A dismal record by Irfan Hussain

AS General Musharraf surveys the debris of the political structure he has cobbled together, general elections must be the last thing he needs. And yet, they are just around the corner, waiting to mug him as he goes past.

A London-based friend who puts deals together in different parts of the world says that he has never encountered the degree of greed in Pakistan as he does now. When he was looking at the possibility of setting up an energy-related project recently, he received a call from somebody who claimed to represent various generals, offering to facilitate the deal. When my friend asked to meet the principals involved, he was told the upfront fees, to be paid prior to the meeting, was a million dollars. Added to this demand was the implied threat: “If you try to push the project through without us, we will see to it that you are blocked at every turn.”

So when Musharraf claims he has raised the image of Pakistan in the world, I’m afraid he is being somewhat economical with the truth. The reality is that in the West, there is a growing concern over the rapid decline of the writ of the state in the country. Islamabad’s inability to control its tribal areas as well as the troubled districts of Balochistan is being increasingly highlighted in the media around the world. Read Complete Article

Commencement of Imran's Era !

A candid Urdu article written by Haroon Al Rasheed published in Nawa-i-Waqt talks about the Commencement of Imran Khan's era in political realm. The writer having insight into the political arena talks about the offers floating and other party's maneuvers after Imran Khan's bold stand against culprits of Karachi massacare. Read Complete Article

Whats next after Karachi's Carnage? by Pervez Hoodboy

Military generals and fanatical clerics have been symbiotically linked in Pakistan’s politics for decades. They have often needed and helped the other attain their respective goals. And they may soon need each other again – this time to set Islamabad ablaze. An engineered bloodbath that leads to the army’s intervention, and the declaration of a national emergency, could serve as excellent reason for postponing the October 2007 elections. Although Musharraf denies that he wants a postponement, a lengthy martial law may now be his only chance for a continuation of his dictatorial rule into its eighth year – and perhaps beyond. Read Complete Article

A look at the opposition by Shafqat Mahmood

Fazlur Rehman obviously has qualities that the government finds useful. He collaborated with it to pass the seventeenth amendment, which gave General Musharraf the right to keep his army rank while being president. This set the Pakistani democracy back many years but he does not care. He has also persistently sabotaged Qazi Hussain Ahmad's attempts to put street pressure on the government. This has reduced at least one headache for the government.

His latest gambit is awe inspiring even by his usually low standards. He threatened the government to resign from the assemblies on the women's protection bill thinking that his 'bharak' or war cry would frighten it from moving forward. When Musharraf called his bluff, he sank more quickly than the soapy foam in the polluted Lahore canal. By his brazen and completely unashamed explanations, he has embarrassed his opposition colleagues and many in his party. Some like Hafiz Hussain Ahmad are shedding real tears for a change but is Fazl moved? No, he keeps making fake anti government statements and enjoying whatever benefits he can get.Read Complete Article

Reinforcing failure by Ayaz Amir

Every army officer, however illiterate, knows at least one military maxim: never reinforce failure. Yet here Musharraf, like a bad staff officer, is doing precisely this. And who are his advisers in this crisis? The likes of Shujaat who has not one axe to grind but several hundred, Durrani and Wasi Zafar who, because of the facility with which they deny reality, have already become national jokes. These jokers now guard the generalissimo. This seems to be the season for grim jokes in Pakistan.

Still, whatever the future holds, this much is certain that Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s defiance and the lawyers’ struggle which grew out of it have transformed the national landscape and infused a new spirit in the nation. Read Complete Article

In Pakistan we have selective Islam by Imran Khan

The greatest impact of believing in God for me, meant that I lost all fear of human beings. The Quran liberates man from man when it says that life and death and respect and humiliation are God's jurisdiction, so we do not have to bow before other human beings. As Iqbal puts it, Wo aik Sajda jisay tu giran samajhta hai, hazaar sajdon say deta hai sadmi ko nijaat.

One of the problems facing Pakistan is the polarisation of two reactionary groups. On the one side is the westernised group that looks upon Islam through western eyes and has inadequate knowledge about the subject. It reacts to any one trying to impose Islam in the society and wants only a selective part of the religion. On the other extreme is the group that reacts to this westernised elite and in trying to become a defender of the faith, takes up such intolerant and self-righteous attitudes that are repugnant to the spirit of Islam. Read Complete Article

National Treasure by Ahsan Warsi

Salary & Concessions for a Member of National Assembly (MNA)

Monthly Salary: Rs. 120,000 to 200,000 = US$ 1977 - 3295
Expense for Constitution per month: Rs.100,000 = US$ 1647
Office expenditure per month: Rs.140,000 = US$ 2306
Travelling concession (Rs. 8 per km): Rs.48,000 = US$ 791 (For a visit to ISLAMABAD & return: 6000 km)
Daily BETA during Assembly meets: Rs.500 = US$ 8.24
Charge for 1st class (A/C) in train: Free (For any number of times & All over PAKISTAN)
Charge for Business Class in flights: Free for 40 trips / Year (With wife or P.A.)
Rent for Govt hostel any where: Free
Electricity costs at home: Free up to 50,000 units
Local phone call charge: Free up to 1, 70,000 call
TOTAL expense for a MNA per year: Rs. 32,000,000 = US$ 527,182
TOTAL expense for 5 years: Rs. 1, 6000 000 = US$ 263,591For 534
For 534 MNA, the expense for 5 years: Rs. 8,54,40,000, 000 ( about 9000 crores) = US$ 1.4 Billion
Read Complete Blog

Shaken and Stirred by Qasim Mirza

As the writ of the popular government was challenged on the streets of Karachi the official statements continued to hold the Chief Justice and his companions responsible for all the killings. And that`s exactly what any popular regime would do. It would filch people of their basic rights, evade its responsibilities and let its leader settled in London make fiery speeches over the phone (who by the way is such a patriot that he choose to adopt the British Nationality and also flaunted about it).

As night fell over the cities of Karachi and Islamabad, two remarkably contrast pictures were seen. As dead bodies were being moved to morgues and injured to hospitals the popular General congratulated the nation on the glory it had achieved (or the conscious everyone has lost). Glorious victory of the General was celebrated and promises of more of the same were made.Read Complete Article

Aye Watan kay sajeelay Jernailo

During the war of 1965 between Pakistan and India many singers recorded patriotic songs. One of the song lyrics include "O hard fighting youth of the country, all the medals are for you".
After General Musharraf's dismissal of Chief Justice of Pakistan for his Presidential re-election, Lawyers and people of Pakistan are protesting against Musharraf's action.
In this picture Lawyers of Chakwal District Bar are holding a banner which taunts Army Generals of Pakistan reading "O hard fighting Generals of the country, every land is for you"

May 12th: 'Organized Chaos' by Ahsan Warsi

It is sad to see that all this chaos had the approval of the most powerful man in Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf. We, as a nation, have always had hopes attached with this person. But today, he has not only failed us but showed us our worst nightmare; which happened a decade back. Again, the youth of Karachi were armed and told to kill anyone who they deemed against them. One night before the violence, 1000 plus containers were brought in to Shara-e-Faisal and everything was organized to make it impossible for Iftikhar Chowdhry to proceed. Then when one of the darkest morning arrived, it was bloodshed at the streets of Karachi. Read Complete Blog

Karachi taken Hostage by the choosen ones

As all of you know that Karachi was taken hostage on 12th of May at the occassion of arrival of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhary.Here are some of the compilations on the events.
Attack on Aaj TV Karachi:
Live video coverage of the attack

Corrupt Musharraf's Generals, Exposed by Musharraf's Generals

By Shaheen Sehbai - The South Asia Tribune, http://www.ppp.org.pk/dfc/Corrupt_Musharraf

General Pervez Musharraf cannot, and does not, publicly claim that he has eliminated corruption altogether in Pakistan but he frequently boasts about cleaning up the top levels of his military cum civil administration.

Now his own trusted men are exposing these tall claims by pointing fingers and naming the military regime’s big guns who are turning out to be the really big thieves. A few most glaring examples:

When a prominent cabinet minister who was visiting Washington a few months back, revealed quietly to me and a friend, the horrifyingly ugly scale of land grabbing and fake land sale scams going on in Pakistan, especially in Punjab, we frankly did not believe him.

We thought the minister was trying to get even with his uniformed masters for not fulfilling the tall political promises made to him. But the magnitude of the scams was such that the minister genuinely felt concerned and wanted us to write about them, although as a politician he was not going to raise his voice publicly and was prepared to serve those very Generals in every top position.

The minister has now been proved right. Thanks to one of the more upright Generals in the present lot, the Corps Commander of Lahore, Lt. General Shahid Aziz, details of the massive land scams are emerging.
Our ministerial source says Corps Commander Aziz, has started a serious investigation against his predecessor, the last Corps Commander of Lahore, currently posted in the GHQ, Lt. General Zarrar Azim, known in the real estate world of Lahore as General Zarrar Zamin (land).

Early results of this fight between the top military bulls has revealed that General Zarrar was so deeply involved in the scam of Lahore Defence Society that in the price of every plot of land allotted in the society, a fee of Rs 600,000 (US$10,000) had to be built-in, almost automatically, meant for the Corps Commander’s office.

In this scam, it is now being found by the detectives of the new Corps Commander, that not only the out-going CC was involved, he was using a junior officer, Major Lodhi as a front man. This major is related to General Musharraf’s coup partner and now retired General Aziz of Kargil fame.

The details of these Defence Society scams are mind boggling. Thousands of plots of lands are designated in official files as Defence Society land and these plots are then sold and re-sold on files. More paper Housing Societies are registered and approved and they claim vast tracts of land without owning a square yard.
According to our source, in Lahore alone there are 12,000 files of plots for Sectors 7, 8, 9 and 10 for which there is no land actually available on the ground. How many thousands of more such plots have been sold is not yet known but the probe ordered by Lt. Gen. Aziz will bring out some facts.

According to a going joke in the Army Mess Circuit, the last request General Musharraf made to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi was to give him 8,000 acres of land from the Indian territory across the Wagah-Atari border, 30 miles from Lahore, in return for Kashmir and Siachin, because “my boys have already sold this land in the files.”

Lahore is not the only Land of Land Scams. What has happened in Gwadar and Rawalpindi is of no less import.
The ministerial source said in the Bahria Town of Rawalpindi and Lahore, thousands of non-existent plots have been sold by the scheme managers. In Bahria Town of Lahore for 7,000 available plots 28,000 applications were accepted with deposits. But in Bahria Town Islamabad/Rawalpindi 77,000 plots have been sold which require land equivalent to 16 built-up sectors of Islamabad.

“What we are getting into is the Mother of all Scams because billions upon billions of people’s money has been collected by these project sponsors while there is no land to be allotted. How many of these buyers get back their deposits and when, is the 50 billion rupees question,” the source said.

Incidentally official records of the Ministry of Defence presented before the National Assembly show that Pakistan Army has Defence Housing Societies in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on an area of only 179,308 Kanals, or 22,500 acres. Pakistan Navy and Air Force have two housing societies each covering an area of 712 and 536 acres of land respectively.

Another of Musharraf’s top commanders, Lt Gen. Tariq Wasim Ghazi, former Corps Commander of Karachi became notoriously famous in Karachi for similar land scams in Defence Society, Karachi, including Creek City and allotment to two special people, Humayun Butt and Fareed Veerani. Who are these specials and what is their involvement is being investigated by South Asia Tribune and will be revealed soon.

The Gwadar land scam has already infuriated the Baloch leadership and one reason why they are so violent and non-compromising is how their mother land is being sold and resold to outsiders after it was fraudulently bought from them for peanuts. In Gwadar the Generals and their front men were quietly told to buy the land from locals much in advance of announcement of mega projects. Once this mopping up operation was completed, the projects were announced and trading of this real estate began, multiplying the prices by 20 or even 40 times.

The ministerial source said the bigger scandal in Gwadar has started just recently when Government has ordered all its banks and State-owned Corporations to buy land in Gwadar at market prices. Middlemen have already sold and resold these plots many times over to different parties to perk up the market price. “The tax payer will now end up paying the premium to these land mafias,” the source said.

In a much quieter operation in Lahore the City Government of Nazim (Mayor) Mian Amer Mahmood claimed on Sunday, April 24, that it had succeeded in vacating 3,000 kanals (375 acres) of land belonging to schools from a land mafia, but interestingly he did not name the mafia. Most of those who read the small story or who were present when the announcement was made understood who was involved.

While Corps Commanders of Musharraf are involved in perpetuating or dismantling these land scams, one of his pillars of accountability, the former head of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Lt. General (Retd) Amjad Hussain was himself accused of massive corruption in the corporation he has been heading.

This charge of corruption was leveled in the National Assembly of Pakistan and involved the Fauji Foundation, undeniably the largest corporate body of Pakistan, now waiting to take over the largest public sector company, Pakistan State Oil.

The National Assembly was told last week that a high-level inquiry had been ordered against the management of the Fauji Foundation after detection of huge financial bunglings. General Amjad was facing the inquiry for selling a sugar mills in a non-transparent manner at less than the highest bid to a business enterprise which did not even participate in the bidding process.

The Assembly was told that the Khoski Sugar Mills was sold at Rs300 million against a previous bid of Rs387 million offered by a private party. Defence Minister Rao Sikandar ordered the inquiry to fix responsibility on those who violated the financial procedures and rules by going out of the way to benefit a favorite firm.
While the above details show that in-service Generals and Corps Commanders were being investigated for corruption, another officially announced corruption case was against the management of the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games, interestingly consisting of all military officers headed by Lt. General Arif Hassan.
The management of SAF Games has been found involved in financial irregularities to the tune of Rs201 million, which among other charges, include giving undue benefit to private organizations through "verbal agreements," Daily Dawn said quoting an audit report .

The ninth SAF Games management included Chairman Lt. Gen. Arif Hassan, Chief of staff and chief coordinating officer Brig. Amjad Javaid, Information and media director Lt. Col. Syed Mujtaba Tirmizi, Administration Director Brig. Ahmad Riza Siddiqi, Communications Director Brig Abid Hussain Bhatti, Technical Director Lt. Col. (retired) Muhammad Yahya, Procurement Director Lt. Col. Mansoor Abbas, Information Technology Director Lt. Col. Umer Farooq, Finance and Marketing Director Lt. Col. Azhar Dean, Ceremonies Director Brig. Arif Rasul Qureshi, Protocol Director Brig. Khalid Rasheed Lodhi and Chief Engineer Lt. Col. Usman Saeed.

The question being asked in all relevant circles was that even to organize an sporting event, none of the very well qualified civilians was found to be suitable and from top to bottom all army men had been inducted as if it SAF Games were military exercises. And now these sacred cows have been found to be involved in irregularities and corruption.

In a military regime, obviously the Corps Commanders and senior Generals are the top level of Government and if scams and scandals involving these top men are officially exposed, some in the National Assembly and others by leaks to the media by his own people, how would General Musharraf explain his claims of eliminating top level corruption.

The growing divide by Irfan Hussain

Over the last year or so, the Rangers have been trying to force the farmers to renounce their existing tenancy rights; several have been killed, and many have alleged that they were tortured.

Nobody denies the right of military personnel to acquire enough property over their career to retire comfortably; what people increasingly resent is the land hunger that seems to drive senior officers as they obtain plot after plot in every major city. Read Complete Article

Land grabbers - all! by Ardeshir Cowasjee

The armed forces own Pakistan's largest industrialist empire, and they are also the premier landowners both in the rural and urban areas - defence housing schemes, and generals' housing colonies occupy vast tracts of land in cities and towns from one end of the country to the other. They are surely not in dire need of space in which to expand their various interests. But it does happen sometimes that they do not merely acquire land but that it is thrust on them, as happened in Karachi eleven years ago. Read Complete Article

The day of the sector commanders by Ayaz Amir

This was the day of the sector commanders.With roads blocked, movement was difficult if not impossible. But people were willing to brave all obstacles and make it to the airport. At several points they were set upon and ambushed, all with the greatest deliberation. Fortytwo dead are the accounted for victims of this slaughter although the real toll could be higher. Many more were injured.

This is going to be a long, hot summer. Pray God some sense prevails. Pakistan was not created for men of limited ability to play around with its destiny. Pakistan a failed state? By no means. Its failures have been the failures of its leaders. But we may have turned a corner and in that sense left the past behind because the one sentiment being voiced across the country is, “Enough is enough”. Read Complete Article

Wardi paa kay rakh, Danda haath wich rakh

The picture mocks Musharraf for being dictator of Pakistan. The idiotic rhymic sentences translate as "Keep wearing the unifrom, Keep holding the stick".

CNN report on Karachi riots of 12th May '06

Newspaper editorials on Sunday lamented the descent into chaos and violence. "It appeared at times as if there was no government in Karachi and it was gunmen who ruled the nation's biggest city," said the respected Dawn daily.

The front-page headline in The News referred to a "Karachi bloodbath."

The MQM is a coalition partner in both the government of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, and the federal government. The Karachi-based party has a reputation for militancy. In December 1986, 90 people were killed in violence between ethnic Pashtuns and MQM supporters.

A private TV network accused MQM activists of peppering its building with gunfire because of its live coverage of the violence. The channel stayed on the air as rioters torched vehicles outside. Read Complete Report