Ms Benazir Bhutto Welcomes ICG Report on How to End Instability in Pakistan Through Democratic Reform

Islamabad: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, on behalf of the party has welcomed the report of the International Crisis Group released this week.

The well-respected body has analysed the political situation in the country noting that the military regime has refused to "cede real power to civilians " which has led to worsening instability.

The report notes that the " mainstream parties struggle to survive, subjected to coercion and violence". The report states that General Musharraf has created PML(Q) and "brought it to power through rigged elections".

Commenting on the local elections, the ICG said, "the moderate parties again bore the brunt of state coercion, particularly the PPP and PML-N".

In addition to making recommendations to the political parties for reform, the ICG made recommendations to the regime. These recommendations included asking the Musharraf regime to first do away with the discriminatory requirement for an electoral candidate to hold a bachelor's degree, second amend the political parties act allowing parties to run their affairs as per their requirements, third to consult the Opposition on an independent election commission, fourth to refine party finance laws making it possible for corporate contributions to political parties as well as allowing state funding to them, fifth to remove the two term limit for election to Prime Minister and remove the ban on student unions.

The ICG called upon the International Community, in particular the United States and the European Union to:

(1) Press the Musharraf regime to resume the democratic transition by holding free and fair local, provincial and national elections and tie political, economic and aid policy towards Pakistan to tangible progress along that democratic path.

(2) Help strengthen moderate democratic parties by:

(a) Calling upon the government to stop immediately all unlawful arrests, detentions and other harassment of opposition leaders and workers;

(b) Ensuring that high-level visitors consult with leaders of the main opposition parties; and

(c) Enhancing financial support and capacity building activities to include technical assistance and training in professional management techniques for party headquarters and documentation of party finances.

PPP condemns sacking of hundreds of employees in PIA

Raza Rabbani Demands their reinstatement

Vows to raise issue in Senate

Islamabad: Mian Raza Rabbani, Leader of the Opposition, Senate of Pakistan and Deputy Secretary General PPP has issued the following press statement:

"The PML (Q) Government has once again proved that it is a big business friendly and anti labour Government. The step of the PIA management to compulsorily retire over 850 employees in groups 3 to 5 who have attained the age of 57 years as on the 30th September 2005 is condemned in the strongest terms.

"The PIA has an army of Directors, General Managers and retired army officers in the top management who are drawing salaries and allowances that run into lacs of rupees every month but the axe has fallen on the low grade employees. This is in keeping with the policy of the PML (Q).

"It will be recalled that in earlier retrenchments in other Organisations the low grade employees were removed from service while on the recommendation of the International Donors consultants were hired on huge retainers.

"This Government is presiding over the biggest retrenchment in the history of Pakistan.

"The PIA management has a lot to account for to the people of Pakistan in terms of sales and purchases of aircrafts, foreign trips of the top management, huge amounts being spent on the renovation offices and purchase of cars for the management.

"This is the tip of the ice berg; more retrenchments are expected by this anti labour management which has already privatised a number of the Departments of the Corporation to the determent of its financial interests.

"These retrenchments are a part of the "ramzan package of the Prime Minister" that was announced a few days back.

"The PIA management is taking advantage of the fact that trade union activity in the Corporation has been banned under an Administrative Order. The ILO has on more than two occasions called upon the PIA to restore the Unions. PIA is in violation of the fundamental rights conferred under the Constitution, the law, the Conventions of the ILO
and the observations of the ILO.

"The Opposition will take this matter up in the requisitioned Session of the Senate which is to commence on the 7th October 2005".

The PPP calls upon the PIA management to stop its anti labour polices immediately and withdraw these discriminatory orders.

CEC and Judiciary urged to stop rigging in the elections

Islamabad, 26 September 2005: A consensus candidate for Tehsil Nazim in Lahore, Dr. Zahid Akram has appealed to the Chief Election Commissioner and the judiciary to intervene for stopping rigging in the third phase of local bodies elections in Lahore.

In a statement Dr. Zahid Akram said that the proposers and seconders of five of his covering candidates have been kidnapped in an effort to rig the elections. He said that the government party is intimidating his voters and supporters to get it's nominee elected unopposed and several of his supporters and voters have been kidnapped by the goons of the government candidate. He accused the government party candidate of using state machinery for his election campaign.

He called upon the Election Commission and the judiciary to fulfil its constitutional role and not let the election become another useless exercise like the first and the second phase of the local bodies elections.

The Flopped Act in New York
Major General Ahsan Ahmed (Retired)

The “President”-in -uniform of Islamic Republic of Pakistan was again in New York to address the 60th session of UN General Assembly. According to constitution he is not the head of the government & it should be the Prime Minister who should be performing this duty but government in Pakistan is of the armed forces & is run by the armed forces, for the armed forces. How much the armed forces care for the constitution became amply clear when General Zia described the constitution as “ a pamphlet of a few pages, which I can tear & throw away whenever I feel like.” General Musharraf of enlightened moderation fame, however, is shrewder than his predecessors. He does not say so but does it.

As expected the media in Pakistan hyped the dictator’s sojourn in USA as if he is the only head of state going to address the UN General Assembly. It was flashed repeatedly that a special room has been furnished by UN for General Musharraf to grant audience to other heads of government. Musharraf ended up receiving his guests in the office of Pak Ambassador Muneer Akram in one of dozens of committee rooms in UN.

Similar hype was created for Musharraf-Man Mohan Singh meeting on the side of the UN session giving the impression that the said meeting was going to open new vistas in Indo Pak relations particularly towards solution of Kashmir dispute. However when the two leaders emerged from their four hours long meeting, the body language was more than enough to know the results. A grim faced Musharraf with a grim looking Man Mohan Singh read out a short statement that the only agreement reached between them was to disagree. Both of them left as soon as Musharraf finished reading the statement without speaking to the press .

After taking a u-turn on his rigid position on Kashmir which resulted in the failure of Agra summit, Musharraf, Pakistan & Kashmir are as far away from a solution of Kashmir dispute as they were when Agra summit collapsed. In spite of Pakistan giving a number of major concessions starting from unilateral declaration of cease fire on LOC, crack down on the Jihadi organisations operating across the LOC to abdication of our half a century old stance of solution of Kashmir dispute through a plebiscite as per UN resolutions, Indian PM kept saying till his departure for New York that there will be no more changes in the borders & that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop infiltration of terrorists across the LOC. No wonder Musharraf wore a long face while emerging out of that meeting.

The next was meeting with President George W. Bush. An impression was created that Bush is busy in the hurricane Katrina fiasco & would meet only four leaders including Musharraf. It turned out that in addition to granting a 30-minute audience to Musharraf including the photo session, he met dozens of others including Man Mohan Singh whom he met for a respectably long period.

The next disaster waiting for Musharraf was the speech delivered by Bush to General Assembly. It was publicised by Government of Pakistan that Bush would be giving a full-throttle admiration of Musharraf regarding his role in war against terror & thus helping to save his house of cards back home. As the Pakistani delegation listened to Bush speech without blinking their eyes & breathing heavily, the speech ended without a mention of Pakistan. Adding insult to injury the American President applauded the fast emerging economy of India & expressed his desire to work with India in the newly developed strategic partnership.

Following the meeting between Pakistan’s foreign minister & his Israeli counterpart, Pakistan’s government kept on saying that there is no plan for a meeting between Musharraf & Sharon. However when they met briefly Pakistani foreign office was quick to explain that it was a meeting by chance. When journalists asked the Israel’s PM to comment on this comment, he retorted, “I do not meet anyone by chance.” The much-publicised address by Musharraf to American Jewish Congress also ended with a whimper as he failed to tell the audience anything substantial as regards interfaith relationship, Arab-Israel & Pak-Israel relationship.

As if all these disasters were not enough, Musharraf proceeded to give an interview to the staff writers of Washington Post. As the hue & cry over this interview has already sent shivers down the bones of every Pakistani as well as a large number of international organisations including Amnesty International, it would suffice to quote the pearls of wisdom verbatim as published in Washington Post dated 13th September ’05. QUOTE; “Musharraf also became animated when he spoke about Mukhtar Mai, a 33-year old illiterate woman who spoke publicly about having being gang raped on the orders of village council in 2002. Mai, bucking taboos, won public sympathy & government support after she demanded that the men be charged & convicted. But earlier this year Musharraf earned the ire of Bush administration when he blocked her from travelling to the United States to publicize the case. Musharraf said Mai was free to travel now—though she has never left Pakistan—and that he had no regrets about how he handled the incident. He said Mai had come under the sway of the organisations determined to harm Pakistan’s image and he did not think Pakistan should be singled out when the curse is everywhere in the world. He said that he has seen reports or figures about rapes in the United States, Canada, France and Great Britain showing that it is happening everywhere. You must understand the environment in Pakistan, Musharraf added. This has become a money making concern. A lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped.” UNQUOTE. No comments.

In  a previous article I diagnosed Musharraf  as suffering from an acute state of compulsive megalomania. The diagnosis is confirmed as per quote from the above-mentioned interview in Washington Post. QUOTE; Musharraf said he had totally turned around Pakistan and had made key advances in fostering democracy including protecting freedom of press, empowering local government, improving the position of women in society and giving greater representation to minorities. “Leave the developing world aside; I think we are better than all of them”, Musharraf declared. “Bring the developed world and let us compare Pakistan’s record, under me, a uniformed man, with many of the developed countries. I challenge that we will be better off.” UNQOTE. No comments.

The climax of this chain of events of PR disasters came on 17th September ’05 during a function arranged to “highlight the role of Musharraf in the progress of women in Pakistan.” When a lady stood up & questioned Musharraf on his remarks about the women in Pakistan wanting to be raped in order to go abroad, the General blew his top. He shouted at the lady,” You people are against Pakistan & me. I am a soldier. I will fight you. I can shout louder than you. You must be a supporter of Benazir Bhutto.” The situation became so tense that General Jahangir Karamat (Retired) Pakistan’s Ambassador to US, had to tap Musharraf on the shoulder & moved him away from the podium. May the enlightened moderation rest in peace?

Pakistanis must realise that no one and nothing is indispensable except the state. The gentleman under discussion has failed to deliver, to progress on the path to democracy, to improve the quality of life of the masses, to protect the dignity of our women folk. On every count, he has done just the opposite. His latest act in New York flopped beyond hopelessness.

It is time curtain should come down on this slothful drama. 20th September 2005.

The writer is Pakistan’s former Director General Health, former Minister Health & Population Welfare Sindh & former Pro-Chancellor Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences Sindh. He is author of two books. 

PPP Lambastes regime for victimising Begum Nusrat Bhutto

Deplores remarks of accountability judge as endorsing the prosecution

Islamabad: Pakistan Peoples Party has strongly condemned the re-opening of a dead reference against the former first lady Begum Nusrat Bhutto and termed it as political vendetta of the worst kind.

An Accountability Court judge in Lahore on Friday reopened an accountability case against the widow of the country's first directly elected Prime Minister that has remained dormant for nearly five years.

In reopening the case the Judge asked the NAB as to what steps it has taken for the arrest of Begum Nusrat Bhutto and also passed remarks that amounted to endorsing the NAB allegations against Begum Nusrat Bhutto of owning assets worth 1.5 billion dollars in foreign countries.

The re-opening of a dead and dormant case against a person who is too sick to defend herself is a worst example of abuse of judicial processes to victimise political opponents, said the vice Chair of PPP and leader of the Parliamentary Party in the National Assembly in a statement today.

"It only demonstrates the viciousness and vendetta of rulers", he said adding that it was intended only to torture the Bhutto family and pave way for eliminating the genuine representatives of the people to perpetuate dictatorship.

He said that he was astonished over the remarks of the Accountability Judge that amounted to endorsing the prosecution story and said that it only showed how the hand picked accountability judges played to the tune of the NAB and rulers. He urged the judiciary, the lawyers and the human rights bodies to take note of the remarks of the accountability judge that amounted to pre-judging the accused.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that Begum Nusrat Bhutto was too sick to stand trial and under the law could not be tried as she was not in a position to defend herself..

The PPP leader also warned the mandarins of NAB to keep in mind the fate of the previous czars of accountability and also the rulers.

Is this the way the family of the nation's great hero who gave this country the nuclear capability, brought back the prisoners of war, sought to erase the shame of surrender in Dacca and gave the country self respect and esteem, Makhdoom Amin Fahim asked

The PPP leader said that this immoral drama was being enacted only to torment the former Prime Minister Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto. He said that the military regime was bent upon discrediting and destroying genuine representatives of the people through a sham accountability process. The accountability under NAB and Musharraf is selective and designed exclusively to advance the political agenda of the regime, he said.