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The Rediff Interview/Benazir Bhutto
 

October 2006

Islamabad, 30 October 2006: A spokesperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party commenting on news reports that CEC member and parliamentarian Naveed Qamar had attended a Party at the London Pak Embassy said that the Party had not given permission to Mr. Naveed Qamar to attend the reception.

It may be recalled that the ARD does not permit its members to meet with
government functionaries at public functions.

The PPP spokesperson said that it did not know prior to the media reports that Naveed Qamar had attended a public function hosted by Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK as reported in the media. However, in light of the news report Mr. Naveed Qamar would be asked by the Party to explain his action.

The PPP spokesperson refuted the impression in a segment of the media that the presence of MNA Naveed Qamar at the regime's function was a political message saying that the Chairperson was unaware of Mr. Qamar's action until the press report. He dismissed speculation that it was part of "confidence building measures" with the present military regime.

The spokesperson said that the PPP Chairperson could have struck a deal in 2000 for personal benefits that could have secured the release of her husband without his enduring eight years in prison or without her being hauled up before foreign courts and slandered in the national media. However, she had faced the challenges because she had held out for the democratisation of Pakistan.

Islamabad October 30, 2006: The civil judge and judicial magistrate Islamabad Musa Muzammil today cancelled the bail bonds of about 40 accused PPP activists and issued their arrest warrants in a case involving holding protest demonstration in front of the Parliament House eight years ago.

About fifty activists of the Party were nominated in the FIR for holding protest demonstration in front the Parliament building on April 22, 1998 against the anti-terrorism legislation, which gave sweeping powers to the executive.

The demonstrators were forcibly dispersed when the police resorted to baton charge resulting in injury to many Party workers and activists. The protestors were demanding review of the law.

Later the Supreme Court struck down various provisions of the anti terror legislation including the one relating to the setting up of military courts to try terror cases but the case against the activists has been continuing for the past over eight years.

The accused have appeared before the court for more than 40 times during the past eight years only to be adjourned and a fresh date given each time.

Those who were present in the court today and whose bail bonds were not cancelled included Raja Mansoor Ahmad, former city president Ibrar Rizvi, former Advisor Chaudhry Aslam Advocate, Raja Sheraz, Malik Majeed, Nadeem Tariq, Qamar Zaman, Khawaja Wasim, Shabbir Anjum, Haji Rashid and former Senator Farhatullah Babar.

The judicial magistrate cancelled the bail bonds of the remaining over 40 activists for non-appearance before the court. Women activists were however exempt from appearance before the court.

Islamabad October 29, 2006: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has condoled the death of renowned Urdu satirist, author and poet Zia ul Haq Qasmi.

Zia ul Haq Qasmi died in Karachi on the Eid day at the age of 71.

In a condolence message the former Prime Minister said that Zia Qasmi’s death was a great loss to Urdu literature and the vacuum created by his death will take a long time to fill.

She said that the Urdu literary magazine ‘Zarafat’ that he edited for the past over two decades earned a great name in Urdu literature not only for its contents but also for serving as nursery for many budding writers.

Mohtarma Bhutto also prayed for eternal rest to the soul of late Zia ul haq Qasmi and for patience to the members of the bereaved family to bear the loss with fortitude.

Islamabad October 27, 2006: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has condoled the death of former President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

On behalf of the Pakistan Peoples Party and on my own behalf I condole the passing away of former President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, she said in a statement today..

Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan died in Peshawar early Friday morning. The former President served in different capacities during his long career. He also served under the country’s first directly elected Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Mohtarma Bhutto also prayed for eternal peace to the departed soul and for fortitude to the members of the bereaved family to bear the loss with equanimity.

Islamabad October 22, 2006: A spokesman of the PPP has issued the following statement today.

“A section of the press has reported that the names of PPP Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and her husband Senator Asif Ali Zardari have been removed from the list of wanted people forwarded to the Interpol.

“The PPP is unaware if the names have actually been removed the list.

“However, the PPP has filed petitions separately with the Interpol and also before the Sindh High Court for the removal of the names of Mohtarma Bhutto and Senator Asif Ali Zardari from the said list of wanted people”.

Islamabad October 23, 2006: "I wish to extend on my behalf, on behalf of the Pakistan Peoples Party and on behalf of the people of Pakistan greetings to Muslims throughout the world particularly to our Pakistani brothers and sisters on the occasion of Eid ul Fitr", she said in a statement.

Let us on this occasion also bow our heads in gratitude to Allah for blessing us with the bounties of the holy month of Ramazan, she said.

“But amidst Eid celebrations this year let us not forget the tens of thousands of our sisters and brethren who perished in earthquake in Frontier and Azad Kashmir last year and the other tens of thousands who have been rendered homeless. Let us also remember those who lost lives and suffered heavily in recent rains and floods.

“It is sad to recall that the tens of thousands of victims people are forced to spend another winter without homes and without shelter. And it is a great pity that the plight of the victims has been compounded by what foreign donors have alleged as massive corruption in the rehabilitation and reconstruction work.

“I call upon my people, who are very caring and loving people, to step forward and help them in their hour of trial even as this hour of trial has been stretched and their miseries prolonged by corruption in the earthquake rehabilitation work.

“May Allah in His infinite mercy grant our supplications and guide us to imbibe the spirit of Ramazan throughout the year and to employ that spirit in rebuilding the lives of devastated people”.

A festive occasion has relevance only when blessings are genuinely shared with many, she said.

“On this day therefore let us redouble our efforts to alleviate the sufferings not only of the victims of the most terrible natural disaster in the history of Pakistan but also of those who are destitute and needy”

Islamabad October 22, 2006: A spokesman of the PPP has issued the following statement today.

“A section of the press has reported that the names of PPP Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and her husband Senator Asif Ali Zardari have been removed from the list of wanted people forwarded to the Interpol.

“The PPP is unaware if the names have actually been removed the list.

“However, the PPP has filed petitions separately with the Interpol and also before the Sindh High Court for the removal of the names of Mohtarma Bhutto and Senator Asif Ali Zardari from the said list of wanted people”.

Islamabad, 20 October 2006: Pakistan Peoples Party has filed a reference against the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, nine federal ministers, Salman Shah, adviser to prime minister for Finance, Dr. Akram Sheikh, deputy Chairman Planning Commission of Pakistan and Ms. Shamshad Akhtar, Governor State Bank of Pakistan for reportedly guilty of misuse of power, corruption and corrupt practices defined in section 9 of the NAB Ordinance 1999 which are punishable under section 10 of the same Ordinance. The PPP has called upon the Chairman NAB to initiate investigations into the serious irregularities and illegalities in the process of privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills.

The complaint has been filed with NAB through Shah Khawar Advocate. Federal Ministers Humayun Akhtar Khan, Jahangir Tareen, Awais Khan Laghari, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Aman-Ullah Jadoon, Babar Khan Ghauri, Zahid Hamid, Mushtaq Ali Cheema and Liaqat Ali Jatoi are the federal ministers nominated in the complaint. The complaint detailed the process through which the above mentioned tried to privatize the largest public concern for peanuts and reads, "That the matter was taken up by different parties before the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan for declaring the bidding of PSMC as illegal. The Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan, after hearing the parties at length, passed a short order, dated 23-06-2006, declaring the whole process of privatization of PSMC as illegal and void. On 8th of August 2006, the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a detailed judgment in the matter. The same may be treated and read as an integral part of this complaint. In the said judgment, serious infirmities, incongruities, irregularities and illegalities have been pointed out by the apex Court of the country, consequent upon which the respondents being member of board of PC and CCOP are held responsible for benefiting successful bidder Mr. Arif Habib, loss to the Government Exchequer amounting to billions of rupees and receiving millions of rupees as bribe, all respondents for violating and ignoring all constitutional and legal necessities for privatization. If the Honourale Supreme Court had not taken up the matter immediately and passed a judgment canceling the whole process of privatization of the Pakistan Steel Mills with offer letter, the Nation would had lost the golden sparrow as expressed by former Chairman Pakistan Steel Mill, Lt. Gen. (Retd) Abdul Qayyum.

Islamabad October 20, 2006: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson PPP Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto attended a press conference in London with Mohammed Nawaz Sharif, leader of the PML N on Thursday following their earlier meeting in the day.

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto called for the establishment of an interim government of national consensus to supervise the holding of fair, free and transparent elections open to all candidates and parties in Pakistan.

She reiterated her resolve to return to Pakistan before the next election to help build Quaid e Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah's Pakistan for which Quaid e Awam had given his life, which is a federal, egalitarian Pakistan.

When asked about when she will be returning to Pakistan, she said she will be returning anytime between now and the same time next year.

She said that our people need democracy, gender equality and respect for minorities. When questioned whether the Taliban are a concern, she said that the PPP is deeply concerned over reports that the Taliban have regrouped and are reasserting themselves in parts of the country. Islamabad must restore the writ of government and work closely with Kabul and New Delhi to prevent militants from jeopardizing relations with its neighbors.

Terrorism was not only a threat to the region but also a threat to the well- being of the Pakistani people, she said, as the attacks on masjids, churches, diplomatic missions and other places demonstrated, she said.

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said that it was necessary to have a level playing field for all political players. She noted that even leaders of banned terrorist groups like
Hafiz Saeed were free to advocate their policies while the two former Prime Ministers were banned from reaching the people, through an exploitation of the judicial process. She said that all political parties including the ARD must have the same the same opportunities as the PML Q and its allies as well as the religious parties have in Pakistan.

Right now, she said, the common citizen has no access to basic utilities such as clean drinking water, sanitation and unemployment. Even the most basic protections under the law are unavailable to citizens, who face a situation of near anarchy where people are killed in the street for small thefts like mobile phones but no one is apprehended for those crimes. People face stagnant rain water in their streets, toxic water in their pipes, and malarial fever with no respite.

To a question on whether her party is involved in negotiations with the military regime, she said that my spokesman has already given a statement on the issue and that such speculation has existed for seven years, but the PPP is committed to the democratization of Pakistan. However, the PPP is a mainstream party, with a clear agenda in Parliament, she said, and on issues like the Women's Bill, which are rights we have championed for over 25 years, we will be working to empower women, and to these ends, our Party will try to work with government, she said. We don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, she said.

When asked about working with the MMA she said we work with them in Parliament when we agree on certain issues and on others which they disagree they follow their own agenda, such as on the women's bill. On the need for a grand opposition alliance, she said that all the parties are working in their different alliances, mainly the ARD and MMA, and when there is a common issue they work together.

Mohtarma Benazir Bhuto did not rule out the possibility of an opposition alliance in the future, and when asked about the possibility of resignations she said that parliamentarians had given their resignations to the ARD leadership which would exercise it should the circumstances demand it.

When asked about a Plan B, in case the interim government was not formed, she counter- questioned whether the country itself had a plan B. She noted that the
2002 elections were fought without the main leaders of the two mainstream parties, which had created a dangerous crisis for the country. In the last five years, she said, our relations with Kabul had deteriorated, the Taliban had regrouped in parts of Waziristan according to media reports, which also claimed that Al Qaeda leaders were hiding in these parts. Our relations with New Delhi remained uneasy despite many attempts to improve them, she said. Internally nearly 60 % of the people lived on less than $ 2 a day whereas according to Transparency International, Pakistan was among the most corrupt nation in the world with a rating of 67. This was significantly higher than the level of corruption ratings that had prevailed for civilian governments, which proved that dictatorship bred mis-governance, she said.

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto condemned the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti and said that his killing had lit the fire of alienation in Balochistan which threatened to spread to other parts of the country.

In view of this alarming situation internally and externally, it was clear that the plan to exclude the major democratic leaders had failed and that the only solution lay in restoring democracy through the formation of an interim government of national consensus in which all political players and parties could contest.

KARACHI - The level of tolerance between the government of President General Pervez Musharraf and Islamists elements, whether they are part of the establishment or outside it, has reached a point of no return, a development with vast implications for the US-led "war on terror".

Islamist elements are determined to push until one side breaks, while Musharraf, a key US ally in the "war on terror" and under intense pressure from Washington, has to take rapid steps to contain the rise of militancy in the region, which has Pakistan as its nucleus.

The recent discovery of a planned al-Qaeda-backed coup against Musharraf's regime, which included men in uniform associated with sensitive strategic institutions, underlines Musharraf's difficulties.

According to information obtained by Asia Times Online, the coup plot was hatched in the Waziristan tribal area headquarters of al-Qaeda. The conspiracy was uncovered after a mobile phone used to activate a rocket aimed at the president's residence was traced to an air force officer. More than 40 people, both inside and outside the military, were subsequently arrested.

The most alarming issue for the Pakistani establishment was not only the involvement of air force officers, but the apparent deep penetration of al-Qaeda into highly sensitive areas.

Those arrested in the conspiracy plot include air force engineers associated with the Air Weapon Complex (AWC) of Pakistan, a leading organization in the field of air-delivered weapons and systems. Its personnel are subjected to vigorous and intrusive background checks.

The personnel arrested were employed in the high-profile research and development section of the AWC. The linkage of such security-cleared people with al-Qaeda, who, according to Asia Times Online's information, were to carry out the attacks on signals received from Waziristan, sheds light on the vulnerable security situation in Pakistan. At the same time, it shows the depth of feeling in segments of society who reject Pakistan's role in the "war on terror".

Pakistani security officials have confirmed that the rocket plot to assassinate Musharraf was an al-Qaeda-linked conspiracy. At a press conference, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao announced that eight al-Qaeda militants had been arrested.

Significantly, however, the establishment has not admitted publicly that any military officers were involved in the conspiracy, as they were in at least two previous attempts on Musharraf's life since he seized power in 1999.

When quoted an Asia Times Online article saying that air force officers were involved ( Pakistan foils coup plot Oct 14), Sherpao dismissed it. But later, he did concede that those arrested included some air force officers, yet he rejected the idea of a coup.

This attitude reflects the state of denial of Pakistan's leaders, who will not admit that renegade Islamist elements have infiltrated the armed forces, so much so that they have even entered institutions like the AWC's research and development section.

Musharraf's main constituency is the Pakistani armed forces. Whether officer or soldier, the majority hail from Punjab province's rural areas or the Pashtun tribal belt, and belong to the traditionally martial races of the region. Because of their traditional background they are often over-zealous in their religious beliefs and practices.

World events after September 11, 2001, especially the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, have further radicalized this already strong religious passions among soldiers and officers. Musharraf's abandonment of the Taliban and attempts to purge society of radical religious ideas have heaped fuel on this fire.

Inevitably, then, as Musharraf pursued his plans to abandon all traces of sharia law and contain militancy in the country, he faced a serious backlash. He was therefore forced to adopt a policy of "two steps forward and one step back". Nevertheless, the pace of events in the past few months has taken Pakistan to a point where it has to play a decisive role, and of course Musharraf is in charge of this mission that requires quick and uncompromising steps.

The main task - as reinforced by Washington - is to destroy the command and control centers in Pakistan of the Taliban-led Afghan resistance. Word has filtered out that Islamabad will launch a major action in the next few days in the northwest and southwest (Balochistan).

Any northwest operation could involve the sensitive and semi-independent North and South Waziristan tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban have a strong footprint here and recently negotiated an agreement with Islamabad which included the army pulling its troops out of the area. This accord could now be in jeopardy.

"I do not know whether it was a coup attempt or not, but certainly we would support any coup for the cause of Islamic sharia," retired squadron leader Khalid Khawaja, a former Inter Services Intelligence official and once a close friend of Osama bin Laden, told Asia Times Online. "Nevertheless, if the coup is without any cause and is just a grab for power, we would oppose it," Khawaja said.

At the core of the struggle in Pakistan is this contradiction between many in the strategic institutions, dominated by hardliners, and Musharraf, who is a genuine liberal-minded person by comparison and fully committed to the "war on terror".

While these opposing forces have coexisted in the past, Afghanistan has proved a decisive trigger as the Taliban have gone from strength to strength, in large part because of their support bases in Pakistan. With just weeks before snow sends the Taliban's offensive into hibernation, Musharraf needs - and wants - to act very soon. His opponents are in no mood to back down.

Islamabad, 20 October 2006: Pakistan Peoples Party has filed a reference against the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, nine federal ministers, Salman Shah, adviser to prime minister for Finance, Dr. Akram Sheikh, deputy Chairman Planning Commission of Pakistan and Ms. Shamshad Akhtar, Governor State Bank of Pakistan for reportedly guilty of misuse of power, corruption and corrupt practices defined in section 9 of the NAB Ordinance 1999 which are punishable under section 10 of the same Ordinance. The PPP has called upon the Chairman NAB to initiate investigations into the serious irregularities and illegalities in the process of privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills.

The complaint has been filed with NAB through Shah Khawar Advocate. Federal Ministers Humayun Akhtar Khan, Jahangir Tareen, Awais Khan Laghari, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Aman-Ullah Jadoon, Babar Khan Ghauri, Zahid Hamid, Mushtaq Ali Cheema and Liaqat Ali Jatoi are the federal ministers nominated in the complaint. The complaint detailed the process through which the above mentioned tried to privatize the largest public concern for peanuts and reads, "That the matter was taken up by different parties before the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan for declaring the bidding of PSMC as illegal. The Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan, after hearing the parties at length, passed a short order, dated 23-06-2006, declaring the whole process of privatization of PSMC as illegal and void. On 8th of August 2006, the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a detailed judgment in the matter. The same may be treated and read as an integral part of this complaint. In the said judgment, serious infirmities, incongruities, irregularities and illegalities have been pointed out by the apex Court of the country, consequent upon which the respondents being member of board of PC and CCOP are held responsible for benefiting successful bidder Mr. Arif Habib, loss to the Government Exchequer amounting to billions of rupees and receiving millions of rupees as bribe, all respondents for violating and ignoring all constitutional and legal necessities for privatization. If the Honourale Supreme Court had not taken up the matter immediately and passed a judgment canceling the whole process of privatization of the Pakistan Steel Mills with offer letter, the Nation would had lost the golden sparrow as expressed by former Chairman Pakistan Steel Mill, Lt. Gen. (Retd) Abdul Qayyum.

Islamabad October 18, 2006: PPP Parliamentarian Secretary General and deputy leader of the Parliamentary Party in the National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf has asked the MMA leader Hafiz Husain Ahmad to look inwardly before criticizing the PPP.

He was commenting on MMA leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmad’s press statement in which he questioned Senator Asif Zardari’s release from jail and going abroad. Hussain Ahmad was also reported to have asked Mohtarma Bhutto to explain how Senator Asif Ali Zardari was released and went abroad.

In a rejoinder to Ahmad the PPP leader said that Asif Zardari was freed jut like Nelson Mandela was freed when it became a huge scandal that an individual could be so badly maltreated through long years of incarceration without conviction, solitary confinement and persecution.

He said that Hafiz Hussain should explain how and why he allowed the Musharraf regime the undemocratic 17th amendment, how he got Musharraf elected through unconstitutional device of confidence vote and bailed out the Musharraf regime on the Balochistan issue. Mr. Ahmad and his leadership has a lot to explain about running with the hare and hunting with the hound, Raja said.

Raja Pervez Ashraf said that Asif Zardari endured with courage long years of incarceration and maltreatment without conviction and asked Hafiz Hussain to explain why he nor his leadership were never even arrested

Islamabad, 19 October 2006: Pakistan Peoples Party has expressed serious concerns about the way Computerized Electoral Rolls System (CERS) is being developed.

The Coordinator Election Monitoring Cell, Pakistan Peoples Party, Senator Sardar Latif Khan Khosa addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner wrote, "We are deeply concerned about the way CERS is being developed, date-entered, managed monitored, and implemented. Technically speaking, as we all know, no software are "guaranteed 100% hack proof', period. At any time during the development process, or even after completion or implementation, software developers, managers and those who have access to the software or server from any of the entry points can embed a malicious code through which it will be possible to change data later. Hacking can be done through any of the modes or multiple data entry points any time (24/7/365) when none of the political parties agents are present, to change the electoral data, add fictitious names or delete actual names. We believe and urge that if the RFP and the project are not rectified and revised at this stage, it will lead to flawed software development, mismanagement of CERS, incomplete data entry, erroneous rolls systems, and possible hacking of rolls and election results."

"There should be representation of the political parties on the Project Steering Committee (PSC) and the Technical Review Committee (TRC) of the ECP (sections 20.1 and 20.2) to ensure transparency of the project. ECP must define the certification level of the CMM firm in the RFP to at least a level four to work as implementation partners. There should be an independent audit of the CERS (by an independent software audit firm) after completion and after installation of CERS. All off-line data entry and merging centers should allow for party8 teams to be present at the time of data entry. The central data server should be allowed access only through a two-tier code system, one of which must be with the ECP and the other one with the representative of the political parties. The system must be locked after each segment of data entry", the PPP demanded.

The letter further reads, "In addition to the above, ECP is preparing afresh data through door to door enumeration. NIC card is mandatory. Twenty million eligible voters still do not have NICs. Their names will not appear on the Electoral Rolls data base. There will also be more eligible voters (those who attain the age of 18 after the registration, those who relocate after the registration, leftovers, etc). How will they be able to vote? There appears to be a catch in the provision of allowing old NICs for identification purposes. On the face of it, it is a convenience given to those who have not got their computerized NICs prepared. But what happens if 2 votes are registered instead of 1 for persons having both the new and the old NICs. The addresses of the voters keep changing and do not have to be the same as the one given on their NICs.The 2 votes of a single voter can be with different addresses, appearing in the voters list hundreds of pages apart and also voting at 2 different polling stations or even in 2 different constituencies."

The PP demands, "The NADRA NIC requirement condition MUST be done away with, and any two forms of photo ID should be allowed for registration so that the voter gets enrolled. ECP information of eligible voters (with two forms of Ids who don't have NICs) should be automatically sent to NADRA to issue a new NICs automatically without cost. It is a hard reality the Ruling. Party and its allies have practically taken charge of t he registration Process and selective entries are being recorded. Complaints from the Province of Sindh transmitted to your good self which reveal a pathetic state of affairs have gone unnoticed. Pre-Poll ragging to marginalize the popular political forces through such like electoral fraud would have no parallel in history. In Punjab the Nazims are practically charged with collecting Registration forms were entries are altered at will and the very forms excluded and added under a calculated scheme."

Demanding to make the electoral list available on the internet for all political parties to verify, with time allowed for correction, addition/deletions, Senator Khosa wrote, "The opposition Parties have been under the line of fire and the recent admission of Gen. Pervaiz Musharrafthat he created and inducted the ruling party reflects the free hand given to District and Provincial Governments, and their employees for the fresh preparation of Electoral Rolls. The Province of Baluchistan being in turmoil after the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti instability is Waziristan, tension in rest of NWFP, Floods creating havoc in other parts of the Country, month of Ramzan and Eid Holiday intervening the preparation of New electoral lists would neither be possible nor practicable. In such circumstances it would not be feasible to replace the existing Electoral Rolls and rather additions and deletions be made to update the same so that one or the other party does not have its way in excluding voters known to favour the other side and enter only such voters at multiple places who atone to those at the helm, of affairs. Compete replacement of Electoral Rolls is done during census and not otherwise. However in case it is so required the same be carried out with consensus of political parties and directly under supervision of the Election Commission of Pakistan and adequate time be given to ensure that all eligible voters are registered and none deprived of his right of franchise."

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto condoles with Mubarak Khaskheli

Islamabad, October 19, 2006: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and her husband Senator Asif Ali Zardari have condoled with Mubarak Khaskheli over the sad demise of his son, Niaz Khashkheli in Islamabad recently.

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in a condolence letter addressed to Mubarak Khaskheli wrote, "The loss of a young son who was making efforts to earn for his family at Islamabad far away from his native village is a great tragedy. Our sympathies are with you at this difficult time."

Expressing concerns over the deteriorating law and order situation in the country, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto further wrote, "It is unfortunate that Law and Order situation in the country has deteriorated to an extant where the lives of ordinary citizens are not safe. The incident in which Niaz was robbed of his phone and money was tragic which disappointed him and he took an extreme step to end his life in protest against the inability of law enforcement agencies to protect the lives of the citizens. It is a great sacrifice which will be long remembered."

She also prayed to Almighty Allah to rest the deceased’s soul in eternal peace and grant of courage to the family members to bear this irreparable loss with equanimity.

Mohtarma Bhutto felicitates BD Banker on winning Nobel Peace Prize

Islamabad October 19, 2006: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has felicitated Bangladeshi banker Muhammad Yunus on co-winning the Nobel Peace Prize with his Grameen Bank for his role in alleviating poverty through micro bank financing.

In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that the recognition given to Muhammad Yunus and to the Grameen Bank was in fact a realization that eradicating poverty was essential to contributing to world peace.

She said it went to the credit of Muhammad Yunus to have pioneered micro credit that enabled the most needy particularly the poor women to start small businesses without collateral. The system he devised not only worked wonders in Bangladesh but has since been copied in more that one hundred countries around the globe stretching from the United States to Uganda in Africa.

She said that taking cue from the success of Grameen Bank experiment the PPP government also started the First Women Bank, which proved a great success.

She said that the Grameen experiment had demonstrated that given vision and planning millions of the poorest can be galvanized to work together on millions of small enterprises that would eventually lead to national development.

The former Prime Minister said that the award of Nobel Peace Prize to the pioneer of small credit had brought into focus the need for innovative approaches to eradicate poverty and fair and equitable distribution of resources.

Islamabad October 18, 2006: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has condemned the incident of firing of house of Ramzan Halepoto Naib Nazim of UC Pahar Marri, near Tando Bago in Badin district and demanded arrest of culprits.

Unknown assailants resorted to indiscriminate firing on the house of the UC Nazim Ramzan Halepoto the other day who made good their escape after the crime. However since Mr Ramzan has no known enmity and has political affiliation with the awam dost group and it is suspected to be a politically motivated act. No arrests have so far been made deepening the suspicions that it is politically motivated.

In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that the Pakistan Peoples Party is gravely concerned over the worsening law and order where political workers are targeted.

Most recently two PPP workers from Mirpurkhas, Junaid and Jehangir, were sentenced to ten years in prison after they refused to leave the PPP. Further many PPP workers including Munawar Suhrawardy, Abdullah Murad, Akbar Umrani and others were killed. Disappearances are also taking place.

Moreover ordinary citizens were also bearing the brunt of the criminals as the law and situation had gone haywire in the country and the life of no body was safe.

She said that the PPP demands the early arrest of the culprits of the firing on the house of Ramzan Halepoto and punishment to them in accordance with the law of the land.

The former Prime Minister said that worsening law and order situation and increase in the incidence of crimes was the result of unrepresentative rule. She asked the people to strengthen the hands of the PPP that was struggling for restoration of democracy and representative rule.

Monday 16 October 2006: WASHINGTON: Pakistani opposition parties may try to take advantage of the prevailing feeling of unrest about the present government, which could create political instability in the country, American news intelligence and analysis portal has warned.

In a commentary on Pakistan, the Texas-based news and analysis service, Stratfor, took note of the arrest of eight militants with ties to Al Qaeda allegedly involved in attempted rocket attacks in the Rawalpindi-Islamabad area. The analysis pointed out that the incident had come "amid growing talk of discontent within the military with President Gen Pervez Musharraf, and amid criticism from senior military intelligence officials - signalling that Musharraf's support within the military could be waning."

It added that although Gen Musharraf is not faced with the prospect of losing power "anytime soon", opposition parties would try to take advantage of this situation.

Stratfor also quoted from a report in Asia Times, Hong Kong, from its Pakistan correspondent alleging that a coup plot against President Musharraf had been uncovered soon after his return from the United States.

According to him, more than 40 people had been arrested, most of them mid-ranked air force officers. The conspirators were uncovered when an air force officer used a cell phone to activate a rocket aimed at the president's residence in Rawalpindi.

The rocket was recovered, and its activating mechanism, also a cell phone, revealed the officer's phone number. The correspondent in question has been known in the past for his "colourful" reporting.

According to Stratfor, although a coup attempt is unlikely, it is possible that some air force personnel may have been arrested, including junior officers.

These developments indicate that Gen Musharraf might be slowly losing support from his core constituency in the military establishment, the analysis ventured. Gen Musharraf's recent statements "show he is under a lot of strain."

He told a gathering with journalists that if moderates do not prevail over extremists in the upcoming elections, Pakistan as envisioned by the Quaid-i-Azam would be no more.

The Stratfor analysis referred to two former ISI chiefs who had made critical remarks about the president's performance. Stratfor noted that former Al Qaeda military commander Abu Zubaydah had told interrogators that one of his high-ranking contacts was the late PAF chief Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir.

"Stratfor also has learned that many former mid-level ISI officials with the rank of major and colonel have familial ties with Islamist militants who are veterans of the 1979-89 war against the Soviet army in Afghanistan ... Clearly, the pressure is rising on Musharraf regarding the ISI controversy, but most significant is that he is being criticised from within. This is something his civilian political opponents will be looking to exploit. Should this situation lead to political unrest, his fellow generals may not be very keen to continue supporting him," Stratfor speculated. - Internews.

“A series of reports have been circulating seeking to create divisions and demoralization within the PPP workers by wrongly claiming that Mohtarma Bhutto has nominated other persons as candidates for Premier. Such reports are baseless..

“The facts are that from time to time over the last seven years there has been an agreement born in the media through stories fed by vested elements of a so called agreement being implemented between the PPP and the regime. Such stories have never materialized nor implemented but it has not stopped the story tellers from telling their story. The PPP is committed to the democratization of Pakistan, to the holding of fair elections, to the empowerment of the Pakistani people and to the construction of a modern, enlightened state that eliminates terrorism, eradicates militancy, builds peace with its neighbors and eliminates poverty. It has signed a Charter of Democracy containing important constitutional changes.

“If the PPP was not committed to such high ideals and principles, it would have signed an agreement in 2000 and obtained the release of Senator Zardari and its leadership instead of undergoing adverse and difficult circumstances of prison, exile, solitary confinement. Nor would the PPP have been facing one politically motivated charge after another from city to city in Pakistan and from city to city overseas. These sacrifices were given for the democratization of Pakistan, for the rights of the provinces and for the emancipation of the people from poverty and backwardness.

“The PPP has worked with the regime when it agreed on policies such as constitutional amendments relating to women and minorities as well as on the women’s bill in parliament. The politics of the PPP is for the creation of a Pakistan in accordance with the dreams of Quaid e Azam and Quaid e Awam. However, this should not be misconstrued as support for dictatorship or the disempowerment of the people.

“The people’s choice and the democratic alternative is Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. She is the people’s candidate for Prime Minister. In 2002, the PPP did consider having an alternative for Prime Minister after Mohtarma Bhutto was banned from contesting the elections. However, 2002 is over. Now PPP has only one candidate, which is Mohtarma who will return to Pakistan before the 2007 elections.

“If Mohtarma Bhutto is disqualified from leading the Nation when the people want her leadership, the PPP will sit in the Opposition. However, there is no question of Mohtarma Bhutto or the PPP naming any other leader for the Premiership and there is no question of any other leader in the PPP aspiring to such a position knowing that it is she that the people of Pakistan want and who has the experience to lead the Nation with the PPP support and the PPP allies.

“PPP has a long record of working with allies as its experience in past alliances shows”.

Islamabad October 14, 2006: Syed Qaim Ali Shah President PPP Sindh has strongly condemned political victimization of political opponents and demanded of the regime to stop chasing and hounding the political opponents.

A court in Mirpur Khas sentenced 10 years imprisonment and 30 thousand fine each to Jehangir Mughal divisional president PPP Mirpurkhas and Junaid Buland an office bearer of the students federation in a politically motivated case. The two were shifted to the Central prison Hyderabad soon after sentencing.

In a statement today Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that both the youths were asked to leave the PPP, which they refused. They were later named in a firing case and have now been sentenced.

Syed Qaim Ali Shah condemned the state apparatus’ bid to break mainstream parties through corrupt practices, abuse of judicial power and coercion. “However such tactics cannot not break the spirit of the people of Pakistan who knew that their progress and prosperity lay in a representative government that could offer peace, justice, employment and human dignity in a society free from the threats of sectarian violence or bigotry."

He said that the PPP united people on a much higher moral pedestal consisting of a vision of a democratic Pakistan, free of the forces of extremism where poverty was eliminated by judicious use of the available resources instead of wasting them on white elephant projects like building a second GHQ next to the first.

Qaim Ali Shah said that the present military dictatorship will fall and be condemned forever, as were the dictatorships of Ayub, Yayha and Zia because victory belonged to the masses.

These tactics of the forces that foisted the Taliban, harbored Al Qaeda, launched the ill fated Kargil war, presided over the export of nuclear technology, brought economic bankruptcy and given birth to sectarianism, extremism and suicide bombers would ultimately fail, he said.

The PPP Sindh President called upon the youth, farmers, labourers, traders, students, women and minorities to wake up and meet the challenges of dictatorship with determination, courage and steadfastness. He said that the Party will fight for its two incarcerated workers.

Meanwhile the Party Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has also condemned the continued persecution of the PPP workers who refuse to change political loyalties and are sentenced for not changing loyalties. The Party deplores the use of the judicial processes to blackmail political activists in leaving their parties, she said.

She said that the PPP is proud of the courage they have demonstrated and the sacrifice that they are giving for the rights of the people.

Islamabad, October 14 2006: The Pakistan Peoples Party has condemned all current rumors of the Party striking some kind of a back channel deal with the regime as based on speculation and agency-inspired propaganda to tarnish the image of the Party.

The Party sees all such hype as instigated by the military regime, which is once again nervous at the prospect of the ARD leaders meeting in London next week.

In a statement issued from Islamabad, the PPP's Information Secretary, Sherry Rehman, has dismissed all such speculation as an attempt to drive a wedge in the opposition ranks.

The PPP is a strong mainstream force that can unite the unstable federation today, and as such remains a frontline challenger to the military regime's unconstitutional and disastrous usurpation of the state and its entire resources in the service of one General who refuses to doff uniform while openly admitting to creating his own political party in blatant violation of the Constitution.

No one has the right to tell the PPP who will lead it, and no one can and will be able to prevent the PPP's Chairperson from leading her party in the next election campaign, said Rehman.

Generals come and Generals go, but the PPP will always remain the symbol of progressive democratic forces in Pakistan, she added, which can easily be proved in any free and fair election in the country today. If the PPP had to cut a deal with the military, it would not have paid the price of leaving its leaders to endure eight years of jail, and no one should forget that the Party has earned its right to challenge the status quo from a position it has never compromised on.

The widow of the late Murtaza Bhutto claimed that the ISI had approached her ahead of 2002 general elections to suggest that she should contest either from the platform of the National Alliance, of which former president Farooq Leghari and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi were the top leaders, or that of the Sindh Democratic Alliance. She was told that after winning the election she would become a minister and thus be in a better position to have her husband's murder case decided. She said that she had rejected the offer out of hand, saying instead of making such a deal she would like to have the system reformed so that everybody, including herself, got justice.

Islamabad October 13, 2006: The Pakistan Peoples Party is deeply concerned over the increasing rate of unemployment and crime said the Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in a statement today.

The former Prime Minister said this while commenting on reports that young people are committing suicide as well as threatening self-immolation as they are unable to feed their minor children in the holy month of Ramadan.

She said that the PPP was committed to job generation. According to the ILO report, the largest job generation in Pakistan had taken place during the PPP government.

She asked the young people to support the PPP in the forthcoming elections so that collectively the PPP and the youth could work for creating job opportunities in the country. She also asked the youth to convince their parents of the need to stop any attempts at rigging the elections.

Because the elections of 2002 were rigged, therefore the unemployment situation in the country had worsened, she said.

Mohtarma Bhutto said that the deplorable rise in crime, robbery and murder was a black stain on the record of the present administration. She noted that the media daily reported horrific crimes taking place in broad-daylight. She said that whenever democracy was derailed, bandits reared their head.

She condoled the death of a Karachi businessman Arshjadullah and his son Amirullah were shot to death while trying to resist bandits in Landhi.

Mohtarma Bhutto said that it was the basic right of the citizens to live in security in peace but unfortunately in the absence of a representative and an accountable government, crime had increased and innocent people were losing their lives. She assured the people of Pakistan that PPP is committed to providing peace and security to every citizen.

The Chairperson also condemned the incident in which a senior politician Meraj Muhammad Khan and a dozen citizens were robbed by armed bandits. According to the media reports, Meraj Muhammad Khan, his three companions and driver were robbed of cash and other valuables when two gunmen intercepted them in K Area Korangi, while they were on way to attend a Soyem of their party worker in Korangi police jurisdiction.

Recalling the days of the PPP, the former Prime Minister said that the PPP had courageously taken on the criminal elements from Khyber to Karachi and broken the back of mafias. Unfortunately, the PPP government was destabilized and the criminals and the mafias had once again regrouped to cause suffering to the citizens of Pakistan. She asked the people of Pakistan in all the four federating units to support the PPP so that their problems could be resolved.
The Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party also expressed concern over the employees of the left bank outfall drainage tube well project in Mirpurkhas as well as elsewhere who had not been paid their salaries. She said that PPP was committed to ensuring that government employees received salaries on time so that they could plan their lives in accordance with the hard work they put in.

She called upon the present regime to immediately pay the government employees to whom dues were owed. She said that the PPP managed the economy of the country despite the fact that earlier dictatorships had burdened the country with loans and those loans had not been rescheduled. She said PPP was committed to the progress of the country and the people, which is why it selflessly worked for the downtrodden and weak segments of society.

Islamabad October 12, 2006: Pakistan Peoples Party has condemned the closure recently of a private FM radio station in Balakot in Frontier province by PEMRA and demanded an end to discrimination and permission to the radio station to operate within the bounds of law.

A private radio station called Mast FM 103 has been closed down by PEMRA after the radio aired programs that criticized the alleged misuse of funds and corruption in the relief and rehabilitation work in the earthquake affected area.

The management of the private radio has claimed that their request for renewal of broadcast license after its expiry in August this year was not accepted by PEMRA without assigning any reason. While temporary broadcasting licenses of all the other seven FM radio stations operating in the earthquake stricken area were renewed that of the Mast FM 103 was not renewed and no reason for given for it.

Mast FM 103 said that it runs five radio stations throughout Pakistan and had started broadcasting from Balakot after the devastating earthquake of October 2005 and had valid permission for it.

In a statement today spokesman of the Party said that the closure of the private radio station was discriminatory and constituted an assault on the freedom of the media. The Party demands renewal of the license of the radio station as done in the case of other private radio stations operating in the area, he said.

The spokesman said that issues of corruption and mismanagement in ERRA can be addressed through transparency and accountability and not by banning a private radio station.

Islamabad October 12, 2006: Rejecting the contention of General Pervez Musharraf that Mohtarma Bhutto will not be allowed to take part in the elections, a spokesperson of the PPP has issued the following statement today.

"The Pakistan Peoples Party rejects the assertion that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto will not be allowed to take part in the next elections.

"It is for the people of Pakistan, and not for any individual, to decide who shall represent and lead them in the elections".

Islamabad October 12, 2006: Pakistan People Party has expressed grave concern over the reports of mass corruption in the Employees Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) and demanded that the real faces behind corruption be exposed and punished.

Media reports have talked of massive financial irregularities in the EOBI that is headed by a retired Brigadier.

In a statement today spokesman of the Party said that corruption had been institutionalized in the country while the NAB was acting as only a political arm of the government advance its political agenda and not to eradicate corruption.

"Political opponents were hauled up in the name of accountability while those actually indulging in corruption were allowed to make hay while the sun shone for them in a set up that is rooted in corruption".

The spokesman said that press reports based on audit reports of the EOBI revealed alarming levels of corruption that cannot be swept under the rug.

According to reports a loss of over 2.2 billion rupees has been detected the accounts of EOBI. The report, prepared by the directorate of the commercial audit says that at least 20 cases involving losses of over Rs2. billion have been detected and the EOBI despite reminders did not respond.

The irregularities include blockade of capital owing to ill-planned investment of over Rs1.4 billion in plots, an investment of over Rs 438 million in Sui Southern Gas Company Limited in violation of investment rules; irregular purchase of vehicles involving over Rs20 million and irregular payment of leave fare assistance amounting over Rs6.6 million.

The report says that the EOBI had made an advance payment of over Rs1.4 billion on account of 400 plots purchased in Islamabad. The payment was recorded as a capital expenditure because allotment of these plots in EOBI was to be done later. The audit says that till the disposal of these plots no earning on this huge investment was expected and capital of over Rs1.4 billion had been blocked owing to ill-planning.

The audit also found out that the EOBI had purchased 21 vehicles of over Rs20 million in contravention of government orders that clearly stated "no new vehicle will be acquired by any department for any purpose till further orders".

The vehicles purchased included eight KIA Grand Sportage Jeeps of Rs12.3 million; two Toyota Corolla cars of Rs1.6 million; two Suzuki Cultus cars of Rs1.17 million, five Suzuki Potohar jeeps of Rs3 million, four Sukuzi Bolan vans of Rs1.5 million. The audit report says that the expenditure was not only against the rules but also wastage of public exchequer.

Islamabad October 12, 2006: "Misgovernance in the country has made the life of ordinary citizens a misery as crime has increased" said Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in a statement today while condemning the murder of the son of an Awam Dost Naib Nazim of Union Council in Larkana the other day.

She said that the PPP demands the early arrest of the culprits adding, ‘it was unacceptable that politically protected persons were getting away with crimes committed in day light’.

The former Prime Minister said that this was the result of unrepresentative government. She assured the people that PPP was fighting to give them the right to elect a government and hold it accountable to the people. She saluted the PPP workers who had given untold sacrifices to make democracy possible so that the ills of crime, poverty, hunger and unemployment could be redressed and the country embark on the road to prosperity.

Mohtarma Bhutto also condoled with Haji Khan Abbassi, awam dost N/Nazim UC 4 Larkana, whose son's body was found from a rice canal this week.

The 35 year old Mumtaz Ali Abbassi was missing from 9 Oct and finally his dead body was found from a canal. She said that we could only imagine the pain of the parents and family of the young man who went missing and was found dead. The deceased was also tortured before being killed. The family has said that neither they nor their son had personal enmity with anyone.

Mohtarma Bhutto said that the crime situation was so terrible that a three year old girl had been kidnapped and assaulted in the holy month of Ramadan.

The three-year-old girl who was kidnapped last Friday from Allah Bux Tanwari village in Naushero Feroz was found dead. According to doctors at the Kandiaro taluka hospital, the girl, Tanzeela, had been criminally assaulted.

The Pakistan Peoples Party had received the news of this dastardly crime with shock and grief. The former Prime Minister said that unless criminals were brought to justice through an impartial investigative and court system, innocent people would suffer.

She said that there should be zero tolerance for crime, especially for crimes against women and children adding that the PPP was struggling for democracy so that a representative and accountable government could alleviate the problems of the people.

Further the former Prime Minister said that people’s homes, lives and businesses were being ruined by power shortages. She recalled that the anti people forces always created power shortages because they wished to keep the people entangled in a web of personal problems. In contrast, every time PPP was elected it finished power shut downs because it wanted the people of the country to have peace of mind in their homes as well as power to fuel their businesses, farms and factories,.

Mohtarma Bhutto said that the PPP had signed the lowest deals in the entire world for purchase of power. Unfortunately the anti people forces had politicized the agreements. Now for double the price power companies were unwilling to establish power stations. This showed the difference between the pro people Pakistan Peoples Party and the anti people forces. She said even today the PPP workers were giving untold sacrifices in the struggle to restore democracy in the country so that the problems of the people could be alleviated.

Meantime angry shopkeepers blocked the main roads in saddar bazaar Karachi to protest the prolonged power failure in the commercial area of Pakistan's largest port city of Karachi.

With Eidul Fitr approaching, market activities usually gain momentum and people go to the shops after Iftar and Tarahvee prayers. However, with the power shut downs, people cannot go to do their Eid shopping and the shopkeepers are also losing money due to lack of proper business.

She said that the PPP has criticized the privatization of KESC to the wrong party namely one with little experience of running a utility. The PPP policy of privatization was pro people and ensured that people would get better service and the country would get the best price. Unfortunately after the dismissal of the PPP government, privatization had been done to the wrong parties and for the wrong prices. The result was that tens of thousands of workers had lost their jobs, the tax revenues to the government from the privatized units had fallen as compared to when it was under the public sector and the amount received for the unit was below its actual cost. As such enormous human and economic loss had been incurred due the overthrow of the pro people Pakistan Peoples Party.

Mohtarma Bhutto said the PPP was the party of the people and it was because PPP was the only national, democratic alternative that certain people had conspired to keep it out of government to protect their vested interests. However, the spirit of the PPP workers was strong and they were determined to continue the struggle to restore democracy to safeguard the rights of the working classes, the middle classes, the youth, intellectuals, farmers, minorities, women and traders.

Mohtarma called upon all Pakistanis to support the PPP and its allies in the forthcoming elections. She asked those in the administration and outside it not to be frightened by illegal orders but to think of their motherland and refuse to rig the elections so that the people’s problems could be restored and the country's honor could be protected for a brighter future in keeping with the vision of Quaid e Azam and Quaid e Awam.

She called upon the youth of the country to come forward and help the PPP in regaining the lost rights of the people.

Islamabad, 11 October 2006: A spokesperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party ahs issued the following statement today.

“Pakistan Peoples Party has expressed grave concern over the announcement by North Korea of an underground nuclear test.

“The nuclear detonation would threaten stability and peace in Asia and the Pacific, seriously undermine global anti-proliferation and disarmament efforts and the prospects for reconciliation between North Korea and South Korea.

“The PPP is concerned that the move by North Korea will increase tensions internationally.

“The PPP calls upon the international community to act urgently to bring North Korea back into the six-party talks that also include South Korea, Japan , China, Russia and the United States”.

THE British general commanding Nato troops in Afghanistan is to confront Pakistan's president over his country's support for the Taliban.

Among the evidence amassed is the address of the Taliban's leader in a Pakistani city.

Lieutenant-General David Richards will fly to Islamabad tomorrow to try to persuade Pervez Musharraf to rein in his military intelligence service, which Richards believes is training Taliban fighters to attack British troops. He will request that key Taliban leaders living in Pakistan be arrested.

The evidence compiled by American, Nato and Afghan intelligence includes satellite pictures and videos of training camps for Taliban soldiers and suicide bombers inside Pakistan.

Captured Taliban fighters and failed suicide bombers have confirmed that they were trained by the Pakistani intelligence service, known as the ISI. The information includes an address in Quetta where Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, is said to live.

Musharraf had publicly acknowledged "a Taliban problem on the Pakistan side of the border", said Richards. "Undoubtedly something has got to happen," he added.

"We've got to accept that the Pakistan government is not omnipotent and it isn't easy but it has to be done and we're working very hard on it. I'm very confident that the Pakistan government's intent is clear and they will be delivering on it."

The initiative emerged as the commander of British forces in Afghanistan , Brigadier Ed Butler, called for more troop-carrying helicopters. He was responding to a promise by Tony Blair that the forces could have whatever extra resources they needed. But a defence source said it was difficult to see where new British transport helicopters could be found.

Political leaders have been reluctant to put pressure on Musharraf for fear of destabilising a nuclear-armed country in which Islamic fundamentalists are strong.

This week's intervention comes at a sensitive time for Blair after the ISI apparently helped avert the alleged planned bombing of transatlantic airliners flying from Heathrow. But the Taliban's re-emergence has coincided with mounting evidence of ISI involvement, prompting frustration in Afghanistan, where 30 British servicemen have been killed.

"I feel real vitriol seeing our boys dying because of Pakistan ," said one British officer.

A senior US commander added: "We just can't ignore it any more. Musharraf's got to prove which side he is on."

Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan , has repeatedly complained of Pakistan's role in providing a haven for Taliban fighters, saying they have openly run camps in Karachi and Quetta. "There is an open campaign by Pakistan against Afghanistan and the presence of coalition troops here," he said.

In Washington two weeks ago Karzai handed Pakistan the names and addresses of alleged handlers of suicide bombers using a camp near Peshawar that had been infiltrated by an Afghan informer. Last Wednesday a rubbish bag was discovered in the camp containing his body.

Islamabad October 11, 2006: Against media reports that funds for earthquake relief were misappropriated, the Pakistan Peoples Party has called for a bipartisan inquiry into the reports of fraud and for the reorganization of the relief body to provide urgent and long delayed relief to the victims of last year's devastating earthquake.

In a statement today the Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said, "Although it is one year since the devastating earthquake shook the nation destroying nearly one hundred thousand lives, injuring many more and devastating areas in AJK and Frontier, the victims of the earthquake are still waiting to be resettled".

She said that the PPP is deeply disturbed about reports that fifty thousand relief checks issued bounced.

The former Prime Minister said that having personally toured the area of AJK and Frontier in the past, she can testify to the bitter cold, which descends in winter. She said that as such she was deeply concerned about the affect of the bitter winter on the people of the affected area, particularly the women, children and older people. She said that if the PPP had been in government, it would have ensured quick relief for the victims as it did when rains hit the area during the PPP tenure.

Mohtarma Bhutto assured the people that they were not alone because PPP is their Party and will raise its voice on their behalf.

She said it was shocking that one year after the earthquake, people were still living in makeshift houses and tents. She feared that unless swift help came, the bitter winter would take its heavy toll.

She said that as a Mother it pained her deeply to see little children freezing in the cold while living in GI sheets houses or tents for the second winter running. She said that rains would add to the miseries of the families concerned.

She said that people of the earthquake affected areas had suffered hugely losing at times twenty members of their family, burying them, having no house to live in and losing their life long possessions.

The former Prime Minister said that a representative government would respond to the needs of the people as it came from the people and was accountable to the people. She said that it was to empower ordinary people that the PPP was struggling for the restoration of democracy.

Noting that elections are scheduled, Mohtarma Bhutto asked the people to support the PPP. She asked the government officials not to rig the elections but to help with the restoration of democracy. She said that each one of us could play a part in building a society free from hunger, disease and exploitation. She said such an opportunity was presenting itself in the form of elections. She hoped that those in charge of the elections would take fear out of their hearts and with courage support the democratic forces by refusing to rig elections at the hands of a mafia that had undermined the well being of Pakistan.

Mohtarma Bhutto called upon the people of Pakistan to vote for the PPP and its allies stating that PPP and its leadership were suffering for the sake of the masses and could understand their suffering.

A private television channel in Pakistan on Monday received a video cassette that clearly showed activities of Taliban who were putting up resistance against allied forces in Afghanistan.

The videotape that arrived at a TV channel consisted of three parts. The first part is named 'Rehbar' in which Mullah Dadullah khan and his aides were shown at work with activities against allied forces.

In the said videotape, Taliban are seen busy with transportation of ration and weapons through mountains and caves. In a cave of Qandhar, Mullah Dadullah Kha was shown baking breads and making his comrades had them.

The said videotape shows Taliban offer salah behind Mullah Dadullah Khan, drink water from ponds, wash clothes and take bath. The second part of the videotape was named 'Rastey', which showed Taliban taking part in a clash against US andits allied forces.

This part of videotape shows ruined vehicles of allied forces, arms and ammunitions as well as allied forces' helicopter was shown retreating after a battle with Taliban. In the wake of battle, Mullah Dadullah Khan was shown beheading two English soldiers, two Afghan women and 27 Afghan soldiers.

The third part 'Fida`yan' shows Mullah Dadullah Khan sitting in a camp where suicide attackers come to him. He writes to them a chit that he calls 'Admittance to Paradise' (jannat ka parwana). The same part details about the suicide attacks. For example, Hafiz Mohammed Dawood killed Afghan governor in a suicide attach in Kandahar.

Islamabad October 10, 2006: Commenting on reports in a section of the press quoting Federal Minister Aftab Sherpao as saying that the former Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was not in power for 11 years and she must have realized that his (Sherpao)'s policy ‘strengthening the democratic institutions’ was correct, a spokesperson of the PPP has issued the following statement today.

"The Pakistan Peoples Party did not take any decision to support the new constitution giving almost absolute powers to the President nor did it vote for a chief of army staff as president. Therefore to claim that the PPP and the Sherpao group are in the same league is simply wrong.

"The PPP stands for the democratization of Pakistan whereas the actions of the PPP dissidents delayed the democratization of Pakistan.

"With regard to the media speculations of an understanding with the regime, the PPP has clarified that it is unaware of any government-PPP talks. Further as to the scenarios being painted by different members of the federal cabinet of an understanding, the PPP is unaware whether such scenarios are in fact being contemplated.

"What the PPP is aware of is that since 1999 there have been numerous speculations of an understanding between the PPP and the present regime for a transition to democracy. However, none of these scenarios have materialized other than in the media. It seems that once again media frenzy is being created.

"The PPP stands for the democratization of Pakistan. For this the Party has been calling for the holding of fair, free and impartial elections open to all parties and personalities under a government of national consensus. The recently signed charter of democracy also calls for the same objectives.

"Further the PPP is an enlightened party and as and where enlightened steps are taken, the PPP will support them even as it opposes reactionary steps. In this regard, the PPP supported the constitutional amendments in the constitution proposed by the Musharaf regime relating to women and minorities but opposed those relating to the imbalance between the presidency and parliament when the constitution was voted on December 30, 2003. More recently, the PPP worked for a consensus bill in the select committee on women’s rights".

Islamabad October 10, 2006: The Pakistan Peoples Party is deeply concerned at the neglect of the basic civic facilities in the country that is leading to the spread of gastroenteritis and hepatitis, the two diseases tied to clean drinking water, a good sewerage system and good health facilities said Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto i a statement today.

She said that the PPP was committed to safeguarding the civic rights of the working, farming, youth, traders and middle classes of the country. Unfortunately the neglect of the drinking system and sewerage facilities had led to the deterioration of the pipes and the mingling of waste with drinking water resulting in devastating consequences. Moreover the hospitals, in particular the rural hospitals were ill equipped to deal with these illnesses due to cost of medicines and lack of facilities.

The PPP Chairperson said that just this week in a single day two persons died and over 60 infected by gastroenteritis virus in village Syed Abdul Ghani of district Jacobabad. She said that the true strength of a Nation were its people adding that there was little point in spending billions on weaponry when the very people who the weaponry was to defend were dying at the hands of another war, the war waged by disease against the poor and the weak.

The former Prime Minister urged the people of the country to vote for Pakistan Peoples Party in the forthcoming general elections.

She asked officials to refuse to rig elections and answer the call of their conscience to save the lives of the poor and the oppressed as well as the working and middle classes by voting for the pro people forces.

Islamabad, 09 October 2006: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and her husband Senator Asif Ali Zardari have condoled the death of a committed PPP activist, Alam Shah Bokhari who passed away the other day in Karachi.

In a condolence message addressed to deceased’s brother Sarwar Ali Shah, the former Prime Minister said that Alam Shah Bokhari had been associated with the party since his days as a student and had been the president of Peoples Student Federation. He played an active role in the MRD movement and participated valiantly in the fight against dictatorship. His services for the party would be remembered for a long time. The party has lost a loyal and committed worker with the death of Alam Shah Bokhari, the Chairperson PPP wrote in the condolence message.

"The death of one’s brother is a great personal loss and our thoughts and prayers are with you and other members of the bereaved family", she said in the message to Sarwar Ali Shah. She prayed for eternal peace to the soul of Alam Shah Bokhari and for grant of courage to the members of bereaved family to bear the loss with fortitude.

Almost prophetically, writer and scholar Abul Maali Syed, evolving scenarios for Pakistan in the year 2006 over 14 years ago, predicted, in his book The Twin Era of Pakistan: Democracy and Dictatorship (New York: Vantage Press, 1992): "Who would have believed that Balochistan, once the least populated and poorest province of unified Pakistan, would become independent and the third richest oil-producing country after Saudi Arabia and Kuwait?...Development in Balochistan was neglected and whenever a tribal chief spoke about the plight of their people, the Pakistan government shoved the barrel of a gun at him and silenced him. Today, having lost East Pakistan, Balochistan, Sindh, and part of the Seraiki belt, Pakistan is still entangled with Pakhtoon tribes on her northern border and is no more in a strong position to hold on to the Pakhtoon area much longer."

While this scenario is still far from realization, a cursory glance at Balochistan in 2006 clearly shows that the situation in this strategically important and largest province of Pakistan is following an ominous trajectory, with Baloch nationalist violence escalating into what could soon become a major insurgency. The law and order situation in Pakistan's resource-rich but poorest province continues to spin out of the government's control amidst a massive military operation being carried out against the rebel nationalists who, as yet, are just demanding greater political autonomy and a bigger share of revenues from their huge gas reserves and other natural resources.

In a disturbing development that clearly demonstrates the growing alienation of the Baloch people, especially after the brutal killing of veteran nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in a military operation, a grand jirga has finally decided to move the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the violation of an agreement signed by the former State of Kalat, the British Crown and the Government of Pakistan, in connection with the sovereignty and the rights of the Baloch people, which were guaranteed at the time of Balochistan's accession to Pakistan.

The decision was taken at the second and conclusive round of the Grand Jirga held in Quetta on October 1 and presided over by the Khan of Kalat. The first jirga, held in Kalat on September 21 and attended by 85 tribal chiefs and 300 elders, was convened after a gap of 126 years by Prince Suleman Daud, the grandson of Ahmed Yar Khan, the last ruler of the Kalat Confederacy, in consultation with other chiefs to support a unified action against the government for their rights. The jirga participants unanimously declared that their land was under the 'colonial occupation' of Punjab in violation of the accession accord and thus the ICJ should be approached over the 59-year old breach of the agreement recognising Kalat State as an independent unit. A few jirga participants even suggested that the ICJ should be petitioned to review and revive the sovereign status of Balochistan, as had been the case before its accession to Pakistan.

The jirga demanded an immediate end to the ongoing military operation, describing it as state terrorism, and called for the release from prison of all political activists. The participants rejected the decision by a tribal jirga in Sui to abolish the sardari system in the Bugti area as a government ploy and termed it an unwarranted interference in tribal affairs. The jirga stressed that tribal matters should be resolved in accordance with tribal customs and traditions. The participants demanded an inquiry by an international human rights commission into Akbar Bugti's killing; rejected the mega development projects launched by the federal government and said the Baloch would not recognise the development contracts signed by Islamabad with international construction companies. And last but not least, the jirga demanded the reunification of all divided Baloch lands.

Analysts view the convening of the jirga and making the demand for Baloch sovereignty as a significant development because it shows a growing demand within a federating unit for a new social contract. The geopolitical changes on the international horizon in the post-Cold War period, together with the devastating events related to 9/11, have already attached great importance to the resource-rich province by dragging Pakistan into the new 'Great Game', which is all about control of, and access to, the energy resources of Central Asia. Besides gaining crucial importance for Pakistan because of its vast reservoirs of natural gas and oil, Balochistan has become equally important for the US, China, India, Central Asian Republics and Iran for multiple reasons.

However, Pakistani military rulers have, since Independence, ignored the fact that the country is multi-ethnic and multi-religious, and unitary policies of an excessively centralised military order cannot work. The lack of democracy since Musharraf's 1999 coup has only increased the sense of alienation among Sindhis, Pashtuns, Muhajirs and a host of smaller nationalities. Successive khaki rulers, including Musharraf, have failed to grasp the essentials of political management of the federal structure, and have consistently preferred to deal with local issues through force, instead of working out a fair relationship with the provinces. The repeated intervention of the Army in national politics has created an unfortunate situation where it has been held responsible for most if not all of the ills of the country.

As things stand, Balochistan has been made the hub of illegal detentions and mysterious disappearances of political activists and their family members. According to unofficial estimates, around 5,000 political activists, the relatives of political leaders and ordinary citizens of Balochistan are being detained by the intelligence agencies on charges of having challenged the writ of the state. The relatives of those detained usually have no information regarding the whereabouts of their loved ones as most of them have never been produced before any court of law.

In a related development, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has held General Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistan Army responsible for the worsening conflict in trouble-stricken Balochistan. The 2006 Asia report of the ICG says that tensions between the government and its Baloch opposition have grown because of Islamabad's heavy-handed armed response to the Baloch militancy and its refusal to negotiate demands for political and economic autonomy. "The killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in August 2006 sparked riots and will likely lead to more confrontation. The conflict could escalate if the government insists on seeking a military solution to what is a political problem and the international community, especially the US, fails to recognise the price that is involved for security in neighbouring Afghanistan," says the report.

The report further says that tensions with the central government are not new to Balochistan, given the uneven distribution of power, which favours the Centre at the cost of the federal units. "The Baloch people have long demanded a restructured relationship that would transfer powers from what is seen as an exploitative central government to the provinces. But Musharraf's authoritarian rule has deprived them of participatory, representative avenues to articulate demands and to voice grievances. Politically and economically marginalised, many Baloch are, therefore, compelled to see the insurgency as a defensive response to the perceived colonisation of their province by the Punjabi-dominated military establishment."

The report says that while Baloch alienation is widespread, crossing tribal, regional and class lines, the military government insists that only a handful of tribal leaders are challenging the writ of the Centre, fearing that their power base would be eroded by development. However, the report adds, the military should recognise that it was facing conflict not with a few sardars but with a broad-based movement for political, economic and social empowerment. "The only way out is implement the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Balochistan in letter and spirit besides amending the country's constitution with a view to shift powers from an overbearing Centre to the provinces," the report recommends.

The report suggests that to win back the lost confidence of the Baloch people, the government should end all military action, withdraw the army, dismantle the military check posts, halt construction of military cantonments, end the political role of intelligence agencies, allow political parties to function freely, release political prisoners, accept provincial jurisdiction over law and order, respect constitutionally guaranteed political freedoms, meet Baloch concerns about the Gwadar Port [by placing it under the provincial government's control], ensure in Sui and other oil and gas extraction projects that the well head value and natural gas rates are at par with other provinces, make the provincial government a party to all investment and development projects, meet the job quota for Baloch recruitment in the armed forces and last but not the least, end all practices violative of international human rights standards, including torture, arbitrary arrests, detentions and extra-judicial killings.

On the other hand, instead of regretting the murder of Akbar Bugti, General Musharraf continues to insist that his government would establish the writ of the state at all costs by crushing the insurgents. But he must understand that making good on that claim requires far more than military might. By targeting Baloch nationalists and other political leaders and using indiscriminate military force against them, the General would merely perpetuate the conflict. In the process, his legitimacy would be damaged further and the writ of the state he wants to establish would emerge far weaker.

If the insurgency in Balochistan is the product of resentment against centralised authoritarian rule and the refusal of the Centre to respect constitutionally guaranteed provincial autonomy and democratic freedoms, the Musharraf-led Army's heavy-handed response has made matters worse. Under these circumstances, the military-dominated Pakistani establishment would have done well to heed the warning that the nationalist parties, which still adhere to the constitutionally sanctioned rules of the political game, could be forced to move towards more hardline positions.

In January 2006, six months before his assassination in the Kohlu area, Nawab Akbar Bugti had said: "The denial of democratic rights and economic deprivation has already compelled the people of Balochistan to take up arms. It is an open war now." With Bugti's heroic and equally tragic death, the Baloch nationalists, the political leadership as well as the militant groups, all have hardened their stance towards the present military regime.

Courtesy: The Post, October 6, 2006

Islamabad October 8, 2006: Senator Enver Baig of the PPP has expressed shock and dismay over the increasing incidence of corruption involving high ups and the regime’s refusal to take action them.

In a statement today he said that it was shocking that in spite of a serious charge sheet against the Crescent Standard Investment Bank Ltd by the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan of mass financial irregularities, no action had been taken against those involved in the scam.

The CSIB Ltd had recently been charge sheeted by the SECP for maintaining parallel books of accounts, investing in stock exchange share and investing in real estate as against the rules and named Crescent Group owners, Mr Anjum Saleem and ERRA Chairman Mr Altaf Saleem as those involved in the scam, he said.

Enver Baig said that the regime shielded those accused of corruption as was evidenced from the fact that Mr Salim Altaf was still continuing as head of ERRA besides holding offices in the Sui Northern Gas Company and in the government and no action was being taken.

He said that he was surprised that Mr Altaf Saleem recently even gave a high profile presentation to Mr. Musharraf and the diplomatic corps on the performance of ERRA. This was intended to a give a message that the regime was not bothered about the SECP findings as long as the accused toed the line of the masters, he said.

Enver Baig said that according to reports a number of governments and international bodies were reluctant to extend any financial assistance for earthquake reconstruction because of the allegations of corruption against its Chairman.

He said that corruption thrived under the military dictatorship as was evidenced from the recent reports of the selling Haj quotas in which the name of federal Religious Affairs Minister also figured and the sugar scandal in which several federal ministers are involved.

Senator Enver Baig said that NAB was being used as an instrument of politics to advance the regime’s political agenda by hauling the opposition members and it had nothing to do with eradicating corruption.

Islamabad October 8, 2006: Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has welcomed the release of Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani Vice Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party and former Speaker of the National Assembly after a five year ordeal following his bail by the Lahore High Court.

The former Prime Minister paid glowing tributes to Mr. Gillani for facing the trials and tribulations with courage and fortitude. She said that Mr. Gillani's example demonstrated that the followers of the PPP had a moral compass in defending the principles of their Party following in the footsteps of Quaid e Awam.

Mohtarma said that she felt proud of the PPP workers who had honour, character, integrity and courage for it took strength to defend the principles of freedom and equality in a country which had remained for long periods under military dictatorship.

By refusing to bow to the pressures of imprisonment and the temptations to leave the party in exchange for an end to his imprisonment while enduring the rigors of prison for nearly six years Yousuf Raza Gillani has illuminated the path of principled politics, she said in a statement today.

Mr. Gillani was sentenced to ten years in jail by the Rawalpindi accountability court for allegedly making illegal appointments as Speaker in the National Assembly during the PPP government 1993-96.

She said that for the PPP it was clear that Gillani's incarceration was politically motivated to break the PPP as, according to reports, others charged with similar allegations who joined the ruling party were acquitted.

Yousuf Gillani was first arrested on Feb 10, 2001, without allegation. He was kept on physical remand in the degrading conditions of a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) police station for 90 days, the maximum period a person can be held, to break his spirit.

The former Speaker was sentenced for what is called 'misuse of authority', a new offense incorporated into the statute in 1999 and given retrospective effect, a sort of first in the Parliamentary history of the sub continent for arraigning a House Speaker.

The former Speaker disclosed that throughout his NAB custody he was asked to submit and join the ruling clique.

Mohtarma Bhutto said that history will forever record the honourable manner in which a principled man sacrificed his personal happiness and that of his family to defend the political, social and economic rights of the people of Pakistan for which the party he belongs to is striving to restore.

Mohtarma called for an end to the politiciztion of the investigative and judicial process through special courts and special laws to put Pakistan back on the track as a nation of laws and justice. She said that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was needed to acknowledge the victims of state oppression. Mohtarma Bhutto paid tribute to the family of Makhdoom Yusuf Reza Gillani for the ordeal that they, as innocents underwent, when Mr. Gillani was arrested and their family life was disrupted

I.A. Rehman writes in daily Dawn that much has been written about the official bill once designed to offer some relief to Pakistan's women and the establishment's retreat diligently choreographed by its inept frontmen. The future of the bill, which was scheduled to be made into a law before Gen. Musharraf left for his pilgrimage to the US, is now quite unclear.

He says there is no need to repeat the arguments advanced during the public debate on the pros and cons of the bill except for a brief examination of three aspects of the matter — Islamic scholars' support for reform of the Zina Ordinance, the causes of the establishment's flabbiness, and the dilemma the government has created for itself.

It is worth noting that the establishment brought forth its Protection of Women (Criminal and Family Laws) (Amendment) Bill only after an impressive body of religious opinion had expressed itself in favour of changes in the Zina Ordinance, thus taking up a middle position between those who demanded repeal of the Hudood Ordinances and those who opposed any change in the Ziaul Haq edicts. A booklet published by the Council of Islamic Ideology (Hudood Ordinance 1979, an interim brief report prepared by Mr. Inamullah and Dr. Muhammad Khalid Masud (Chairman CII), 2006), a publication anyone working on the subject will find immensely useful, sums up these reform ideas.

In this booklet, a report designed to serve as a status report for the CII found that:

"The definition of Hadd in the ordinance is not derived from the Qur'an and Sunna; it does not even agree with the definitions prescribed by the jurists."

"The jurists use the term Hadd in the meaning of 'fixed punishment', regardless of whether fixed by the Quran, Sunna or Ijma,"

"The identification and division of crimes as Hudud, Qisas and Ta'zir has been done by the jurists and it varies."

"Hudood Ordinance has adopted Fiqhi identification and classification of Hudud offences selectively and arbitrarily and thus added to the confusion between Hudud and Ta'zir. It has further confused the concept of Hudud by mixing common law, criminal procedure and Fiqhi procedure, disregarding the need for fine distinctions."

"Not all Muslim countries are enforcing Fiqhi Hudud laws. Statistics show that Hudood Ordinance has not been effective in reducing the crimes."

Those pointing out the need for amendments in the Ordinance include, from the official side, the Federal Shariat Court, the Council of Islamic Ideology, the Commission of Inquiry for Women (1997) and the Commission on the Status of Women.

Hudood Ordinance can be reviewed by the legislature as it is not included in schedule 7 which lists laws that cannot be amended without changing Art 270-A.

"The Hudood Ordinance does not conform fully to the Qur'an and Hadith. Partial amendments to this ordinance cannot bring it to accord with the letter and spirit of the Qur'an and Sunnah. A thorough revision of the Hudood Ordinance is necessary in order to make it more responsive to the philosophy of crime and punishment in the Qur'an and Sunna as well as more effective in a modern judicial system."

Ikram Sehgal writes in daily The News that Pakistan stands adjacent to the ground zero of terrorism, any book by Musharraf, written well or otherwise, would be an outstanding source for much of the facts since before 9/11, a hot- selling item with or without publicity. With Humayun Gauhar, having about the best English among Pakistani columnists at this time, helping Musharraf write his autobiography, the book should not suffer for want of lucidity and/or expression. The stating of facts is a different proposition, there are always many sides to a story, once in print its credibility can be called into question depending upon the facts themselves and/or the motivation of the beholder. Given that those coming out second best in the best will have no love lost for him, the autography is bound to be extremely controversial.

He says the publishers did not leave anything to chance, choreographing the timing and venue of the launch in brilliant fashion. Such overkill is commercially acceptable given that any publisher would like to ensure a good return on investment by maximum publicity and the widest distribution in the first few days of the book coming into print. Whetting the appetite of potential buyers of the book is standard business practice in business circles, creating titillating controversy being always part of the game plan; Musharraf's personality helps by being tailor-made to evoke controversy. His refusal to answer a question about the 'US threat to bomb Pakistan' after 9/11 during his joint press conference with US President Bush on the grounds it would infringe the confidentiality agreement with his publisher prior to the launch was carefully scripted. This could be worth US$10-15 million or more worth of advertising on prime time world electronic media.

He says every person in the world has an inherent freedom of expression, those in positions of power have every right to lay out the facts as they have lived it, it is also a moral responsibility to do so. The important guideline to remember is that the facts must be credible, the timing of launching the book and the possible reaction not only to themselves but to the state. One has to choose carefully what can be aired (and when), the damage control thereof has to be wargamed, we cannot afford to give ammunition to our detractors. While Musharraf is a past master in taking calculated risks, the government should have been prepared to deal with a well-orchestrated negative propaganda in the international media, the ensuing 'collateral damage' to the national interest should have been assessed.

Within the bounds of the Official Secrets Act and the legal parameters of the two offices Musharraf occupies, it would be fair to assume that the material must have been vetted by the intelligence agencies, and due care also taken, for legal reasons, by the judge advocate-general (JAG) of the Pakistan army and the ministry of law. It then becomes their responsibility if anything violates the secrecy and legal parameters of the office of the president and the chief of army staff, unless of course their advice is ignored. The moral restraint was for Musharraf to exercise, not only as a citizen of Pakistan and a soldier of the Pakistan army, but also as head of the state.

According to the net-based Wikipedia Encyclopaedia 'collateral damage' is a military euphemism made popular during the Vietnam War. It has been in use for so long that it is accepted as a common term with military forces meaning unintentional damage to friendly, neutral and even enemy forces as a result of military action that is not intended by those causing it. It is generally meant to denote civilian casualties and damage to property that unintentionally came in the line of firing, shelling, bombing, etc. The term 'collateral damage' is now also widely used by writers to describe damage not intended even in matters other than military eg while Pervez Musharraf is strongly defending the role of the ISI in apprehending and/or killing Al Qaeda operatives, the collection of reward money makes Pakistanis out to be 'bounty hunters' whose crass motivation comes out as commercial rather than the higher moral plane for fighting terrorism.

Supporters of Musharraf will see the book as a consolidated vindication of the many controversies that surround his person and Pakistan; his detractors (and that of Pakistan) will raise doubts about his motivation and the facts tated in the book. Having not read the book one can only hope that the facts printed therein are without colouring or prejudice. We live in out of-the- ordinary ircumstances, both Musharraf and the country (and by extension the Pakistan army) will now face extraordinary pressure from the world media as each person, country or institution affected by the contents of the books takes up cudgels to defend their credibility, as is their right.

LONDON (updated on: October 06, 2006, 10:19 PST): NATO commanders from five countries who have troops stationed in Afghanistan are demanding their governments get tough with Pakistan over its support for the Taliban militia, The Daily Telegraph reported on Friday.

Commanders from the United States, Britain, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands want their governments to tell Pakistan to stop supporting the Taliban, which has stepped up its attacks in Afghanistan.

"It is time for an 'either you are with us or against us' delivered bluntly to Musharraf at the highest political level," an unnamed NATO commander told the newspaper.

"Our boys in southern Afghanistan are hurting because of what is coming out of Quetta," the same commander added.

According to the newspaper, NATO's report on "Operation Medusa", the bloody campaign between September 4 and 17, clearly states that Pakistan's intelligence service ISI was involved in supplying the Taliban.

The report apparently estimates that the cost of Taliban ammunition stocks at around 2.6 million pounds (4.9 million dollars, 3.8 million euros).

"The Taliban could not have done this on their own without the ISI," an unnamed senior NATO officer was quoted as saying.

The report comes a day after NATO took over control of all foreign troops in Afghanistan, with British General David Richards taking charge.

The transfer saw 10,000 US troops who had been operating in the east under the US-led coalition fall under the 37-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), boosting it to about 31,000 soldiers nation-wide.

After the handover British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the NATO-led mission is "absolutely critical" for world security.

Blair told reporters in London that everybody was better off now in Afghanistan despite the renewed fighting.

Islamabad October 7, 2006: Senator Muhammad Enver Baig of the PPP has said that the country's cricket had been messed up beyond redemption with the appointment of Naseem Ashraf as the new chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

"It is clear case of favoritism that has nothing to do with merit" he said in a statement toady.

He said that the new Chairman of the Board had already started making knee jerk decisions and further messing up the sport by reappointing Younus Khan as the team captain just three days before the departure of the team on tour.

While welcoming Shaharyar M. Khan's move to step down after a controversy-riddled tenure topped off by the Oval fiasco, Senator Enver Baig said that the Pakistan cricket already at a low ebb was now doomed. "This is a whimsical appointment that has been made without any consultations", he remarked.

He said that Nasim Ashraf was largely responsible of the Oval episode that brought shame to the entire country. Ridiculing the appointment he said hat Ashraf would have been more suited to head a baseball organization, having spent his entire life in the United States instead of heading Pakistan’s Cricket Board.

"We all know what negative role the new appointee played following the ball-tampering accusations but here we have the PCB Patron Gen Musharraf rewarding him with the prized post of chairman of the Board," said the senator who is a member of the Senate Standing Committee on Sports.

"A most undeserving appointment has been made that will prove to be the last nail in Pakistan's cricketing coffin," Baig warned. "Having emerged clean after the Oval row this was time for introspection and making right choices and right decisions by appointing a former Test cricketer as Board Chairman".

He said that the root of the malaise in Cricket lay in the absence of the Constitution of the Cricket Board. He said that two years ago the outgoing Chairman of the Board had informed the Senate Committee that draft of the Constitution had been sent to the Patron but it had not yet been finalized. He demanded immediate finalization of the Constitution.

Senator Enver Baig called upon Gen Musharraf to review his decision for the good of the game. He also called for weeding out several other controversial officials in the PCB like its Director Board Operation and come up with a quality choice in making such important appointments.

The president of Pakistan has warned the West would be "brought to its knees" without his country's co-operation in the war against terror.

President Pervez Musharraf said in a BBC Radio 4 interview Pakistan was the West's "main ally".

"If we were not with you, you won't manage anything," he said.

He also argued the West's strategy in Afghanistan towards the end of the Cold War helped to create the conditions which led to al-Qaeda's rise.

President Musharraf also rejected suggestions Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI was aiding the Taleban's latest actions in Afghanistan.

He said: "You'll be brought down to your knees if Pakistan doesn't co-operate with you. That is all that I would like to say. Pakistan is the main ally. If we were not with you, you won't manage anything.

"Let that be clear. And if ISI is not with you, you will fail."

His comments develop arguments he has made over the past few days at meetings with US President George W Bush and Tony Blair and a speech given in Oxford.

President Pervez Musharraf faced accusations that Pakistan 's intelligence service had indirect ties to Al Qaeda.

LONDON, Sept. 28 — President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan arrived here on Thursday and found himself facing accusations that his country's intelligence service had indirect ties to Al Qaeda and that his government committed widespread human rights abuses as an ally of the United States in its effort to curb terrorism.

He arrived after a rocky visit in Washington, where President Bush used a White House dinner to try to mediate between the Pakistani leader and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan over their mutual accusations of responsibility for the resurgence of the Taliban, Afghanistan's former rulers.

Although the two leaders did not shake hands in public, General Musharraf indicated in remarks broadcast live on Pakistani television on Thursday that some tensions had eased. "The meeting that I held with President Bush and Hamid Karzai last night was very good," he said, according to The Associated Press. "It was decided that we should have a common strategy. We have to fight terrorism. We have to defeat it, defeat it jointly."

A report of a leaked document, which said that Pakistan 's intelligence service indirectly supported the Taliban, played into the argument over the growing insurgency in Afghanistan, where Britain and the United States have sent forces. The document was said by the BBC to have originated in Britain's Defense Academy, a research agency sponsored by the Ministry of Defense.

Separately, Amnesty International, the human rights group, accused Pakistan of abuses, including the torture of terrorism suspects and the illegal transfer of detainees to the United States.

Britain's Defense Ministry did not challenge the authenticity of the leaked document, but it said that the paper did not represent official policy and was part of academic research. The document, details of which were broadcast Wednesday night on BBC television, was quoted as saying that indirectly, Pakistan, through the security agency, "has been supporting terrorism and extremism, whether in London on 7/7," the date when suicide bombers attacked three subway trains and a double-decker bus last year, "or in Afghanistan or Iraq." It said Pakistan 's security services played a "dual role," combating terrorism while at the same time promoting an Islamic coalition called Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal "and so indirectly supporting the Taliban."

"Pakistan is not currently stable but on the edge of chaos," the document said, urging the dismantling of the security service. Echoing a recent American intelligence assessment, parts of which were declassified this week, it also said the war in Iraq "has served to radicalize an already disillusioned youth, and Al Qaeda has given them the will, intent, purpose and ideology to act."

Before he arrived in London, General Musharraf took strong exception to the leaked document. The security agency, he said, "is a disciplined force, breaking the back of Al Qaeda," he told the BBC. He is to deliver a speech in Oxford on Friday after meeting Thursday evening with Mr. Blair at Chequers, the British prime minister's country retreat, west of London.

After the two-hour meeting, Mr. Blair's spokesman said the prime minister had assured General Musharraf that the leaked document did not represent official British policy.

In its report released late Thursday, Amnesty International said Pakistan had "committed numerous human rights violations as a result of its cooperation in the U.S.-led 'war on terror.' "

"Hundreds of people have been arbitrarily detained," it said.

In response to the report, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Tasneem Aslam, said, "As far as detentions go, yes, people have been detained, but we have a challenge, we have to weigh the costs."

"It's a tough call not only for Pakistan, but for all countries fighting terrorism," she said. "It is a challenge to strike a balance; while we respect individual rights, we have to prevent terrorist acts."

Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Kabul , Afghanistan.

Islamabad October 1, 2006: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has condemned the demolition of houses in Rashi Ghat in Hyderabad and demanded an end to uprooting the local people.

The police at the instance of local government have been expelling people from the area to demolish the houses to favor land mafia group. The police also used force against women and children.

The residents of Rashi Ghat area resisted the move and held demonstration outside the press club in protest against demolition of houses resulting in the registration of cases against dozens of protesters. The affected people have also accused the police of ransacking their houses and maltreating their women and children.

In a statement today the former Prime Minister condemning the incident said that the action of the local administration was illegal, as the courts had stayed the ejection of the residents of the Nusrat Colony.

She deplored the actions of the local administration against the Sindhi people and demanded an end to the illegality.

She said that the PPP would continue to raise its voice in support of the poor and shelter less people and would not let the land mafia occupy their abodes. She also urged the human rights bodies to raise their voice against regime’s highhandedness to please the land mafia.

The former Prime Minister has also directed the lawyers’ wing of the Party to move the Sindh High Court against the demolition of houses in Rashi Ghat area in Hyderabad.

Islamabad October 2, 2006: Pakistan Peoples Party has demanded a thorough probe into the alleged bungling and malpractices in the Silk Route Dry Port Trust (SRDT) to redress the grievance of stake holders who had make huge financial contributions for the setting up of the dry port trust.

In a statement today Syed Naveed Qamar MNA and president of the Economic Coordination Committee of the PPP demanded the carrying out of a detailed audit of the accounts of the Trust.

"The reports that no annual audit and no meeting of the general body has been carried out during the past six years despite protestations by investors also needs to be probed".

He said that the dry port was set up at the border town of Sust in Hunza to facilitate border trade between China and Pakistan and any scandal leading surrounding it could create law and order situation that would negatively impact on the border trade with China.

Syed Naveed Qamar said that local community members claim to have made an investment of over 17 million rupees in the project by donating land and cash. However they have not even been shown the accounts of the Trust let alone paying them any dividend.

The Trust management had not yet a single annual general meeting of the trustees during the past six years as is required under the law. Local investors have also flung accusations that two fictitious companies have been formed by the management to skim off the profits that belong to the actual investors.

Syed Naveed Qamar said that the laws pertaining to Trusts were very clear. Elections to the office of Chairman have to be held every two years and its accounts have to be regularly audited by external auditors, he said.

The reports that neither elections to the office of Chairman have been held nor the accounts audited during the past six years are most disturbing and must be investigated by the Central Board of Revenue and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, he said.

"We are witnessing another brewing financial scam this time in the Northern Areas close to our borders with China". He said that if the relevant government agencies failed to investigate the allegations it would not only lend credence to the suspicions that some powerful people are involved in the scam but also adversely affect the border trade between the China and Pakistan.

Islamabad October 2, 2006: A cell has been set up in the PPP secretariat to take up the notices issued by the House Building Finance Corporation

(HBFC) to small time borrowers for auctioning their houses.

In a statement today Senator Enver Baig said that he had learnt that notices were still being issued by the HBFC threatening the borrowers with the auctioning of their houses. He said that it was criminal that rich and influential had ganged up to have their over 22 billion rupees loans written of in just one year while the small borrowers were threatened by the HBFC with the auctioning of their hoses just because they have defaulted on one or two installments.

He said that all borrowers of banks and other financial institutions must repay their loans but to auction the houses of small time borrowers while writing off loans of big borrowers was unjust, inhuman and most callous. The issue of the HBFC borrowers needed to be resolved amicably so that the Corporation got back the loans it had given and at the same time the borrowers were not ejected from their homes.

Senator Enver Baig has asked the HBFC borrowers to forward their particulars together with a brief statement of their case at the following address:

PPP Central Secretariat
House 1, Street 85,
G-6/4, Islamabad

Islamabad, October 3, 2006: Naheed Khan, Member National Assembly and the Political Secretary to the Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has said that the book "In the line of fire" by General Musaharraf is nothing but personal aggrandize and a source of embarrassment for the nation and the issue will be brought in the next session of the National Assembly.

In a statement, Naheed Khan said that General Musharraf’s memoirs is a bundle of lies and from the CIA to his senior military General have refuted his claims in the book. General Musharraf has spent hard earned money of the people of Pakistan for launching his book in the United States.

Naheed Khan said that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto does not need an unpopular General who grabbed power illegally and unconstitutionally. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto fought against the dictators like General Ayub, General Yahya and General Zia and he remains in the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan. Naheed Khan said that General Musharraf is a dictator and that is why he has badmouthed against democratic leadership of Pakistan. General Musharraf should be held accountable for revealing state secrets and embarrassing the nation worldwide.

 
British troops are being killed in Afghanistan and the Pakistani army could make a difference British troops are being killed in Afghanistan and the Pakistani army could make a difference.

The head of the Pakistani military is also the president, by virtue of a coup. Both Britain and the United States, however, wish to foster democracy rather than having a general in charge.

Add to this conundrum the fact that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, Islamic militancy is surging and anything resembling a collapse of order could trigger regional meltdown, and the picture is complete.

Musharraf's 'fix'

In June, a small delegation from Britain's Defence Academy travelled around Pakistan, meeting academics, military officers and politicians. Their discussions about how the country might emerge from its current time of troubles naturally touched on many sensitive areas.

It is a measure of how difficult Anglo-Pakistani relations have become that even the research of an officer on an academic posting could have such an effect


When they got back to their offices at Shrivenham in Wiltshire one of the team, an officer on attachment to the academy who had previously served in a sensitive post liaising with the Americans on counter-terrorist matters, set down the team's findings.

The document, several pages long, runs through the "fix" that President Pervez Musharraf is in - trying to square international pressures with rising Islamic sentiment - before looking at the Western, Afghan, US and UK dilemmas.

"Pakistan is existing on the edge of chaos," he writes, arguing that Gen Musharraf does not stand for stability but rather that a move to civilian rule "might in fact be the only way to retain and improve stability, avoiding collapse and anarchy".

'Against UK interests'

Many of the statements contained in the officer's notes, for example that the war in Iraq has not gone well and has served as a "recruiting sergeant" for extremists, are in line with other recently published assessments.

However, in some areas the Defence Academy's paper is quite opposed to Downing Street's world view, suggesting that "the UK has followed US policies on the global war on terror at the perceived exclusion of its own interests".

The officer suggests the Pentagon lacks a strategic big idea and that "the US/UK cannot begin to turn the tide until they identify the real enemies... and seek to put in place a better and more just vision".

Unfortunately for the taxpayers and senior officers who sent him away to Shrivenham on a posting for study and professional improvement, the writer does not suggest what that larger vision of prosecuting these conflicts might be.

Instead, he argues that British forces in Iraq "are effectively being held hostage... we are now fighting (and arguably losing or potentially losing) on two fronts".

Embarrassing

It is, though, the reflections on Pakistani politics that proved so embarrassing for the British government on the eve of Gen Musharraf's visit.

The British officer considers 2007 to be "the crunch year", in which international pressure for a move to civilian rule will collide with the Pakistani military's attempts to retain control of the country through their Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and political proxies.

Many Pakistani commentators have long suggested that the ISI has been used to maintain the system of military rule by exporting Islamic militancy to Kashmir and Afghanistan.

"Indirectly", the British officer agrees, "Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism." He suggests that the Americans are fed up with this state of affairs and may withdraw their funding in order to chase Gen Musharraf from office.

Statements of this kind ultimately proved too tempting for someone with access to the Defence Academy's work to resist.

The officer's notes were not classified and were held on a common computer server, allowing many staff open access.

One official at the Ministry of Defence suggested that one reader decided to leak the contents in order to embarrass the Pakistani leader.

It is a measure of how difficult Anglo-Pakistani relations have become that even the research of an officer on an academic posting could have such an effect.

KHAIRPUR TAMIWALI: Senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party Ghulam Mustafa Khar has termed President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s regime as more dangerous than that of President Gen. Ziaul Haq saying that none of the segment of the society is safe from his cruelties.

"The teachers, lawyers, doctors and even the journalists are the victims of the brutality of Musharraf’s regime," he said this while talking to Online here on Friday.

Measuring up to the Musharraf’s rule with that of the former military ruler Gen. Ziaul Haq, Khar said that politicians and journalists were flogged and an elected prime minister was executed during the latter regime while cruelties inflicted during Musharraf’s regime were unprecedented.

He said that killing of a Baloch leader, Akbar Khan Bugti, was a baseless story. "Bugti was imprisoned and was tortured to death there," he added.

"Alive Bugti was a leader of an area but the dead Bugti has become leader of people from Karachi to Khyber".

Khar said that President Musharraf in his book, ’In the line of fire’ had leveled baseless allegations against former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and he should apologize to his family. "Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was a great leader who provided Dr. Qadeer, the founder of nuclear bomb to Pakistan," he added.

He said President Musharraf had violated his oath by unveiling military secrets during his service. "Now he has no right to remain on slots of President and army chief and he should immediately hand over powers to the people’s representatives" he advocated.

Is this the emergence of a new Musharraf?
By Kuldip Nayar, Special to Gulf News

Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has staged yet another coup. He has ousted the Musharraf who was always worried about his image and concerned over the support within Pakistan. The new Musharraf now stalks the world stage as a confident dictator and feels that his stature abroad will help him correct the uncertain opinion prevailing back home. He will need the clerics less and scrupulously distance himself from what the ISI does in India or Afghanistan.

The General realised some time back that a new Musharraf would have to come in. But his problem was how to introduce him, when and where. Every actor, demagogue or politician, has to make the entry carefully because he knows it is the timing that determines whether the different robe or the role he dons would go down well. Musharraf sensed about the timing when his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was fixed at Havana. His appointment with US President George W. Bush had already been arranged. He then told his publishers in America to postpone the release of his book, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir. This was his testament, meant to launch the new Musharraf.

His calculation was that the meeting with Singh and Bush would provide the ambience he had been looking for. He was determined to make both meetings a success because he had only to find words to mollify them. His information was that the two leaders were disappointed, not disillusioned. Musharraf began his meeting with the premise that let bygones be bygones.

Joint anti-terrorism mechanism was Musharraf's idea. But he did not say at that time that Pakistan would also "test‰ India as he said in response to Manmohan Singh's statement that joint anti-terrorism was Pakistan's best chance. There was no discordant note during the hour-long talks. Musharraf was not the one to strike because his eyes were fixed on the entry of new Musharraf. When he met Bush, Musharraf was on a familiar territory. Americans have a strange fascination for strong men who "keep things under control" and assure them the restoration of democracy once the job was done.

The Pakistan president knew exactly how to placate Bush: Washington's worry was over Musharraf's deal with the tribal leaders to stay away from North Waziristan which provided shelter to the Taliban, prowling around Afghanistan all the time. Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently sought Pakistan's help to repel insurgents and provided it with information on location of Taliban's training camps and telephone numbers of their operation people. "Our friends from Pakistan came back to us to tell this information is old," says Karzai. "Maybe, but it means they were there."

Even his critics in Pakistan concede that Musharraf's PR was superb. The new Musharraf is more articulate, more indiscreet, even at the expense of tailoring facts.

For example, his version of Kargil is different from even what foreign experts say. India removed the mujahideen and the Pakistan army personnel from the Kargil heights they had occupied. This could not be interpreted as Islamabad's victory. But then Musharraf knew how to project the book which represented the new Musharraf. It is selling like a hot cakes all over the world but not many in Pakistan have even heard about Nawaz Sharif's book, Who is the Traitor? The latter, who was then the prime minister, has a different version: Pakistan was defeated at Kargil.

New edge

Most disclosures that Musharraf has made are an old hat. One has known them after visiting Pakistan. But his information that Washington had threatened to crush Pakistan after 9/11 has given a new edge to the anti-American feelings in Pakistan.

True, people are incensed that Musharraf caved in less than 24 hours but they are outraged that because America gave them such a threat. The feeling that the US is dead against Islam has also got mixed up on this point. The new Musharraf has emerged stronger than before.

A day before the release of his book, the news went around in Pakistan that there was a coup to replace him. The failure of national power grid fuelled the rumour. It was Musharraf who declared confidently from New York that there could be no coup, even though he had been absent from the country for two weeks. Why he wanted the old Musharraf to quit and the new Musharraf to enter is not difficult to comprehend. He wished to end the discussion on shedding uniform because of his occupying the office of president.

Yet Musharraf's eyes are fixed on elections in 2007. Although the polls in Pakistan are not above board, it helps if there is less estrangement among the electorate. Opinion in favour of Musharraf, however limited, is not going to wear out between now and elections. However, the scenario can change if either of the two leaders, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, were to return to Pakistan. The new Mush-arraf may be talking to them behind the scenes.

India faces a piquant situation. How far can it trust Musharraf is its predicament. His book conveys a message which is different from what Singh has gathered from the meeting with Musharraf. Will bygone be bygones and will Pakistan start from a clean slate without prejudice or rancour? It all depends on whether the new Musharraf has abandoned old ways of doings thing.

Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP

No deal between PPP and Govt: Amin Fahim

KARACHI: Makhdoom Amin Fahim, chairman Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and President Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians has said that there is no truth in the news regarding a deal between PPP and the Government adding that it is part of government disinformation.

Talking to journalists on Saturday after attending an Iftar party hosted by Sharjeel Memon at a local hotel here Makhdoom Amin said that under the present government set up holding of a free, fair, transparent and just elections is impossible so a neutral interim government needs to be established.

He said that there is no need of a grand alliance between the opposition parties, as there already exist an alliance amongst the opposition parties. If this alliance fails than (we) can think about a Grand Alliance but the alliance of the opposition parties will not fail.

On the amended Hudood Bill, he said MMA has its own and PPP has its own stance. MMA separated from us and carried out dialogue in closed doors with the government whereas we have openly talked about the amended Hudood Bill in the Select Committee.

He said that the accusations levied against Former PM Late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, by the President General Pervez Musharraf in his memoir "In the line of fire" are baseless adding that the allegations have nothing to do with reality.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto consolidated the destabilized Pakistan, got 90,000 Pakistani troops released and restored the reputation of the institution of Army, he maintained.

Khuhro urges continued fight for democracy

NAWABSHAH: Sindh Assembly opposition leader Nisar Khuhro said on Saturday the struggle to end “dictatorship” would continue and they had to continue moving forward for the cause of democracy.

He made the remarks during his address to a public meeting in the village of Punhal Khan Chandio, which was held here to mark the death anniversary of 16 martyrs of the ARD movement.

PPPP Sindh president Qaim Ali Shah, MPA Ghulam Qadir Chandio, PONAM Sindh president Syed Zain Shah, MNA Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah and former provincial minister Mir Munawwar Talpur also spoke.

The speakers said army rulers were ready to hand power over to the Pakistan People’s Party, excluding Benazir Bhutto, but they opposed such rule. They said ruling is not the job of the Army, which should protect borders of the country.

The PPPP leaders said Army rulers had forgotten the oath they had taken and were involved in ruling the country. They said the government was giving good news of a filled kitty, but the prices of essential commodities were skyrocketing.

They were of the opinion that unless all political parties joined the struggle against the army rulers, no end to dictatorship would be possible. The speakers said dictatorship through which Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was murdered was still intact, adding that speeding up the struggle to end the system was the need of the hour.

Words of Shaheed