PPP Needs To Re-evaluate It's Policies

Zardari may return, with broken wings, powerless & as a mere figurehead like Fazal Elahi Chaudhry or Rafiq Tarar; he may even resign as party co-chairperson or become inactive in that position & let Bilawal become more active. But will that be a solution to the problems Pakistan or PPP face? I don't think so. Much more needs to be done. Some heads have to roll & some basic re-evaluation of PPP policies have to take place. People like Faryal, Babar, Rehman and many more must go. People like Aitzaz & Rabbani should be brought in. Corruption, nepotism must be checked. 


Most important is to go back to Benazir Bhutto's policies and stand since her meeting with MNS in Jeddah & later signing of CoD in London, UK. Their written & unwritten agreements must be followed. PPP must change its attitude towards judiciary. It should distance itself from pro-Musharraf parties & try to work with PML-N. It is the need of the hour that PPP & PML-N join hands at this moment to foil the conspiracies hatched by anti-democracy forces. (8 December, 2011)

Most analysts agree that the real Pakistai rulers since last 60 plus years are now fed up with Zardari. But they are not willing to put Nawaz Sharif in the driving seat again either. Why then MNS has taken upon him to dislodge Zardari government through Supreme Court. Does he have any false assurances or any illusions or is he unwittingly paving the way for military establishment’s hand picked man, Imran Khan to come to power? (7 December, 2011)

Presence of Osama bin Laden next door to Pakistan's premier military academy in Abbottabad was a smoking gun against military establishment. They kept lying. No accountability. When elected PMs wanted peace with India, they were either overthrown or sabotaged with conspiracies like the abortive Kargil offensive. When an elected president talked of an agreement on no-first use of atomic bomb & industrial zone on the borders with India, they planned terrorist attack in Mumbai. They have been defeated in all the wars with India but have conquered own country FOUR times & are eating away most of country's budget & have become biggest industrial & commercial enterprise in the country. 

They killed, raped & injured hundreds of thousands of people in Bengal yesterday & are repeating the same in Balochistan today, no questions asked. Murder of Bhuttos, Bugti & several more is on their hands. 

Thousands have sacrificed for an end to military role but their sacrifices seem to have gone in vain as they again are staging comeback using anti-American bogey today. What a waste! (30 November, 20110

27th December: Get Ready For Another Zardari-Rehman Malik Drama

27^th December is almost upon us. Get ready for another Zardari-Rehman Malik drama about “catching” & “punishing” the “killers of Shaheed BB”. It is about 4 years since the PPP chairperson was assassinated in Pak Army town, Rawalpindi. Her party, led by her widower & son, has been in power for 3 years & 9 months since then. First they delayed any meaningful investigation in the name of UN probe. When UN commission submitted its report, they rejected it & refused to act on it. Then they said they would hold their own inquiry. Now their hand-maiden report is ready since more than a year but they won’t publish or disclose it in full. Last year, they delayed the arrival of the 'son' in Garhi Khuda Bux for a day & issued an statement afterwards that since he couldn't attend the party CEC meeting, the report could not be announced on BB’s 3^rd death anniversary.

In between, they have not shown any seriousness to go after the killers. Instead they have been seen as an impediment in the case being heard in a Rawalpindi court. They have transferred, harassed or offered no cooperation to the public prosecutor & the judge. They haven’t done a thing to oblige the court order to bring ex-military dictator Musharraf to the country to appear before the court, as he is the main accused. What new drama this year? Wait & see! 27th December is not too far away.

Begum Bhutto remembered: By Kamran Shafi

When I see the carping on Twitter, and various blogs and discussion boards and what have you, complaining about the holiday to mark the passing of Begum Nusrat Bhutto; or about the government flying journalists to Larkana to cover her funeral, I am further convinced that a whole lot of young Pakistanis simply do not know this country’s tortured history.

Which is not their fault: the mass (Urdu) media, both print and electronic, instead of periodically reminding the nation of its real heroes and heroines (and their tribulations at the hands of army dictators), is much more taken up with trashing our politicians, the pet hate of the Deep State.
You might ask why I introduced the term ‘tribulation’ so early in this piece. Simply because, dear reader, Begum Nusrat Bhutto’s life after the assassination of her husband was, for many many years, one long and painful ordeal, and yes, one of great tribulation.

It began with the arrest of her husband, the former (for Zia had already carried out his coup against the elected government) elected prime minister, and president of Pakistan, on what were quite apparently trumped up charges; his release on bail; and his rearrest under Martial Law Regulations after tens of thousands of people turned out in Lahore to welcome him when he visited that city after his release.
Then came the murder trial in the Lahore High Court under the Chief ‘Justice’ himself, the malevolent Maulvi Mushtaq, an avowed and declared Bhutto enemy who refused to recuse himself even after ZAB said he had no faith in him. If the conduct of the trial was disgusting for outside observers like I, how painful must it have been for Begum Bhutto to daily see needless indignities heaped upon her husband?

One little story to do with the dastardliness of Maulvi Mushtaq. One day, as ZAB was brought out of Kot Lakhpat Jail to the police van that transported him to court, he saw that the chair he used to sit on in the back of the van had been removed. When he asked why, he was told there were ‘orders’ that he should sit on the wooden benches along the sides of the van.

ZAB refused and said in that case he would not attend court that day. Telephone calls flew back and forth, and the ‘orders’ were withdrawn. When the court assembled, Maulvi told ZAB to stand up and to keep standing for that day’s proceedings. When Bhutto protested, saying he should not be treated that way for he was, after all, a former president and prime minister, Maulvi flew into a rage and reportedly shouted: “You are a criminal; you will sit wherever you are told to sit… one more word out of you and I will have you whipped in jail!”

While he was being treated thus, his wife and daughter were also at the receiving end of the dictator’s malice. On December 16, 1977, a mere five months after her husband was removed from the elected office of prime minister, Begum Bhutto and her daughter, the much missed, much lamented Benazir, were lathi-charged by the police while they were watching the England-Pakistan Test match at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore just because the crowd raised ‘Jeay Bhutto’ slogans. Photographs of Begum Bhutto, her forehead dripping with blood, have appeared widely over the internet over the past few days.

The scandalous trial went on: Maulvi’s court sentencing ZAB to death and the Supreme Court rejecting his appeal, with four Punjabi judges convicting and three non-Punjabi judges acquitting him. Despite this split verdict and against all judicial precedence, ZAB was hanged in Rawalpindi Jail on April 4, 1979. I might add that whilst I am a Punjabi myself, it is important to speak up about the ethnic make-up of the bench.

Zia did many a monstrous thing, but one of the most monstrous was when he refused to let Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Benazir attend the last rites of their husband and father! How ‘pious’ this charlatan was can be judged from just this one act. Which Muslim will keep a person’s family from burying their own? Pakistan’s army dictators — the Commando did the same with Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif when their dear father died — and, of course, the wild hordes who beat Muammar Qaddafi to death.
The graceful Begum Bhutto took all that was thrown at her with great stoicism and courage, and in due course started an agitation which led to the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy that showed the world that the tyrant was vulnerable. If Begum Nusrat Bhutto has been named the ‘Mother of Democracy in Pakistan’, she fully deserves the title.

I end with a personal anecdote: in the spring of 1988, after I had accepted Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s offer to work for the government as public information officer (PIO), Begum Bhutto sent for me. She recounted how she and ZAB knew my father and family and asked if I would come work for her on her staff. While I was delighted, I said, “Begum Sahiba, thank you, but the prime minister has just yesterday asked me to work for the government as PIO”. “Really” she said, and then smiled so very warmly. “Well, at least you will be with us”.

And then she started to cry. “They have been so horrible to us… you cannot imagine what they have done to us… even accusing Zulfikar of buying a personal chandelier with government money… but I have the receipts… you know, he would pay even the smallest personal bill in the PM’s House by cheque… and when I said why he was bothering writing a cheque when I had money in my bag, he would say, ‘Nusrat you don’t know them; they will say and do anything to destroy me and my name… I must have records…’”.

I am exhausted dear reader… more another time… may the Almighty give strength to those who loved her.

RIP, Begum Sahiba.

The writer is a columnist, a former major of the Pakistan Army, and served as press secretary to Benazir Bhutto

Courtesy: daily The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2011.

Benazir Bhutto’s Alleged Murder Plotter Joins PML-N, Shaikh Rasheed to Follow

By Aijaz Ahmed

Islamabad:  Pakistan Muslim League (N) proudly calls itself a principled party and claims it is against 'lotacracy' and that it always abides by the Charter of Democracy. It also uses the name of Benazir Bhutto whenever it’s leaders want the government to go on the back foot. However its double standards have been exposed as the same "principled" party has allowed an alleged plotter of Benazir Bhutto's murder and a close associate of military dictator Musharraf and the Choudhris of Gujrat to join PML-N.

It may be recalled here that Benazir Bhutto had sent an email in 2007 to her lobbyist in Washington, DC and a family friend, Mark Siegel, containing four names who according to her were plotting her murder according g to her own information. The then Director General IB Brigadier (retd) Ijaz Shah’s name was one of the four suspects nominated by BB herself.

Former IB chief, Brig. Ret. Ijaz Shah

BB’s suspicion of her murder plot was not baseless. She was indeed brutally martyred at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on 27^th December 2007. Brigadier Ijaz shortly after the general elections in 2008 ran away from Pakistan and settled in Australia with the blessings of the man at the helm of affairs at that time and he was no other than Musharraf. As Ijaz Shah was also known as a close friend of PML-N’s arch rivals, the Choudhris of Gujrat, the party had started an aggressive campaign when PPP joined hands with the Q league. It had blamed PPP of selling out the murder of BB “Shaheed”.

The PML-N had vowed to take revenge from the murderers if and when it formed a government in the center. But all the claims, love and respect for BB has proved to be false and a mere political stunt as Ijaz Shah who returned to Lahore few weeks back after a secret settlement with Punjab government has formally joined PML-N few days back and signed the membership form of the party from Nankana Sahib, suburban town of Sheikhupura near Lahore and the place of birth of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh religion and a great fighter against state repression.

No word of sorry has been tendered by the “principled” PML-N leadership to the followers of BB most of whom had started believing in Nawaz Sharif after losing their faith in Asif Zardari. The reason given by PML-N for taking such people and members of Q league in the party ranks is most interesting. Senator Pervez Rasheed while giving his reaction to a question about the talks with Q league responded positively and uttered that “we will talk with everybody willing to join us against Zardari Raj”. ‘We are in contact with PML-Q and will accept anybody except the Choudhris of Gujrat. We want to isolate them in politics and will go to any extent’, he added.

  

The “principled” PML-N now seems to follow the policy of lotacracy which it talked against so much at one time to stop it’s arch rival PPP from gaining majority in the Senate in March next year. Sumera Malik, a close aide of Musharraf and a cause of confrontation between Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry and General Musharraf has now become very close to Mian Sahib. She is going to join PML-N despite being a member from PML-Q. She earlier tried to join PPP, but her relationship with Farooq Leghari did not prove very helpful.

Next in line is Sheikh Rasheed of Lal Haveli. He has established contacts with his former party and is all set to become a PML-N candidate from NA 55 in next general elections. He was the man who had categorically refused Begum Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif to support a pro Nawaz Movement after 12^th October, 1999 and had later joined Musharraf camp. He claimed himself to be a non-official spokesman of GHQ. One can imagine what will be the situation like when he will walk with Nawaz Sharif who claims to be an anti military dictatorship. But that is surely confined to a dictatorship that removed him from the Prime Minister House. Thus the proverb, that politics has no permanent foes or friend is proved true once again and lotacracy is in the vogue again.

Benazir Bhutto – Khoon-e-Raigaan?

Indus Herald comment:

Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of PPP, who served as president and Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1970s was overthrown by the Army and murdered by generals and judges. But at least his blood didn’t go in vain. Like the incident at Karbala, it gave a new life to his party and helped it withstand the most repressive military dictatorship of General Zia and later get electoral successes to form governments twice in Pakistan.

But alas, it could not be said of his daughter, Benazir Bhutto. She had nominated military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Choudhry Pervaiz Elahi, former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief, Ijaz Shah (who was also ex-army officer and an operative of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, ISI, a formidable military intelligence agency), along with some others in case anything happened to her.

The government that came into power on a sympathy vote after her tragic assassination led by her husband Asif Ali Zardari, bid farewell to General Musharraf with full military honor and a salute. The government elected and being run in her name, is not pursuing her murder case appropriately and despite clear and repeated orders by a court hearing the case, it is doing nothing to get the former military dictator extradited to the country to face the trial where he faces charges as an accused. A UN probe had also held him responsible.

The government is also not taking any action against Ijaz Shah and now it has entered into an alliance with PML-Q, which PPP leaders earlier had dubbed as Qatil (murderer) league, meaning it was implicated in Benazir Bhutto assassination. As if that was not enough, Ch. Pervaiz Elahi, a man nominated by Benazir Bhutto herself is being appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister. Now would a Deputy Prime Minister allow any investigation against him in a murder case?

Isn’t it true then that Benazir Bhutto’s blood has gone in vain? Khoon-e-Naahaq" gone "Khoon-e-Raigaan? The people who have her blood on their hands are either already in the government or about to join the government while others are living abroad under government security!

(Photos: courtesy internet.)

PPP-PML-Q to Wed Soon – IV: Arch Rivals Agree on Details! Intelligence Chief Ensure the Deal? Finally Faisal Saleh Hayat Shakes Hand With Zardari; Both Parties to Sign a CoD; PML-N’s Counter Moves to End Siege in Punjab

Zardari ensures second term! 

By Aijaz Ahmed

The political landscape of the country is going to be altered soon as the PPP and PML-Q have finally reached a deal with the blessings of the chief of the country’s top spy agency with a Lahore based business tycoon and a top builder of the country being one of the guarantors!

Observers believe that the ‘deal’ will certainly bring political stability in the country, which will ultimately restore the trust of the business and the investors. However, they also believe the deal will make way for change in Punjab’s political landscape as well.

The umpteenth ‘political wonder’ was finalized late Thursday night at presidency where Ch. Shujaat and Pervaiz Elahi along with few colleagues had a formal meeting and dinner with President who also happens to be Co-Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

 The new element of the meeting whispered by sources at the Pakistan’s Capital Hill was an inventory list from the Presidency side. Sources are ready to bear all burden of the list that is being revealed and according to them the ISI Chief General Ahmed Shuja Pasha was the strongest witness and a wheeler-dealer of the agreement.

Details of the agreement are the same, which Indus Herald has already revealed with one minor addition that Ch. Pervaiz Elahi will be appointed deputy prime minister and an amendment to this affect will be made accordingly. The top builder of the country and Chief of Bahria Town, Malik Riaz was guarantor from the Presidency side while Lahore based business tycoon Ch. Siddique was present as a guarantor from Q league side, sources added.

Although, the deal in itself is being considered as yet another political achievement of Mr. Zardari even in the worst political situation, the real achievement he secured in the deal is second Presidential term for him. PML-Q has agreed to support his candidature in the next presidential elections at completion of the current term and the move is fully backed by present military leadership including the ISI chief, sources added.

‘The situation in the country needs continuity at top level, and also a person who understands army point of view beside having a backing from Europe and also from a strong US lobby is suitable’, sources say adding that he (Zardari) is the one who refuses to completely bow down to US demands in the present situation and that has created and strengthened mutual trust between the Pak Army and President Zardari. Army wants him to stay for another five years and thus the demand was made part of the agreement at the last minute, and was ensured to be agreed by ISI Chief, sources claimed.

Some of the points included in the deal indicate the reason why UK had interest in the alliance, and thus the efforts made by them have succeeded, sources also observed.

In the second round of the political parlays and to further discuss some minor details of the deal, Ch Shujaat had another meeting with President after Jumma Prayers at the Presidency and this time Faisal Saleh Hayat, a former PPP stalwart and presently Parliamentary leader of the party in National Assembly replaced Pervaiz Elahi to discuss his own grievances and reservations with the president.

Confirming the meeting, Farhat Ullah Babar, the presidential spokesman observed that ‘current political situation of the country was discussed during the meeting. The meeting was held in the context of over all political reconciliation in the country and realignment of political forces. Such meetings will also take place in the future’, he added.

Giving the actual context of the meeting, the sources and the witnesses of the meeting observed that the peer from Jhang, a remote and less developed district between the central and southern Punjab had reservations against his former party colleague for certain personal and other reasons. Both former colleagues and rivals had a warm handshake and held detailed discussion on his reservations. Both were at ease and in friendly mood when the meeting ended sources observed. Mr. Hayat was assured that PPP would not field Begum Abida Hussain against him as a candidate, while he will not pursue his case on rental power and other energy issues in return, sources confided.

Although, both the parties have agreed to enter in a marriage of convenience they still harbor mutual mistrust and have formed committees to keep a vigilant eye on each other.

The way, PPP handled Nawaz Sharif and put him in the political isolation has made the PML-Q think twice and Choudhris could not have blind trust in Mr. Zardari. Thus they insisted to sign a formal agreement on the pattern of charter of democracy (CoD) said a PML-Q leader. The charter will be signed in front of the national media, he added

As obvious, PML-N feels heat from the new alliance, as its government in Punjab may become a casualty. The besieged PML-N in its bid to end the political isolation has embarked on a new game plan. The PML-N just before the deal is being signed rushed to the nationalist political parties of Sindh having strong rivalries with the PPP. The PML-N delegation led by Zulfiqar Khosa, a Sardar from Dera Ghazi Khan had political deliberations with Mumtaz Bhutto, the famous talented cousin of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The younger Bhutto left Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto Shaheed alone just few days after ZAB was hanged till death by military dictator Zia.

Ever since, BB was martyred at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, Mumtaz Ali Bhutto is trying to become his political and legal heir. He warmly welcomed Punjab’s leadership and assured full support. ‘We will support every political party struggling to make Pakistan stronger and prosperous’, he observed after the meeting.

Political observers are taking PML-N’s move a desperate attempt to teach a strong lesson to former ally and a partner in the Charter of Democracy in its political strong hold and power base, the Sindh province. However, they are not sure that the move will be taken as a wise and a sharp one by Sindhi voters, as they have already discarded Junior Bhutto many times, they believe.

News Byte:

In yet another political move the PML-N has formally demanded for a fresh political mandate in the shape of mid term elections. Confirming what Indus Herald had already revealed, Mian Nawaz Sharif while talking to a TV Anchorperson refreshed his demand. He said President Zardari had called him twice since he underwent heart surgery. He said he told Mr. Zardari that a fresh mandate in the shape of mid term or general national elections was the only way forward to fight the challenges being faced by the country. Mr. Zardari in return was of the view that the government shall complete its tenure, he maintained.

Nawaz Sharif was also skeptical of the role of military establishment and ISI in the national affairs. ‘I know, the government in the office must have powers to take decisions on the important issues. But as of now, major decisions on the matters related to the foreign policy, war on terror and issues like that of Raymond Davis are being taken by the military top brass, and not by the political government’, he added.

UK’s Interest in PPP-PML-Q Deal! Hectic Political Hob-knobbing in Islamabad; Another Alliance in Offing; Imran Khan’s Dharna & Meetings With Generals

PPP-PML-Q to Wed Soon, III: 

By Aijaz Ahmed

Foreign intervention in Pakistan’s internal affairs means influence exerted by the governments of the United States, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar or the UK for most of the part, and by one or the other means this foreign involvement was and has been quite a regular feature for last several decades, however, any involvement of this sort in the affairs like making political alliances has not been that common.

Formation of the political alliances for or against the government in Pakistan has mostly been a job done either by the politicians themselves when the fruits of change were seen ripe or a job smartly done by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) as it happened when the military establishment went on the other side of the fence against Benazir Government in late eighties.

This is the reason why British involvement to ensure a deal between PPP of Asif Ali Zardari and Q league of Choudhris was taken as a surprise as no one could grasp the UK interest in Q league, when its blue eyed former dictator General Musharraf is in the political arena and has shifted his residence from the posh aristocratic locality of the world’s political Capitol, London to UAE, the growing hub of international interests of cross sections.

The sources in the power corridors have witnessed a leading British diplomat shuttling between the government and the Q league even attending the meetings where the knitty-gritty is being finalized.

The said diplomat was seen present at a meeting of PML-Q stalwarts at one of the farm houses in Shahzad Town, a posh suburban area of beautiful Islamabad. Later the participants gathered at the residence of Owais Leghari, son of former president Farooq Leghari and one of the PMLQ stalwart.

Owais has been one of the staunch opponents of PPP since his father and once PPP follower dissolved second Benazir Government after being elected by his mother party. In addition, he is said to be among those who are not happy with his party’s decision to shake hands with PPP. He however, is said to have been neutralized with an option of his favorite IT ministry and a lucrative office in Punjab, if the deal is struck.

The dinner hosted by young Owais turned into a big political gathering with few faces from PPP and also a sizeable number of the members from the parties sitting with PPP in government. A huge number of diplomats including the US and Britain were among the participants

On the other hand sources at presidency were of the view that two more names are included in the run for next governor Punjab along with Maqsood Leghari, a tribal elder and uncle of Owais. Ch. Wajahat, younger brother of Shujaat is being considered as a candidate for the seat, while Pervaiz Elahi could be nominated on the post for an interim period till safe management of a peaceful political change in the Punjab government.

Presidency sources also witnessed a visit by few PML-Q leaders excluding Ch. Shujaat to the Pakistan’s current Capital Hill, the presidency and an informal central secretariat of PPP. The arrival of Q league team at presidency is said to be part of the deliberations for finalizing points of the agreement to be written and signed by leaders if both parties.

Sources are confident that the deal will be finalized in the current week and will successfully be implemented in next few days. Majority of the PPP leaders except Raza Rabbani are said to be successfully managed by President Zardari. Raza Rabbani has asked his party to relieve him from his ministry as he doesn’t want to leave his current office as a mark of protest, but presidency is quite confident that he will be managed again.

Imran Khan: Agencies' trump card or Taliban's Goebbels?

In addition to the new alliance in the making between PPP and PML-Q, another alliance is believed to be emerging with participation of Jamaat i Islami, JUI, Dharna fame Imran Khan, and other parties having no representation in the parliament.

The alliance is believed to have blessings of our worthy agencies, being part of their visible strategy to topple another elected government at center and all the four provinces, sources confided.

The move is part of a plan to install a technocrats’ government under Imran Khan or any other suitable candidate. The former cricket captain has been accused of holding secret meetings with Generals in the recent past. He is also blamed for staging a dharna at Peshawar on the signals from the powers that be.

Reaction of Imran Khan on the charges was full of contradictions. What price agencies can pay for me, he questions. I am not for sale and they (agencies) are not in position to buy me. But he could not satisfy on blessings from Hameed Gul and the present mindset in the agencies. While terming the allegation regarding his meetings with generals baseless, he had to finally admit that he met only with General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, Chief of ISI.