Category: Pakistan Politics

Lahore, March 18: Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf slipped out of the country in the early hours of Friday morning in a move widely interpreted as a sign the government has conceded defeat at the hands of an all-powerful military establishment.

The former army chief, who took power in a 1999 coup and was facing charges of treason, was finally removed from the country’s “exit control list” on Thursday after almost three years of being banned from international travel.

He had been prevented from leaving since April 2013, soon after he returned from self-imposed exile and became embroiled in a series of legal cases, including a historic government-initiated high treason trial.

That Musharraf had been banned from international travel for so long had been widely taken as a sign of the determination of the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to defy staunch opposition from the army’s high command and prosecute the man who ousted him in the 1999 coup.

But in a press conference late on Thursday night, the interior minister, Nisar Ali Khan, said the government would not prevent Musharraf from leaving on a Dubai-bound flight in order to seek medical attention overseas.

Khan said the government had relented because Musharraf had vowed to face all the cases against him and had “promised to return in four to six weeks”.

Musharraf’s lawyer said he would come back after having surgery on his back that he said was not available in Pakistan.

Many doubted that would be the case given the army would almost certainly not wish to see the return of a man who has become a key irritant in the always sensitive relationship between a dominant military establishment and a government yearning to reassert civilian supremacy.

Shaukat Qadir, a retired army officer, said the two sides appeared to have reached an accommodation.

“It is quite fair to think that a deal has been struck finally that perhaps the army wanted some time back,” he said. “Frankly I don’t think army chiefs should be exempt from anything but considering the circumstances hopefully he has now learned his lesson and won’t be coming back.”

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s party, vowed to launch country-wide protests against the government for allowing Musharraf to travel.

Musharraf returned from a life of self-imposed exile in Dubai and London in March 2013 in a disastrous bid to contest a seat in that year’s general elections. Only sparse crowds turned up to welcome him home at Karachi airport in a sign he had gravely overestimated his support. He later said he had gauged his popularity from the number of followers he had attracted to his Facebook page.

He was swiftly de-barred from contesting any seats in a general election in which the party of his nemesis Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), swept the board.

And he became ensnared in a series of legal cases, including one alleging complicity in the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Far more serious, however, was the decision by the government to set up a special court to try Musharraf for treason, not for his 1999 coup but for taking emergency rule powers in 2007.

A successful prosecution would not only have risked a potential death sentence, it would also have amounted to an extraordinary challenge to the power and prestige of the country’s dominant military class.

The army was accused of taking drastic measures to find excuses for Musharraf not to appear in person at the trial when it was launched under heavy security in the capital.

On one occasion a roadside bomb was reportedly found along the way to the court just before Musharraf’s convoy was about leave his “farm house” in the suburbs of Islamabad. Later he claimed to have suffered a heart scare while on route to the court, causing a diversion to a military hospital where he remained for months on end.

Karachi, March 12: Allah Dino Khawaja was posted as Dadu SSP when he came up with a unique method to gain information on criminals. “During his posting, he started patrolling in the city under the guise of a milk seller and a vegetable supplier,” recalled Laila Ram Manglani, one of his best friends, explaining that Khawaja wanted to target corrupt cops who used to loot people on the streets.

“During his posting in Dadu, he focused mainly on [improving] police performance and suspended several [corrupt] SHOs in the volatile district,” he said. Manglani recalled how Dadu residents took to the streets in his favour when he was transferred out in the 1990s.

Humble origins

Khawaja, who belongs to a village in Tando Muhammad Khan district, was born in a Muslim family but was raised by a Hindu one. His father, Aziz Khawaja, was a landlord of the area and he was best friends with Daryano Mal, a local Hindu businessman who had no son of his own. Mal requested Aziz to allow him to take care of Khawaja and ended up paying for all his educational and other expenses.

Dal, who hailed from Jamshoro’s Thana Bola Khan area, had Khawaja enrol in Cadet College Petaro, from where he completed his Intermediate in 1982. After that, he completed his Master’s in Criminology from the University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

“Since my childhood, I wanted to become a police officer. I appeared for my Civil Service of Pakistan (CSS) exam in 1986-87 and passed it with flying colours,” Khawaja told The Express Tribune.

His exceptional score landed him a post in the foreign services but Khawaja had his eyes set on becoming a police officer. “I challenged the government decision and they reallocated me,” he said.

In the initial days, he worked in the Punjab as ASP and SP, and was later transferred to Sindh. “After appearing in the CSS exam, I also got admission in NED University in the civil engineering department but I dropped out soon after I passed the CSS exam,” he recalled.

When he speaks about his success, Khawaja gives credit to Dal, his Hindu mentor who helped fulfil his dreams. “This is a true story of my childhood. I am proud to be a Muslim and I am equally thankful to our Hindu family friend, who bore all my educational expenses and paved the way to make me a good citizen,” said Khawaja.

The cop life

Khawaja has served as SSP in various districts of Sindh and worked in Karachi as DIG in districts South and East, according to Sindh Police records. He also rendered his services in Intelligence Bureau (IB) as a joint director.

He was also posted as DIG for telecommunication and director for Sindh’s anti-corruption department. Khawaja also worked as personal staff officer for two chief ministers, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah and Syed Abdullah Shah.

Character certificate

Khawaja is known as one of the most respectable and honest officers in Sindh Police — a fact that led him to become one of the three members of the Supreme Court-appointed inquiry committee probing corruption charges against the outgoing Sindh IG.

Some officials accused Khawaja of embezzling government funds and using that money to establish petrol pumps but he denied these accusations. “This is just [an attempt] to malign me,” he said.

As he takes charge of the province during the crucial targeted operation in Karachi, Khawaja shared his plans. “My first priority will be to get rid of the defamed ‘thana culture’ and appoint police officers on merit,” he said.

 

KARACHI, March 3 – After a prolonged absence from the local political scene, former city nazim of Karachi Syed Mustafa Kamal was holding a press conference in Karachi on Thursday.

The joint press conference with his former fellow Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Anees Qaim khani was being held in DHA phase 6 area of Karachi. Kamal had said that he would apprise the media over key matters.

Addressing the media, Kamal lashed out sharply at MQM chief Altaf Hussain, with whom the former Karachi mayor has had a falling out since years. Kamal said that his press conference would be divided into three parts. “First part will be about why I and Anees left the party. Second, why we have cameback, and what we will do next.”

Kamal said that Altaf had insulted workers several times in public meetings, especially once in May 2013 when he changed the party set up overnight. “How can a commander insult his sepoys other than to serve him?”

“We have returned today because every child of Pakistan, every party, the establishment of Pakistan as well as the present and past government’s know, that Altaf Hussain has links with the Indian intelligence agency RAW,” he alleged.

He recalled that during his time in the MQM, the Rabita Committee would be degraded and insulted by Altaf Hussain within weeks and months but recently the situation became such that the Rabita Committee would be insulted every few minutes.

What was first done in private settings was being done in public through media channels, he said. He recalled how the MQM Rabita Committee was manhandled by people when the PTI secured 800,000 votes.

He also revealed that a time came when former interior minister Rehman Malik would dictate the press releases for MQM, adding that Malik had access to the MQM chief even more than MQM leaders.

Syed Mustafa Kamal served as a city nazim of Karachi from 2005 to 2009. Both the leaders were appearing before the media after almost three years of absence from the political scene in Karachi.

Senior journalist Talat Hussain said that the two leaders, who have been estranged from the MQM for years, might provide an alternate leadership to voters of the MQM.

Sources told that the MQM leadership has called its workers and top activists to the party’s secretariat in London, where party chief Altaf Hussain is based.

According to the sources, Altaf is also expected to be present at the meeting. But MQM senior leader Wasay Jalil rejected the news of the emergency meeting. “Neither any meeting has been summoned nor workers have been called in London,” said the leader in a message posted on Twitter.

The MQM leadership has remained tight lipped about the press conference stating that it will only comment after the press conference takes place.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s uncharacteristic outburst against the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) this week resounded more than it astounded political circles and commentators.

People did not miss Imran Khan much, who has been holidaying in the Maldives, as television channels and newspapers continued to analyse the reasons and consequences of the sudden hard feelings of the otherwise cool elder Sharif.

If frustration was behind it, as some say, it would be understandable.

After all, the prime minister and his party were expecting acclaim over their achievements – standing his ground against PIA strikers and closing the multi-billion dollar LNG deal with Qatar – instead of being hounded by the talk of a NAB probe into the deal and other pet projects such as the Metro Bus, Orange Train, LDA City.

Even worse was the talk that old cases against Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif might be reopened, even though they have obtained stay orders from the courts.

In his attack on NAB, the prime minister broadly suggested that the PML-N could cut NAB down to size, or form a commission to watch over its activities.

That would be politically incorrect, since today’s NAB and its chairman, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, are the product of a bipartisan consensus. Not only would the PML-N be doing what it had loudly criticised the PPP for doing in Sindh – reining in the powers of the Rangers – but would also lend weight to PPP charges that the PML-N government used NAB and other federal agencies to carry out ‘selective accountability’ and a ‘witch-hunt’ in Sindh.
Indeed, the situation looks much more ominous to political observers and analysts, who wonder what made the prime minister take on NAB personally, when a lesser figure in the cabinet or party could have fired the warning shot just as easily.
In background discussions, lawmakers from different political parties and government officials privy to the development, provided no direct clue and yet, expected more fireworks.

Some thought that the PML-N leadership would want to smother any activity that paints it black in the run up to the next elections, even if they are far away.

It would like to enter the battle in the shining armour of progress and with state-of-the-art edifices firmly in the ground.

It was Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who prodded his elder brother “to be tough”, according to a ruling party parliamentarian. “NAB had turned its eyes on Punjab and was in the process of going ahead with a few important arrests from within the ruling party on the charges of corruption. That would have stained the party’s clean image in the public eye,” he said.

Others added that the arrests would have had knock-on effect on the bureaucracy, the mainstay of the PML-N’s governance. “In the event, government officers will think twice before doing the bidding of their political masters, and that will directly affect our party’s development projects,” explained one.

A PTI lawmaker said the prime minister’s harsh remarks against the NAB reflected the frustrations of the PML-N leaders both at the centre and in Punjab. “Instead of improving the life of the common man, their hopes to hanging on to power hang on building roads and flyovers and metro bus,” he said.

To him PML-N was “habitual of picking up fights with institutions, mainly to divert attention from the failures of their government. I will not be surprised if the duo blasts other institutions in the coming weeks,” said the PTI lawmaker.

A PPP MNA from Sindh did not agree that the PM’s attack on the NAB put the PML-N and the PPP on the same side. “Just wait and watch how things unfold,” he advised. “A little retrospection would reveal that whenever the PML-N leadership throws the gauntlet against a state institution something serious is brewing.”

Meanwhile, sources close to the NAB and the security establishment say no one should expect them to back off from their campaign against corrupt elements and banned outfits hiding in the southern districts of Punjab.

Whatever may have led the prime minister to attack the NAB, “we will spare no suspect whatever his party affiliation,” said a senior NAB official.

A security official was even more forthcoming. “A contingency plan is already in place to go after the activists of the militant banned outfits. Soon action will start against them,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2016

ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif had green-lighted stern action against retired military officers and civilians involved in the Rs62 billion Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Valley scam around six months ago, sources in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have told Dawn.

A top NAB officer said on condition of anonymity that a senior military official had called on NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry in July last year and assured him of the army’s full support to the bureau in investigating the matter.

The NAB chief was informed that the COAS was determined that no-one should be spared in the investigation, even army officials.

“The message Gen Sharif conveyed to the NAB chairman was that no-one involved in the scam should be spared and action should be taken, even if his own brothers are found to have links to the scam,” an official privy to the meeting said.

NAB has recently started flexing its muscles against Bahria Town chief Malik Riaz, brothers of former army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and some DHA officials. Now, it is looking into irregularities in the construction of the DHA Valley scheme — meant for families of military personnel who were killed in the line of duty — which was to be built on Punjab government land at the site of the Dadhocha Dam, near Rawat.

When contacted, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) declined to comment on the matter. However, it has been widely reported that the management of DHA has formally filed a complaint with NAB, asking it to investigate the matter.

The NAB source said that during their meeting, the military official had inquired about a NAB investigation into a complaint, submitted by retired Lt-Col Mohammad Tariq Kamal in Sept 2010. The complaint alleged that the DHA Valley real estate project was being developed on an area reserved for the proposed Dadhocha Dam. Following the verification of the complaint on June 13, 2011, the bureau had authorised an inquiry on July 3, 2012.

The NAB chairman had, at the time, indicated that former army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s brothers and other retired army officials were implicated. At this, the source claimed, the military officer told the NAB chief that Gen Sharif wanted a just investigation and that no-one should be spared.

The case was later tried by the Supreme Court and a two-judge bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja heard the petition on July 16, 2015. In addition to demanding an explanation from NAB, the court also asked the Punjab government to respond to the petitioner’s allegations.

The petition claimed that DHA, Bahria Town and a private construction firm Habib Rafique had entered into a contract to develop various housing schemes including DHA Valley, DHA Phase II Extension, DHA Expressway and DHA Villas in Rawalpindi, as a joint venture (JV).

According to the petitioner’s evaluation, DHA Valley was valued at Rs110 billion, DHA Phase II Extension at Rs70 billion, DHA Expressway at Rs50 billion and DHA Villas at Rs100 billion. DHA-I and DHA-II are already-developed housing societies, but DHA Valley is yet to be developed.

According to NAB investigation, those who had paid for plots in DHA Valley found themselves in an awkward position when, in 2009 DHA transferred all the funds it had been paid (Rs62 billion) to the accounts of Bahria Town, which eventually failed to develop the scheme. Those cheated out of their money included 110,000 civilians, 41,000 serving and retired military officers, jawans and families of martyrs.

Gen Kiyani’s brothers respond

Also on Sunday, retired Brig Amjad Parvez Kayani issued a statement, claiming that the former army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani had nothing to do with the actions and business interests of his brothers.

“Rather than talking about us as individuals, a reference is always made to Gen Kayani, as if he sponsored and facilitated us in everything we did or did not do. Everything under the sun is attributed to us without a shred of lawful or even raw evidence, departmental records or proof. These allegations are baseless. Gen Kayani never, in any way, sponsored or facilitated our business interests,” the statement said.

Brig Amjad claimed that his brother Kamran Kayani, an accused in the DHA City Lahore scam, was not a partner in the JV between DHA Lahore and Eden Private Limited, nor did he facilitate a deal between the two in favour of EDEN City. “In this JV, DHA Lahore is the senior partner and all plots/files which were marketed would have been issued by DHA and no-one else (including Kamran Kayani),” he said.

Kamran Kayani also has no connections with another JV, signed in 2009 between DHA Islamabad and Elysium. “Ownership of the Elysium was clearly established in a Supreme Court’s decision, which ordered EOBI to return 50 plots to Elysium and the company to pay back Rs1 billion to EOBI. The decision of the Supreme Court was implemented,” he said.