Pakistani Politics

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday said Pakistan armed forces would give an equal response within few minutes if India carried out any surgical strike inside Pakistan.

He said this in a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari at the Aiwan-e-Sadr here. The crux of the meeting was that any further buckling under mounting Indian pressure would prove counter-productive in the sense that it would further encourage New Delhi to further build up pressure on Islamabad.

The Army chief apprised the president of operational preparedness of the armed forces. “The armed forces are fully prepared to meet any eventuality, as his men are ready to sacrifice for their country,” General Kayani told the president.

Despite Indian warmongering, President Zardari believed in gearing up efforts for peace, which should otherwise not be taken as a sign of weakness. Zardari said Pakistan wanted peaceful and cordial relations with all its neighbours, but the threatening statements of Indian leadership were creating an atmosphere of aggression and harming the regional environment. The meeting between the two lasted 60 minutes.

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Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was attacked from three sides on December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi. One of the assassins seen in the videos fired at her from the left side but the cause of her death was a wound on the right side of her head. Her vehicle was supposed to turn left towards Gawalmandi from the Liaquat Bagh but police blocked the road from the left side and her vehicle was forced to turn right after the public meeting and she was attacked immediately after taking the right turn.

These facts were revealed in a special investigative episode of Capital Talk on Geo News on Monday night. Hamid Mir conducted the investigations and interviewed all those who were present with Benazir Bhutto in her vehicle at the time of the attack. He also interviewed some key eyewitnesses who were injured in the attack.

Benazir Bhutto also wrote an email to an American journalist, Wolf Blitzer, on October 26, 2007 before her assassination, saying Musharraf should be held responsible if she was killed. Benazir was also aware of the dangers to her life, as the Interior Ministry had already informed her about the threats to her life on December 12, 2007. But in spite of all these threats, she continued her election campaign. She said on December 26, 2007 in a public gathering in Peshawar that life should be spent like a lion, not like a jackal.

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India’s Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday that if Pakistan doesn’t deal with those responsible, “ultimately, it is we who have to deal with this problem.”

“While we continue to persuade the international community and Pakistan, we are also clear that ultimately it is we who have to deal with this problem,” he told a meeting of India’s ambassadors gathered in New Delhi to discuss the Mumbai siege.

Asked whether a military response to the attacks was being considered, Mukherjee said India would “explore all options” to push Pakistan on its promise to crack down on cross-border terrorism.

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The National Assembly standing committee on education that met on Monday to discuss Miss Farah Hameed Dogar’s additional marks was dominated and outsmarted by official “parrots” with every one of them replicating what their master had told them to yell, participants said.

“The government side had come with a clear mind that come what may it would bulldoze the proceedings in its favour on the force of its brute majority and it did the same,” one of them told The News.

Some known “darlings” of the press like Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali and Justice (retd) Fakhrunnisa Khokhar acted like parrots to harp on what they had been fed to say. They turned out to be the main gaggers of the press as they were instrumental in driving the journalists out of the committee meeting hiding behind the rules that the session should be in-camera. They imposed their opinion on the strength of their majority in the committee.

The first shot was strangely fired by Sardar Assef, who emphasised at the very outset that the meeting should be held closed-doors, as he did not want a collision between two key state institutions. The participants noted that this man from Kasur attended the committee meeting for the first time just to add to the government’s tally to foil any discussion on the scandalous case.

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Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Quaid Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday expressed concern over the absence of the government’s writ due to which the country was begining to present the look of a failed state.

Expressing his views in Geo News programme “Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Saath”, the PML-N chief said the dictatorial rule of former President Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf has made the country ungovernable.

He said Musharraf sacked the top judiciary and subjected judges to house arrest when they refused to legitimise his position as president in uniform. “Since 1977, the army has ruled the country for more than 20 years,” he said, adding: “A state subjected to frequent military intervention in politics can only become ungovernable.”

Nawaz said his party would try its best to pressurise the PPP-led government to implement the Charter of Democracy (CoD), which according to him, was the will of the slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto.

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Information Minister Sherry Rehman, while responding to Mian Nawaz Sharif’s interview to Geo TV said the country is being governed by an elected government that has paid a heavy price in the form of lives and jail sentences for its convictions, and has the full support of the majority.

She said it is unfortunate that the leadership of a major political party, which we want to work with for rebuilding democracy and overcoming challenges, chooses a sensitive time to launch an attack on the government when the country needs national unity and consensus. We don’t wish to trade in a war of words as that will not benefit our citizens who seek stability and maturity from their leadership right now.

Mian Nawaz Sharif’s party is also heading a coalition Government in the biggest province of the country. They, too, are partners in governance, she added, so we are all responsible for moving forward together. Sherry Rehman said we appeal to all political leaders to remain united leaving aside their political differences because the situation demands unity.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday sought undoing of the discretionary powers of the prime minister and the president, terming them a disease that was causing socio-economic devastation in the country.

The committee also took notice of The News story about the Rs60 billion housing scam and summoned the housing secretary on Friday to discuss the issue.The PAC which met here with Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in the chair asked the principal accounts officer of the ministry to bring with him the relevant record in this context.

According to The News report the Rs60 billion Prime Minister Housing Programme was being awarded to a UK-based company, known for shoemaking, and extremely hush-hush tactics were being used without securing the interest of end consumers.

This might turn it into one of the biggest government-sponsored scams, The News had further reported. Interestingly, the agreement was inked between the Imperial Houses (IHL) and the Pakistan Housing Authority (PHA) without inviting open bids.

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The Indian cricket board on Thursday cancelled next year’s tour of Pakistan on instructions from the government in the wake of the Mumbai siege. India were scheduled to play three Tests, five ODIs and a Twenty20 match during the tour although there had already been grave doubts about it going ahead over security concerns.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman has rejected PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif’s allegation of having received an offer from the government to remain silent on the marks issue of Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar’s daughter and in return get his case withdrawn.

Responding to Nawaz Sharif’s allegations, Sherry Rehman said the PPP government believed in democracy and was running the affairs strictly in accordance with law and the Constitution. “We respect all the democratic forces and nobody from the government has ever made an offer to Nawaz Sharif to withdraw from his stand on the chief justice on the condition that his cases will be withdrawn. The Pakistan People’s Party government will only proceed in a legal and transparent manner,” she said.

The information minister said that parliament was supreme and, therefore, could legislate on issues of public importance. “Nawaz Sharif is most welcome to raise matters in parliament, which is the supreme body to legislate,” she added.

Advising the government to stop backing Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, former prime minister and PML-N Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday made a startling disclosure that he was offered judgment of court cases in his and Shahbaz Sharif’s favour if he stops raising the enhanced marks issue of Farah Hameed Dogar.

“I do not want to name the personality who sent the message but I was asked to stop demanding resignation of Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar,” Nawaz Sharif said while addressing a press conference after chairing the PML-N parliamentary party meeting.

He was flanked by party Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal, Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Education Abid Sher Ali and others.

The meeting that lasted for two hours at the Punjab House repeated the PML-N’s demand of resignation of the chief justice and reviewed the country’s security situation. Nawaz said the parliamentary party meeting also decided that the PML-N in consultation with other parties would table a bill in parliament to repeal the 17th Amendment.

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