The Kayani-Shehbaz meeting

The news that the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, and the Punjab chief minister, Shehbaz Sharif, had a “secret” meeting has not so far been denied by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) department. Reports claim that the PMLN leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, was also present in the meeting.

The PMLN says no such meeting took place. But that denial isn’t worth anything in view of the general lack of credibility of party statements. Given the endemic state of political instability in Pakistan, the news has spread across the borders and the entire world has started to speculate about the meaning and significance of the meeting.

Why should General Kayani feel the need to meet a PMLN leader at this point of time? If he wanted to comment on the political situation in the country, he could have used the channel of the media. There is the constitutional avenue too available to him through which he could have met the president and later allowed the ISPR to ensure that his point of view had been put across. It is also quite possible that General Kayani wanted to take the PMLN on board on the coming offensive in South Waziristan. He may have wanted to remove the army from the attacks that will ensue in the coming days on the PPP government’s support to it. (The Jama’at-e Islami is protesting on the roads; the JUIF from within the coalition is threatening to quit, and some FATA ministers have already resigned.) But in all these cases, he should have approached the government to convey his message.

It is public knowledge that he intervened discreetly during the Long March in favour of the reinstatement of the higher judiciary and prevented it from resulting in a severe security situation. So maybe the meeting was sought by the two PMLN leaders who wanted to convey something secret to him rather than the other way round.

But a “secret” meeting can’t be kept secret in these days of a vigilant media. Therefore any such meeting is only bound to arouse unduly rash speculation in some quarters and fill some others with apprehensions. Above all, by fuelling uncertainty, it will adversely impact the economic sector, forcing investors to postpone their projects till a “final decision about the political situation has been made”. Needless to say, the environment in which the meeting took place was most unsuitable for it. The PPP government is under attack on many fronts but above all it is being pilloried relentlessly by the media for having acquiesced in the harsh “conditionalities” included the American Kerry-Lugar legislation allowing aid to Pakistan. The speculation that General Kayani could have aired his unhappiness with the American aid “conditionalities” — some of which indirectly target the Pakistan Army — is one of the most lethal outcomes of the secret meeting. So more and more people are talking about “mid-term elections” to oust the PPP government before its tenure is over. The meeting, not firmly denied so far by the ISPR, has encouraged those who think that the PPP should be pushed into the wilderness again. The issue of the NRO, brought to the fore once again by the publication of the detailed judgement of the July 31 verdict of the Supreme Court, has also triggered hopes of getting rid of the government.

The fact that Mr Nawaz Sharif is not taking part in the Lahore by-election is also taken as a signal by some for an all-out attempt at the ouster. The official postponement of the deadline for an end to load-shedding in the country has its own destabilising fallout. The aftermath of the meeting is sure to strengthen elements that see their success in political instability. That the meeting was followed by a statement by Mr Shehbaz Sharif condemning the Kerry-Lugar conditionalities has further heated up the situation of political confrontation, amid uncanny, absurd and outrageous rumour-mongering that President Zardari might be scheming to kill Mr Nawaz Sharif!

The sad truth is that every time Gen Kayani makes an intervention like a discreet phone-call or a discreet meeting, the event no longer remains a secret and opens the floodgates of destabilising speculation.

General Kayani has won the gratitude of the nation for staying out of politics in Pakistan. That Pakistan’s politics is negative and based on prejudice rather than opinion, on revenge rather than justice, is true, without the army intervening. But whenever it has in the past it has minimised the chances of things ever getting to normal. The current phase is not ideal, despite the pledges made by politicians before the 2008 elections, but this is the very juncture where the army should let the politicians sort themselves out under the Constitution.

Whatever the reasons, given the situation all round, Gen Kayani erred in secretly meeting with Mr Shahbaz Sharif and Mr Nisar Ali Khan and fuelling unwanted speculation to destabilise the regime and country. And if he didn’t, the ISPR should come out with a robust denial and bury the unhealthy speculation. (Daily Times)

Kerry-Lugar Bill is an insult, Army tells US military

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 Kayani lodges protest with General McChrystal By Kamran Khan KARACHI: As anger mounts over the degrading language and observations in the Kerry-Lugar Bill on Pakistan’s military services and intelligence agencies, the Army conveyed its part of protest to the United States when Commander of International Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal met Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani at the GHQ on Tuesday, informed officials said. These officials said that General Kayani told General McChrystal that like the Pakistani people, the military and intelligence services were furious at the observations made on Pakistan’s security establishment in the Kerry-Lugar Bill. Kayani also protested over the controversial statements made by some US officials in recent days. “General McChrystal returned from the GHQ with an unambiguous message that the terms set in the Kerry-Lugar Bill on the national security interests of Pakistan are insulting and are unacceptable in their present formulation,” according to an official familiar with the content of the meeting. Informed official sources said that the Army’s strong reaction to the Kerry-Lugar Bill was shared in detail with the government when General Kayani met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday. In a related development, also on Tuesday, Gilani asked Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to convey Pakistan’s reservations in his meetings with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama’s Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and key members of the US Congress. While Tuesday’s meeting with General McChrystal provided General Kayani with an opportunity to convey the Army’s serious objection to the controversial sections of the bill in detail, he had lodged an initial protest during his meeting with General McChrystal in Kabul, where he had gone last week toattend the tripartite military conference. The Kerry-Lugar Bill and its impact on national security interests of Pakistan will be a key subject of discussion when the corps commanders and principal staff officers of the Army meet under General Kayani on Wednesday. While the nation’s response is currently focused at the controversial content of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, the government is also concerned about a growing unregulated arrival and stay of American citizens in Pakistan. Concerns grew when Pakistanís security agencies recorded various cases of illegal acquisition of weapons by security firms connected with the US Embassy in Pakistan. Prime Minister Gilani, sources said, has already ordered a complete record with specific details and pre-clearance of US citizens entering Pakistan on US government business. (The News)

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Civil society in Pakistan must remain alert against anti-democracy conspiracies...

Muhammad Amir Khakwani alerts the civil society in Pakistan against the anti-democracy forces, namely the ISI and their agents in Pakistani media. Some of such persons include Brigadier Imtiaz, Dr Shahid Masood, Kamran Khan, General Hameed Gul

comment: Taking stock —Munir Attaullah

Time is the only sure-footed taskmaster, albeit an unpredictable one. In a few short years its magic has permanently altered certain important dimensions of our national life

Let me start by asking you a question: what is that inescapable reality which every human being — from the loftiest intellectual to the most clueless ignoramus — deals with effortlessly in practice, thinks about it from time to time, but has not even a half-decent answer as to what ‘it’ is? And, to boot, is utterly helpless to exercise any influence over it.
No smart aleck answers now. The ISI is not the answer I am looking for. Is it ‘Love’ then? No. Exclude that because everyone is an expert on that subject. Could it then be that little matter of life-after-death? Negative, again. After all, there are millions (including suicide bombers) who are pretty sure they know exactly where they are headed.
I will tell you. There is no one who, from time to time, has not thought about that mystifying thing called ‘Time’. We all use the concept seamlessly to anchor our daily thoughts and acts. But does anyone — from mystics to physicists — have any real idea, or understand, what ‘Time’ actually ‘is’ or how it can be influenced?

Is this the prelude to a scientific column about Time? No. That column will be written, but on another day. My thoughts for today are far less highbrow, and little more than some mundane reflections on the dynamics of our politics and our media: of how, even in the scant few years I have been writing (and thus forced to give order to my random thoughts), some things have rapidly changed irrevocably, others are in a transitional phase, while still others continue to appear as depressingly static features of our political and media landscape.

And what is the link between such thoughts and the digression I began the column with? As I follow the lively media discussions on the latest sensational disclosures, charges and counter-charges (even though they mostly confirm what sane people have known all along), as well as the continuingly tedious comments on the current political scene, I am reminded of what that erudite physicist and expert on Relativity Theory, John Wheeler, once said: “Time is that which ensures all change does not happen at once”.

Given that our politics and media are as inextricably intertwined as Space and Time are according to Einstein, is that not analogical support for my oft argued position in these columns to prefer evolutionary rather than radical change?

“Seize the moment,” we are often told. Doing so may well produce some temporary results. But all real and permanent change takes time. And this is largely true of human affairs as much as it is a characteristic feature of the physical world. ‘Seizing the moment’ is mostly about initiating, or giving impetus to, a process that needs to run a particular course. Neither Mother Nature, nor human nature, will be bullied or stampeded. Repeated coaxing is altogether more likely to produce a satisfactory outcome.

As I said, all these hand-wringing confessions and disclosures by some senior officers that have the media and the public in thrall presently are nothing new: As Muslims we are familiar with the concept of tauba; as Pakistanis, we understand the benefits of shameless hypocrisy. Put the two together and it is no surprise that those whose conscience was on holiday in their heyday seek — and find — easy rehabilitation in this manner once their glory days are over.

Is this then an argument for a policy of zero tolerance — and, therefore, a trial of the previous president for treason — when it comes to the blatant flouting of the laws of the land by the high and mighty?

In principle, the answer is a ‘yes’. But the cynicism with which the likes of Generals Aslam Beg and Hameed Gul, and Brigadier Imtiaz (not to mention a host of politicians and ex-bureaucrats) deserve to be treated should be tempered with a heavy dose of hard-nosed realism. The time, regrettably, is still not quite ripe for an all-encompassing sort of rigorous accountability, though I have little doubt that it is not far off in the distant future now. For the present there is more to be lost than gained by such precipitous action, particularly in the case of our ex-president.

That said, I do however believe the time is judicious for the Supreme Court to seize the moment, ride the tide of public interest in these disclosures and confessions, and give a sizeable impetus to this process of change by a quick hearing on Asghar Khan’s famous petition. Here is a golden opportunity to set many a precedent, not the least being that of driving an important nail in that coffin where ‘military overlordship’ currently lies pretending to be in its death throes. Do you think Generals Beg and Gul dare refuse now, in the current climate, to appear before a re-vitalised SC, as they once imperiously could? See what I mean by the power of time?

Time is the only sure-footed taskmaster, albeit an unpredictable one. In a few short years its magic has permanently altered certain important dimensions of our national life. And other crucial distortions of the rules of the power game, now caught in the vise-like grip of a dynamic flux that augers well for the future, are in the process of slow rectification. Nevertheless, even though the Khadim-e-aala Punjab has reluctantly decided to forego his grandiose title, in certain other respects it is business as usual in the motherland. Time can sometimes appear to be depressingly static.

The ‘Istikhara’ programme on a particular TV channel is still going strong. The anchor of another popular religious programme is still using the prefix ‘Dr’ despite being publicly exposed (why does the management of his channel, so high on principle, not take notice?). Meanwhile, the genuine ‘Dr’, the one with the etched frown and furrowed brow, unerringly continues to explain in morose tones to our ‘badkismet aur bay-bas awam’ how they are the innocent victims of a ruthless and exploitive establishment that itself is a slave to American interests. Incidentally, this particular double-faceted explanation for all our woes remains a sure-fire hit with our ba-sha’oor public.

But the good doctor should beware. His thunder is in danger of being stolen in broad daylight by the man who ‘knows’ everything, the presenter of the ‘Brasstacks’ programme on another channel (incidentally, I am wondering who finances the airing of this particular programme). Forget the US. Even Americans are unaware victims of a bigger and more powerful International Jewish Conspiracy, aimed at thwarting an Islamic resurgence by controlling the world’s monetary system.

Yawn!

The writer is a businessman. A selection of his columns is now available in book form. Visit munirattaullah.com (Daily Times)

Come back from the brink, please!

After meeting his leader Nawaz Sharif at Raiwind on Monday, the PMLN Information Secretary, Mr Ahsan Iqbal, has issued a 48-hour “ultimatum” for the PPP government to stop “maligning” Mr Nawaz Sharif or face “hundreds of corruption stories involving PPP leaders”. He was referring to the daily “revelations” being made by Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmad Billa (retd) courtesy an overexcited media.

This was predictable even though reaction to Brigadier Ahmad’s revelations was clearly becoming negative. Not only had more spooks crawled out of the woodwork to contest his “secrets”, he was himself undergoing a gradual “death by media”. Why has the PMLN acted in anger? Had there been a cool headed discussion before letting Mr Ahsan off the leash, the decision would have been to “stay cool”.

The other side has been silent so far but reacted to Mr Ahsan’s statement in much the same language. Fortunately, however, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was moderate in his reaction when he said that politicians should show maturity while in the crosshairs of certain elements out to defame them. Since the Presidency was accused of orchestrating the vilification campaign, the retort from there could be interpreted as: Go ahead! We don’t care!

The bitterness of the PPP was clearly a leftover from the “minus one” campaign unleashed earlier by some TV channels and newspapers. The target was President Zardari and some anchors and chief reporters were allowed to cross the line of decency and fair play. That campaign was tacitly attributed to the PMLN simply because the PMLN Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, was crossing his own limits of anti-government diatribe. He had accused the MQM of being the henchman of the PPP in its attacks against the PMLN.

Brigadier Ahmad continues to swear loyalty to Mr Nawaz Sharif but shows lack of pragmatic wisdom by absolving the MQM of Jinnahpur. Somehow, the pending Mehrangate Case at the Supreme Court too got exhumed by the media and more dirt began to fly against all the anti-PPP forces of the past, led, of course, by Mr Sharif’s PML. Given the kind of wits demonstrated by the bean-spilling brigadier in question, one cannot say that the PPP could have masterminded the campaign even though it has benefited from it

The question is why did Brigadier “Billa” do it? We can give the following possible reasons which are in any case more cogent than the conclusions drawn by the PMLN. (1) Like all spooks, Billa knows about hundreds of unimportant but sensational past events and lacks the maturity to contain himself, indeed seeks to return to the limelight after years in the wilderness; (2) He is deluded into thinking that he will be admired for his “moral courage” and not be discovered as a self-important simpleton; (3) He wants recognition for his personalised vision of “national security” now that he is free to put it before the nation. (4) He is bitter because Mr Sharif didn’t help him while he was in prison during the Musharraf years and then didn’t allow him to regain his confidence and come close to him in the PMLN after Brigadier Billa came out of prison.

There can be reasons too relating to his personal “disappointments”. For instance, (1) He was ill-compensated for his services to his bosses in the ISI and the army, who left him in the lurch when the heat came upon him after Operation Midnight Jackals; (2) He is trying to pay back some fellow professionals who disliked him and were responsible for making the cases of corruption stick against him.

Some of the bitterness has oozed out of him on TV. He thinks he had gone out on a limb for Mr Sharif but was not appreciated while he was PMLN’s IB chief. He thinks Mr Sharif in power was surrounded by a wrong set of people who would not allow his “advice” to prevail with Mr Sharif. He simply can’t fathom that Mr Sharif may have ignored him “on merit” and that Mr Sharif could have stayed away from him after 1999 because of a change of political style. More lethally, he may still not realise that his revelations may be interpreted by Mr Sharif as “character-assassination”.

If it is maturity that compelled Mr Sharif to stay clear of Imtiaz Billa, it should also recommend to him abstinence from issuing ultimatums of war. What will happen now, for instance, when the Presidency and the PPP have counter-challenged him to do whatever he can? Equally, however, the PPP should show maturity by not escalating the war of words through counter-challenges. It has bigger challenges confronting it in the shape of the economy and the war against terror. (Daily Times)

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Corruption, corruption? Where is good governance, Mr. Zardari?

This site has moved to http://criticalppp.com, click this link if you are not redirected
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Nawaz Sharif, Kamran Khan, Najam Sethi, ISI, NAB, and National Interest

By MANSOOR HALLAJ

Friday, 19 December 2008.

WWW.AHMED QURAISHI.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—On 18-12-2008 Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif gave an exclusive interview [also covered in Jang and The News International] to a journalist namely Kamran Khan of Geo Tv [Pakistan Private TV Channel owned by Jang Group of Pakistan] who has a history of Yellow Journalism [Kamran Khan also contribute in an American Daily The Washington Post and everybody knows how this newspaper treat Pakistan]. While talking to Kamran Khan [The same Geo TV LINKED PAKISTAN WITH MUMBAI TRAGEDY IN AN EXCLUSIVE STORY RELAYED BY Geo which linked Pakistan's Farid Kot resident with Mumbai tragedy] Mian Nawaz Sharif [who never advised not a single word of advice to Geo TV on Farid Kot Story Debacle], said Pakistan was presenting a picture of a failed and ungovernable state and the opposition wanted to steer the country out of the crisis and urged the government to implement the ‘Charter of Democracy signed by him and the late Benazir Bhutto. [1], [2]

And the same Nawaz Sharif and Kamran Khan as per Ardeshir Cowasjee in Daily Dawn

"QUOTE"

In September of 1994 Kamran Khan of The News and The Washington Post came calling. He told me how earlier that year he had asked for an appointment with the then leader of the opposition, Nawaz Sharif, to interview him on his relationship with the army and the security services whilst he was prime minister. He was asked to go to Lahore and meet the Mian.

When on May 16 Kamran arrived at Nawaz's Model Town house, there was an army of men equipped with bulldozers demolishing the security fences and structures Nawaz had built on adjoining land, not his to build upon (akin to those built around Karachi's Bilawal House). The breakers had been on the job since dawn. Kamran found Nawaz angry but composed. He was amply plied and refreshed with 'badaam-doodh' and Nawaz, his information wizard Mushahid Hussain and he settled down to talk and continued to do so until late afternoon when Kamran left to fly back to Karachi. Nawaz opened up by congratulating Kamran on his Mehrangate exposures which had recently appeared in the press, asking how the inquiry was progressing, and giving his own views. They exchanged information, each believing the other was being informed. They talked about how COAS Aslam Beg (sporter of shades in the shade) managed to get Rs 14 crore (140 million) from Yunis Habib, then of Habib Bank. This was deposited in the 'Survey Section 202' account of Military Intelligence (then headed by Major-General Javed Ashraf Kazi). From there Rs 6 crore was paid to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan's election cellmates (General Rafaqat, Roedad Khan, Ijlal Hyder Zaidi, etc.), and Rs 8 crore transferred to the ISI account.

After lunch, Nawaz brought up the subject of how Aslam Beg early in 1991 had sought a meeting with him (then prime minister) to which he brought Major-General Asad Durrani, chief of the ISI. They told him that funds for vital on-going covert operations (not identified by Nawaz) were drying up, how they had a foolproof plan to generate money by dealing in drugs. They asked for his permission to associate themselves with the drug trade, assuring him of full secrecy and no chance of any trail leading back to them. Nawaz remarked that on hearing this he felt the roof had caved in on him. He told them he could have nothing to do with such a plan and refused to give his approval. The Washington Post had just broken Kamran's story and when I asked why it had not broken earlier, he told me how they check and recheck, and that in the meantime, he had been busy with the Mehrangate affair on which, between May and August, he had filed seven stories.

We never learn from history By Ardeshir Cowasjee 21 July 2002 Sunday

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20020721.htm

"UNQUOTE"

Nawaz Sharif is really a genious because he say right thing at the wrong time and by the way he should scrap this Charter of Democracy once and for all and should advice his brother Shahbaz Sharif to sack PPP Minister from Punjab Government. Mr Nawaz Sharif who is now itching for National Interest of Pakistan and it pains him that Pakistan is rapidly becoming a Failed State. He is the same Mr. Nawaz Sharif who incited Ethnic Hatred for General Election Gain at the behest of Lt. General Retd Hamid Gul and for this Ethnic Hatred, Mr Kamran Shafi [now write for Daily Dawn and is an Anchor for Dawn News Channel] had written the following:

"QUOTE"

His Excellency should know (from reports filed by the US Consulate's Political Officer at Lahore, surely) of the Punjab Government's open revolt against the Federation, led by the Establishment's then blue-eyed son, Nawaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of Punjab no less. As part of which mutiny Punjab government funds were used to foment rebellion against the "Sindhi Prime Minister" by printing and distributing flyers and buttons and bumper stickers and banners exhorting the Punjabis to wake-up. 'Jag Punjabi Jag' was the chilling slogan.

His Excellency holds forth by Kamran Shafi Saturday, December 17, 2005

http://kamranshafi.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_archive.html

"UNQUOTE"

He is the same Mr Nawaz Sharif who during his last Government [1996-1999] had Najam Sethi [Editor of The Friday Times Weekly Lahore] kidnapped and not only him but many political opponents and had them tortured because Najam Sethi had declared in 1998-1999 and that too in India that Pakistan is a Failed State and others were not bowing before the Rampant Senator Saif ur Rahman [The Pet of Nawaz Sharif who later become an advisor to General Musharraf.

"QUOTE"

How FIA kidnapped notables to please Saif-ur-Rahman

DAWN/The News International, KARACHI 6 November 1999, Saturday 27 Rajab ul Murajjab 1420

http://www.karachipage.com/news/Nov_99/110699.html


KARACHI: Barring two brief stints under Major General (retd) Enayet Niazi and Khawar Zaman, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) played second fiddle to former Ehtesab Czar Senator Saif-ur-Rahman in covert operations during which numerous respectable citizens were kidnapped, tortured and placed under illegal detention, an exercise never witnessed before in the country.

Officials and business sources informed the News Intelligence Unit (NIU) that Saif-ur-Rahman operated mostly through a select group of FIA officials who danced to his tunes when Mian Mohammad Amin, Chaudhry Iftikhar Ali and Major (retd) Mohammad Mushtaq were heading the FIA. Major General Enayet Niazi and Khawar Zaman had, however, resisted Saif's attempt to use the FIA for illegal activities, a position that triggered their sudden transfer from the job.

These sources believed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had first-hand information about Saif's involvement in the kidnapping of some of the very reputed citizens as he ignored strong complaints against this nasty operation even from his cabinet colleagues.

For instance when the FIA sleuths kidnapped Farooq Hasan, owner of Hasan Associates, a renowned builder and developer of Karachi last year and locked him at a Saif-run safe house in Islamabad, former federal minister Halim Siddiqi had rushed to Nawaz Sharif to inform him about Saif's involvement in the kidnapping of a well-known Karachi businessman.

Halim Siddiqi's pleas both to Sharif and Saif went unheeded as Hasan had to stay for about a week in Saif's dungeon and was only released when he signed a confessional statement that had been prepared by Saif's lieutenant at the Ehtesab Cell. Saif prepared confessional statement for Farooq Hasan relating to dealings of AES power plant with the Benazir government.

Throughout his confinement Hasan was physically abused, mentally tortured and was not allowed to sleep. Sources said during his arrest Hasan was also kept and interrogated at Saif's personal residence in Islamabad.

Jamil Ansari, the Chief Executive of a famous trading and business group in Karachi, was kidnapped last year by the FIA while he was about to board a Karachi-bound flight from Islamabad. For the next four days Ansari's family in Karachi had no knowledge of his whereabouts.

The case was soon brought to the knowledge of Nawaz Sharif, who conveniently ignored protest from an associate who thought that such daylight kidnappings of the business luminaries without any charges would bring the PML government into disrepute. Sources said that for more than a week, Ansari, a businessman, was questioned for his friendship with a ranking naval official.

This week-long illegal detention under Saif's orders of the chief executive of a reputed firm had sent a shock wave in Karachi's mercantile community, but the Nawaz Sharif administration was not bothered.

The FIA was also involved in the kidnapping of Shahzad Sherry, a well-known international banker, from Karachi. Like other victims, Sherry was also swiftly shifted to Islamabad, where he was locked at a government-run safe house.

For several days Sherry was kept in illegal confinement and questioned by the former Ehtesab Bureau stalwarts including Senator Saif-ur-Rahman. Sherry was apparently also paying price for his friendship with certain naval officials. His detention also continued for several days before being released without bringing any criminal charges against him.

Karachi-based Jamil Hamdani, another representative of an international bank, was kidnapped from his house in Defence Society Karachi last month and was forced to board an Islamabad-bound flight for an urgent meeting with Saif-ur-Rahman and his team.

Sources said that Saif pointedly informed Hamdani about his disliking for his bank's interest in the privatisation of Habib Bank Limited. Jamil Hamdani was believed to be working on an international consortium that was interested in the management of overseas operations of Habib Bank.

No apologies were offered after Hamdani was set free three days later by the Ehtesab sleuths who also warned him not to talk to the press about his ordeal. Saif's frenzy to get private citizens abducted through the FIA touched its peak last year when he used the federal agency to kidnap Arif Zarwani, a UAE national and a reputed businessman, from his friend's house in Defence Society Karachi.

Zarwani, who had been arrested in an FIA-cum-police raid, was quickly flown to Islamabad, where he was handed over to Wasim Afzal, a close associate of Saif-ur-Rahman. The Ehtesab action created a stir in the UAE as Nawaz Sharif was personally told that Zarwani's kidnapping in Karachi had endangered his official visit next day to the UAE.

Zarwani, who was apparently picked up for his ties with Asif Zardari, was freed from the Ehtesab clutches, two days later, only after he was forced to listen to a telephonic sermon from Saif who was then touring Europe.

No reasons were given for Arif Zarwani's arrest nor any criminal charges were brought against him. Despite an official protest from the UAE Nawaz Sharif did not question Saif or the FIA for the kidnapping of a foreign national.

In another case Ghulam Mustafa Memon, a well-known petroleum dealer and a former friend of Asif Ali Zardari, was kidnapped in an FIA action from his house in Defence Society, Karachi last year. During the operation the FIA sleuths ransacked his house. Memon, like other victims, was quickly flown to Islamabad where he was kept at a safe house for about a week.

Mustafa Memon said that during the detention, he went through severe physical torture and mental harassment at the hands of senior Ehtesab officials including Khalid Aziz. At least a week later Mustafa was quietly released from Islamabad and no criminal charges were brought against him.

Among others who made the hostage list of Saif-ur-Rahman was Naeemuddin Khan, a senior United Bank Limited (UBL) executive responsible for recovering Rs 1.2 billion loans from Saif-ur-Rahman's Redco Textile Mills.

While using the FIA in the kidnapping of Naeemuddin Khan from his room at Karachi's Pearl Continental Hotel, Senator Saif is understood to have told the FIA that Naeemuddin was involved in money laundering. Without verifying the facts an FIA team barged into Naeemuddin's room in August this year and in the next few hours he was facing a Saif-ur-Rahman interrogation squad at an unspecified location in Islamabad.

Naeemuddin's ordeal ended after Nawaz Sharif listened to a strong complaint in this regard from National Assembly Speaker Illahi Bukhsh Soomro and ordered the bank executive's release. Sharif, however, refused to order any probe into the kidnapping of a bank executive who was being punished for his attempt to recover Rs 1.2 billion of loan from Saif-ur-Rahman.

The Naeemuddin Khan episode also unveiled that Saif was using the Intelligence Bureau also to settle personal scores. Informed officials said that before being picked up by the FIA, Naeemuddin Khan was constantly followed by the IB agents while his personal and official phone was tapped for several months. The recording of his secret taping was provided to Saif-ur-Rahman.

It is no more a secret that leading newspaper columnist and politician Hussain Haqqani had been kidnapped by the FIA sleuths along with his brother, an active service Army Colonel, during an evening stroll on direct orders from Saif-ur-Rahman early this year.

Official sources said that it was at least three days after Haqqani's kidnapping that Saif-ur-Rahman ordered the FIA bosses to "produce" a case against him. Official sources confirmed Haqqani's account that he was beaten and kept awake during the first week of his arrest.

Haqqani is of the few Saif victims whose captivity brought criminal charges, vehemently denied by Haqqani who said that the cases against him was the figment of Saif's imagination.

The only Saif-sponsored kidnapping that did not have any FIA role was that of Najam Sethi, Editor, Friday Times. Sethi, who apparently served the longest term of illegal captivity, had been dragged out of his Lahore house by the Intelligence Bureau officials who later handed him over to the ISI, that kept him at one of its safe houses in Islamabad for about three weeks.

Like all Saif-ordered kidnappings of various reputed citizens, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had fully supported the unlawful arrest of Najam Sethi, as it was later discovered that Sharif had personally asked Lt Gen Khawaja Ziauddin to keep Sethi in ISI custody.

Who Kidnapped Najam Sethi?By Irfan Khawaja

dated 3-15-2004

http://hnn.us/articles/3968.html

Sethi, whom we'll meet in a moment, is the co-founder and editor of The Friday Times, a fiercely independent English-language newsweekly in Lahore, Pakistan .

Dalrymple had taken issue with Levy's assertion about the kidnappings in his review:

[T]here are numerous occasions where Lévy distorts his evidence and actually inverts the truth. While seeking to prove that the ISI and al-Qaeda were jointly responsible for abducting Daniel Pearl, for example, he cites three precedents in which journalists were "kidnapped in Pakistan by ISI agents suspected of being backed up by al-Qaida." In reality, in two of the cases he cites—Najam Sethi and Hussain Haqqani—both were arrested by the regular Punjab police as part of a campaign by Pakistan 's last civilian prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to intimidate the press. The case of the third journalist, Ghulam Hasnain, remains a mystery: he was picked up for a day and then released. He has never identified the agency that arrested him; but no connection has ever been shown—or, up to now, even suggested—with al-Qaeda. Lévy's misuse of evidence here is revealing of his general method: if proof does not exist, he writes as if it did. The ISI has been
involved in many dubious activities, but there has never been any suggestion that it has abducted Westerners, least of all an American. This record is important evidence against any direct link between the ISI and Pearl 's abduction rather than the reverse. (“Murder in Karachi ,” New York Review of Books , Dec. 4, 2003 ).

In the most recent exchange of letters, Levy modifies his original claim slightly, responding to Dalrymple as follows:

How does one best defend the interests of this "other Pakistan ": by multiplying the intellectual contortions meant to prove that Pakistan 's military-mullah complex is not implicated in the kidnapping of journalists such as Najam Sethi, Hussain Haqqani, Ghulam Hasnain, and Daniel Pearl? Or by speaking clearly, and by taking a clear position in favor of those who, like them, fight for free and truthful journalism in Islamabad and Karachi ?

Obviously, Levy takes himself to be doing the latter.

Shortly after the publication of Dalrymple's review, I had an email exchange with Najam Sethi on precisely the issues discussed in Levy's book and Dalrymple's review, asking him (Sethi) to clarify at length and in print what had really happened to him during his kidnapping. He wrote me the following detailed note, giving me permission to publish it; it is unchanged except for minor modifications of paragraphing, grammar, and punctuation. The “Prime Minister” referred to throughout the note is Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's last civilian prime minister, deposed in 1999 by General Pervez Musharraf. I've retained Sethi's somewhat pejorative-sounding (or is it affectionate?) references to “General Mush” as well:

My case was quite bizarre. An armed posse of the Punjab Police and the IB [Intelligence Bureau] smashed its way into my bedroom at 2:30 am on May 8th, 1999, beat up my wife and me, gagged me, blindfolded me, handcuffed me and dragged me away. I was in their custody for many hours. Then I was handed over to the ISI. The ISI kept me in a safe house first in Lahore and then in Islamabad . It investigated everything, found that the treason charges against me were trumped up politically by the Prime Minister (PM) and then confidentially told me that it was under pressure from the PM to court martial me. But it said that Gen Mush [sic] was against the idea of any military involvement in my case and was telling the PM that the civilians should handle it.

In due course, the ISI actually protected me from the IB which wanted to take me away for a few days and "fix" me at the behest of the PM and Saif ur-Rehman. The ISI general in charge of my case was Major General Ghulam Ahmad (deceased now) who came to see me in the ISI safe house three times and initially told me that he was giving me a clean chit of health because he would not be party to any wrongdoing. It was the ISI's clean chit of health that persuaded the Supreme Court (SC) to put pressure on the civilian government to release me. But within a day of releasing me, the government lodged a case of treason in a civil court against me and tried to arrest me again; but Justice Mamoon Qazi of the SC stepped in and judged that I could not be arrested in any case without the government's first showing the evidence against me to the SC. When I was released, I told the BBC in an interview that the ISI was largely responsible for my well-being.

Incidentally, the so-called "anti-Pakistan" speech that I was supposed to have made in India, which was the basis of the charge against me, was the same speech that I had made at the National Defence College in Islamabad earlier on the basis of which I had duly received a formal letter from the NDC commending me for having obtained the "highest marks ever" from the NDC for a presentation before the college.

The real reason why I was arrested by Nawaz Sharif had to do with a BBC documentary in which I had taken part, exposing the corruption of the PM. I was interviewed by the BBC in Pakistan two days before I left for India . The IB found out and informed the PM. Saif ur-Rehman called me and asked what I had told the BBC. I told him: "everything." "Negative or positive?" he asked. "Is there anything positive in your regime?" I replied. "We will get you," he warned.

That was that. They used the India thing to try and silence and discredit me so that my BBC testimony would be rejected by the people. Then they took the BBC to court in London for potential libel and threatened to close down its operations in Pakistan if the film was shown to Pakistani audiences. Then a “settlement” took place between the two parties--the BBC film was subsequently shown in the UK but never in South Asia . Before showing the film in the UK, the BBC asked me whether I wanted to censor or edit my statements against the PM in the film in view of what had happened. I said “no.” Everything I said was on the record and should be shown.

When Saif ur-Rehman was arrested in 1999 after the coup, he got his wife to phone me and ask for my "forgiveness." Later, Shahbaz Sharif called from exile and claimed he had never been a party to my ordeal and apologised on behalf of the Sharif family. Nawaz Sharif's son Hussain met me in London two years [later] and also apologised. Other members of that government have also apologised. But Nawaz is still silent.

Nonetheless, I remain committed to the view that military rule is not good for the country and that Gen Mush [sic] must compromise with the mainstream PPP and PMLN despite the many faults of their leaders. And I remain opposed to the continuing political role of the ISI in the internal and external affairs of Pakistan . In short, I propose a truth and reconciliation process in the national interest. This is the truth.

Well, I wouldn't argue with that. Whatever one thinks of the larger issues discussed in Bernard-Henry Levy's book—and that is a complicated affair beyond the scope of anything I've said here—Sethi's note demonstrates beyond any shadow of a doubt that it is Levy who is guilty of “intellectual contortions” here, not his critic. The evidence is indisputable: Najam Sethi was not kidnapped by the ISI; he was effectively rescued and released by them. Anyone committed to “clear speech” and “truthful journalism” ought at this point to be able to acknowledge that. We may still not be certain of who killed Daniel Pearl-—but, for whatever it's worth, we can at this point be quite sure who didn't kidnap Najam Sethi.

References:

William Dalrymple, “Murder in Karachi ,” New York Review of Books , Dec. 4, 2003 :

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16823

Bernard-Henri Levy and William Dalrymple, “Murder in Karachi : an exchange,” New York Review of Books , Feb. 12, 2004 :

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16903

Khalid Hasan, “Najam Sethi subject of exchange between author and critic,” Daily Times ( Lahore , Pakistan ), Jan. 29, 2004 :

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-1-2004_pg7_46

I wrote to Sethi on December 1, 2003 ; he responded on December 2, 2003 , and gave me permission to go public with his “story” (his quotes) on December 3. Strictly speaking, our email exchange began before the print publication date of Dalrymple's review (Dec. 4), but I had read Dalrymple's review online, where it appeared in late November 2003.

Saif ur-Rehman was the head of the Punjab Intelligence Bureau.

Shahbaz Sharif was chief minister of Punjab and is a brother of Nawaz Sharif.

The “PPP” is the People's Party of Pakistan ; the “PMLN” is the Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz Sharif faction.

"UNQUOTE"

Mr. Hallaj (not his real name) is an avid blogger with a grip on history and politics. He be reached at Tarot66 AT yahoo.com
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Dr. Shahid Masood exposed in Jawabdeh, story of lifafah journalists, and Salman Taseer's letters to Shahbaz Sharif.....

This site has moved to http://criticalppp.com/archives/491, click this link if you are not redirected
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Ardeshir Cowasjee: We never learn from history. Hami Gul, Asla Beg and other corrupt Generals of the ISI

Hamid Gul, Aslam Beg, Roedad Khan, Akhtar Abdur Rehman, Zia-ul-Haq, Rafiq Tarar, the long list of criminals of ISI ... By Ardeshir Cowasjee

We never learn from history

By Ardeshir Cowasjee

The indefatigable old warrior of our skies is wounded, as sorely wounded as any father of 81 years of age who has tragically lost his eldest son, himself a father, under the most mysterious and peculiar of circumstances, a son endowed with much talent and intelligence with a future before him even brighter than his past. For this great tragedy that has struck him, his endearing wife, and his family, we can but express our most sincere condolences.

As an old-time officer and a gentleman to his fingertips, as an honest man of moderate means, and as a man who genuinely wished to do good by the poverty-stricken, uneducated of this country, there was no way, no way at all, that Air Marshal Asghar Khan could succeed as a politician of Pakistan, given the environment, the atmosphere that prevails and the mindset of the majority.

On July 15, The Nation printed a column written by the air marshal on 'The anatomy of politics', the first of a series he intends to write on the subject. He recounted how in the era of Field Marshal Ayub Khan he spearheaded a movement with the intent to have Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released from jail. When he was released, Bhutto suggested that Asghar join him in his campaign to destroy Ayub Khan. What would be Zulfikar's programme and policy once Ayub was removed, Asghar asked. Zulfikar, unabashed and completely frank, answered 'My programme is to fool the people. They are fools, and I know how to make a fool of them. Join me and we will rule for twenty years. No one will be able to remove us.'

Not being familiar with politics and politicians in those early years, a naive Asghar was genuinely shocked and his response was that he would oppose Bhutto and his politics as best as he could.

But the main thrust of his column was the human rights petition filed by him in the Supreme Court (HRC 19/96) against the retired COAS General Mirza Mohammad Aslam Beg, the former ISI chief retired Lt General Asad Durrani and Younis Habib of Habib and Mehran Banks, relating to the disbursement of public money and its misuse for political purposes, which is still pending hearing by the court. The case was initiated by the air marshal after Benazir Bhutto's interior minister, another retired general, Naseerullah Babar, had disclosed in the National Assembly in 1994 how the ISI had disbursed funds to purchase the loyalty of politicians and public figures so as to manipulate the 1990 elections, form the IJI, and bring about the defeat of the PPP.

The old warrior has amazingly still not lost hope. He somehow feels that ultimately justice must prevail. The matter of the involvement of the Inter-Services Intelligence and other intelligence agencies in the manipulation of politics and the disbursement of the people's money for that purpose is by no means over nor has it, apparently, even abated.

Nothing, with regard to the dubious activities of our so-called agencies has changed since 1994 and I now relate a story of those days. The ISI is, right now, at its old games, spending our money and 'fixing' our future, particularly in the province of Sindh where its interference and placements bode ill.

In September of 1994 Kamran Khan of The News and The Washington Post came calling. He told me how earlier that year he had asked for an appointment with the then leader of the opposition, Nawaz Sharif, to interview him on his relationship with the army and the security services whilst he was prime minister. He was asked to go to Lahore and meet the Mian.

When on May 16 Kamran arrived at Nawaz's Model Town house, there was an army of men equipped with bulldozers demolishing the security fences and structures Nawaz had built on adjoining land, not his to build upon (akin to those built around Karachi's Bilawal House). The breakers had been on the job since dawn.

Kamran found Nawaz angry but composed. He was amply plied and refreshed with 'badaam-doodh' and Nawaz, his information wizard Mushahid Hussain and he settled down to talk and continued to do so until late afternoon when Kamran left to fly back to Karachi.

Nawaz opened up by congratulating Kamran on his Mehrangate exposures which had recently appeared in the press, asking how the inquiry was progressing, and giving his own views. They exchanged information, each believing the other was being informed. They talked about how COAS Aslam Beg (sporter of shades in the shade) managed to get Rs 14 crore (140 million) from Yunis Habib, then of Habib Bank. This was deposited in the 'Survey Section 202' account of Military Intelligence (then headed by Major-General Javed Ashraf Kazi). From there Rs 6 crore was paid to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan's election cellmates (General Rafaqat, Roedad Khan, Ijlal Hyder Zaidi, etc.), and Rs 8 crore transferred to the ISI account.

After lunch, Nawaz brought up the subject of how Aslam Beg early in 1991 had sought a meeting with him (then prime minister) to which he brought Major-General Asad Durrani, chief of the ISI. They told him that funds for vital on-going covert operations (not identified by Nawaz) were drying up, how they had a foolproof plan to generate money by dealing in drugs. They asked for his permission to associate themselves with the drug trade, assuring him of full secrecy and no chance of any trail leading back to them.

Nawaz remarked that on hearing this he felt the roof had caved in on him. He told them he could have nothing to do with such a plan and refused to give his approval.

The Washington Post had just broken Kamran's story and when I asked why it had not broken earlier, he told me how they check and recheck, and that in the meantime, he had been busy with the Mehrangate affair on which, between May and August, he had filed seven stories.

We must again ask: was Nawaz capable of saying what he did? Yes. Did Kamran invent the whole thing? Not likely. Is The Washington Post a responsible paper with credibility? Yes. Everybody who is anyone in Washington reads it over breakfast. Has it ever made mistakes? Yes.

What is so earth-shattering about using drugs to make money? Drugs have been trafficked and used for covert operations for ages, by warlords, statesmen, chieftans and generals, used to gain territory, to buy or to harm the enemy. Remember how the staid Victorians of the British empire used opium to China's detriment. Remember the Americans and how they traded drugs in Vietnam, and the Iran-Contra affair.

Can we believe Aslam Beg? Judging by his behaviour and record, no. Are we expected to believe Asad Durrani, a clever professional spook? Of course not.

Have all our generals been upright men and played it right? Of course, yes. Otherwise would they have ended up the way they did? Ziaul Haq? Governor, rich General Fazle Haq? How about dubious politician, rich General Aslam Beg, Lt General Javed Ashraf Kazi first chief of the MI and then of the ISI, Nawaz's ISI chief, General Javed Nasir, sacked by General Waheed Kakar, General Asad Durrani of MI and ISI fame, summarily sacked by General Kakar, rewarded and re-employed by Benazir as her ambassador in Bonn, and dangerous politician, the firebrand fundo General Hamid Gul.

How did Ejazul Haq, son of the pious General Ziaul Haq, and Humayun Akhtar Rahman, son of the powerful General Akhtar Abdul Rahman, become tycoons overnight?

The story related above was printed in Dawn in my column of September 23 1994, and was never repudiated by any of the honourable gentlemen mentioned. Kamran Khan is still writing and when Nawaz Sharif returned as prime minister in 1997, Kamran was awarded the presidential Pride of Performance medal for journalism which was pinned upon his chest by none other than Rafiq Tarar, former justice of the Supreme Court and then head of state.

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20020721.htm
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