Archive for March, 2009

Global Financial Crisis: Is this the Beginning of the End of Dubai

March 31, 2009 at 10:26 am · Filed under Economy ·Tagged , , ,

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Expats depart as work dries up and visas are rescinded. Too high, too fast: the party’s over for Dubai.

Paul Lewis

 

Arab tycoons wrapped in traditional headscarves sipped fruit juice cocktails as they watched Russian models twirl in silk dresses. It was the most exclusive ticket in town, a private catwalk show to which the Middle East’s biggest spenders had been personally invited. But if the smiles at last week’s Dubai fashion event looked more false than usual, it was for a reason. The net worth of the VIPs in attendance today is a fraction of what it was six months ago.

 

A six-year boom that turned sand dunes into a glittering metropolis, creating the world’s tallest building, its biggest shopping mall and, some say, a shrine to unbridled capitalism, is grinding to a halt.

 

Dubai, one of seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is in crisis. So, too, are the western expatriates. Many came here expecting to make millions in property and to soak up a lavish lifestyle living alongside footballers, actors and supermodels.

 

But the real estate bubble that propelled the frenetic expansion of Dubai on the back of borrowed cash and speculative investment has burst. Many westerners are being made redundant, or absconding before the Sharia legal system catches up with them. Half of all the UAE’s construction projects, totalling $582bn, have either been put on hold or cancelled, leaving a trail of half-built towers on the outskirts of the city stretching into the desert.

 

Among the casualties is the tower Donald Trump promised would be the ultimate in luxury, a $100bn resort complex by the beach, and four huge theme parks and an artificial island developed by the state company Nakheel.

 

Not all bad news  

It is not all bad news for Dubai: the building projects still in play are almost the equivalent of the U.S. stimulus package. And the city remains a haven for super-rich sheikhs, billionaire hedge fund managers and Russian oligarchs.

 

But banks have stopped lending and the stock market has plunged 70 per cent. Scrape beneath the surface of the fashion parades and VIP parties, and the evidence of economic slowdown is obvious. Luxury hotels are three-quarters empty. Shopkeepers in newly built malls are reporting a drop in sales. In Dubai you expect to see a Ferrari parked beside a Rolls-Royce. But not, as is the case now, with scruffy ‘For Sale’ signs taped to the windows.

 

Nowhere sums up the fortunes of expatriates in Dubai quite like Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island fanning out into the Persian Gulf, populated by residents, including the likes of David Beck-ham, Michael Schumacher and even, it is said, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai.

 

At the top of the island stands the Atlantis, a garish $1.5 bn hotel complex with 1,539 rooms and a whale shark swimming in a million-litre fish tank. The Atlantis’ $20m inauguration celebration, where the world’s A-list celebrities were treated to 1.7 tonnes of lobster and 1,000 bottles of Veuve Clicquot, was promoted as the world’s biggest party.

 

For Palm residents, it was followed by an equally impressive hangover. The value of their villas and apartments on the Palm fell by as much as 60 per cent in just a few months.

 

“Drink your last cocktail and get out of here,” said Sasha Reynolds, a 33-year-old cabin attendant. “My boyfriend is an engineer and work has dried up. He’s been offered work in Qatar, but who wants to go there?

 

“People are still making money here but the parties aren’t quite the same. I’m lucky — I didn’t buy.”

 

The exact number of unemployed is not known. The Dubai government does not release figures, and prevents the press from running stories that damage the economy, such as articles about mass redundancies. But there were sacked expatriates — bankers, lawyers and architects — in all but one of the hotel bars visited in Dubai this week.

 

Employees who lose work in the UAE automatically have their visa rescinded, generally giving them 30 days to leave. “I look out of my balcony every day and I see Brits by the pool on their laptops,” said Andrew Hillocks, 29, a sacked telecoms consultant whose passport has been seized. He will be escorted to the airport this coming week. “They’re looking for work that just isn’t there. I sold my car to cover my loan, but other people are panicking,” he added.

 

Under Dubai’s strict legal code, defaulting on debt or bouncing a cheque is punishable with jail. Any expatriate in financial difficulty knows the safest bet is to take the next outbound flight. At the airport, hundreds of cars have apparently been abandoned in recent weeks. Keys are left in the ignition, with maxed-out credit cards and apology letters in the glove compartment.

 

Officials put the number of vehicles at 11. “No one believes that. There are 11 cars abandoned just on my street,” said Anne, 26, a fashion editor from London. “Over the past two months, I’ve been getting an email a day from people trying to sell their stuff. ‘New Jaguar — need to sell before the end of the week’.”

 

In a world of self-made millionaires and property entrepreneurs, some remain bullish. Simon Murphy, 42, runs the exclusive Crest of Dubai social club for Palm residents. “My job is to keep people smiling,” he said.

 

The former hedge fund adviser’s apartment is a “boy’s paradise.” Beside the snooker table and darts board are photos of him beside Richard Branson, Alan Shearer and Pele.

 

“I have the beach there. My local is that bar a couple of yards away. That’s the pier where they’re going to dock the QE2. People ask about the whole ‘living the dream’ scenario? Ain’t this it?”

 

Some people had to lose out, he said. “As they say: eagles fly with eagles. The motivating factor to come here is greed. You have to be selfish, have minimal social responsibility, and want to make money quick. Brits in Dubai are gamblers. It’s the nature of the beast that not everyone wins.”

 

Invisible majority 

In Dubai however, the losers are the invisible majority. Taxi drivers from Egypt, Yemen and Iraq compete for work. Their clients often ask to go to hotel bars where, at night, they will find women from eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. Expatriates from the developing world maintained Dubai’s orgy of consumption during the boom years. Now they too are being forced to leave.

 

Perhaps those who suffer the most are the construction workers from the Indian subcontinent, who have carried out perilous work on building sites earning as little as £70 a month. The Indian embassy is reportedly anticipating an exodus, with 20,000 seats on flights to India already “bulk-booked” for next month.

 

Buses come to pick up 250 workers every night from one dusty street on the edge of Sonapur, a labour camp on the edge of the desert. As night falls, the gangly silhouettes of construction workers file out of the camp gates. “There is no work,” said Jasvinder Singh, 24, placing his suitcase in a pick-up truck, the words “Dubai to Delhi” taped to the side. “It has been such a drama. We came here to earn money. We are going home to see our wives but our pockets are empty.”

 

Sanjit, 44, another construction worker from Punjab, gestured angrily in the air: “We were treated badly here. We were slaves to the Arabs.” But unlike their British counterparts, construction workers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan cannot abandon lives in the glove compartment of a 4×4. Most took loans to pay agent fees to come to Dubai, and their debts will follow them home.

 

“I sold our land and took loans in the village to come here,” said Imran Hassan, a 20-year-old Bangladeshi farmer. “I paid the agent £2,000 to bring me. He said I would earn 1,500 dirham [£287] a month, but we are paid 572 dirham. When I return people in the village will want their money but I have none.”

 

A Welsh construction site manager said he had protested to his boss about the treatment of labourers. “We tell them to bring their clothes to work one day and then we send them home. It makes me feel sick. I asked why it had to be done so quickly and I was told a lot of them commit suicide and we don’t want that on our hands.”

 

Dubai’s future will actually be decided well away from the shimmering skyscrapers. To find out why, you need to drive along 90 miles south along the Gulf coastline, past tiny Bedouin enclaves and shimmering desert mosques.

 

Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the UAE and the richest emirate, has opted for a more conservative and, some say, prudent approach to growth that contrasts with Dubai’s giddy expansion. But it boasts 95 per cent of the UAE’s oil reserves and more than half of its GDP, and regional experts predict it will overtake Dubai as the destination of choice for westerners in the Middle East.

 

Dubai, which has barely a trickle of oil in comparison, is projecting a 42 per cent increase in public spending on infrastructure projects, to compensate for vanishing private investment. But it cannot go it alone. Abu Dhabi is increasingly expected to bail out its poorer neighbour, and the two ruling families are meeting regularly to decide how to transfer cash into Dubai’s ailing economy. “The question is not if Abu Dhabi will come to the rescue, but how big it will be and how public,” a source with knowledge of the egotiations said. “Abu Dhabi cannot let Dubai sink.”

 

But Abu Dhabi has its own problems. The emirate’s sovereign wealth fund — once said to be worth $1 trillion — has taken a hit in the global recession, while the lifeblood of the economy, the price of oil, is down more than 60 per cent.

 

Thirty miles from the capital, dust rises from the barren horizon where a six-mile-long building site is being turned into al-Raha Beach, an $18bn waterfront city, a joint venture between Aldar, Abu Dhabi’s largest property developer, and Laing O’Rourke, the U.K.’s largest construction company.

 

“A lot of staff have been moved over here from Dubai,” said Paul, 35, a Laing O’Rourke project manager, raising his voice over the noise of JCBs. But it is all coming to a stop here too. There are mass redundancies now. We’ve gone from an expat workforce of about 1,000 to about 400. There are more waves of redundancies coming this week.” He said he could not be sure, but by his estimate more than half of al-Raha development had been quietly shelved.

 

“I’ve not been made redundant myself but I’ve decided to go home in April. The wife and kids have already left. A lot of people are jumping ship before there are no lifeboats left.”

 

Back in Dubai, a Mercedes Benz snaked along the city’s main street, Sheikh Zayed Road. Firas Darwish, 35, an Emirati property magnate dressed in traditional Arabic clothing, sat in the driver’s seat, listening as Veronica Chapman, 65, a real estate agent from the U.K., recalled what the city was like when she first arrived in 1980. “No milk, no bread, no schools. It was a desert and a couple of buildings,” she said.

 

Darwish slowed the car to point out abandoned building sites where cranes stood still in the baking heat. “Here we are completely reliant on foreigners,” he said. “Maybe Dubai grew too fast.”

 

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Why Did Mukhtaran Mai Choose to be the Second Wife?

March 31, 2009 at 8:04 am · Filed under Human Rights

mukhtaranA controversial marriage in Pakistan

by Nirupama Subramanian (Hindu) 

image141Mukhtaran Mai. For several years now, that name has symbolised one woman’s brave fight-back against Pakistan’s repressive feudal system and its brutal customs. In 2002, Mai was gang-raped by a group of men, allegedly on the orders of a panchayat in Meerwala, a village in the Muzzafargarh district of southern Punjab. The rape was the punishment for alleged adultery by her 12-year-old brother. The adultery charge was apparently fabricated. Instead of quietly accepting her fate as other women might have, Mai battled it out in the courts. Several of the men involved in the rape were jailed as a result, and the case is still being heard in the Supreme Court.

 

For her courage, she became an icon for the women’s movement in Pakistan, which has struggled valiantly for over three decades against repression of women both by society and state. She also achieved international celebrity status much to the chagrin of former President Musharraf. At one point, he tried to prevent her from traveling abroad saying she was bringing the country a bad name.

 

Mai is now back in the news, this time for an entirely different reason, one that has left Pakistan’s feminists somewhat confused and a little disappointed, with some seeing it as a betrayal and others saying the latest developments in her life must be seen “in context”.

 

The 37-year-old got married to a police constable — as his second wife. In the process, she also ended up complicit in the practice of “watta satta”. This is a custom prevalent in Sindh province and southern Punjab in which men marry each other’s sisters. While some say the practice actually helps curb domestic violence – if a husband beats his wife, he risks his sister being treated in the same way – woman are also known to suffer in silence for fear of disrupting another household. But in either case, it treats women as pawns, disempowering them completely and for this reason it is opposed by rights groups.

 

Mai spoke about her decision to marry constable Nasir Abbas Gabol, who apparently fell in love with her when he was posted as her security guard against the men she had named for the rape.

 

“He used to call me on the phone all the time. I would talk to him just like I talk to anyone else. Sometimes, I would be irritated with him for calling so often, and at times, I would even make someone else answer the phone because it was troublesome to answer all his calls,” Mai said.

 

That did not cool his ardour, and some 18 months ago, according to Mai, it began to get serious.

 

“He went to my home in my absence and asked my parents if he could marry me. They agreed but when I heard about it, I refused point blank,” she said. She turned him down two more times. Gabol then tried to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills.

 

Mai said her main reason for rejecting him was that he was already married. He has five children from this marriage. “Only a woman knows a woman’s pain when her marriage is disrupted,” she said.

 

In this case, Mai refused even though Shumaila, the first wife and her brothers approached her parents after Gabol’s suicide attempt and appealed to them to persuade Mukhtaran to marry him.

 

Mai said it was around this time that she too developed “feelings” for Gabol. “After all, I am a woman, and I felt he must really like me to go to such an extent.” But, she said, “I kept control on myself”.

 

It was only after Gabol’s wife approached her directly, and asked her to marry her husband in order to save her own marriage, said Mai, that she finally gave in. The constable had threatened Shumaila with divorce. But it would not have stopped at that. Shumaila’s two brothers are married to Gabol’s sisters; one divorce would have led to two “honour” divorces.

 

“The first thing is that in Islam, [taking a second wife] is permitted; and secondly, my decision to marry him was in the considered interests of everybody, of three other women, and that was the main reason for the decision,” said Mai.

 

Mai may have saved three women from divorce, but the saga has posed new questions for the women’s movement in Pakistan, already grappling with the implications for women of de facto Taliban rule in Swat and other parts of the North West Frontier Province. Should women continue to struggle on for their rights as absolute and non-negotiable?  Or is it better to take a more pragmatic approach, and subordinate or adapt to the specific setting or culture, however anti-women it might be, just in order to survive? In the context of Swat, would this mean accepting that women have no right to education or to employment, because death is the alternative?

 

In a way, Mai is to the woman’s movement in Pakistan what Mr. Chaudhary is to the country’s legal community – an icon of resistance against tyranny. For some, her marriage has had the kind of effect that say, the chief justice would have if he were to suddenly announce that President Musharraf’s government had its positive side after all.  

 

For Tahira Abdullah, who has been part of the Women’s Action Forum for over three decades, storming the barricades from General Zia’s time to General Musharraf’s, for causes ranging from the abolition of the Hudood laws to the restoration of chief justice Chaudhary, Mai’s decision is nothing less than a betrayal.

 

“Mukhtaran Mai became an icon of resistance, strength, courage and bravery all over the world, and particularly for downtrodden Pakistani women. She has received accolades and awards worldwide as a symbol of extraordinary resolve and character. She has come crashing down from that pedestal now,” Ms. Abdullah said.

 

According to her, instead of succumbing to typical “blackmail”, Mai should have sought legal recourse and official help. A single woman herself, self-admittedly in an entirely different cultural context, Ms. Abdullah expressed anger at the “unacceptable and untrue” image that Mai may have projected with her marriage, of Pakistani women as “incapable of surviving alone as single, unmarried or divorced women in a patriarchal and even misogynist feudal social structure”.

 

On the other hand, many in the women’s rights movement are prepared to accept Mai’s decision as a product of her particular environment in which choices before a woman are limited.

 

Khawar Mumtaz, another veteran of the women’s movement, who heads the Lahore-based Shirkat Gah women’s organization, said despite her fundamental opposition to a woman agreeing to become a man’s second wife, and her opposition to the  “abhorrent” practice of watta satta, it was difficult to pass judgement on Mai’s actions from a purist feminist perspective.

 

Her questionable marriage should not be allowed to take away from the bravery of her past actions, Ms. Mumtaz said. “I wouldn’t want to be overly critical. A lot will depend on whether she can stay her course, if she can continue to stand up for women, or will she become a stereotype”.

 

Also within feminist cirlces is the view that Mai’s iconic status was not of her own making but something “thrust on her” and therefore, not something to which she should be held hostage.

 

Beena Sarwar, a Pakistani journalist who made an award-winning documentary on Mai’s life (Mukhtaran Mai: The Struggle for Justice), said it was unfair to expect “that she would be this rural Mother Teresa”, when all said and done, she was an ordinary woman living in the extremely female-unfriendly environment of southern Punjab. Sarwar said Mai could even be seen as having provided an “alternate feminist justification” in marrying a man as his second wife in order to secure the lives of the other three women involved.

 

Not just that, Mai also placed conditions on Gabol to ensure that he would not neglect his first wife. The constable must give Rs 10,000 from his Rs 13,000 salary to Shumaila every month. Mai made him write over his house and land to the first wife. While she will continue to live in Meerwala, where she runs three schools for girls, a resource centre to advice women with problems, a woman’s shelter and a 24-hour helpline for women, Mai said she wants him to spend as much time as he can with his children from the first marriage.

 

“I have made no demands on his time or money. All the conditions were for the first wife,” said Mai.  She described her relationship with Shumaila as one of mutual affection.

 

Farzana Bari of the Gender Studies Department of Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University also expressed discomfort with the idea of Mai as a fallen icon. “She’s not a feminist, she’s not an educated person, she does not have any personal politics. Yes, because of her own experience, she has an oppositional consciousness, but without really knowing why. It’s other people that want her to be something that she is not. It’s their problem, not her’s. She has a right to get along with her life,” Ms. Bari said.

 

Mai herself is somewhat troubled by the debate she has set off but still confident that she did the right thing. “People will criticize and say so many things, but I believe in myself,” she said, and expressed determination “to continue all the work I have been doing to improve the lives of women”.

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Chief Justice Met Musharraf Before Announcing Steel Mills Judgment

March 27, 2009 at 9:15 am · Filed under Lawyers' Agitation, Musharraf ·Tagged , , ,

iftikhar_chaudhry_agencies(By Nayyar Afaq)

March 17, 2009

 

On one hand, terrorism and extremism is getting their roots deep in society, while on the other, the country is suffering a worst form of financial meltdown. On one side, armed forces and intelligence agencies are getting maligned through international campaign, and on the other, an

environment is getting set that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not in safe hands.

 

This time when nation needs to be united to face and defeat the challenges, there is a cat and mouse game in play among the political parties and a vast majority is considering Lawyers’ Movement as the only solution to the problems of Pakistan.

 

When a Long March and sit in (Dharna) for indefinite period was announced by the lawyers’ leaderships, and when a worst form of law and order crisis was emerging on the streets, embarrassing Pakistan in the international community, the government of Pakistan surrendered to the demands of lawyers, and announced the restoration of Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry. This is a right moment to take another look at the so-called lawyers’ Movement.

This movement is based on the perceptions that Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry is the symbol of an independent and free judiciary, and that all the mess is created by President Musharraf, who was not happy by him over his suo moto actions, and that the reference against the judge was forwarded by the Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz due to his personal grudges with Chief Justice, over the decision against Steels Mills issue. The reality, through information that is revealed here for the first time, is a little different.

 

Steels Mills Issue-Unspoken Facts

A day before the judgment of Steels Mills, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry rang the military secretary of President Musharraf and asked for a sitting with him at Army House to discuss the details of the judgment. President allowed him to come and also did call Attorney General of Pakistan. When all three sat together, President said, “I don’t know the legalities, but all what I would like to say is that you took suo-moto action against the privatisation of Steels Mills. I believe in the dignity and honour of the Supreme Court. So, whatever be the judgment, it must not lower your dignity and honour, but remember government is doing a good job for privatisation. Please don’t try to hamper this process.”

 

Then both the attorney General and Chief Justice discussed the legalities and came out with a mid way solution. Chief Justice himself told President Musharraf that a good via media is brought out and he is going to give this as a decision the next day. Then Chief justice went to the bench and told that President himself has decided to cancel the privatisation of Steels Mills. So, without any idea of betrayal, 12 member bench of Supreme Court gave exactly the opposite decision to what expected by the government.

 

In 1985, soon after being established, it was planned to increase the productive capacity of Pakistan Steels Mills Corporation (PSMC) to 2.2 million tons annually to make it economically feasible. Unfortunately, the successive governments did not take personal interests and concerns in this project and finally the debt over Steels Mills reached to 19 billion rupees till year 2000 and the amount required for increasing its productive capability reached more than 200 billion rupees. The biggest challenge after 12th October 1999 coup was to bring Economic stability in the country. Musharraf did manage to convince Shoukat Aziz to resign from City Bank and to come back to Pakistan and serve the homeland. The economic situation was like a nightmare. Foreign reserves were remained only 0.7 billion dollars and sanctions were upon Pakistan due to nuclear explosions. No one was willing to take ‘risk’ of investing in Pakistan. After military coup, the situation was even more difficult. It worried Shoukat Aziz, but he accepted the challenge. He made a win-win policy for economic revival. The core of the policy was deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation. It worked well, and a confidence of investors recovered in Pakistan. Even during those months after 9/11, when Pakistan and Indian armed forces were alert stand by on borders with eye to eye balls contact, investment did not stop coming in Pakistan and Stock Markets shown good trends. Things were going fine and in the positive direction, but the suo moto action by Chief Justice hampered the overall process by shaking the confidence of the investors.

 

The day when decision came out was surely very shocking for the government. President Musharraf himself had visited China and Saudi Arabia to convince them to invest on PSMC. Finally after many years, his efforts bore fruits and he got able to convince Saudi Arabia based Al Tawairqi Group of Companies to invest in PSMC. In May 2006, an open auction held in Islamabad and Al Tuwairqi Group submitted a winning bid of $362 million for a 75 per cent stake in PSMC. It was being privatized in the profit of $ 13 million (without solding the land of Steels Mills). Due to the opposite decision of Supreme Court, hundred million of dollars which were lying in our banks by Mr. Tuwairqi to invest on PSMC and to establish another steels mills were brought out of Pakistan. Disappointed by the decision, Mr. Tuwairqi told everyone to wind up and went out, as investing in this country is not safe. This was again a great shock for Pakistan’s Economy. Without wasting a single moment, President Musharraf rung up Mr. Tuwairqi and requested him not to change his mind for investing in PSMC. Unfortunately, after having a bitter experience of Supreme Court’s decision, Mr. Tuwairqi excused to invest on PSMC. This was what Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry did with the Economy of Pakistan, but his ‘media managers’ applaud his decision as his national achievement.

 

Presidential Reference against Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)

Print and electronic media in Pakistan is used to remain very active and in search of any thrilling story soon after its independence given by President Musharraf. Ansar Abbasi (The News) investigated about the Chief justice and found that always a favour was given to his son Dr. Arsalan Chaudhry, directly by the orders of CJP himself, which were mostly not on merit at all. Due to unknown reasons, he did not public this story. However, he slipped his tongue in Geo’s famous ‘Capital Talk’ in early 2007. Kamran Khan, from Geo, also brought Dr. Arsalan on telephone call in early 2007, asking about the news against him. Dr. Arsalan, the son of CJP denied the news and told media that he is going to Court to defend these allegations. CJP anxious about media reports raised this matter to President Musharraf in his meeting with him on 13th February 2007. President instructed the investigation agencies to explore the realities behind these reports. The famous letter from Naeem Bukhari stimulated the issue even more. When the investigation completed, the findings were very shocking for President. They all were going against CJP. It revealed that not even the allegations of media about his son are true but also more serious findings were brought into notice of President Musharraf, including his personal corruption and greed for protocol, for which he was not entitled for. It all worried President. CJP had been used to visit President in his office and house many times, even with his family. There was nothing wrong in the personal terms and relations between the both. President Musharraf, at this moment, however had to decide what to select. Either he had to prefer personal relations or to follow the legal course of actions.

 

On 7th march 2007, Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz advised him to send the findings to Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) in the form of reference to decide for the fate of CJP. Justice Jehanzeb Rahim of Peshawar High Court also filed a reference against CJP in his letter to President. This was the time, when CJP highly informed about this progress, rung DG MI, Major General Mian Nadeem Ijaz on 7th March 2007, and requested him to get the copy of reference and to hand over it to him. Next day, CJP called Abdullah Yousaf, Chairman CBR in his chamber at Supreme Court to discuss the same issue of reference being filed by Justice Jehanzeb. CJP asked Chairman CBR to favour him by making clarification to President that he was not at fault over the allegations written by Justice Jehanzeb. On the same 8th march, CJP also rang military secretary (MS) of President Musharraf to arrange an urgent meeting with President the next day. Although President was due to leave for Karachi on 9th March, to participate in the Pakistan Navy exercise “Aman 2007”, but MS rescheduled the program and asked CJP to visit by 1130 hours on 9th March at camp office of the President’s secretariat. The same night, CJP rang DG MI to be present in camp office to assist him. On 9th March, during meeting, President informed CJP about all the findings of investigations, and asked for the clarification of his position. President told CJP that he is going to forward the findings to Supreme judicial Council. Realising that the findings are embarrassing for CJP, he gave him a way out as a courtesy move, saying, “If you find the hearings of SJC below your dignity and honour, then you can resign to avoid the case.” CJP said that he would face the allegations in SJC and would defend himself. President then signed the reference and officially it was sent to SJC for hearings.

 

This was what happened. Unfortunately, the media and political parties developed strange perceptions and vicious hype was created all around the country. No one on media ever read and present the material filed in reference. There were serious allegations against the CJP. Question is whether CJP above law? Should there be no forum for his accountability? Even President is not above law. There is a procedure written clear in constitution regarding his impeachment. The media and the lawyers of CJP escaped themselves out of hearings of SJC, by using the political and media fronts, making false perceptions. By claiming that a ’dictator’ sitting in ‘Army House’ has ‘summoned’ CJP and ‘threat’ him to resign, totally wrong environment developed, which hijacked the minds of public, and a civil disobedience sort of movement sponsored in streets and roads of Pakistan, labelled under ‘lawyers Movement’, powered by political parties and media.

Let us check whether President Musharraf had followed the constitutional path or not.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Article 48

(1) – In the exercise of his functions, the President shall act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet (or the Prime Minister).

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Article 209

(1) There shall be a Supreme Judicial Council of Pakistan, in this Chapter referred to as the Council.

(5) If, on information [from any source, the Council or] the President is of the opinion that a Judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court,

(a) May be incapable of properly performing the duties of his office be reason of physical or mental incapacity; or

(b) May have been guilty of misconduct,

The President shall direct the Council to [or the Council may, on its own motion] inquire into the matter.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Article 180

At any time when-

(a) The office of Chief justice is vacant; or

(b) The Chief justice of Pakistan is absent or unable to perform the functions of his office due to any other cause,

The President shall appoint [the most senior of the other judges of the Supreme Court] to act as Chief justice of Pakistan.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

So, what President Musharraf did was simply the constitutional route followed. There were media allegations about the misconduct of CJP. CJP even himself asked President to make enquiry about them. The investigations were being made. Prime Minister advised Mr. President to send the findings to Supreme Judicial Council. Under article 48 of constitution, President was bound to act upon the advice of Prime Minister. Meanwhile CJP himself asked to visit President at Camp Office of President’s Secretariat. CJP was informed about the findings. He was willing to face the charges in SJC. Under the article 209, it was mandatory for President to send the reference to SJC, which he did.

 

What was unconstitutional in all that? Is Chief Justice above law? Or constitution can be hijacked by the rallies and public movements.

 

Unfortunately, what happened next made the social fabric of our society turned towards the worst and more worst. Supreme Judicial Council started hearings. CJP and his lawyers escaped the hearings by few excuses. They claimed that the judges of SJC are biased against CJP, and hence they must be changed. Media started campaign that President has nominated his own judges in SJC which was clearly wrong and false perceptions. The SJC was composed exactly according to the constitution, including the acting Chief Justice, two next most senior judges of High Court and two next most senior judges of Supreme Court. Then highly politicised and vocalised Aitzaz Ahsan, being invited frequently on the media channels used every tactics to provoke the feelings of public against President Musharraf and turning public in favour of CJP. The issue was sub judice and it was the contempt of court to speak about such issues live on TV channels, but everyone utilised the media forum to stimulate the public sentiments towards the movement of civil disobedience. There happened a chaos and anarchy everywhere in Pakistan. President Musharraf said hundreds of times, that whatever be the decision, would be acceptable to the government. Taking this as a weakness of him, the highly politicised lawyers of CJP made such an environment that the hearings of SJC paused and the petition to stop its hearing was brought into the Supreme Court. Finally, after much mess, Supreme Court gave a verdict in the favour of CJP and he was reinstated on 20th July. Everyone applaud it well, not mentioning that Supreme Court had not given any importance to the charges filed under the reference. It was not fair at all, but being a verdict of Supreme Court, President Musharraf welcomed the decision.

Besides the ‘victory’ of reinstating CJP, the track record of so called ‘Lawyers Movement’ is so embarrassing. Let us have a brief over view how this ‘victory’ is being made and how throughout, lawyers have behaved;

 

1- Lawyers hijacked the accountability of CJP in SJC bypassing the Article 209.

2- Contempt of Court, being made every day by speaking live on TV channels against a sub judice issue.

3- Making allegations on the brother judges of biasness and personal interests just to escape the hearings of SJC.

4- Climbing at and breaking the gates of Supreme Court, just to pressurize the government and creating law and order situation by fighting with security forces and police.

5- President Supreme Court Bar Association Muneer A. Mailk forced the lawyers to join the so called Lawyers’ Movement by starting cancelling the membership of Bar Association of those lawyers who were not joining this brigade.

6- Attack on Khalid Ranjha (Government’s counsel) by lawyers when he was stepping out of hearing of SJC.

7- Attack on the car of Waseem Sajjad (Government’s counsel) by the lawyers when he was on his way to attend SJC hearing.

8- Attacking and beating a journalist ‘Khalil Malik’ by lawyers in the square of Supreme Court, just because he had published some material against the CJP.

9- Attacking and beating Advocate Naeem Bukhari in the quad of Supreme Court by lawyers, just because he exposed the ‘corruption’ of CJP in his letter.

10- When Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz went to submit the nomination papers of President Musharraf in Election Commission for Presidential elections 2007, lawyers surrounded the election commission, and Prime Minister remained under siege by these lawyers’ brigade for hours.

11- Throwing black poisonous acid on the face of Mr. Ahmed Raza Qasuri (Government’s Council) by a lawyer in the premises of Supreme Court. If he had no eye glasses on face, God willing, he might lose his sightedness.

12- Attack of hundreds of lawyers on Sher Afgan Niazi. God saved his life in this horrible incident.

13- Strikes by the lawyers of the courts. Common people suffered by much inconvenience waiting for judges and lawyers to entertain their cases.

14- Long rallies (extending even to 40 hours) by CJP and lawyers turning a sub judice issue to highly politicised campaign.

 

After few days of apparent silence, the restored CJP again started making personal bravado against President Musharraf, security agencies and intelligence agencies. A long list of suo moto actions were made every day to paralyse the functioning of executive, legislative and law enforcement agencies. Knowing that people and media of Pakistan were supporting the actions of CJP, he did every possible thing to embarrass the government. Suo-moto action against the traffic jam in Karachi is just an example of the attitude of a person who has nothing to care about the ills growing in own judicial system. He did nothing for making improvement in the courts. Cases still are going for 20, 20 years but he did not take any steps for betterment. Once, Geo TV’s famous show “Gumnaam” showed a spy camera video of the case of bribery by one judge, but CJP did not take any action against this judge. On the other hand, the channel was charged by the contempt of court and asked to make open apologies. CJP did not take any notice of any of the illegal activities of lawyers, like beating and attacking on Naeem Bokhari or spraying of acid on Ahmed Raza Qasuri’s face. He did nothing to stop the illegal activities of Qabza mafia or No. 2 drugs etc. He never took suo moto actions against those militants who were threatening the barber shops or Cds shops. He never did care of those extremists who were blasting girls’ schools. Not caring of his own rallies, which even extended over 40 hours, he however did take suo moto actions of traffic jams. Then, he started embarrassing the chiefs of intelligence agencies in courts. Once he said, “Not only you, I would even bring General [Musharraf] in my court.” He released first so called missing person after being reinstated, named Qari Abdul Basit, who was charged of the assassination attempt on General Musharraf. Supreme Court took suo moto action against Red Mosque operation. CJP in open and strong words spoke against President of this operation. Government, law enforcement forces and intelligence agencies were highly demoralised. Supreme Court started hearing the petition against the eligibility of President Musharraf to be a candidate for next term of President. Earlier, Supreme Court rejected the petition but later again started hearing the same like petition. Then, Supreme Court allowed President to be a candidate for Presidency, but bound the election commission not to announce the result. The sword of uncertainty remained hanging over the heads of the nation. After Presidential elections, Supreme Court tried to extend the decision by all possible excuses. It seems a mockery with the nation, that the hearing of petition against president’s eligibility was announced to be pending for even 10 days, just because one of the judges of the bench was going to attend the wedding of his daughter. Not only this, three times, CJP changed the compositions of bench listening the case of eligibility. It all was self evident that Supreme Court was simply planning not to allow President Musharraf to continue holding his office any more. Supreme Court was just delaying the decision against him till 15th November 2007, till the term of National assembly get completed and President Musharraf then had remained by no chance of making any amendment in constitution by the assembly. It all was nerve stressing and alarming for President. He had waited long for the full decision regarding the reinstatement of CJP to be announced by Supreme Court. Supreme Court was bound legally to release full decision in 90 days, but this period also passed without having the issuance of the full decision. Moreover, constitutionally Supreme Court was even not given by the mandate to entertain any petition against the President’s elections.

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Article 41 (Clause 6)

The validity of election of the President shall not be called in question by or before any court or other authority.

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Making the clear violation of constitution, Supreme Court was entertaining the petitions against President and was trying much to delay the decision till 15th November. Meanwhile, a bloody campaign of suicide attacks stimulated with so much acceleration in settled districts of Pakistan. Intelligence agencies and law enforcement forces were cornered by Supreme Court and all the fragments of the society. A form of civil war was going to develop in Pakistan. Government was in the state of semi paralysis. The general elections were near in few months. All the self exiled politicians were returning back to Pakistan with having strong lobbies behind in West. Under such state of affairs, ISI reported something very important and alarming. It was about the secret meeting of Aitzaz Ahsan with Mr. Khalil ur Rehman Ramday in the Geneva, Switzerland. This meeting was very meaningful in understanding what Supreme Court was planning to do with Musharraf. The case of eligibility of President was in court. Khalil Ramday was heading the bench. Aitzaz Ahsan was representing himself in court against the eligibility of Musharraf. It was legally very undesirable to set secret meetings between the judge and a lawyer. There were also various indications and reports about the foreign money involved to promote all that lawyers’ campaign. Reportedly this money was going to Aitzaz Ahsan through various channels, mostly including few NGOs and human rights’ activists. There were also the reports of Aitzaz’s undisclosed visits to India during all that campaign. Justice Rana Bhahwandas’ famous statement in very start of all that reference’s episode, “Soon, we would give good news to nation” was also something important to read between the lines.

 

All of a sudden, suspicions against the role of Pakistan in war against terror were being floated in international media. International community started speaking against Pakistan and starting asking for restoration of Democracy in Pakistan. To promote the dangerous agenda against Pakistan, ‘Newsweek’ magazine came out with a title story, “Most dangerous nation in the world is not Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s Pakistan”. Pakistan’s nuclear status was under a deadly threat. Ground field was well set to announce by world powers that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not safe and that terrorists could take control of them. Although IAEA had already announced that chapter of nuclear proliferation is closed for Pakistan, but Benazir Bhutto coined a strange statement that she could allow the access of international agencies to Dr. A.Q. Khan and that she could allow American forces to operate in Pakistan’s tribal areas. On one side, a well planned campaign was going on, and on the other hand Economy of Pakistan started suffering negative trends for the first time in last many years.

 

President Musharraf tolerated all that but finally when he found that things are slipping away from the hands of Pakistan, and that inaction at that time would lead to total chaos and destruction and the irrecoverable damage to Pakistan, he finally decided to impose the state of emergency on 3rd November 2007. Judges were offered to take oath under new PCO. Many judges accepted this offer and many refused. Those who refused, including Iftikhar Chaudhry, started a new version of Lawyers’ movement.

 

Let us see what constitution allowed President Musharraf at that time.

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Article 232 (1)

If the President is satisfied that a grave emergency exists in which the security of Pakistan, or any part thereof, is threatened by war or external aggression, or by internal disturbance beyond the power of a Provincial Government to control, he may issue a Proclamation of Emergency.

Article 270 AA (3)

All proclamations, President’s orders, Ordinances, Chief Executive’s orders, laws, regulations, enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, notifications, rules, orders or bye-laws enforce immediately before the date on the date which this Article comes into force shall continue in force until altered, repealed or altered by the competent authority.

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What more to be lost?

We must see what Pakistan has achieved so far and what has been lost after the campaign of lawyers. Unfortunately, it seems that we have lost everything, and achieved nothing. Pakistan’s Economy is out of business now. Pakistan is now on the list of most insecure countries. Pakistan’s institutions are breaking up. Rotten politicians are back on stage. Most corrupt and incompetent leadership is on the charge of government. Pakistan’s armed forces and intelligence services are maligned nationally and internationally. Pakistan’s nuclear status is at stake. What more wrong and what more horrible can be expected.

 

So far no movement or strong demonstration is made against the extremists and terrorists. Civil society and human rights activists are used to speak against them in very soft words, usually on TV screens, but not on roads. All the focus is to speak against former President, armed forces and intelligence services, which indirectly is meant to strengthen the anti-state elements. The duality of Pakistani media  is well exposed since 2007. First, it was said that General Musharraf is not going to remove his military uniform etc, but he appointed new army chief. Then, was said that he is not going to lift state of emergency, but he lifted it up. Then, was said that general elections would be rigged for favourable results, but the entire world observed that elections were the most free, fair and peaceful. Media broke much news that former President is going to fly away from Pakistan in 48 hours, but all was bogus. Then it was said that President is going to dissolve the assemblies, but even it did not happen. On the other hand, political parties are well naked as well. The same PPP, which supported Lawyers’ Movement with full energy, started speaking against this movement after being elected. Mr. Zardari signed thrice the agreements for restoration of judges, but then refused it. The time, when Lawyers’ Movement was having last breaths, the decision of Supreme Court regarding the disqualification of Sharif brothers, ignited it again. Things are crystal clear. Lawyers used the politicians and later PML-N used the lawyers for their vested interests.

 

All patriotic Pakistanis must open their eyes and must smell the conspiracy behind. CIA and RAW are fully active and involved behind all that mess. They had set well their assets in media to promote anarchy and disinformation in Pakistan. Media has done nothing in discouraging the extremism and terrorism. Media has promoted the international campaign more than them. The focus and concern is shifted from the issues of national interests. No one cares of the economic fall down. No one asked where the foreign reserve of 16.7 Billion dollars has gone down to 5 billion dollars in few months under democratic government. No one asks for the reason why we are forced to beg IMF. No one asks why Dr. Samar Mubarik had been forced to leave his seat. No one cares of the funds of Nuclear and missile research program being cut by more than 50 %. No one cares from where Baitullah Mehsud of Waziristan is getting satellite information and weapons and suicide jackets. No one is caring of the separatist organisations in Baluchistan. Media is not telling us that for 7 months, the funds of paramilitary and police of NWFP are stopped by the government and that Pakistan armed forces are supplying weapons to them. Media would never tell about the holiday being announced by Chief Minister Balochistan, Aslam Raeesani on 15th August 2008 to synchronise it with Indian Independence Day. Media is not focussing about the drones attacks on tribal areas. What media is speaking for is just about the lawyers’ movement. So that Pakistani nation never get able to think of any other issues, which are far important for the sovereignty of Pakistan.

It’s all a psychological war. Nation must open their eyes. We must not been misguided by the propagandas and perceptions. Our enemies have played a dangerous double game. We must not give them any impression that Pakistan is going through a situation of civil war and disintegration. We must not suffer paralysis through analysis. We must stand for Pakistan armed forces in such state of affairs. Pakistan is not ready for British form of democracy. Pakistan is more important than democracy or constitution. Human rights, civil liberties, democracy and constitution are just the part of nation. Nation is not the part of them. We must safeguard Pakistan. Pakistan comes first.

 

Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry is back in his office as a chief justice. PML-N’s pressure tactics win. Army Chief again has shown patience and resolution to avoid playing any role in politics. But game is not ended. It’s just a start. Time not always remain the same. Future would decide about it and about the role of Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry. There still are many constitutional and legal issues. What would be the fate of those judges who have taken fresh oath under PCO? Would he give the favour to those, who supported him or would he demonstrate the neutrality? Would he take the notice over NRO, when the case against it would re-start in Supreme Court? Would he take actions against those judges who took oath under PCO on 3rd November 2007? Would he like to reform the session courts, high courts and Supreme Court? Above all, would he like to proof that the findings in Presidential reference were not correct and that he is not guilty of anything wrong. What if the disqualification of Sharif brothers remain hold? Would PML-N again start the violent campaign? What about those countries and the guarantees, which made reconciliation just before sit in (Dharna), instead of possible Martial Law.

 

Let us end this article by the last words of letter of Naeem Bukhari to CJP,

 

“My Lord, we all live in the womb of time and are judged, both by the present and by history. The judgment about you, being rendered in the present, is adverse in the extreme.”

(www.geocities.com/nayyarafaq)

 

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Human Rights Conference April 20 to 24 in Geneva

March 27, 2009 at 8:38 am · Filed under Courses ·Tagged

 During the week of April 20-24, 2009, hundreds of world leaders, diplomats, and human rights activists will gather in Geneva for the United Nations Durban Review Conference on Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Mired in controversy, the gathering known as Durban II is already one the most high profile U.N. events in history.

With the eyes of the world focused on Geneva, who will guide the assembled government leaders to properly address the human rights issues and situations of discrimination around the globe that most require attention?

One day before the Durban II conference opens, one thousand human rights activists will meet in the Geneva International Conference Center, right across the street from the U.N., for the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance, and Democracy, to hear some of the world’s most prominent human rights heroes, activists and dissidents—former prisoners of conscience Ahmed Batebi of Iran, Bo Kyi of Burma, Jose Castillo of Cuba, Saad Eddin Ibrahim of Egypt—along with genocide survivors, legal scholars, and world statesmen.

Organized by a global coalition of human rights organizations—and dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention Against Genocide—the Geneva Summit will be a momentous event to define the human rights agenda on behalf of the millions of voiceless victims around the world who suffer from racism, discrimination, and persecution.

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Taliban is Not Against Polio Immunisation

March 27, 2009 at 7:57 am · Filed under Talibanization ·Tagged , ,

clip
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi,  has said the Taliban are not against polio immunisation campaigns in areas under their influence or control; and have not impeded vaccinators in areas under our control.” He said that government and foreign forces should not try to use immunisation exercises for military and political gain. “Vaccinators must coordinate with us before they begin the process,” he said.
 
Such claims may seem hard to believe given persistent accusations over the years of systematic Taliban attacks on health centres, the aid community and other civilians. However, a spokesman for the Health Ministry (MoPH), appeared to acknowledge the Taliban statement: “We have not received reports that the Taliban have blocked polio immunisation drives.”
 
 Insecurity, largely resulting from insurgency-related violence, has impeded aid delivery, health activities and immunisation efforts in large swathes of the country, according to the UN.
  The UN and the MoPH have said about 200,000 children, mostly in the volatile southern provinces, have missed out on polio immunisation.
 
 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), much of Afghanistan has been polio-free for the past two to three years except for the conflict-affected southern region where four polio cases have been reported so far in 2009. Some 31 cases were reported in 2008 and 17 cases in 2007.
 
Seven million immunised
 Backed by UN agencies, the MoPH implemented a nationwide anti-polio drive on 15-17 March, 2009, immunising about seven million children under five. However, over 150,000 children in the four southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan missed doses of trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV3) because of access restrictions. 
 
Security problems in areas along the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan (where 118 polio cases were confirmed in 2008) and the large-scale movement of people between the two countries have also complicated efforts to wipe out the virus which is endemic in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria, according to WHO.

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Jewish Control of the US Media

March 25, 2009 at 11:06 am · Filed under Clash of Civilizations ·Tagged , , ,

pic1The largest media conglomerate today is Walt Disney Company, whose chairman and CEO, Michael Eisner, is a Jew. The Disney Empire, headed by a man described by one media analyst as a “control freak”, includes several television production companies (Walt Disney Television, Touchstone Television, Buena Vista Television), its own cable network with 14 million subscribers, and two video production companies. As for feature films, the Walt Disney Picture Group, headed by Joe Roth (also a Jew), includes Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, and Caravan Pictures. Disney also owns Miramax Films, run by the Weinstein brothers. When the Disney Company was run by the Gentile Disney family prior to its takeover by Eisner in 1984, it epitomized wholesome, family entertainment. While it still holds the rights to Snow White, under Eisner, the company has expanded into the production of graphic sex and violence. In addition, it has 225 affiliated stations in the United States and is part owner of several European TV companies. ABC’s cable subsidiary, ESPN, is headed by president and CEO Steven Bornstein, a Jew. This corporation also has a controlling share of Lifetime Television and the Arts & Entertainment Network cable companies.

 

ABC Radio Network owns eleven AM and ten FM stations, again in major cities such as New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and has over 3,400 affiliates. Although primarily a telecommunications company, Capital Cities/ABC earned over $1 billion in publishing in 1994. It owns seven daily newspapers, Fairchild Publications, Chilton Publications, and the Diversified Publishing Group.

 

Time Warner, Inc, is the second of the international media leviathans. The chairman of the board and CEO, Gerald Levin, is a Jew. Time Warner’s subsidiary HBO is the country’s largest pay-TV cable network. Warner Music is by far the world’s largest record company, with 50 labels, the biggest of which is Warner Brothers Records, headed by Danny Goldberg. Stuart Hersch is president of Warnervision, Warner Music’s video production unit. Goldberg and Hersch are Jews. Warner Music was an early promoter of “gangsta rap.” Through its involvement with Interscope Records, it helped popularize a genre whose graphic lyrics explicitly urge Blacks to commit acts of violence against Whites. In addition to cable and music, Time Warner is heavily involved in the production of feature films (Warner Brothers Studio) and publishing. Time Warner’s publishing division (editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine, a Jew) is the largest magazine publisher in the country (Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Fortune).

 

When Ted Turner, a Gentile, made a bid to buy CBS in 1985, there was panic in media boardrooms across the nation. Turner made a fortune in advertising and then had built a successful cable-TV news network, CNN. Although Turner employed a number of Jews in key executive positions in CNN and had never taken public positions contrary to Jewish interests, he is a man with a large ego and a strong personality and was regarded by Chairman William Paley (real name Palinsky, a Jew) and the other Jews at CBS as uncontrollable: a loose cannon who might at some time in the future turn against them. Furthermore, Jewish newsman Daniel Schorr, who had worked for Turner, publicly charged that his former boss held a personal dislike for Jews. To block Turner’s bid, CBS executives invited billionaire Jewish theater, hotel, insurance, and cigarette magnate Laurence Tisch to launch a “friendly” takeover of the company, and from 1986 till 1995 Tisch was the chairman and CEO of CBS, removing any threat of non-Jewish influence there. Subsequent efforts by Turner to acquire a major network have been obstructed by Levin’s Time Warner, which owns nearly 20 percent of CBS stock and has veto power over major deals.

 

Viacom, Inc, headed by Sumner Redstone (born Murray Rothstein), a Jew, is the third largest megamedia corporation in the country, with revenues of over $10 billion a year. Viacom, which produces and distributes TV programs for the three largest networks, owns 12 television stations and 12 radio stations. It produces feature films through Paramount Pictures, headed by Jewess Sherry Lansing. Its publishing division includes Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, and Pocket Books. It distributes videos through over 4,000 Blockbuster stores. Viacom’s chief claim to fame, however, is as the world’s largest provider of cable programming, through its Showtime, MTV, Nickelodeon, and other networks. Since 1989, MTV and Nickelodeon have acquired larger and larger shares of the younger television audience. With the top three, and by far the largest, media companies in the hand of Jews, it is difficult to believe that such an overwhelming degree of control came about without a deliberate, concerted effort on their part. What about the other big media companies? Number four on the list is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Films. Murdoch is a Gentile, but Peter Chermin, who heads Murdoch’s film studio and also oversees his TV production, is a Jew.

 

Number five is the Japanese Sony Corporation, whose U.S. subsidiary, Sony Corporation of America, is run by Michael Schulhof, a Jew. Alan Levine, another Jew, heads the Sony Pictures division. Most of the television and movie production companies that are not owned by the largest corporations are also controlled by Jews. For example, New World Entertainment, proclaimed by one media analyst as “the premiere independent TV program producer in the United States,” is owned by Ronald Perelman, a Jew. The best known of the smaller media companies, Dreamworks SKG, is a strictly kosher affair. Dream Works was formed in 1994 amid great media hype by recording industry mogul David Geffen, former Disney Pictures chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, and film director Steven Spielberg, all three of whom are Jews. The company produces movies, animated films, television programs, and recorded music. Two other large production companies, MCA and Universal Pictures, are both owned by Seagram Company, Ltd. The president and CEO of Seagram, the liquor giant, is Edgar Bronfman Jr., who is also president of the World Jewish Congress. It is well known that Jews have controlled the production and distribution of films since the inception of the movie industry in the early decades of the 20th century. This is still the case today. Films produced by just the five largest motion picture companies mentioned above-Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony, Paramount (Viacom), and Universal (Seagram)-accounted for 74 per cent of the total box-office receipts for the first eight months of 1995. The big three in television network broadcasting used to be ABC, CBS, and NBC. With the consolidation of the media empires, these three are no longer independent entities. While they were independent, however, each was controlled by a Jew since its inception: ABC by Leonard Goldenson, CBS first by William Paley and then by Lawrence Tisch, and NBC first by David Sarnoff and then by his son Robert. Over periods of several decades, these networks were staffed from top to bottom with Jews, and the essential Jewishness of network television did not change when the networks were absorbed by other corporations. The Jewish presence in television news remains particularly strong. As noted, ABC is part of Eisner’s Disney Company, and the executive producers of ABC’s news programs are all Jews: Victor Neufeld (20-20), Bob Reichbloom (Good Morning America), and Rick Kaplan (World News Tonight). CBS was recently purchased by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Nevertheless, the man appointed by Lawrence Tisch, Eric Ober, remains president of CBS News, and Ober is a Jew. At NBC, now owned by General Electric, NBC News president Andrew Lack is a Jew, as are executive producers Jeff Zucker (Today), Jeff Gralnick (NBC Nightly News), and Neal Shapiro (Dateline).

 

The Print Media After television news, daily newspapers are the most influential information medium in America. Sixty million of them are sold (and presumably read) each day. These millions are divided among some 1,500 different publications. One might conclude that the sheer number of different newspapers across America would provide a safeguard against Jewish control and distortion. However, this is not the case. There is less independence, less competition, and much less representation of our interests than a casual observer would think. The days when most cities and even towns had several independently owned newspapers published by local people with close ties to the community are gone. Today, most “local” newspapers are owned by a rather small number of large companies controlled by executives who live and work hundreds or ever thousands of miles away. The fact is that only about 25 per cent of the country’s 1,500 papers are independently owned; the rest belong to multi-newspaper chains. Only a handful are large enough to maintain independent reporting staffs outside their own communities; the rest depend on these few for all of their national and international news. The Newhouse empire of Jewish brothers Samuel and Donald Newhouse provides an example of more than the lack of real competition among America’s daily newspapers: it also illustrates the insatiable appetite Jews have shown for all the organs of opinion control on which they could fasten their grip. The Newhouses own 26 daily newspapers, including several large and important ones, such as the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Newark Star-Ledger, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune; the nation’s largest trade book publishing conglomerate, Random House, with all its subsidiaries; Newhouse Broadcasting, consisting of 12 television broadcasting stations and 87 cable-TV systems, including some of the country’s largest cable networks; the Sunday supplement Parade, with a circulation of more than 22 million copies per week; some two dozen major magazines, including the New Yorker, Vogue, Madmoiselle, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Bride’s, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Self, House & Garden, and all the other magazines of the wholly owned Conde Nast group. This Jewish media empire was founded by the late Samuel Newhouse, an immigrant from Russia. The gobbling up of so many newspapers by the Newhouse family was in large degree made possible by the fact that newspapers are not supported by their subscribers, but by their advertisers. It is advertising revenue–not the small change collected from a newspaper’s readers–that largely pays the editor’s salary and yields the owner’s profit. Whenever the large advertisers in a city choose to favor one newspaper over another with their business, the favored newspaper will flourish while its competitor dies. Since the beginning of the 20th century, when Jewish mercantile power in America became a dominant economic force, there has been a steady rise in the number of American newspapers in Jewish hands, accompanied by a steady decline in the number of competing Gentile newspapers–primarily as a result of selective advertising policies by Jewish merchants. Furthermore, even those newspapers still under Gentile ownership and management are so thoroughly dependent upon Jewish advertising revenue that their editorial and news reporting policies are largely constrained by Jewish likes and dislikes. It holds true in the newspaper business as elsewhere that he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Three Jewish Newspapers

 

The suppression of competition and the establishment of local monopolies on the dissemination of news and opinion have characterized the rise of Jewish control over America’s newspapers. The resulting ability of the Jews to use the press as an unopposed instrument of Jewish policy could hardly be better illustrated than by the examples of the nation’s three most prestigious and influential newspapers: the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. These three, dominating America’s financial and political capitals, are the newspapers which set the trends and the guidelines for nearly all the others. They are the ones which decide what is news and what isn’t, at the national and international levels. They originate the news; the others merely copy it, and all three newspapers are in Jewish hands.

 

The New York Times was founded in 1851 by two Gentiles, Henry Raymond and George Jones. After their deaths, it was purchased in 1896 from Jones’s estate by a wealthy Jewish publisher, Adolph Ochs. His great-grandson, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., is the paper’s current publisher and CEO. The executive editor is Max Frankel, and the managing editor is Joseph Lelyveld. Both of the latter are also Jews. The Sulzberger family also owns, through the New York Times Co., 33 other newspapers, including the Boston Globe; twelve magazines, including McCall’s and Family Circle with circulations of more than 5 million each; seven radio and TV broadcasting stations; a cable-TV system; and three book publishing companies. The New York Times News Service transmits news stories, features, and photographs from the New York Times by wire to 506 other newspapers, news agencies, and magazines. Of similar national importance is the Washington Post, which, by establishing its “leaks” throughout government agencies in Washington, has an inside track on news involving the Federal government. The Washington Post, like the New York Times, had a non-Jewish origin. It was established in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins, purchased from him in 1905 by John McLean, and later inherited by Edward McLean. In June 1933, however, at the height of the Great Depression, the newspaper was forced into bankruptcy. It was purchased at a bankruptcy auction by Eugene Meyer, a Jewish financier.

 

The Washington Post is now run by Katherine Meyer Graham, Eugene Meyer’s daughter. She is the principal stockholder and the board chairman of the Washington Post Co. In 1979, she appointed her son Donald publisher of the paper. He now also holds the posts of president and CEO of the Washington Post Co. The Washington Post Co. has a number of other media holdings in newspapers, television, and magazines, most notably the nation’s number-two weekly newsmagazine, Newsweek. The Wall Street Journal, which sells 1.8 million copies each weekday, is the nation’s largest-circulation daily newspaper. It is owned by Dow Jones & Company, Inc., a New York corporation which also publishes 24 other daily newspapers and the weekly financial tabloid Barron’s, among other things.

 

The chairman and CEO of Dow Jones is Peter Kann, who is a Jew. Kann also holds the posts of chairman and publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Most of New York’s other major newspapers are in no better hands than the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The New York Daily News is owned by Jewish real-estate developer Mortimer B. Zuckerman. The Village Voice is the personal property of Leonard Stern, the billionaire Jewish owner of the Hartz Mountain pet supply firm.

 

Other Mass Media

The story is pretty much the same for other media as it is for television, radio, and newspapers. Consider, for example, newsmagazines. There are only three of any note published in the United States: Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report. Time, with a weekly circulation of 4.1 million, is published by a susidiary of Time Warner Communications. The CEO of Time Warner Communications, as mentioned above, is Gerald Levin, a Jew. Newsweek, as mentioned above, is published by the Washington Post Company, under the Jewess Katherine Meyer Graham. Its weekly circulation is 3.2 million. U.S. News & World Report, with a weekly circulation of 2.3 million, is owned and published by Mortimer Zuckerman, a Jew. Zuckerman also owns the Atlantic Monthly and New York’s tabloid newspaper, the Daily News, which is the sixth-largest paper in the country. Among the giant book-publishing conglomerates, the situation is also Jewish. Three of the six largest book publishers in the U.S., according to Publisher’s Weekly, are owned or controlled by Jews. The three are first-place Random House (with its many subsidiaries, including Crown Publishing Group), third-place Simon & Schuster, and sixth-place Time Warner Trade Group (including Warner Books and Little, Brown). Another publisher of special significance is Western Publishing. Although it ranks only 13th in size among all U.S. publishers, it ranks first among publishers of children’s books, with more than 50 percent of the market. Its chairman and CEO is Richard Snyder, a Jew, who just replaced Richard Bernstein, also a Jew.

 

The Effect of Jewish Control of the Media

These are the facts of Jewish media control in America. Anyone willing to spend several hours in a large library can verify their accuracy. I hope that these facts are disturbing to you, to say the least. Should any minority be allowed to wield such awesome power? Certainly, not and allowing a people with beliefs such as expressed in the Talmud, to determine what we get to read or watch in effect gives this small minority the power to mold our minds to suit their own Talmudic interests, interests which as we have demonstrated are diametrically opposed to the interests of our people. By permitting the Jews to control our news and entertainment media, we are doing more than merely giving them a decisive influence on our political system and virtual control of our government; we also are giving them control of the minds and souls of our children, whose attitudes and ideas are shaped more by Jewish television and Jewish films than by their parents, their schools, or any other influence.

 

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Human Rights in India

March 24, 2009 at 7:51 am · Filed under Human Rights, India ·Tagged ,

100-0094_imgStatement by Navanethem Pillay,

High Commissioner for Human Rights

 

National Human Rights Commission

New Delhi, 23 March 2009

 

I feel a profound affinity with this great country and its people not only because my ancestors hailed from here, but also because, as a non-white South African who grew up under the apartheid regime, I, too, have endured oppression and multiple forms of discrimination. I, too, have known poverty and the unrelenting bite of prejudice and brutality.

 

 

Today, the strength of India’s democratic and legal institutions, as well as that of a highly engaged civil society and a free press, rests on solid foundations.  Indeed, India must be proud of its national protection system, which includes the National Human Rights Commission.  The Commission has played a prominent leadership role among national institutions at the regional and international level. 

 

Together with state-level commissions and specialized bodies on women, caste, and tribal issues, this Commission is a catalyst in providing redress and sensitizing administrative and law enforcement bodies on human rights.  The National Action Plan it is developing should provide a framework for bringing a rights-based approach to all government policies and programmes. 

 

In this context, I wish to also commend the adoption of the landmark Right to Information Act of 2005 which increases accountability and transparency through the disclosure of information requested by rights holders regarding the conduct of government.

 

For its part, India’s judiciary strives to enforce human rights, to provide relief to individuals, and ensure that government implements constitutionally guaranteed rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, as well as women’s rights. 

 

In groundbreaking judgments, the Supreme Court of India has interpreted the right to life to include nutrition, clothing and shelter.  In another case concerning the issues of inadequate drought relief and chronic hunger and under-nutrition, the Supreme Court has directed the government to implement food relief programmes to halt starvation, supply schools with mid-day meals, and provide subsidized grain to millions of destitute households.

 

I am also impressed with the Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan case which, I am sure, is well known to many of you, as it encapsulated and addressed some of the challenges of multiple forms of discrimination, as well as violence against women.   Let me simply recall here that in Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of a lower tribunal which had acquitted the five aggressors of a rape victim because the tribunal did not find it credible that upper caste men would sexually abuse a lower caste woman.  The woman appealed to the Supreme Court which ruled in her favor on the ground that the local government had neglected to protect her constitutional rights.  Crucially, the case engendered legislative changes benefiting working women and promoted greater enforcement of women’s rights.

 

Yet despite all these gains, the challenges that India faces, as is the case in many other countries, are manifold.  Some of these challenges concern execution; some are rooted in structural national problems; others yet can be ascribed to the responsibilities (and public expectations) that pertain to an influential global player such as India.  Allow me to expand on these topics.

 

Challenges in Execution

Economic liberalization and rapid economic growth have transformed many sectors of Indian society, but benefits and dividends have not always been shared equally.  Poverty is still a grinding reality for millions of people in India. Deep, widespread and longstanding asymmetries in power, participation and wealth are now exacerbated by the global economic crisis.  These inequalities are also compounded by the persistence of gaps in the implementation of the higher courts’ decisions, of the recommendations of the NHRC, and of national laws and policies that promote and protect human rights and seek to support the most vulnerable.  Such gaps are reflected in the work of the NHRC and human rights defenders in various states where the administration of justice and economic development has produced uneven results. 

 

These discrepancies and shortcomings in implementation have emerged in the course of the Universal Periodic Review process (UPR) conducted by the Human Rights Council, the pre-eminent intergovernmental body which is mandated to promote and protect human rights.  The UPR is a mechanism that allows for the examination of all UN Member States’ records regarding human rights. It is based on information provided by governments, intergovernmental bodies and civil society.  India underwent such review in April 2008.  Remarkably, a group of 200 Indian nongovernmental organizations forwarded a joint submission for the UPR, underscoring the significance of the review and its potential to mobilize public opinion towards spurring positive change. 

 

I urge India to pay heed to the recommendations that stemmed from the UPR.  It should also welcome the visits of independent experts, known as special rapporteurs, who can help the government identify and address pitfalls in implementation, as well as structural obstacles standing in the way of human rights.

 

The country’s protection toolbox could also benefit from the ratification of the optional protocols to human rights treaties, such as CEDAW and CRC, which establish “complaint procedures.”  These are mechanisms that can be used by individuals to report their human rights concerns by engaging those international bodies which are the custodians of human rights treaties and which monitor their implementation.  I urge India to accede to such important instruments.

 

Moreover, India should repeal those dated and colonial-era laws that breach contemporary international human rights standards.  These range from laws which provide the security forces with excessive emergency powers, including the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, to laws that criminalize homosexuality.  Such legal vestiges of a bygone era are at odds with the vibrant dynamics and forward thrust of large sectors of the Indian polity.

 

Structural National Problems

As the Supreme Court has pointed out, India is “a country of people with the largest number of religions and languages living together and forming a nation.”  This diversity – and its potential for igniting competing claims and even strife – makes closing protection gaps and leveling the implementation playing field all the more important. 

 

Although India enjoys an array of laws and institutions designed to combat all forms of discrimination, religious and caste-based prejudices remain entrenched.  In many states long-standing grievances of minorities, lower castes, or the poor have turned into violence. 

 

Of particular concern is caste-based discrimination which is still deplorably widespread, despite efforts by the government and the judiciary to eradicate this practice. I note that in 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh strongly condemned the practice of “untouchability” and compared it with apartheid. Moreover, Dalits, as well as tribal peoples, continue to live in abject poverty.  Policies and measures that have been established to ensure relief for these groups, their access to justice, and accountability for perpetrators of abuses against them, have neither sufficiently alleviated their conditions, nor have they satisfactorily curtailed the climate of impunity that enables human rights violations.  This is an area where India can not only address its own challenges nationally, but show leadership in combating caste-based discrimination globally.

 

Both internal and external terrorist threats have led to counter-terrorist measures that put human rights at risk.  The horrific terrorist attack in Mumbai has also polarized society and risks stoking suspicions against the Muslim community.  It is imperative to counter violent religious extremism of any kind by insisting on peaceful coexistence, tolerance and acceptance of diversity. 

 

In the past two decades, hundreds of cases of disappearances have been reported in Kashmir.  These cases must be properly investigated in order to bring a sense of closure to the families who for far too long have been awaiting news—any news. 

 

I am aware of the landmark report by the Sachar Committee on the socio-economic status of the Muslim minority, and I encourage the Government to follow up on its important recommendations. An important step in this direction would be the adoption of a new Equal Opportunities Bill. The legislation would establish an ombudsman system to deal with grievances of “deprived groups” in line with the Sachar Committee recommendations, and would be a first step towards establishing a broader system to uphold equality of opportunity for women and other groups.

 

Finally, let me point out that progress in women’s rights must be defended.  Sixty years ago, as the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights got down to work, it was the Indian delegate, Hansa Mehta, who ensured that women’s equal entitlement to human rights would not be merely subsumed under the “rights of all men” catch-all expression.  She knew that a gender-implicit reference might be interpreted to the exclusion of women. 

 

Since then, the space for women’s rights in India has expanded in law and practice.  Thanks to the vigorous advocacy of women’s groups, in 2005 India adopted the innovative Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, which recognizes marital rape as a form of domestic violence. While criminal law has still not been amended to enable women to file rape cases against husbands or sexual partners, victims are given access to new remedies, including protection orders or injunctions against abusers. There is, however, pressure on the part of conservative groups to undermine the applications of the Act.  Such pressure must be resisted.  At the same time, women’s vehicles of recourse, as well as the menu of available remedies, must be widened.

 

Another empowering factor has been vibrant activism, especially by young women and newer constituencies, against attempts to constrain their sexuality and conduct on the basis of obscenity laws.  Not surprisingly, also on this topic, advocates of traditional values and anti-secular forces have engineered a significant backlash against women.  This phenomenon is not unique to India. Here — as elsewhere — urgent countermeasures are required to bolster the rights, participation, and position of women in society.

 

India’s economic growth has drawn many women from all backgrounds into the public and economic sphere, thus contributing to their visibility, economic empowerment and participation.  I commend initiatives such as SEWA, the Self-Employed Women’s Association.  SEWA’s network of women’s cooperatives, pursuing the Gandhian ideal of self-help and self-sufficiency, should be an inspiration to those who seek efficient and just ways to promote women’s entrepreneurship and resourcefulness. 

 

We must now ensure that the current financial and economic crises are not used as pretexts to undercut gains in women’s empowerment that make a society grow as a whole.   There are already indications that in some countries recession is hitting harder those sectors where women are the predominant component of the workforce.   Measures to respond to the economic downturn must not crowd out women’s interests.  Rather, they should strengthen women’s participation through faresighted policies and public investment in areas where women’s skills could either be brought to fruition or retooled.  Crucially, such measures must take into account women’s ideas and initiatives to alleviate hardship and jumpstart recovery. 

 

Responsibilities of a Global Player

As the largest democracy in the world, India plays a commensurate role on the international scene.  With influence, of course, come responsibilities.  An immediate opportunity for powerful advocacy is fast approaching in the human rights calendar.  In less than a month the Durban Review Conference on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance will take place in Geneva. 

 

I have called for participation of all UN Member States in this important world conference. I have appealed to all States never to lose sight of the overall goal of the conference, that is, an assessment of implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action to combat racism and intolerance (DDPA) which States adopted by consensus in 2001.

 

Stepping up efforts and accelerating the pace of compliance with the DDPA is of paramount importance.  The goal of attaining discrimination-free societies must override differences and reconcile diverse perspectives. As the Chair of the Asian Group within the Human Rights Council, India must exercise all its leverage to ensure that the outcome of the review conference is successful.

 

As it acts in its influential regional capacity, India should, at the same time, exercise its independent and individual judgment as a leading member of the Human Rights Council whenever appropriate and necessary. 

 

I encourage India to speak out on its own, as well as in concert with others, whenever the human rights agenda that it cherishes and seeks to pursue domestically becomes of concern elsewhere.  I urge India to continue to support freedom and rights wherever they are at stake, and particularly regarding the alarming situations in its own region, such as those in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

 

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NGOs Asked to Leave Swat

March 23, 2009 at 10:16 am · Filed under Talibanization ·Tagged , ,

clip_16Insurgents in Pakistan’s volatile Swat Valley in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) who recently made a peace deal with the government now want all NGOs to leave the area.
 
 ”They come and tell us how to make latrines in mosques and homes. I’m sure we can do it ourselves. There is no need for foreigners to tell us this,” Muslim Khan, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan said.
 
 ”NGO is another name for vulgarity and obscenity. They don’t want us to remain Muslims and want to take away the veil from our women,” Khan claimed.  He said NGOs hire women who work alongside men in the field and in offices. “That is totally un-Islamic and unacceptable,” he said.
 
 Maulana Fazalullah, the leader of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah-Mohammadi (TNSM), who has aligned himself with TTP (see the origins of violence in Swat Valley http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=83105), said on an illegal FM radio station on 2 March: “All NGOs should leave Swat because they are creating problems for peace.” In an earlier interview Fazalullah said: “All Pakistanis working for them (NGOs) are enemies of the country.”
 
 A government official struck a conciliatory tone. “We respect the work of NGOs, both local and international NGOs,” said Jameel Amjad, NWFP provincial relief commissioner. “Right now we are pursuing a policy of conciliation and things have worked out well so far in Swat. With time, I’m sure, when the situation normalises, the work of the NGOs will further strengthen.”  International NGOs are working through local implementing partners, he said. 
 
NGO situation in Swat 
Swat Participatory Council (SPC), a local NGO, said there were about 10 NGOs currently active in Swat Valley. None of them declare they are Muslim or Islamic; all are non-profit organisations and do not differentiate between Muslims and non-Muslims when it comes to providing aid, he said. 
 
Among international NGOs, only humanitarian medical organisations are reportedly allowed. “Only Médecins Sans Frontières [MSF], the International Committee of the Red Cross and some local philanthropists who are distributing relief goods to internally displaced persons [IDPs] are allowed,” said Khan.
 
 MSF, which had stopped work after two of its staff were killed on 1 February, has resumed work, Fasil Tezera, MSF (Belgium) head in Pakistan, confirmed.
 
 Since the insurgency began in 2007some local NGOs have pulled down their sign-boards. However, some are working with the implicit approval of the Taliban, said Roshan.
 
 Three months ago Caravan, Diya, Khealkor and Anjuman Behbood e-Khwateen (Organisation for the Welfare of Women) and other local NGOs formed a group called the Disaster Response Network, which has been helping internally displaced people and distributing food aid. 
 
Aid held up by TTP 
Yusufzai, a college principal in Swat, said: “The TTP looks upon the NGOs with displeasure. They [the TTP] have even refused to accept relief goods from some international relief organisations, saying that help from non-Muslims is unacceptable.”
 
 Meanwhile, Badar Zaman, chief editor of The Malakand Times and a former NGO head, said some food and non-food items were being kept in Malakand Agency waiting for a nod from the TTP which has stopped further distribution pending the imposition of Sharia (Islamic) law.
 
 The Taliban said Zaman, “are not corrupt”. He claimed that if they had been involved, “at least relief goods would not be on sale in Mingora market”. 
 
Against polio vaccinations 
Khan said the TTP was against polio vaccination, repeating unfounded allegations that the vaccine causes infertility. Similar allegations have blocked the polio eradication campaigns in parts of Pakistan before. “I’m 45 and have never had one drop of the vaccine and I am still alive.”
 
 Part of the problem is that the anti-polio campaign is run by NGOs and the vaccine is imported, said Khan. “We would have no problem, if the vaccine had been made locally, in Pakistan,” he said, adding that the TTP was particularly against all foreign overtures on family planning. (see also: Taliban attitudes to contraception in Afghanistan http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=83476)

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Beginning of a New Era in Pakistan

March 21, 2009 at 9:12 am · Filed under Lawyers' Agitation ·Tagged , ,

2656_62118000685_638010685_2118555_6010477_n

 

Dr. V.P. Vaidik*

 

What happened in  Pakistan recently is beyond one’s imagination. Reinstating of Chief Justice Iftikar Choudhary and legal restoration of Sharif Brothers is no less than a political miracle. One can only imagine the repercussions, if Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani would not have made the declaration of reinstating the judges. Many American political gurus and Pakistan-specialists were sharing their fear with me last week in Washington, DC about the possibility of either a military coup or the balkanization of Pakistan. The specter of Bangladesh had once again started haunting Pakistan. Many political movements have taken place earlier in Pakistan’s history but the present movement was really unique in the sense that many police and civil officials just ignored the Central Government’s orders. The Lahore police refused to put Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif under house arrest. Police and Administrative officers preferred to resign rather than obey the government. Sharif brothers’ ‘long march’ actually turned out to be a ‘National Movement’. Not only Sharifs’ Muslim League but many famous leaders and workers from PPP, government officials, lawyers, retired army officers and ordinary people from all walks of life also joined the movement.

 

Surrounded from all sides Zardari looked much more vulnerable than Musharraf during his last days in office. 

Pakistani army and America also did not come to Zardari’s rescue. The third savior of Pakistan, the Allah, perhaps observed perfect neutrality. On the one hand, Hillary Clinton remained tough and, on the other, Gen. A.P. Kayani did some straight-talking with Prime Minister Y.R. Gilani, who was wise enough to move quickly. Gilani took charge of the sensitive situation and announced the reinstatment of the Judges. The fact that in this entire episode Gilani gained an upper hand over Zardari, has the potential of creating bad blood between both of them. This has inadvertently created a natural premise for downsizing the powers of the President of Pakistan. All political parties are ready to put an end to the 17th amendment of the constitution. In other words, one can look forward to a happy outcome to this political crisis.  Circumscribing the constitutional powers of the President and re-establishing those of the Prime Minister will definitely reenergize Pakistan’s democracy.

 

Had this tug-of-war not been resolved, the army would have been the real political beneficiary. The army would have risen several notches in public estimation and the democratic leaders would have once again proven to be a dismal failure. Although America is an ardent advocate of democracy in Pakistan, however, in the above scenario, America would have been forced to support the army. No country can afford to sacrifice its national interest for the sake of other country’s supposed democracy. The political quarrel between Muslim League and PPP would have jeopardized the American interests and the fight against terrorism would have been totally sidetracked. In the end, America’s straight talking augured well for Pakistan and resolved the dangerous crisis but in this entire affair, one major issue received very little attention, i.e., the issue of Pakistan’s sovereignty. India and China, in their own case, would have seen the same role played by America as an abject outside interference. They would have never allowed or tolerated it. Pakistan’s inability to perceive America’s role as ‘interference’ demonstrates the country’s lack of sense of sovereignty and   it’s puppet-like status. 

 

In the end, Chief Justice Iftikar Chaudhary and about other 60 judges will be reinstated. One can only hope that Choudhary holds his balance and does not start settling old scores. Choudhary has constitutional power to declare the last elections as ultra vires, which brought Zardari to power and he can also declare the political amnesty extended to Benazir Bhutto and Zardari during Musharrf’s regime as unlawful. This could be ominus for the future of democracy in Pakistan. Greater restraint and farsightedness is expected of Choudhary. As far as Sharif brothers are concerned, they will come out clean from Choudhary’s court and one can safely assume that Shahbaz Sharif will be the Chief Minister of Punjab once again. This is not enough. Much more is required of the democratic leaders of Pakistan. Muslim League and PPP have no option but to stop their political quarrels and join forces to set up a strong Coalition government in Punjab as well as at the Center. This is the only way they can keep the army on leash and fight terrorism at the same time. The unity of these two major political parties is a sure guarantee of good relation with India. The Coatition can successfully satisfy India on the question of Mumbai attack without the fear of loosing their popularity by getting into the futile rival posturing. Improved relations with India can also help Pakistan reduce its military expenditure. What Pakistan needs most toady is the early economic recovery. Nawaz Sharif has earned a great deal of political capital in this event and Prime Minister Gilani has displayed statesman-like acumen. If these two leaders desire, they can start a new era in Pakistan’s politics. There is no doubt that they will be arch rivals in the next elections but until then is it not possible that both work towards fulfilling the dream of  Quaid-e-Azam, M.A. Jinnah of a democratic and  prosperous Pakistan.

 

Dr. V.P. Vaidik, A-19 Press Enclave New Delhi 110 017, (Phone) (0091-11) 2686 7700, 2651 7295

Mob. : (0091)98-9171-1947, e-mail : dr.vaidik@gmail.com

 

 

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What are Zardari’s & Nawaz Sharif’s Objectives

March 19, 2009 at 11:35 am · Filed under Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan Under PM Gillani ·Tagged , ,

dhoom3Three things drive Zardari.

 

One: Nawaz Sharif’s fixation on the deposed chief justice’s restoration. He fears that once restored, the CJ will rescind the National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007 that enabled all the cases against him and Ms. Bhutto to be withdrawn so that they could return to Pakistan. That this same chief justice placed an injunction or stay order on the NRO is still frighteningly fresh in his memory.

 

Two: he knows that without the Punjab his hold over Pakistan and thus over state power is tenuous. With the Punjab he is master of all he surveys.

 

Three: if the Punjab government is at odds with him – and it definitely will be if the Nawaz League’s government is restored – they will trash Zardari’s Islamabad government faster than you can say “Jeeyay Bhutto”.  

 

Zardari well remembers what Chief Minister Punjab Nawaz Sharif did to his wife’s first government. He cannot trust Sharif even indirectly in charge of the Punjab now after having fooled him thrice and sacked his brother’s provincial government.

 

Sharif, still smarting under the humiliation that Zardari took him for a ride thrice cannot afford a fourth ride in the name of reconciliation without being declared certifiably stupid.

 

He has six objectives. One: having been disqualified by the Supreme Court from contesting elections or holding any public office ever again, he is fighting for his and his brother’s political survival.

 

Two: restoration of his party’s government in the Punjab.

 

Three: restoration of the deposed chief justice so that he can rescind the NRO and ‘get’ Zardari. The People’s Party will then be Bhutto-less, leaderless. Sharif will have no credible rival and could force another election that he thinks he will win big, perhaps with a two-thirds majority. He can then constitutionally manipulate and mutilate the constitution as he wills regardless of its spirit and intent, as he did during his second term.

 

Four: parliament or even the Supreme Court will remove the two-term bar on his becoming prime minister again.

 

Five: then ‘get’ Musharraf too and quench his thirst for revenge.

 

Six: complete his unfinished agenda of imposing his version of Shariat on Pakistan. Going by his record, independence of the judiciary is nowhere on his radar screen. Sharif too doesn’t trust Gilani anymore. For all he knows, they might be playing good cop-bad cop behind the smokescreen of the seeming ‘rift’ between the president and the prime minister.

 

The deposed chief justice, perhaps after revenge too, has not had the moral courage to answer the charges against him, having been saved by a Supreme Court judgment that has still not been written. Why? Because in throwing out the reference against the CJ without letting it be heard by the Supreme Judicial Council as required by the constitution, to save their chief from what would have been a highly embarrassing inquiry they might have violated the constitution. How can they now write their judgment without finding a credible justification for violating the constitution?

 

So what will happen now?

 

Who knows? They will try more unnatural things in hysteria to diffuse the immediate crisis and avert a possible bloodbath today and tomorrow. They toyed with a possible PPP-PMLQ marriage but that has probably floundered on the rocks for being even more unnatural. The rumor rife is: lift governor’s rule; the Punjab assembly that meets tomorrow elects another leader who will become chief minister and form another Nawaz League-led government; restore the CJ through presidential ordinance, limiting his term and powers so that he cannot touch the NRO and the constitution. What credibility will a highly politicized judge have? How will the current judges react? They might decide to break the Supreme Court in two, one constitutional and the other the rest of it. We already have numerous legal systems in the land, why not two Supreme Courts? That will weaken the institution further. Why not two parliaments then, one law making and the other as check and balance? How is that any different from the late Mr. Bhutto’s suggestion of two constitutions and two prime ministers? Divide the spoils, eh? What they will be dividing will be a carcass. The next crisis will make this one look like a picnic and will be upon us soon.

 

They have all gone too far to be seen to compromise without going into oblivion. Sharif is hardened now, having spent time in Attock Fort and in exile. Zardari has been to hell and back. They are no longer mollycoddled softies who can be frightened into automatically bending to the will of the jackboot. Zardari could refuse the army chief. Then what? The chief can hardly mount a coup because his ultimate superior and appointing and dismissing authority didn’t listen to him.

 

An act of parliament should be passed that no judge who has ever taken oath under any Provisional Constitution Order should ever be appointed judge again – exactly what the Charter of Democracy requires. A mechanism should be incorporated in the same Act that prevents governments from stuffing courts with stooge and corrupt Judges. This will ensure genuine independence of the judiciary and every solution will flow from that.

 

I knew that elections under this imported British system would lead to this mess. Those who couldn’t see it coming have to be mentally enslaved and intellectually challenged fools who don’t know their country, understand its leaders and the essence of democracy.

 

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