Did the President foot the bill or the People of Pakistan?!

by Khurshid Anwer

There was a time when we used to envy the Arab princes

who could book a whole floor at Claridges in London, but

now we too can rejoice at having become so rich that our

rulers can afford to book not one but two floors of the

Willard Intercontinental Hotel at Pennsylvania Avenue

  According to the ‘News’ of May 11:

President Zardari stayed in the Thomas Jefferson Suite (Room

No 610, app 3000 sq ft, listed rate dollars 4,199 per night, plus

$608 tax). Bilawal Bhutto stayed in the Abraham Lincoln

Suite (Room No 605, 1,425 sq ft, listed rate dollars 2,299 per

night, plus $333 tax)

  (However, Pak Embassy in Washington has denied the rates

and puts them at 2,800 and 1.500. Also that the expenses for

Bilawal were borne by the president himself)

Others who stayed on the same floor included:

Mr and Mrs Husain Haqqani (Room 612);

Kamal Majidullah, special assistant to the prime minister on water resources, (Room No 626);

Lt-Gen (retd) Syed Athar Ali, secretary defence (Room No 624);

Zafar Altaf, PARC chairman, (Room No 641);

Murtaza Solangi (Room No 642);

Lt-Col Adil Rehmani (Room No 628);

Hawaldar Muhammad Jamil and

Sepoy Muhammad Habib Sultan and Sepoy Sajid Hussain Shah (Room No 631);

The ISI DG got Room No 523 on the 5th floor.

The IB DG was in Room No 528 and

Shaukat Tarin in Room No 508.

The list of the president’s delegation, published by the Pakistan embassy, gave details of officials of the Foreign Office and other departments, personal staff, security staff and media team>

Shah Mehmood Qureshi (foreign minister),

Nazar Muhammad Gondal (food and agriculture minister),

Rehman Malik (interior minister),

Qamar Zaman Kaira (information minister),

Salman Faruqui (secretary-general to the president),

Shaukat Fayyaz Ahmed Tarin (adviser to PM on finance),

Farahnaz Ispahani (MNA),

Farhatullah Babar (spokesperson for the presidency),

Dr Shoaib Suddle,

Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha,

Ghulam Murtaza Solangi (Radio Pakistan DG).

The personal staff included:

Maj-Gen Tasawwar Hussain (personal physician to the president),

Brig Mian Muhammad Hilal Hussain (MS to the president),

Cdr Amir Saeed (acting deputy MS),

Sqn Ldr Malik Jalal Farooq (ADC to the president),

Saifullah (protocol assistant) and

Mushtaq Ahmed (valet).

The security staff included:

Brig Muhammad Iftikhar Mansoor (DG security),

Lt-Col Babar Mumtaz (chief security officer of the president),

Gul Khan Bhounar (security officer), Hav Muhammad Jamil (security officer),

Lance Naik Gul Zameen (security officer),

Sepoy Tahir Azam (security officer),

Lance Naik Abar Ali (security officer),

Muhammad Habib Sultan (security officer) and

Sepoy Sajid Hussain Shah (security officer).

The officials from the Foreign Office included:

Attiya Mehmood (addl secretary Americas),

M Haroon Shaukat (addl secretary Afghanistan and ECO),

Nasir Ali Khan (ambassador at large),

Ghalib Iqbal (chief of protocol),

Ameer Khurram Rathore (FMO director),

Muhammad Amjad Aziz Qazi (deputy chief of protocol),

Imran Ali Chaudhry (director Americas),

Adeel Ahmed Khan (protocol officer) and

Nadeem Hotiana (DPIO).

The officials from other departments included:

Khurshid Anwar Butt (joint DG/in-charge Advance Security Team),

Malik Zahoor Ahmed (NAPHIS DG),

Rashid Bashir Mazari (interior joint secretary),

Col Hammad (staff officer),

Ashiq Saleem (Advance Security Team),

Muhammad Sajjad Haider (FIA deputy director),

Muhammad Farhan Zahid (SP/ICT) and

Abdul Majid Aasi (NCMC AD).

The official media team included:

Shazia Sikander (PTV reporter, team leader),

Salahuddin Malik (PTV cameraman),

Abdul Ghaffar (PTV engineer),

Syed Anwarul Hasan (PTV reporter),

Khurshid Naqvi (PTV cameraman),

Anwar Naseem (PTV engineer),

Muhammad Tariq (PID photographer) ,

Syed Adnan Ali Rizvi (PID photographer) ,

Javed Akhtar (APP director news),

Ilyas Chaudhry (APP reporter),

Tariq Hameed (APP cameraman),

Zain Ali Javed (APP engineer) and

Fakhar Abbas Qamer (Radio Pakistan).

The Capital Suite (Room No 640) was  reserved for

presidential meetings. Room No 643 and 644 were taken over

by the Pak embassy as the camp office.

Other than these 62 members of the presidential delegation,

several members of the private media were also in

Washington at government expense. They stayed at different

hotels and traveled separately but were paid by the

government to cover the visit.

Pakistani People overwhelmingly reject the insurgents, terrorists and extremists!

Why is Bilawal part of this Government to Government meeting?!!

He was not and is not  an elected member of any State organ/department of the Pakistani Government!