CIA ACTOR ASIF ZARDARI ROBBED BILLIONS OF RUPEES FROM PAKISTANI PEOPLE: NAB

INFORMATION PRESS – News Views Media – http://www.InformPress.com – USA

1. Zardari Has 144 Billion Rupees Assets, [Pakistan] Supreme Court Told

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=25976

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=212536

2. Supreme Court Gets [NAB] List of Cases [illegally] Dropped Under [illegal National Robbers Ordinance] NRO

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/13+nab+submits+list+of+nro+beneficiaries+to+sc-za-06

3. Zardari Gained Financial Benefits After Graft Charges [Unlawfully] Dropped http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/09-Dec-2009/Zardari-gained-financial-benefits-after-graft-charges-dropped

4. Cases [illegally] Dropped Doesn’t Mean Pardon: Chief Justice http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/09-Dec-2009/Cases-dropped-doesnt-mean-pardon-CJ

5. 174.18 Billion Rupees Misappropriated by 248 Persons, Supreme Court Told

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=2009/12/09/story_9-12-2009_pg7_13

6. NRO Beneficiaries Hearing in Supreme Court – Advantages Data Submitted – 248 Take [illegal] Benefits – Zardari Tops with $ 1.5 Billion Assets http://www.pakobserver.net/200912/09/news/topstories02.asp

7. An Indigenous Change in the Offing in Pakistan

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=209722

8. Asif Ali Zardari: Any Help Gratefully Received "When news of the estate purchase surfaced, [Benazir] Bhutto suggested her husband [Asif Ali Zardari] had perhaps bought the property to house a mistress."

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091212/WEEKENDER/712119850/1306

Watchdog Claims Zardari Reaped $ 1.7 Billion During [Benazir] Bhutto’s Rule

By AMANDA HODGE              

SYDNEY, Australia, 10 December 2009 (TheAustralian.com.au) – Pakistani [PPP illegal, corrupt] president [CIA Actor] Asif Ali Zardari amassed a fortune of more than US$ 1.5 billion ($ 1.7 billion Australian

dollars) during his slain wife [CIA Actress] Benazir Bhutto’s time as [PPP] prime minister, the country’s anti-corruption watchdog has claimed in damning evidence that further undermines his shaky leadership.

The sensational documents provided by the National Accountability Bureau [NAB] to the [Pakistan] Supreme Court this week also claim [Criminal] Zardari was facing charges of amassing assets beyond his means, including six cases of kickbacks and misuse of power, when former [corrupt, illegal] president [CIA Actor] Pervez Musharraf introduced controversial [unlawful] amnesty legislation [National Robbers Ordinance (NRO)] in [October] 2007.

The cases included the alleged misuse of authority to grant concessions to shipping companies and a gold importing firm and to purchase tractors for a government-run scheme, involving hundreds of millions of rupees (millions of dollars) in public funds, the documents stated.

The [illegal] National Robbers Ordinance [NRO] resulted in corruption and criminal cases being dropped against [over] 8000 Pakistani public officials and bureaucrats, including [Traitor] Zardari.

The documents allege that [Crook] Zardari owned properties and bank accounts in several countries, including Britain, the US and Spain, and that in 1996, he purchased a US$ 4 million, 144ha estate in Surrey, England.

The [unlawful] NRO, [illegally] brokered by the US and Britain, was intended to pave the way for Ms. [Benazir] Bhutto to return home from self-imposed exile and seal a [fraudulent] power-sharing agreement with [Traitor] Musharraf.

But the former [PPP] prime minister was assassinated just over two months later [on 27 December 2007], leaving her unpopular husband to lead [hijack] her Pakistan People’s Party [PPP] to [rigged] victory in [fraudulent] elections in February last year, and take the presidential palace after [Criminal] Musharraf resigned in August [2008].

The [unconstitutional] NRO [once again] expired two weeks ago [on 28 November 2009], after Parliament refused to renew the [illegal] bill, leaving Zardari and thousands of other officials facing renewed criminal and corruption charges.

The Supreme Court is now deliberating over whether its expiry leaves the country’s leaders open to prosecution.

The court must also decide whether a [fraudulent] presidential immunity provided by the [Pakistan] Constitution applies to cases of alleged corruption that took place before Zardari [unlawfully] took office last year [in September 2008].

NAB investigators say most of Zardari’s fortune was made during [Benazir] Bhutto’s two terms as [PPP] prime minister in the 1990s and that the money came from kickbacks and commissions on government deals.

Zardari earned himself the unflattering moniker of "Mr. Ten Percent"

during his wife’s time in power, because of his rumoured demands for kickbacks.

But a [lying] spokesman for Zardari yesterday dismissed the allegations as inaccurate and politically motivated.

[PPP] president Asif Zardari of Pakistan is a Billionaire

By DEAN NELSON                                                     

LONDON, UK, 10 December 2009 (Telegraph.co.uk) – [PPP unlawful, criminal] president [CIA Actor] Asif [Ali] Zardari of Pakistan is a [corrupt] billionaire with a vast global empire [illegally] built on property and investments, the country’s Supreme Court has heard.

His fortune was allegedly accumulated during his late wife [CIA Actress] Benazir Bhutto’s two terms of government when he became known as "Mr. Ten Percent". It was the subject of a series of corruption cases until they were dropped under an [illegal] amnesty to allow the late Miss Bhutto and her supporters to return to Pakistan.

The [Pakistan] Supreme Court in Islamabad is now due to rule on whether the [unlawful] National Robbers Ordinance (NRO), under which corruption and murder cases against more than 8,000 politicians, civil servants and other public figures were [unlawfully] dropped, is unconstitutional.

If it does, Pakistan will be plunged into a new political crisis with [Traitor] Zardari and some of his leading supporters facing corruption allegations they believed were behind them.

A glimpse of what those cases might look like if they come to court was offered in the court when the [Pakistan] Government’s National Accountability Bureau [NAB] claimed in written testimony on Monday that [Corrupt] Zardari owned homes and estates throughout the world, including Britain, where he paid 4.35 million [British pounds] for an estate in 1995 which was dubbed by critics as his "Surrey Palace".

Neighbours at the time claimed he had built his own private polo ground on the 350-acre estate and recreated the local village pub in one of its suites.

Zardari, whose father [Hakim Ali Zardari] was the humble owner of a small Karachi cinema, has allegedly amassed a fortune of 876 million [UK] pounds in properties and deposits banked in Britain, the US, France and Spain, and 175 million [British pounds] in Pakistan.

The assets were said to be acquired in commissions from allegedly corrupt deals. One involved the grant of a business licence to one of the country’s richest men, another from a European company. In another case, Zardari was charged with illegally constructing a polo field in the grounds of Prime Minister’s House.

These cases were [illegally] dismissed last year under the [unlawful] National Robbers Ordinance [NRO], which was introduced by the former military ruler [corrupt CIA Actor] Pervez Musharraf under a [fraudulent] deal to allow Miss Bhutto to return to the country.

After her [December] 2007 assassination, Zardari took over [hijacked] her Pakistan People’s Party [PPP] and led it to [fraudulent] victory before being appointed [as illegal] president in [September] 2008.

If the [illegal] ordinance is ruled unconstitutional, Zardari will come under intense pressure to stand down, although aides [wrongly] insist he remains immune from prosecution while he is [unlawful] president.

His [corrupt] spokesman dismissed the allegations of vast wealth and said they were politically motivated and unproven.

Pakistan [illegal] president has Assets Beyond his Means of $ 1.5 Billion

By ZAHID HUSSAIN

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, 9 December 2009 (Timesonline.co.uk) – The [corrupt, unlawful] President of Pakistan, [CIA Actor] Asif Ali Zardari, has assets of $ 1.5 billion (920 million UK pounds) around the world, according to the country’s main anti-corruption body.

A report by the National Accountability Bureau [NAB] said that the wealth accumulated by [Criminal] Zardari is "beyond his means". It said [Crook] Zardari allegedly owned properties and bank accounts in several countries, including Britain, the US and Spain. In 1996 he allegedly bought a $ 4 million, 355-acre estate in Surrey [UK].

Investigators said that most of Zardari’s fortune was [illegally] made during his wife [CIA Actress] Benazir Bhutto’s two terms in office as [PPP] prime minister in the 1990s. They alleged that the money had come from kickbacks and commissions on government deals.

The report was given to the [Pakistan] Supreme Court as it deliberated over a proposed [illegal] amnesty for the country’s leaders.

Zardari had faced six cases of kickbacks and misuse of power that were terminated under an agreement known as the [unlawful] National Robbers Ordinance [NRO] in October 2007.

The [illegal] amnesty, [unlawfully] brokered by the US and Britain, was introduced by former [criminal, unlawful] president [CIA Actor] Pervez Musharraf under a deal that paved the way for Ms. Bhutto to return home from self-imposed exile. Ms. Bhutto was assassinated just over two months later, leaving Zardari to lead [hijack] her party to [illegal] victory in [fraudulent] general elections in February 2008 and then become [PPP] president after [corrupt, traitor] General Musharraf resigned in August [2008].

Zardari’s [criminal] aides dismissed the allegations as politically motivated.

INTERNET-WEB LINKS:

(1) News Reports About Famous Cases in the Supreme Court of Pakistan

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=25957

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=25976

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=25997

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=26015

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=26001

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=212957

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=26036

– http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=212536

– http://www.supremecourt.gov.pk

–

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/11-Dec-2009/Trial-of-NRO-case-not-linked-to-beneficiaries-CJ

(2) American Blackwater (Xe Services) Guards Tied to Secret Raids by the U.S. CIA

– http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/11-0

– http://news.antiwar.com/2009/12/10/officials-blackwater-participated-in-cia-snatch-and-grab-operations

American CIA ‘Cancels’ its Blackwater USA (Xe Services) Contract for Imperialistic Crimes

– http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/12-Dec-2009/CIA-drops-a-contractor-Blackwater

(3) U.S. Mercenaries Murder "Militants" For U.S. CIA – Private Guards Took Part in Raids on Muslim Militants

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24164.htm

(4) Obama Officials Drop ‘Withdrawal’ Ruse – U.S. to Stay in illegally Occupied Afghanistan Until the U.S. Empire Dies

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/pers-d08.shtml

(5) Accepting Disgraced Peace Prize, U.S. War Profiteer Barack Obama Makes Case For Unending War

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/pers-d11.shtml

Reduction of benefits

Muslim suicide bombers in Britain are set to begin a three-day strike on Monday in a dispute over the number of virgins they are entitled to in the afterlife. Emergency talks with Al Qaeda management have so far failed to produce an agreement.
The unrest began last Tuesday when Al Qaeda announced that the number of virgins a suicide bomber would receive after his death will be cut by roughly 20% next January from 72 to only 60. The rationale for the cut was the increase in recent years of the number of suicide bombings and a subsequent shortage of virgins in the afterlife.

The suicide bombers’ union, the British Organisation of Occupational Martyrs (or B.O.O.M.) responded with a statement that this was unacceptable to its members and immediately balloted for strike action. General Secretary Abdullah Amir told the press, "Our members are literally working themselves to death in the cause of jihad. We don’t ask for much in return but to be treated like this by management is a kick in the teeth."

Amir accepted the limited availability of virgins but pointed out that the cutbacks were expected to be borne entirely by the workforce and not by management. "Last Christmas Abu Hamza alone was awarded an annual bonus of 250,000 virgins," complains Amir. "And you can be sure they’ll all be pretty ones too. How can Al Qaeda afford that for members of the management but not 72 for the people who do the real work?"

Speaking from the shed in the West Midlands where he currently resides, Al Qaeda chief executive Osama bin Laden explained, "We sympathise with our workers’ concerns but Al Qaeda is simply not in a position to meet their demands. They are simply not accepting the realities of modern-day jihad, in a competitive marketplace. Thanks to Western depravity, there is now a chronic shortage of virgins in the afterlife. It’s a straight choice between reducing expenditure

and laying people off. I don’t like cutting wages but I’d hate to have to tell 3,000 of my staff that they won’t be able to blow themselves up." He defended management bonuses by claiming these were necessary to attract good fanatical clerics. "How am I supposed to attract the best people if I can’t compete with the private sector?" asked Mr. Bin-Laden.
Talks broke down this morning after management’s last-ditch proposal of a virgin-sharing scheme was rejected outright after a failure to agree on orifice allocation quotas. One virgin, who refused to be named, was quoted as saying "I’ll be buggered if I’m agreeing to anything like that……..it’s too much of a mouthful to swallow".

Unless some sort of agreement is reached over the weekend, suicide bombers will down explosives at midday on Monday. Most branches are supporting the strike. Only the North London branch, which has a different union, is likely to continue working. However, some members of that branch will only be using waist-down explosives in order to express solidarity with their striking brethren.

WILL OUSTER OF CORRUPT MERCENARY TRAITORS REFORM THE DAILY TIMES?

By M. SHAHID ALAM

Native Orientalists at the Daily Times – the US-Israeli Master’s Voice
for a Slave Pakistan

"The more a ruling class is able to assimilate the foremost minds of
the ruled class, the more stable and dangerous becomes its rule." –
Karl Marx.

(InformPress.com) – A few days back, I received a ‘Dear friends’ email
from Mr. Najam Aziz Sethi, ex editor-in-chief of the Daily Times (DT),
Pakistan, announcing that he, together with several of his colleagues,
had resigned from their positions in the newspaper.

In his e-mail, Mr. Sethi thanked his ‘friends’ for their "support and
encouragement…in making Daily Times a ‘new voice for a new Pakistan’."
Wistfully, he added, "I hope it will be able to live up to your
expectations and mine in time to come."

I am not sure why Mr. Sethi had chosen me for this dubious honor.
Certainly, I did not deserve it. I could not count myself among his
‘friends’ who had given "support and encouragement" to the mission
that DT had chosen for itself in Pakistan’s media and politics.
Contrary to its slogan, it was never DT’s mission to be a ‘new voice
for a new Pakistan.’ The DT had dredged its voice from the colonial
past; it had only altered its pitch and delivery to serve the new US-
Zionist overlords. Many of the writers for DT aspire to the office of
the native informers of the colonial era. They are heirs to the brown
Sahibs, home-grown Orientalists, who see their own world (if it is
theirs in any meaningful sense) through the lens created for them by
their spiritual mentors, the Western Orientalists.

Pakistanis had failed to seize sovereign control over their country at
its birth. In August 1947, the departing British had few worries about
losing their colonial assets in Pakistan. They were quite confident
that the brown Sahibs, who were succeeding them, would not fail in
their duty to protect these assets. Within a few years, these brown
Sahibs had strapped the new country to the wheels of the neocolonial
order. Without effective resistance from below – from intellectuals,
workers, students and peasants – these neocolonial managers have been
free to cannibalize their own people as long as they could also keep
their masters happy.

This is not a cri de coeur – only a diagnosis of Pakistan’s misery. It
is a misery that only Pakistanis can remedy once they make up their
minds to terminate the system that has castrated them for more than
six decades. The best time to do this was in the first decades after
their country’s birth, when the Western imperialist grip was still
weak, and with courage and organization, Pakistanis could have set
their newly free country on the course of irreversible independence.
Grievously, Pakistanis had failed at this task. Pakistan’s elites
produced few men and women of conscience, who could transcend their
class origins to mobilize workers and peasants to fight for their
rights. More regrettably, Pakistan’s emerging middle classes have been
too busy aping the brown Sahibs, stepping over each other to join the
ranks of the corrupt elites. As a result, Pakistan’s elites have grown
more predatory, refusing to establish the rule of law in any sphere of
society.

Ironically, the enormous success of Edward Said’s Orientalism, his
devastating critiquing of the West’s hegemonic discourse on the
‘Orient,’ has deflected attention from the recrudescence of a native
Orientalism in much of the Periphery in the last few decades. Its
victory in Pakistan is nearly complete, where it has been led by the
likes of Ahmad Rashid, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Najam Sethi, Khaled Ahmad,
Irfan Hussain, Husain Haqqani, and P.J. Mir, etc. Not a very
illustrious lot, but they are the minions of Western embassies and
Western-financed NGOs in Pakistan.

In the euphoria of Edward Said’s success, left intellectuals have
nearly forgotten that the West’s servant classes in the Periphery
produce an indigenous Orientalism. I refer here to the coarser but
more pernicious Orientalism of the brown Sahibs, who are free, behind
their rhetoric of progress, to denigrate their own history and
culture. A few of these native Orientalists are deracinated souls, who
put down their own people for failing, as they see it, to keep up with
the forward march of history. Most, however, are opportunists,
lackeys, or wannabee lackeys, eager to join the native racketeers who
manage the Periphery for the benefit of outside powers.

In the closing years of the colonial era, the nationalists had kept a
watchful eye on native informers. In recent decades, as their power
has grown several fold, this treasonous class has received little
attention from left circles. Post-colonial critics continue to produce
learned books and essays on the language, structures, tools,
intricacies and even the arcana of Orientalism, but they pay scant
attention to native Orientalism. These critics prefer to concentrate
their firepower on the ‘far enemy,’ the Western protagonists of
Orientalism. Perhaps, they imagine that the native Orientalists, the
‘near enemy,’ will vanish once the ‘far enemy’has been discredited. In
truth, the ‘near enemy’ has grown enormously even as the ‘far enemy’
treads more cautiously.

Quite early, writing in the 1950s, Franz Fanon, in The Wretched of the
Earth, had sounded the alarm about the treachery latent in the
‘national bourgeoisie’ poised to step into the shoes of the white
colonials and settlers in Africa. About this underdeveloped
bourgeoisie, he writes, "its mission has nothing to do with
transforming the nation; it consists, prosaically, of being the
transmission line between the nation and a capitalism, rampant though
camouflaged, which today puts on the mask of neocolonialism."
"Because it is bereft of ideas," Fanon writes, "because it lives to
itself and cuts itself off from the people, undermined by its
hereditary incapacity to think in terms of all the problems of the
nation as seen from point of view of the whole of that nation, the
national middle class will have nothing better to do than to take on
the role of manager for Western enterprise, and it will in practice
set up its country as the brothel of Europe." Although Fanon was not
writing about Pakistan, no truer words – nothing more prescient –
could have been written about the brown Sahibs who have managed US-
Zionist interests in Pakistan.

To return to the DT, surely some Pakistani – moved by the instinct of
self-preservation – could have produced at least one damning monograph
documenting the methods that this new flagship of native Orientalism
has employed to advance the strategic interests of the US-Zionist
confederates in Pakistan and the Islamicate. Oddly, you are unlikely
to find even a few articles that shine the spotlight on the DT’s
unabashed advocacy of the US-Zionist agenda in Pakistan.

The DT was launched in April 2002, simultaneously from Lahore and
Karachi, just a few months after the United States had invaded and
occupied Afghanistan, with indispensable logistic support from
Pakistan. Was this timing a mere coincidence? Or was the launching of
an aggressively pro-American and pro-Zionist newspaper, led by a team
of mostly US-trained editors and columnists, an imperative of the new
geopolitics created by the Pakistan’s mercenary embrace of the US-
Zionist global war of terrorism?

Coincidence or not, the DT has served its masters with verve. Its
pages have carried countless editorials justifying Pakistan’s
induction into the US led war against Afghanistan, under the cover of
the attacks of September 11, 2001. The editors and columnists at DT
have routinely excoriated the patriots who have opposed Pakistan’s
surrender to US-Zionist demands, as naive sentimentalists unaware of
the tough demands of realpolitik. Endlessly, they have argued that
Pakistan – with the world’s sixth largest population, a million-strong
military, and an arsenal of nuclear weapons – can save itself only
through eager prostration before the demands of foreign powers.

In advocating national surrender, these native Orientalists boldly and
unashamedly declared that Pakistan’s elites draw their power from
Washington, London and Tel Aviv, not from the will of the people of
Pakistan. It is an insult that has since been sinking, slowly but
surely, into the national psyche of Pakistanis.

Taking advantage of what appeared to be – after the invasion of Iraq
in March 2003 – the irreversible US assault against the sovereignty of
Islamicate nations, Pakistan’s ruling elites openly began broaching
the need to recognize Israel. Once again, the native Orientalists at
DT were leading the charge, arguing that Pakistan could advance its
national interests by recognizing Israel. Their rationale was pathetic
in its naivete. Grateful to Pakistan, the brown Sahibs argued, the
powerful Zionist lobby would neutralize the Indian lobby’s
machinations against Pakistan in the United States. Only determined
opposition from nationalists in Pakistan defeated this treacherous
move.

When resistance against US occupation of Afghanistan gained momentum,
once again the DT was reading its master’s lips. Shut down the
madrasas [Islamic schools], they demanded; and without delay, attack
the Pakistanis in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) who
were supporting the Afghan resistance. Repeated US and Pakistani
bombings of the resistance groups in FATA, which has killed thousands
of civilians, called forth new Pakistani-Pashtun factions that have
been attacking military and civilian targets in Pakistan. With barely
concealed glee, the DT cheers when the Pakistan military carries its
war deeper into the country’s towns and villages.

In 2007, when the lawyers in Pakistan took to the streets to demand
the restoration of the Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice, Mr.
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, sacked by the military dictator, General
(R) Pervez Musharraf, the DT did not support them. Instead, it
defended the sacking, and repeatedly made the case for a ‘gradual
transition’ to civilian rule in Pakistan. A civilian government, they
were afraid, might not be as compliant to US pressures as Pakistan’s
military rulers.

When elections became unavoidable, the United States and Pakistan’s
generals worked on a plan to bring to power the pro-American Benazir
Bhutto, the exiled corrupt leader of the Pakistan People’s Party
(PPP). At US prodding, Dictator Musharraf passed an illegal National
Robbers Ordinance (NRO) withdrawing all criminal cases against the
leadership of the PPP. With luck, the US plan succeeded. The openly
pro-American PPP followed General Musharraf into power.

Space allows us to list only a few egregious examples of the
Orientalist mindset on display in the pages of the DT. As the paper’s
chief native Orientalist, Khaled Ahmad, for several years surveyed the
foibles and follies of Pakistan’s Urdu media. He berated the benighted
Urdu writers for their ‘naivete’, ’emotionalism’ and ‘foolish’
advocacy of national interests that collided with realpolitik (read:
US-Zionist interests). Ejaz Haider, the paper’s op-ed editor,
distinguished himself by writing his endlessly clever political
commentaries in the racy street lingo of the United States. Did this
make him a darling of the American staff at the US Embassy in
Islamabad?

Consider one more ‘exhibit’ that captures DT’s servile mentality. In a
regular column, oddly titled, ‘Purple Patch’, the newspaper ladles out
wisdom to its readers. This wisdom is dispensed in the form of article-
length passages lifted from various ‘great’ writers, who are always of
Western provenance. Presumably, the editors at DT still believe, with
their long-dead spiritual mentor, British Lord Thomas Babington
Macaulay (1800-1859), that "a single shelf of a good European library
was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia."

Will the departure of Mr. Sethi and his distinguished colleagues make
a difference? I doubt if the owners [PPP corrupt traitor Salmaan
Taseer and other venal sycophants] of DT will have difficulty finding
their replacements, voices equally shrill in their advocacy of foreign
powers. More than at any other time, growing numbers of Pakistanis
have been grooming themselves for service to the Empire, as their
predecessors once eagerly sought to serve the British Raj. This
groveling by Pakistan’s elites will only change when the people act to
change the incentives on offer to the servants of Empire. It will only
change when the people of Pakistan can put these mercenaries in the
dock, charge them for their crimes against the people and the state,
and force them to disgorge their loot.

This will take hard work and some Pakistanis insist that this hard
work is underway. It daily gains momentum, and at some point, the will
of the people will catch up with the craven and corrupt elites who
have bartered the vital interests of Pakistan and the Islamicate for
personal profit. When the ‘near enemy’ has been decapitated –
metaphorically speaking – the ‘far enemy’ too will recede into the
mists of history.

White House OKs expanding CIA drone program in Pakistan

 

From Pam Benson CNN

December 4, 2009 — Updated 1920 GMT (0320 HKT)

Pakistanis demonstrate during a rally against drone attacks.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Effort is part of Obama administration’s plan to increase military forces in Afghanistan
• Reports: More than 40 drone attacks in 2009, up from 30 strikes in 2008
• Official: strikes are "extremely precise," only "small fraction" have been civilians

RELATED TOPICS

• Afghanistan
• Pakistan

Washington (CNN) — The White House has authorized an expansion of the CIA’s program to attack suspected al Qaeda and Taliban operatives in Pakistan along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border with missiles shot from pilotless planes, a U.S. official confirms.

The covert effort is part of the Obama administration’s plan to increase the number of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and crack down on suspected terrorists in the region.

Since President Obama took office, there have been reports of more than 40 attacks by Hellfire missiles fired from drones, an increase over the approximately 30 missile strikes launched in 2008 during the Bush administration.

The U.S. official took exception to reports that hundreds of civilians have been killed in the Predator attacks.

The official said the strikes are "extremely precise" against terrorist targets and that only a "small fraction" of those killed have been civilians.

Last May, CIA director Leon Panetta would not discuss the specifics of the air strikes, but he did say they were "very effective" and resulted in few civilian deaths.

How Zardari rules the Roost

After Steel Mill…… Now National Bank of Pakistan

One has to wonder why the National Bank of Pakistan, the government owned commercial bank, is the only commercial bank that will fund projects like the RPP’s that are owned by Iqbal Z. Ahmed and Anwar Majeed. Or extends loans to companies that give Mir Raza son of Ali Raza allocations of LPG without him having a LPG marketing company at the time the allocation was originally given, though with the money that was made from the allocation for several years they used to set up the marketing company/bottling plant.
It is not secret that all projects that Mr. Zardari’s front men wanted funded are being done so by Mr. Syed Ali Raza President of National Bank of Pakistan (he enjoys the protocol of a Chief Minister while moving from one place to the other and also extended to his son, daughter n  daughter in law) who’s brother Mr. Syed Salim Raza an ex-Citibank Private bank employee who was implicated in the US Senate money laundering report to have opened Swiss bank accounts for the President in violation of Citibank’s own policies and is currently the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan!

Is this a quid pro quo pay off by the President for Salim to keep his mouth shut about the accounts details of which he clearly knows about having been in charge of EMEA accounts under which Pakistan feel during his tenure with Citi. His younger brother Ali who right after the elections went to meet President Zardari by asking Mr. Anwer Majeed to arrange the meeting was told by the President in that very meeting to do any and everything that Anwer wanted," as he was his mentor". Low and behold right after that Ali Raza funded all Anwer Majeed’s favorite projects  and is ordered what to do by his older son AG Majeed.

It would be interesting to note Anwer has gained the reputation of being the most powerful man in Pakistan and is known to get whatever he wants done by all Government  Ministries/Institutions. He has had 2 of his son’s father-in-laws appointed to high posts. Mr. Shaukat Tarin got be Finance Minister and Mr. Farooq Rahimatulla Chairman of an oil company!
Majeed and Zardari decided that they wanted to also expand their joint business empire and Ali Raza even went to extent of cancelling the loans for Dewan Groups sugar and cement mills to enable the Anwar Zardari team to buy these assets at throw away prices, something that they are still trying to do. Anwer has also managed to have the ECC (the chairman of which is his son’s father in law i.e. Shaukat Tarin) ban the export of molasses to enable the famous E-10 policy of blending ethanol into petrol be implemented into Pakistan. The blending of ethanol with petrol was tried by the previous Government and failed as it was not feasible but with the Zardari government in power and he himself owning so many sugar mills there was a sudden U-turn. It would be interesting to note that PSO is being used to implement this project as mode of delivery and the only sugar mill/distillery that bid for the supply of the ethanol to be used for blending with petrol for the project is Naudero and belongs to the Majeed/Zardari team! Rumor has is all other mills were told to stay away from the bidding for supply of ethanol if they knew what was good for them.

The RPP funding especially of Iqbal Z. Ahmed’s/Anwer Majeed partnership projects which were ram-roded through and for which even the rental power policy were changed are all miraculously being funded by guess who? Yes it is once again Mr. Syed Ali Raza and National Bank of Pakistan to the rescue. Why must one ask? Is it that another extension to him is on the cards? Is 10 years not enough as NBP President? Meetings that are held for these projects at NBP are attended by AG Majeed and Iqbal Z Ahmed though Anwer Majeed is not a partner on paper for these projects. These projects were so unfeasible that Mr. Masood Karim someone who was known to be Ali Raza’s lap dog when asked to jump would say how high even resigned from the bank as his department corporate banking was being forced by Ali to fund these projects!

One can only wonder how dangerous funding of these projects will be for the NBP an institution. Ali Reza is the only head of a Government Institution/ Bank who has got such high salary and bonuses that no Govt functionary could ever dream of.

How could this be allowed. Supreme court also took suo moto notice but it was thrown on the back burner. He started receiving bonus for last 4 years but when informed the National Assembly it was shown as received over ten years .He has a dozen security guards at home besides police guards and mobiles and owns bullet proof BMW 7 series air lifted and gifted by Yusuf Dewan, Mercedes top of the line, Toyota, BMW Range Rover SUV’s, Toyota Camry, Corollas parked outside his house and most of them rusting. Which Governor Chief Minister or federal Minister can match Ali Reza in perks, privilege and protocol.

Steps to a soft landing

By Asif Ezdi

The writer is a former member of the Foreign Service

The announcement made by the government that it is withdrawing the bill seeking parliamentary approval for the NRO has defused the immediate crisis over the fate of the legislation, but it has by no means taken the country out of turbulent political waters. An even bigger crisis lies ahead if, as widely expected, corruption cases against Zardari are now reopened. The clock is already ticking.
Zardari stands isolated and beleaguered as never before. His options are dwindling fast and the fear is that in his desperation he will not shrink from taking reckless steps that could shake the country’s democratic system to its foundations. At the very least, he can be expected to resort to political manoeuvrings of all sorts to keep himself afloat. As he flails about to get out of the quicksand in which he is now trapped, the country will be kept on edge during the coming days and weeks.

Zardari has only himself to blame for his predicament. Although deeply mired in graft charges dating from Benazir’s two terms as prime minister, he surrounded himself after moving into the Presidency with others with similarly shady reputations and pasts. Reports of opaque business deals under the new government have proliferated. Zardari has himself been implicated in the purchase last March of 300 acres of land near Islamabad at a fraction of its real value. According to a Reuters analysis dated Nov 3, the consensus view is that corruption in Pakistan has worsened significantly since the transition from military to civilian rule.
Zardari has again failed to judge the public mood. In the face of growing public clamour to dump the NRO, he tried to ram through the Parliament a bill that would not only have given amnesty from graft charges to holders of public office between 1986 and 1999 but, for all times, to everyone if they could show that they had been implicated for political reasons. In other words, the bill would have given a permanent license to loot to all past, present and future looters of national wealth. As explained by some of Zardari’s acolytes, all this was to be done in the name of the fundamental constitutional right to equality!

The entire political scene has now been radically transformed by the completely unexpected decision of the MQM, the largest ally of the PPP in the ruling coalition, to vote against the NRO. Zardari’s hectic efforts since then to change the mind of the MQM have so far yielded little results, but there are still three weeks left before the 120-day period given by the Supreme Court for the approval of the ordinance runs out. As British prime minister Harold Wilson said, a week in politics is a long time. This is even truer of Pakistani politics.
If Zardari fails to win over the MQM, one option before him, theoretically, would be to promulgate the ordinance again with retrospective effect from February 2008. But there is a catch here. He can do so only on the advice of the prime minister, and that may not be forthcoming readily. Gilani has been noticeably unenthusiastic about getting parliamentary approval for the NRO and it is unlikely, in view of the MQM stance and overwhelming public opinion against the ordinance, that he would favour its re-issuance. If Zardari still insists, a clash between the offices of president and prime minister, in which public opinion would be with the prime minster, would be difficult to avoid and it would not be in Zardari’s interest.

Zardari will only be able to escape prosecution by invoking the immunity given to a sitting president under Article 248. Aitzaz Ahsan has said that the Pakistani constitutions of 1956 and 1962 also gave the president complete immunity from criminal proceedings. He is wrong as far as the 1956 constitution is concerned. Article 213 of the 1956 constitution stated that the president was not answerable to any court for any act done in the performance of his official duties. But there was no blanket immunity for acts done in his personal capacity. Earlier, the Basic Principles Committee of the Constituent Assembly had also proposed in 1954 that there should be no bar to legal proceedings against the head of state even during the tenure of his office for acts done in his personal capacity.

The comprehensive immunity given to the president under Article 248 is a vestige of the privileges given by the Government of India Act of 1935 to the viceroy. It has been retained in the Indian Constitution but there is no other democratic country in which an elected head of state or government is exempt from the jurisdiction of the courts. A proposal has been made to the Parliament’s Special Committee on Constitutional Reforms to withdraw the immunity given to the president for acts performed in his personal capacity and to substitute the language of Article 248 by that of the 1956 Constitution. The PML-N has also spoken of limiting the president’s immunity to official acts, but is not pursuing this proposal seriously in the committee.
The government’s policy is to expand, not restrict, the privileges of the political class. The new accountability law that will replace the NAB Ordinance has fittingly been called NRO-II. It will not apply to the sitting president, deletes wilful default in repaying a bank loan as an offence, provides for amnesty if a charge is not brought within three years after a person leaves his post, and gives immunity for acts done “in good faith.” This law will also incorporate Sections 4 and 5 of the NRO. This means that a Member of Parliament accused of corruption may not be arrested without the recommendations of a parliamentary committee to be set up for the purpose being taking into consideration. Knowing how our parliamentary committees function, this amounts practically to granting immunity to our legislators from arrest on charges of corruption.

As the Zardari camp has been saying, it will not be possible to resume criminal proceedings against him because of Article 248. But morally and politically his position will be completely untenable. Pakistan will become the only country in the world with a head of state implicated in graft running into hundreds of millions of dollars. It is inconceivable that cases against all others charged with corruption are reopened while Zardari happily continues to enjoy life in the Presidency. The safest course for him, therefore, would be to take a one-way ticket out of Pakistan. The other option – being dragged out kicking and screaming – would be far worse, for him and for the country.

Zardari’s departure need not – indeed, it should not – result in the fall of the PPP-led federal government or in midterm elections. That is the last thing the country can afford at this time. As anyone can see, Zardari’s time is up. His political obituaries are already being written. The task before the nation now is to make the transition as smooth and as short as possible. All political parties, in the government and in the opposition, need to cooperate in averting a sudden collapse of the political system and guiding the country to a soft landing.

Two steps are needed. First, the opposition parties must give credible ironclad assurances that they do not seek midterm elections or a change of government in Islamabad. Second, the smaller parties in the ruling coalition should advise Zardari to make a sacrifice for the sake of the country. The MQM has done so already. The other coalition partners should ponder doing the same. It will be in their interest, as well as the national interest. They will enhance their own standing and restore some of the nation’s faith in the political system.
Email: asifezdi@yahoo.com

Nuclear Fallout Rocks Pakistan

By SYED SALEEM SHAHZAD ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, 20 November 2009 (Asia Times – Excerpts) –

The [Pakistani] military establishment has seized the moment to hand over
a list of names to [PPP corrupt traitor Asif Ali] Zardari of [corrupt]
people it believes should be immediately replaced. At the top of the
list is the [PPP] ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, whom the
[Pakistan] Army has always regarded as a foe for being too close to
the American administration. [PPP corrupt] Minister of the Interior
Rehman Malik is second in line. Although he has been credited with
helping destroy the financial arteries of militants, he is regarded as
too close to Western intelligence agencies [U.S. CIA, British SIS and
Israeli Mossad] and he often bypasses the [Pakistani] military
establishment in anti-terror operations.
The ministers for water and power [Raja Pervaiz Ashraf], agriculture
[Nazar Muhammad Gondal], health [Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani] and many
others are also named in the list, accused of incompetence or
corruption. Initially, Zardari agreed to replace them, but now he is
stalling.
Zardari has also indicated that he is unwilling to immediately shed
his constitutional powers, such as the right to appoint armed forces
chiefs and dissolve Parliament. He has given a March 2010 date for the
delegation of these powers to the [PPP corrupt] prime minister [Yousuf
Raza Gilani].
This is unacceptable to Zardari’s main rival, [PML-N Chief Muhammad
Nawaz] Sharif, who aims to launch a protest campaign against Zardari
by mid-December [2009]. It was Sharif’s campaign that forced Zardari
to restore the judiciary this March.
The [Pakistani] military has indicated to Sharif that it won’t disturb
the democratic setup, come what may; rather, it will press for the
removal of [corrupt] people with whom it is uncomfortable and live
with a weakened Zardari. It does not want mid-term elections in which
Sharif’s victory would be most likely. Although the [Pakistani]
military has good relations with Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League [PML-
N], it views him as too independent and too assertive.
In these uncertain times, [corrupt traitor General (R) Pervez]
Musharraf has re-emerged on the scene. Asia Times Online has learned
that he is pondering the formation of a new political party and that
he recently funneled large amounts of money into the coffers of former
aides to promote his cause. These include former [PML-Q corrupt]
minister of information, Sheikh Rasheed [Ahmed], whom some reports say
has been paid US$ 1 million – the same amount that went to a public
relations team to boost Musharraf’s image.
Insiders say that Musharraf has vast wealth, much of it accumulated
through donations from individuals (these, some say, include Libya’s
Muammar Al-Qadhafi) and corporations to aid previous election
campaigns. There are reports that Musharraf received US$ 30 million
from the United Arab Emirates [UAE] via one of its top bankers, and US
$ 3 million from a Pakistani cellular phone company.
Musharraf believes that with his contacts – especially in the Saudi
royal family – and being internationally known, he could play a
decisive role in the South Asian war of terror theater in which the
Americans are looking for new ways to approach the Afghan-Pashtuns for
reconciliation, along with the elimination of Muslim militants.
The militants, meanwhile, are not standing idly by. On Tuesday
evening, the Pakistani-Pakhtoons’ chief in the Malakand Division of
North-West Frontier Province [NWFP, Pakistan], Fazlullah, showed up in
Afghanistan and confirmed a report by Asia Times Online that Pakistani
militants from Swat and Malakand – who retreated in the face of
[Pakistani] military operations earlier this year – were regrouping in
the Afghan province of Nuristan.
Fazlullah claimed that the militants would resume their insurgency in
the Swat Valley, and, ominously, he said it would coincide with the
planned mass protests against Zardari next month.
Sharp differences between Pakistani leaders over safeguarding the
country’s nuclear arsenal are placing increasing pressure on the
embattled administration of [PPP] president Asif Ali Zardari.
This might be the case, but within Pakistan, the issue of the [atomic]
arsenal – estimated to contain between 80 and 100 [nuclear] warheads –
has turned into a major political row.
Zardari is already seriously at odds with the [Pakistani] military
establishment over dealing with the Pakistani Pakhtoon-led insurgency
and there is a strong likelihood that his [corrupt, tyrannical]
government will face a make-or-break test within weeks in the form of
mass street protests.
Over the past months, Zardari has become increasingly isolated. He has
lost the trust of the [Pakistani] military, which the U.S. now views
as the power to deal within Pakistan, the political opposition is
growing more assertive.
People close to Sharif say a mass campaign, much like the one in March
[2009] that forced the [PPP corrupt and repressive] government to
restore the judiciary that had been dismissed by Musharraf, is
inevitable.
The current situation is a fresh episode of an overall political
imbalance that occurred after the assassination of former [PPP]
premier, Benazir Bhutto (Zardari’s wife), in December 2007 that led to
the August 2008 resignation of Musharraf as [illegal] president and
the election of Zardari as [another unlawful] president in September
2008.
In just over a year, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the [Pakistan] Army
Chief, has eclipsed Zardari and he is now Washington’s point man on
the Pakistani side of the South Asian war theater. The Americans
believe Kayani will push relentlessly to gain victory in the tribal
areas against the Pakistani-Pakhtoons and Muslim militants.
Significantly, the U.S. sees Kayani as the most trusted person to
protect Pakistan’s nuclear assets.
During U.S. Secretary of State [War Criminal] Hillary Clinton’s recent
visit to Pakistan, it was made clear that Washington’s political
administration also approves of Kayani.
This [American] faith in the [Pakistani] military, rather than in any
[Pakistani] political force, comes at a time when the controversial
[unlawful] National Robbers Ordinance (NRO) is due to expire on
November 28 [2009] and opposition parties are ready to challenge it in
court. Legal experts are unanimous that the Ordinance is
discriminatory and directly clashes with the Constitution and that the
judiciary will not allow it to be extended.
The NRO was promulgated in 2007 by Musharraf after a deal was brokered
by Washington and London between him and Benazir Bhutto, who at the
time was the West’s preferred person to succeed Musharraf’s [illegal]
military government. The NRO [illegally] pardoned all corruption cases
pending against Benazir Bhutto and [Asif Ali] Zardari, as well as
dozens of activists of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who had held
important positions in previous [corrupt, tyrannical] governments.
Although Zardari, as [PPP] president, ‘cannot’ be tried under the
[illegal] ‘law’, cases could be opened against many incumbent
ministers after November 28 [2009], which would be a major setback for
the Zardari Government. The PPP’s [corrupt] Secretary General,
Jehangir Badr, has already warned party cadre, who [unlawfully]
benefited from the NRO, to obtain bail before possibly being arrested.

Three lessons for those among us!