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, in
Germany.
The Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) headed by the former Premier said today
that she was chosen for "her vision, personal strength, commitment to her
ideals and passion for creating a better and peaceful world in the 21st
Century."
Bhutto, currently living abroad in self exile was chosen by a committee
chaired by Gorbachev and composed of distinguished International World Award
Jury, a statement by PPP said.
The citation praised her for becoming the first woman to lead a Muslim
country in modern times when she was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in
1988.
"Throughout the times of political struggle and year spent in exile you
pledged to transform Pakistani society by focusing attention on the programs
for health, social welfare and education for the underprivileged," it said.
"Your continued efforts to improve the condition of women in your country,
even under the most difficult circumstances are in inspiration to millions
of women around the world. You have emphasized the need to put an end to the
divisions in Pakistani society, including reducing discrimination," it
added.
The previous winners of the Tolerance Award include Pope John Paul-II,
eminent Opera Singer Luciano Paverotti, Renowned Broadcaster Larry King and
Former Polish President Lech Walesa.
Pakistan's
nuke facilities suffered damage by recent quake
Press Trust of India
New Delhi, November 20, 2005:
Pakistani nuclear facilities and storage sites in the Northern Areas have
suffered "15 to 20 per cent damage" in the recent mega quake and the local
populace faces the risk of contamination, a report said.
Claiming that these sites and facilities had suffered serious damage, the
European website Newsinsight reported that "the local population faces the
risk of contamination, but a curfew has been imposed and they are being
actively prevented by the authorities to leave the area".
"There is 15 to 20 per cent damage to Pakistani nuclear facilities and
storage sites in the Northern Areas, especially in Skardu and Chitral," it
said, adding, "While Western sources did not say that reactors had been
damaged in the October 8 earthquake, they confirmed that missile silos had
developed cracks and storage facilities had taken a hit".
Pakistan government turned away international relief teams "because of the
serious damage to the nuclear facilities in the Northern Areas".
The report said Pakistan had not allowed Indian Army relief work or IAF
supply drops besides withdrawing consent for Israeli assistance fearing
infiltration by Mossad agents "who would destroy the atomic establishments".
"Since the epicentre is likely to be seismically active for another two
years, they expressed fear of further collapse of the nuclear
establishments," the website said.
"To prevent leak of this massive nuclear destruction, Pakistan bottled up
the local population by imposing curfew and did not permit international
inspection of the disaster-hit areas," it added.
Senate Defense Committee to
discuss saab deal today
Islamabad December 1, 2005:
A meeting of the Defense Committee of the Senate will be held today
(Friday) in the Parliament House to discuss the purchase of saab planes for
the PAF from Sweden and also two new planes for use by VVIPs.
The meeting was requisitioned by four opposition Senators namely Farhatullah
Babar and Rukhsana Zuberi of the PPP, Sardar Mehtab Khan of PML (N) and
Kamran Murtaza of MMA. Defense Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal and Defense
Secretary Lt General ® Tariq Wasim Ghazi besides several other officials
have also been asked to attend the meeting.
Talking to the press in London after the Party's meeting Nov 27 Party
Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto reiterated her call for the cancellation
of the saab deal saying that resources needed to be diverted to
reconstruction work. . During Senate debate on earthquake a number of
opposition speakers also demanded cancellation of the Saab deal.They have
also demanded cancellation of the plans to purchase two new planes for VVIP
travel.
PPP denounces regime for
rising corruption and lack of transparency
TI’s report has exposed regimes’ claims of combating corruption
Islamabad December 5, 2005:
Pakistan Peoples Party has condemned the regime for the rise in corruption
and lack of transp
