(New York) – The Pakistani government should redouble efforts to find the killers of the journalist Saleem Shahzad, following the failure of the judicial inquiry commission to identify those responsible, Human Rights Watch said today. The commission concluded in its January 10, 2012 report to the government that the police failed to question Pakistan’s military intelligence officials in its criminal investigation.

Shahzad, a reporter for the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online and for Adnkronos International, the Italian news agency, disappeared from central Islamabad on the evening of May 29, 2011. His body, bearing visible signs of torture, was discovered on May 31, near Mandi Bahauddin, 130 kilometers southeast of the capital. The circumstances of the abduction raised concerns that the military’s feared Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency was responsible. In June 2011, the Supreme Court, at the request of the government, instituted a commission of inquiry into the killing.

“The commission’s failure to get to the bottom of the Shahzad killing illustrates the ability of the ISI to remain beyond the reach of Pakistan’s criminal justice system,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government still has the responsibility to identify those responsible for Shahzad’s death and hold them accountable, no matter where the evidence leads.”

The ISI has a long and well-documented history of abductions, torture, and extrajudicial killings of critics of the military and others. Those abducted are routinely beaten and threatened, their relatives told not to worry or complain as release was imminent, and then released with the threat of further abuse if the ordeal is made public. Pakistani and international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have extensively documented the ISI’s intimidation, torture, enforced disappearances, and killings, including of many journalists.

The five-member commission, which included two judges, two senior police officers, and one journalist, convened on June 21, 2011. Over six months it interviewed 41 witnesses, including Shahzad’s family members, journalists, senior ISI officials, and others. It also conducted an extensive examination of documents, including relevant emails, telephone records, and investigation reports, as well as reports by previous similar commissions.

Among those interviewed were Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch and Hameed Haroon, president of the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) and publisher of the Dawn Group. Each had received emails from Shahzad in 2010 complaining of threats by ISI agents for his reporting on links between the ISI and al-Qaeda. On October 19, 2010, Shahzad sent an email to Human Rights Watch outlining his meeting with the ISI and asking for the email to be released “in case something happens to me or my family in future.” Shahzad sent the same email and information about other threats to Haroon, and to colleagues at Asia Times Online.

ISI officials maintained to the commission that Shahzad had cordial relations with them until shortly before his killing. Despite strong indications of ISI involvement, the commission concluded that the Pakistani state, militant groups including the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and unnamed ‘foreign actors’ could all have had a motive to kill Shahzad on the basis of his writings.

“The commission appeared fearful of confronting the ISI over Shahzad’s death,” said Adams. “Shahzad had made it clear to Human Rights Watch that should he be killed, the ISI should be considered the principal suspect. He had not indicated he was afraid of being killed by militant groups or anybody else.”

Human Rights Watch said that the investigation’s weakness was exemplified by the failure to interview another journalist, Umar Cheema, who was abducted, tortured, and then dumped 120 kilometers from his residence in Islamabad in September 2010. Cheema alleged that his abductors were from Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. It is inexplicable that the commission failed to seek Cheema’s testimony despite his very public allegations against the ISI and repeated offers to testify before the commission, Human Rights Watch said.

“At great personal risk, scores of journalists, human rights activists, and others presented themselves before the commission to offer accounts of ISI and military involvement in human rights abuses,” Adams said. “The commission repaid this courage by muddying the waters and suggesting that just about anyone could have killed Shahzad.”

The commission’s recommendation that all intelligence agencies should be made accountable through “parliamentary oversight” and judicial redress should be promptly implemented by the government through appropriate legislation, Human Rights Watch said. The commission also recommended that “the balance between secrecy and accountability in the conduct of intelligence gathering be appropriately re-adjusted” and a “statutory framework carefully outlining their respective mandates and role” be developed. It also urged that the intelligence agencies’ “interaction with the media be carefully institutionally streamlined and regularly documented.”

“ISI abuses will only stop if it is subject to the rule of law, civilian oversight, and public accountability,” Adams said. “It is the government’s duty to insist on such accountability and the military’s duty to submit to it. The ISI needs to stop acting as a state within a state.”

Human Rights Watch expressed grave concern that the commission found it appropriate to recommend that the “press be made more law-abiding and accountable through the strengthening of institutions mandated by law to deal with legitimate grievances against it.

“It is perverse to use an investigation into the killing of a journalist as a way of limiting press freedom,” said Adams.

Pakistan remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. At least 10 journalists, including Shahzad, were killed in 2011. In January 2011, a Geo TV reporter, Wali Khan Babar, was fatally shot in Karachi shortly after covering gang violence in the city. In May, the president of the Tribal Union of Journalists, Nasrullah Khan Afridi, was killed when his car blew up in Peshawar; the provincial information minister described the act as a “targeted killing by the Taliban.”

In August, two men on a motorcycle shot to death an Online News Agency reporter, Munir Ahmed Shakir, after he covered a demonstration by Baloch nationalists in the Khuzdar district of Balochistan. In November, the body of Javed Naseer Rind, a sub-editor with the Urdu-language Daily Tawar, was found with torture marks and gunshot wounds in Khuzdar town. On January 17, 2012, Mukarram Khan Atif, a reporter for the Voice of America, was killed by the Taliban in the Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Brig. Gen. Zahid Mehmood of the ISI told the commission that the ISI/ISPR (Inter Services Public Relations) and other agencies “should stop patronising and protecting ‘favorite’ journalists.” Government payoffs to journalists not only distorts the news reaching the public, but the withdrawal of such patronage and “protection” can result in threats and violence, said journalists who spoke to the commission.

Human Rights Watch called on the government to pass legislation to prohibit the country’s security and intelligence agencies to end the practice of the ISI and other agencies planting agents in media organizations or providing secret payments to journalists to write or not write stories.

“Journalists are under attack from all directions in Pakistan, including by the military,” said Adams. “This murderous free-for-all will only end when the government can protect journalists from militants and its own intelligence agencies. Arresting the killers is the best way to do that.”

Source: Human Rights Watch

The following article by Farrukh Khan Pitafi appeared in the The Express Tribune, describes the so called judicial commission’s failure to get to the bottom of the Shahzad murder and to question Pakistan’s military intelligence officials and to identify the perpetrators.

Did no one kill Saleem Shahzad then?

James Jesus Angleton, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) counter-intelligence staff was credited with coining the term ‘wilderness of mirrors’, for the world of espionage. Paranoid as he often was, he also strongly believed that the Soviet spy agency, KGB was capable of influencing CIA’s perceptions without leaving behind a trace. Upon reading the report presented by the Saleem Shahzad Murder Inquiry Commission, one feels lost in the very wilderness. However, in our wilderness, traces of manipulation are visible.

Instead of an impartial inquiry, one might have expected the report presents the image of a witch-hunt and indulges in voodoo magic to preserve the soul of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency. The Commission was primarily tasked to identify the perpetrators of the crime and shed light on circumstances leading to it. It ostensibly fails to deliver on both counts as it manages to raise more questions than answering the existing ones.

The singular most striking aspect that becomes evident from even a casual reading of the report is the Commission’s cynicism towards journalists and the Human Rights Watch (HRW), which was remarkably in contrast with its gullible attitude towards the intelligence community and its visible lackeys, pretending to be journalists. While it seemed that the inquiry was expecting the journalist community to present nothing short of a smoking gun, two of the three major intelligence agencies were let go upon producing written statements.

Even in the ISI’s case, only Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir was cross-examined at length, and that, too, to the effect that a case is built almost in his favour. And while Mr Ali Dayan of HRW was subjected to rather gratuitous questions about his organisation and work, redoubtable testimonies of self-proclaimed journalists like like Zafar Mehmood, Sheikh Qamarul Munir alias Qamar Yousafzai and Muhammad Raashed were accepted at face value without going into details of their professional competence. This apparently is because the testimony of these gentlemen supported the ISI’s narrative apart from casting aspersions on Shahzad’s person.

Shahzad’s book, Inside al Qaeda and Taliban (Pluto Press, 2011), has raised serious concerns on the failure of counter-intelligence. When he claimed that Ilyas Kashmiri had influenced some serving and retired officials in the armed forces, did it not become essential to probe whether such al Qaeda moles could have killed him to maintain their cover.

Another glaring omission in the structure and functioning of the Commission was the absence of a dedicated forensic expert and an investigator. In the absence of either, the Commission could expect to be stalled and that is precisely why it had to crack open Shahzad’s email account on its own. Quite astoundingly, it does not make much of the fact that the authorities did not provide much cooperation.

Also, it makes one wonder that the Commission quite clearly did not consider, even remotely, the possibility that the victim’s family might have contradicted Ali Dayan’s version under duress or because of it may have received actual threats. People who recovered the body or had something to do with the discovery were either not probed in detail, or else the account was not worthy of a mention in the report.

The fact remains that Pakistan has a long history of such crimes. Please remember the names of Daniel Pearl, Wali Babar, Moosa Khan Khel, Hayatullah Khan, Umar Cheema and Faraz Hashmi. No conspiracy theory about the seemingly ubiquitous ‘foreign hand’ can hide this fact.

In the end, the Commission does at least one generous thing — that of recommending the release of the three million rupees pledged to the family of the victim. But it should have gone a bit further and recommended that the family of the victim should be shifted abroad as this state and its justice system cannot ensure security for the life and property of journalists.

Previously, more than 80 Shia doctors were serial killed in Karachi. Now more than 6 Shia lawyers have been killed in the last three months.

Related post: Pakistan’s military state enables further Shia killings in the name of Difa-e-Pakistan

Six Shia Muslims were killed in Karachi and Quetta on Wednesday 25 January 2012 in the latest incidents of target killing of Shia Muslims in Pakistan. The six Shia professionals killed today included: 3 lawyers (in Karachi), 1 TV artist, 1 poet and accountant, 1 FIA officer (in Quetta). Genocide continues!

According to the World Shia Forum and Shaheed Foundation, more than 700 Shia Muslims were target killed in 2011 by Pakistan army backed Jihadi-sectarian organizations (e.g., Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ASWJ (also known as Sipah-e-Sahaba or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi etc). Pakistan army is currently supporting terrorist anti-Shia organization Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan under the banner of the so called Difa-e-Pakistan (Defence of Pakistan) rallies and conferences. Sipah-e-Sahaba (a radial Doebandi organization) and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (a radical Wahhabi organization) are two main parties in the Difa-e-Pakistan Conference. The Difa-e-Pakistan Council is also supported by Imran Khan’s political party PTI; Khan sent a special message to the Difa-e-Pakistan Conference in December 2011 in Lahore.

In the first 26 days of 2012, at least 40 Shia Muslims have been target killed, which averages out to one to two Shia target killing per day across Pakistan. In the most deadly attack this year, at least 27 Shia Muslims were killed in Khanpur (Punjab) on 14 January 2012 during a mourning procession for Imam Hussain (Chehlum).

In the latest incidents today, 3 Shia lawyers were killed in Karachi when Jihadi-sectarian militants opened fire on their car near then Aram Bagh area of Karachi.

In Quetta, another three Shiite Muslims were killed at Makengi Road, including FIA Police Inspector Wilayat Hussain, a TV artist Abid Ali Nazish and Muhammad Anwar.

KARACHI: Advocate Kafil Jaffery, his father Baidar Jaffery and brother Shakeel Jafery were killed when four gunmen, riding two motorcycles, opened fire on Lawyers’ car when they were going back home from the City Court Karachi. A fourth lawyers is in critical condition and is undergoing surgery at the Civil Hospital.

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has announced a nation wide boycott of courts on Thursday.

Eyewitness accounts state that the police failed to act and only opened aerial firing after the attack had already taken place. The police were also late in cordoning off the crime scene. Pakistan’s police is usually under instructions from Pakistan army / ISI to refrain from intervening when ISI’s assets (proxies) are conducting their operations against Shias, Ahmadis, Christians, Barelvis etc.

QUETTA: Police said the three victims were travelling in a car on Ibrahim Street on Mekangi Raod when the attackers, riding a motorcycle, opened fire at them, killing them on the spot. The assailants managed to escape from the scene. The bodies were taken to Provincial Sandeman Hospital for an autopsy where they were identified as FIA Inspector Vilayat Hussain, actor Abid Nazish and Mohammad Anwar, an employee of the accountant-general of Balochistan’s office.

Artist Abid Ali Nazish (shaheed) with Tauqir Nasir

Media and human rights organizations silence:

Pakistani media, both English and Urdu language media, and both right wing and so called liberal journalists continue to either ignore or misrepresent the news of Shia killings. For example, Express Tribune, which is usually presented as a liberal progressive voice in Pakistan by urban elites, refused to identify the motive and identity of the three professionals killed in Quetta, and wrote this line: “The motive behind the murders could not be known immediately.”

On Twitter, where only two days ago, hundreds of bloggers and activists, who were busy in condemning TV anchor Maya Khan’s violation of liberal space and progressive norms, kept complete mum on the genocide of Shias. No activism, petition or pressure on Pakistani media, government or army was evident in order to highlight, condemn and stop the ongoing Shia genocide.

However, Baloch, Pashtun and Ahmadi activists were most vocal on Twitter against the ongoing Shia genocide; they also criticised Pakistani media’s and urban elites’ hypocrisy and silence on Shia killings.

In the meanwhile, the Wolrd Shia Forum has appealed to all Shia scholars and youths to refrain from participating in any political or religious meeting in which there is likelihood of hate speech against other sects or religions including Ahmadi Muslims, Christians, Jews etc.

It is high time that Pakistan’s oppressed communities including Shia Muslims, Ahmadi Muslims, Christians, Balochs, Pashtuns and others unite and support each other against the ongoing persecution and target killing by Jihadi-sectarian assets of the Deep State.

Video report: Karachi

Video report: Quetta

Video by Shia Killing

Originally Posted at: Pakistan Today

Top leaders of Pakistan Army decided in a meeting last week that they would make no compromises on ‘national security’, and according to reports, also promised to provide protection to Mansoor Ijaz – the man who said the army “breeds hatred among Pakistan’s Islamist masses and then uses their thirst for jihad against Pakistan’s neighbours and allies to sate its hunger for power”.

Mansoor Ijaz may come to Pakistan to testify against former ambassador Husain Haqqani.

It is not clear if Haqqani collaborated with Ijaz to write a controversial memo asking the US to depose Pakistan’s top military leaders, but his travel documents have reportedly been confiscated, he is not allowed to leave the country, he is hiding in the Prime Minister’s House because he fears for his life, and he will likely be charged with treason. But it is clear that Mansoor Ijaz did write the memo. It is ironic that he has been promised security by the very army he had asked the US to act against. If the memo was a conspiracy against Pakistan, why is army supporting one of the conspirators? What are the legal implications of such a move?

It is not clear whether Husain Haqqani violated any regulations, but he was summoned, questioned, and made to resign before the probe began although he was in no position to influence the probe.

But it is clear the ISI chief did not inform the prime minister before or after he met Mansoor Ijaz, although he is required to report to him. He was not made to resign, although he is in a position of influence. When the prime minister made statements that the military must follow the constitution, the army warned of “grievous consequences” through a press release.

Apparently, Shahbaz Sharif was more upset about the statement than the military itself. His elder brother Nawaz Sharif, one of Pakistan’s top politicians, has taken the issue to the Supreme Court doing exactly what the army had wanted him to do. Earlier, he had said in public meetings that the ISI was supporting his rival Imran Khan.

The government is fighting with both the judiciary and the military, and it must go, a key leader from his party said in a TV debate. When his opponent reminded him his own party’s government had fought with the judiciary and the military before it was deposed in 1999, he admitted it was a mistake. Nawaz Sharif and his party had also made appeals to the US to support his government against the military. Some of the judges who had given a legal cover to the 1999 coup are still part of the Supreme Court. The top court of Pakistan took up the memo case before several other matters of public interest as they too vowed to protect ‘national security’.

Haqqani’s lawyer Asma Jahangir said the court gave the petitioners relief more than they had asked for, and decided that ‘national security’ was more important than her client’s fundamental rights.

“I am also a parent and a citizen of this country and feel concerned,” Justice Jawad S Khwaja said in a comment during the hearing. But judges do not show similar concern in the ongoing cases in which ISI is accused of breaking rules, such as picking people up without due process, or funding conservative political parties in elections against the PPP.

The judges did not even show concern when the military promised to protect Mansoor Ijaz, the man who admits he wrote the memo that could jeopardise Pakistan’s ‘national security’.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan has promised to rally towards Islamabad and topple the government that the people of Pakistan had elected for five years. Most of the political leaders he will be flanked with were part of the previous military regime and have recently left the party believed to be backed by the military establishment. They will try to usurp power from a legitimate civilian government that includes leaders who opposed them when they were in power with a uniformed president.

President Zardari has been in jail for about a decade over charges of corruption of which none was proven. The people who had made those cases later admitted they were made under pressure from the military establishment.

If everybody else’s actions are past and closed transactions, why must Zardari hang? And if Zardari must hang, everyone must hang.

The writer is a media and culture critic and works at The Friday Times.He tweets @paagalinsaan and gets email at harris@nyu.edu

Pakistan’s civilian government, led by the Pakistan People’s Party, has long been an irritant to the country’s generals. President Asif Ali Zardari runs a corrupt and inept administration and has been far too willing to cozy up to Washington. Husain Haqqani, until November 2011, was Pakistan’s controversial envoy to the United States. He has been a thorn in the side of General Headquarters since publishing his book Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military in 2005 while at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. However, the Pakistani Army swallowed its contempt for the government and such representatives as Haqqani because the generals had very little choice in the matter — at least, that is, until now.

One reason is that, after nearly a decade of living under Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistanis are wary of military rule. The Army, too, has suffered a series of beatings to its reputation after nearly a decade of unpopular military cooperation with the United States and even more unpopular operations on Pakistan’s soil. The Army knows that another military government would be a tough sell.

Another reason is that, while the Army made much of the sanguinary NATO strike that killed 24 soldiers in November, both it and the ISI — Pakistan’s most notorious intelligence agency — are still smoldering over the humiliating facts that Osama Bin Laden enjoyed sanctuary in a cantonment town a short distance from the premier Pakistan Military Academy and that the United States could conduct a unilateral raid to kill and extract him before the Army even had a clue. Thus, the Army has been forced to work behind the scenes and through other institutions, such as the judiciary, to keep this government on his heels.

Third, no matter how detestable Zardari, Inc. may be to the men in khaki, they have had no real alternative until now. The primary rival to Zardari and his PPP is former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his political fiefdom, the Pakistan Muslim League. The Army is scarcely more able to stomach a Sharif return to power after he sacked one Army chief (Gen. Jehangir Karamat) and tried to sack another (Musharraf). Karamat, a true democrat, retired without resistance; however, when Sharif tried to oust Musharraf, the Army rolled in and toppled his government.

But the Army’s luck is changing along with that of Imran Khan, whose political fortunes have shifted in recent months. For years, the lothario cricket star turned politician could barely win his own seat. However, with what Pakistanis suspect is support from the military and ISI, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has successfully wooed numerous turncoat politicians and their swollen vote banks. Khan has asked politicians who are now joining PTI to vacate their current elected seats in the parliament both as a means of ensuring that they do not reverse course but also as a ploy to bring about fresh elections earlier than 2013, when general polls are to be held. So far, PTI does not have the numbers needed to bring down the government, but politics in Pakistan is about coalitions and vote banks. This is a long shot, but not impossible with ever more self-interested politicians from other parties flocking his way.

Khan holds views that align well with those of the Army. He has roused the sentiments of Pakistan’s masses by calling for a restructuring — if not outright cessation — of military cooperation with Washington. He supports the Afghan Taliban, believes that Pakistan’s armed forces should not be operating against Pakistani militants, and espouses a strong — if absurdly pandering and unrealistic — position on corruption. His views on sharia and blasphemy are chameleon-like. He is anything to anyone.

Not only does the Army have a palatable political alternative to either the PPP or PML-N — it now has a mechanism to bring about the downfall of this government: Pakistan’s interventionist Supreme Court. The current chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, has long loathed Zardari because the latter opposed his reinstatement following his dismissal by then President Musharraf. The Supreme Court also rubbished a constitutional amendment — the “National Reconciliation Ordinance” (NRO) — that dropped various criminal charges against Zardari and his wife, Benazir Bhutto, along with other PPP members.

This legislation, which was brokered along with Musharraf and the U.S. government, paved the way for Bhutto’s return in the fall of 2007. Washington understood the NRO to be the only way to salvage Musharraf’s battered legitimacy by allowing him to remain as president while also paving the way for Bhutto to become prime minister following elections scheduled for late 2007. Her assassination changed everyone’s fortunes.

In 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that the NRO was unconstitutional, with obvious implications for the various PPP officials who benefited from it, including Zardari. The Supreme Court has demanded to know why the government has failed to implement its 2009 vacation of the NRO by reinstating all criminal cases. The Supreme Court has also informed Zardari that he does not enjoy automatic immunity from prosecution for his alleged crimes.

The Army also now has a newer hook to hang proceedings against this government: the “Memogate” scandal. In the aftermath of the bin Laden raid, a mysterious memo was delivered to Adm. Mike Mullen, then chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, . The memo asked for U.S. assistance to stave off a coup and in return offered to reverse Pakistan’s decades-long policy of jihad under an expanding nuclear umbrella. Mullen admits he received the document, but quickly concluded that it was not credible. The memo riles Pakistan’s military and intelligence officials because it sought to put them in their proper place: under civilian control. This was the last straw for Pakistan’s security complex, which for years has objected to this government’s efforts to enlist U.S. assistance in curbing its power and influence.

At the vortex of Memogate is Haqqani, now back in Pakistan and subject to a travel ban, and Mansoor Ijaz, a wealthy Pakistani-American well-known for shady dealings. For outside observers, the proceedings are bizarre. On Nov. 23, former Prime Minister Sharif filed a petition to the Supreme Court demanding a probe into the scandal under Article 184(3) of Pakistan’s Constitution. With no charges filed and without any reference from a lower court, Pakistan’s highest court of appeal has ordered a judicial commission to determine the authenticity and providence of the memo within four weeks. (This is possible because this provision of Pakistan’s Constitution permits the court to directly hear a matter that is of public importance relating to the enforcement of fundamental rights.)

Whether or not Haqqani drafted or dictated the memo in question is difficult to discern, as there is no direct evidence linking him to it other than Ijaz’s assertions and a series of cryptic BlackBerry messages. Ijaz claims Haqqani dictated the memo to him over the phone, and thus far Ijaz has not claimed to have recordings of those conversations. Few analysts are foolhardy enough to vigorously defend either man, as both have long-established records of duplicity and double-dealing.

The stakes are high for Haqqani. He believes that his life is in danger because he has been widely depicted in Pakistan’s jingoistic press as having sold out Pakistan’s sovereignty to the Americans. That he has been an extremely effective ambassador and ably buffeted Pakistan from various U.S. fits of outrage is immaterial: Haqqani has been presumed to be guilty, has not been afforded the opportunity to present his version of events to counter those of Ijaz, has been denied freedom of movement without any charges being filed against him, and lives as a virtual prisoner within the prime minister’s house.

Leaving aside the particular fate of Haqqani, it’s important to understand this bizarre fiasco as a new sort of coup. In the old days, Pakistani generals sent tanks to oust a government. Now they plant stories in the press and manipulate the legal system.

First, if, for the sake of argument, one assumes that Haqqani is the author of the memo and indeed requested U.S. assistance in maintaining and expanding civilian control over the government and national security policy, the request is hardly treasonous. After all, the political disposition articulated in the memo is exactly what is called for in Pakistan’s Constitution — civilian control of the military.

Second, Haqqani is hardly the first to request U.S. involvement in Pakistan’s national security affairs. In 1950, Pakistan’s first premier, Liaqat Ali Khan, told an American journalist that should the United States “guarantee our territorial integrity, I will not keep any Army at all.” Instead, Khan’s visit ushered in the deep military cooperation with Pakistan that has enabled the Army to strongly root itself as the dominant institution in the country. But no one even intimated that such statements were treasonous.

Third, if Ijaz is to be believed, we must also consider his claim that Pakistan’s spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, traveled to the Gulf to secure permission to sack Zardari. Surely, if these claims have any credence, such action is clearly an extraconstitutional step to undermine the government, if not high treason under Article 6 of Pakistan’s battered 1973 Constitution.

Watchers of Pakistan’s sordid history of military intrusion into civilian affairs understand the rich irony of this current saga. Not one of the generals who have overthrown varied governments has ever been charged with treason. Not one of the varied Supreme Court justices who violated their oaths to protect the Constitution by providing judicial sanction to Pakistan’s varied military coups has ever been punished.

So let’s call the devil by his name: Memogate should be understood as a sophisticated attempt by the Army and intelligence agency to use the court to bring down this government, not just a titillating imbroglio involving Husain Haqqani.

But is there anything Washington can do about it? While the current Pakistani government is certainly abysmal, what’s also true is that the only way Pakistani democracy can solidify is through consecutive constitutional changes of power through elections. If the United States and its partners genuinely support Pakistan’s fragile democracy as the only means to achieve a more stable Pakistan in the long run, then they should act now to preempt the coup that, ironically, the suspect memo was supposedly written to prevent in the first place.

Source: Foreign Policy

Nawaz Sharif was instrumental through IJI and now we all know that it was formed and funded by Pakistan ’s notorious agencies. While signing the “charter of democracy” Mian Nawaz Sharif regretted… what he had played in the past under the banner of IJI. Former Ameer of Jamat e Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmed admitted the betrayal of Musharraf, to remove his uniform when agreed, under 17th amendment. Even the formation of Mutahidda Majils Amal, MMA, was credited to agencies, also in crafting dual conclusions. One for nation; religious alliance that can change the nation fortune, failed miserably, second for US; if you don’t deal with Musharraf then Pakistan could be taken over by religious zealots, to prolong his illegal tenure.

Imran Khan is also following the footmarks of those whom he had condemned categorically in last few years, first by accepting the establishment-driven migratory birds like Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Khurshid Kasuri, and so on and second -by unknowingly- destabilizing the govt of President Zardari.

Present govt, no matter what you think about it but it is somehow publically elected and democratic by default. After 10 years of military dictatorship that has ruined the constitution of Pakistan twice, all efforts should be made to improve the performance of present “corrupt” regime till it falls through a fresh election by people of Pakistan , not by military forces of Pakistan .

Any hand strengthening the idea of military-rule again, is considered as undemocratic force and PTI is now driving this idea with agencies help; through resources in the form of migratory birds and funding may be through local partners. This is a well known fact that who has funded PTI’s Lahore public meeting, like years before IJI was funded by whom & that petition is still pending in the court of Ifthikhar Chaudhry and hope to be reviewed before the end of his tenure in 2013 to get to know the “well known fact” of Pakistan’s politics! (by Dr. Nadia Khan)

Source: Pakistani Politics

update: There has been alterations and additions made to accommodate few other articles on the same issue

The Supreme Court has stated that under the Article 184-3, they have
jurisdiction to hear the petition on alleged memo, because fundamental
rights are directly involved. The three fundamental rights that are
directly at issue are Article 9 (Due Process), Article 14 (Dignity of Man)
and Article 19A (right to information on matters of public information). If
there are any rights breached, it must be that of petitioner, which in this
case is Nawaz Sharif.
Here is the text of Article 9 “No person shall be deprived of life or
liberty save in accordance with law.”
It boggles mind that as petitioner was under no threat of any such loss of
liberty (as he not even a party to any of incidents) it may be assumed that
someone else’s life and liberty were under threat.
Mr Waris Hussain, JD. Writing for Daily Dawn makes an apparently ludicrous
claim that
“the implicit argument by the petitioners could be that if the U.S. had
acted on the memo and stopped a military coup from taking place, Pakistan’s
generals and treasonous military personnel would be subject to death or
illegal detention at the hands of the U.S. This hypothetical series of
events was enough to satisfy the Court to continue its probe in order to
protect the fundamental rights of the military”

But if Article 9 is at issue, one can’t help but feel if this was in fact what was in Supreme Court’s mind; unfortunately not much discussion is done to elaborate as to the line of thinking that led to this conclusion. It is clear that by having a parallel commission at same time as parliamentary
commission, under the prescribed rules in the proper legislation, National Commissions Act, Mr Haqani’s fundamental rights of due process are arguably being subverted.
As hinted earlier, Mr Sharif is not even party to any of the incidents, yet is a petitioner and court allowed him locus standi (i.e. Standing to fight the case). Now principle is that X, can’t fight Y’s claim against Z, unless X is himself somewhat affected as well. Only exception is that when Y’s
claim is such an issue that it is in Public interest that X should fight this case. There are of course limitations to this, one of this being that X must be a person who represents the people as a whole. No discussion was made in decision as Mr Sharif actually being that person. Similarly there
must be a credible reason why Y himself can’t start litigation. No discussion is made as to this either. It is as if Mr Sharif was given standing as of a right, even though he is not party to facts of the case.
Such are the pitfalls of an activist court that takes suo moto notices of customs relaxations.
Article 14 Text is “(1) The dignity of man and, subject to law, the privacy of home, shall be inviolable. (2) No person shall be subjected to torture for the purpose of extracting evidence.”
I have no idea whose residential privacy was violated, or who has been tortured, nor has the Court in its order explained this predicament. If anything Mr Haqqani’s privacy is going to be breached by court’s demand for his personal Blackberry messages.
Article 19A “Every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law.”
If we are being honest, petitioner’s case mostly is dependent on this Article only. This however is an article that provides the freedom of Information to the public that is held by the Government. It is historically read as an enabling law. If a government agency is holding information against you, and you feel you have a right to it, or if that information is in public interest, then article 19A allows you to sue for that information.
What court has done in a moment of judicial creativity has turned this into a positive law which not only enables but also requires precipitous action, and by further taking it upon themselves to find the ‘facts’ it is submitted that the court has gone five steps further then a role ever
envisaged for a Supreme court in common law system. It taken the role of Judge, legislative (by a highly creative interpretation of Constitution) and executive (by means of the commission) – it was thus already raised by advocate for Hussain Haqqani that court had made itself bias, and by
removing a chance of appeal – it has further subverted due process. Creative reading of Article 19A has also other ‘flood gate’ implications, which normally courts are wary of, and thus avoid such adventures. If the court can on its own accord seek investigate memo issue, in public
interest. What stopped the court from investigating wikileaks? For example the leak that General Kiyani had spoken to US Ambassador about removing President Zardari. Here in addition to all, there is direct application of Article 6 as well. Or what prevents the court from looking into death of Akber Bugti, whose death was arguably violation of Article 9 and 10. In fact, in one of his speeches during the lawyer’s Movement, The Chief Justice alluded to killing of Akber Bugti being extrajudicial, if so, shouldn’t article 19-A not be used here as well. Then there is Death of
Benazir Bhutto, Liquat Ali Khan, Fatima Jinnah and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Also the issues of Kargil, Ojri camp, Tashkant Agreement, Niazi Surrender, East-Pakistan and so on. See what I mean by flood gates? This decision is a clear precedent for all other issues to be raised in the court, and with already a enormous workload at all courts, it may be a giant’s burden that
Supreme Court has taken upon itself. One can only speculate why?
Finally is the issue of Due Process. There was already a parliamentary
commission formed under the proper mechanism. If the Supreme Court or
petitioner had any objections to the said commission, a review of the
commission was possible even prior to its investigation. If the court was
worried about the commission’s potency, then more power should have been
recommended. The sphere of investigation may have been increased and if any
people on the commission were questionable, then even that could have been
addressed.
It is not for no reason that Highest Court in Land is being criticised in the country, there have been many liberties taken, and there is a lot of speculation, in the land of conspiracy theories, as to why there may be such an extreme action taken by Supreme Court. Only time would tell .

(تبصرہ : رؤف کلاسرا )حسین حقانی کی وکیل عاصمہ جہانگیر کا میمو سکینڈل کیس پر سپریم کورٹ کی طرف سے آنے والے متوقع فیصلے پر یہ کہنا کہ یہ پاکستانی عدلیہ کا سیاہ ترین دن ہے اور انہوں نے جس عدلیہ کو آزاد کرانے کے لیے جدوجہد کی تھی یہ وہ عدلیہ تو نہیں، اس بات کا ثبوت ہے کہ آخر کار پانچ سال بعد ہی سہی فوج اور عدالت میں ایک دفعہ پھر صلح ہو گئی ہے اور اب پاکستانی سیاستدانوں اور جمہوریت کی خیر نہیں ہے۔

اس نئے الائنس میں تڑکا میاں نواز شریف نے لگا دیا ہے جو اب کھل کر فوج کا کھیل کھیلنے کے لیے تیار ہیں اور جنرل اشفاق پرویز کیانی کے ساتھ شہباز شریف اور چوہدری نثار کی رات کے اندھیرے میں کی گئی چھ ملاقاتوں کا آخرکار نتیجہ نکلنا شروع ہو گیا ہے۔
تو کیا اس فیصلے سے یہ بھی ثابت ہو گیا کہ چاہے پاکستان آرمی نے ججوں کو گرفتار کر کے انہیں ان کے گھروں میں نظر بند رکھا ہو، وہ پھر بھی عدالت کی آنکھ میں ان سیاستدانوں کے مقابلے میں بہت اچھے ہیں، جنہوں نے ان ججوں کو نہ صرف رہا کیا تھا بلکہ انہیں پورے اعزارت اور پورے ایک سال کی تنخواہ کے بقیہ جات ادا کرنے کے بعد بحال بھی کیا تھا۔

تو کیا جنرل مشرف نے اس وقت کے ڈی جی آئی ایس آئی جنرل کیانی کے ساتھ مل کر چیف جسٹں اور ان کے ساتھیوں کو درست معطل کر کے گھروں میں نظر بند کردیا تھا اور وزیراعظم گیلانی کا وزیراعظم بنتے ہی پہلا حکم دینا کہ ججوں کو فورا رہا کیاجائے، ایک جذباتی اور غلط قدم تھا؟

آج تاریخ نے ثابت کر دیا تھا کہ چوہدری شجاعت حسین درست کہتے تھے کہ ہمیں عدالت اور فوج کے معاملات میں پارٹٰی نہیں بننا چاہیے کیونکہ یہ ایک دوسرے کے پرانے ساتھی ہیں اور اپنے گلے شکوے دور کرکے ایک دوسرے کو گلے لگا لیں گے۔ اس وقت سب نے چوہدری شجاعت کا مذاق اڑایا تھا کہ بھلا جج اور فوجی ایک دفعہ پھر کیسے گلے لگ سکتے ہیں۔ تاہم تیس دسمبر کو سب نے دیکھا کہ اسی عدالت جسے فوجیوں نے قید کیا تھا یہ فیصلہ دیا کہ پاکستان آرمی کے جنرل اشفاق پرویز کیانی سچے اور وفاقی حکومت اور پارلیمنٹ جھوٹے ہیں۔

اگر آپ بھول گئے ہوں تو آپ کو یاد کرایا جائے کہ جنرل کیانی ان دنوں پاکستان آرمی کے چیف تھے جب پوری عدلیہ کو جنرل مشرف نے قید کر رکھا تھا۔ آج وہی جنرل کیانی سچے اور جنہوں نے انہیں جنرل مشرف کی جیل سے آزادی دلوائی تھی وہ جھوٹے ہو گئے۔
وفاقی حکومت کا کہنا تھا کہ میمو ایک کاغذ کا ٹکڑا تھا کیونکہ اس کو لکھنے والا ایک امریکی شہری تھا، جس نے خود وہ میمولکھا، جمیز جونز کو ڈھونڈا اور اسے مائیک مولن تک پہنچایا۔ اس میمو پر پاکستان کے صدر سے لے کر وزیراعظم اور حسین حقانی کسی کے دستخط نہیں تھے۔ حکومت پرامید تھی کہ نواز شریف جو اس مقدمے میں پیٹشنر تھے کے پاس کوئی دستاویزی ثبوت نہیں تھا جس سے ثابت ہوتا کہ وہ میمو حکومت پاکستان کی طرف سے لکھا گیا تھا۔ یوں یہ مقدمہ کافی کمزور تھا۔ کیوں کہ حقانی اور منصوراعجاز کے پبغامات سے کچھ ثابت نہیں ہوتا تھا کیونکہ بات گھوم پھر کر وہیں آجاتی تھی کہ وہ میمو لکھنے والا حقانی نہیں بلکہ منصور اعجاز تھا۔ اس لیے جنرل کیانی کو یہ بیان دینا پڑا کہ ان کے خیال میں وہ میمو حقیت تھا اور اس کی تحقیات ہونی چاہیے۔

عدالت نے آرمی چیف کی بات مان لی اور سیاسی اور سولہ کڑور لوگوں کے نمانئدہ حکومت کو اس لیے جھوٹا قرار دیا گیا جہاں میمو سکینڈل پر ایک کمیٹی پہلے ہی تحقیات کر رہی تھی، کیونکہ عدالت سمجھتی تھی کہ آرمی چیف کے بیان کی اہمیت زیادہ تھی اور وزیراعظم کی کوئی وقعت نہیں۔

بڑے مزے کی بات ہے کہ اسی وزیراعظم گیلانی سے سپریم کورٹ کے سترہ ججوں نے دو دو پلاٹ لیے۔ اس کے علاوہ اپنی مرضی کے ججوں کو تعنیات کرایا گیا۔ جب چیف جسٹں نے آرمی چیف کی عدالت میں تعریف کی تھی تو سب سمجھ گئے تھے کہ کیا فیصلہ آنے والا ہے۔ ماضی لوٹ آیا تھا۔ ایک دفعہ پھر پیپلز پارٹی کی حکومت اور اس کے خلاف آرمی، نواز شریف اور عدالت کا جوڑ۔

ماضی میں یہ الائنس کامیابی سے چلتا رہا تھا۔ پیپلز پارٹی اس لیے بھی اقتدار میں چار سال گزار گئی کیونکہ اب تک نواز شریف اور عدالت اس سازش میں شامل ہونے کے لیے تیار نہیں تھے۔ جونہی وہ دونوں تیار ہوئے ساتھ ہی وہ جنرل اچھے ہوئے جن کے دور میں پوری عدلیہ معطل رہی اور گھروں میں نظربند رہی۔ یہی جنرل کیانی اس وقت چیف آف آرمی سٹاف ہوتے ہوئے بھی ان ججوں کو رہا نہ کر سکے تھے کیونکہ ابھی جنرل مشرف ایوان صدر میں برابرجمان تھے۔ پھر یہ کریڈٹ گیلانی کو جاتا ہے کہ جنرل مشرف کے ایوان صدر میں ہوتے ہوئے بھی وزیراعظم کی حیثت سے پہلا حکم دیا کہ ججوں کو رہا کیا جائے۔

آج وہ جنرل کیانی عدالت کو وہ سپاہ سالار نظر آتے ہیں جو اپنا خون قوم کے لیے بہاتے ہیں اور وہی گیلانی ان کو ظالم لگتے ہیں۔
عاصمہ جہانگیر اس لیے مایوس ہوئی ہیں کہ ان کا خیال تھا کہ جس پارلیمنٹ نے ان ججوں کو فوجیوں کے ہاتھوں رہائی دلوائی تھی آج اس کے وقار کا خیال رکھا جائے گا اور کہا جائے گا کہ عدالت پارلیمنٹ کی کمیٹی کی میمو سکینڈل پر ہونے والی تحقیات کا انتظار کرے گی۔ تاہم عدالت نے ثابت کیا کہ وہ پارلیمنٹ سے بھی ایک بڑا ادارہ ہے اور سولا کڑور لوگوں کی مرضی سے بننے والی پارلیمنٹ کی کوئی حیثت نہیں ہے۔ اس لیے عاصمہ کو کہنا پڑا کہ ان کی عدالت کو بحال کرانے کی جدوجہد ضائع گئی تھی کیونکہ جج صاحبان تو ایک دفعہ اسی فوج کا کھیل کھیل رہے تھے جس نے ان ججوں کو معطل کرکے انہیں نظر بند کیا تھا۔

عاصمہ کا یہ بیان بہت اہم ہے کہ نواز شریف ایک دن پچھتائیں گے کہ انہوں نے کیوں سپریم کورٹ میں ایک سیاسی حکومت کے خلاف ایک مقدمہ کرکے فوج کے ہاتھ مضبوط کیے تھے اور یہ وہی فوج تھی جس کے بارے میں وہ آج تک روتے ہیں کہ انہیں بارہ اکتوبر کے بعد ہتھکڑیاں لگا کر وزیراعظم ہاؤس سے گھیسٹ کر نکال کر لے گئی تھی۔ آج وہ اسی فوج کے ساتھ کھڑے ہو کر پارلیمنٹ اور سیاست کی بے توقیری میں برابر کے شریک ہو رہے تھے۔

شاید عاصمہ کے ذہن میں یہ بات ہو کہ جب نواز شریف 1997 میں انسداد دہشت گردی کی خصوصی عدالتیں بنا رہے تھے تو سب نے منع کیا تھا کہ آپ متوازن عدالتی نظام مت قائم کریں۔ اس پر ان کا اس وقت کے چیف جسٹں سجاد علی شاہ سے جھگڑا شروع ہوا اور عدالت پر حملہ کرایا۔

آخر دو ہزار میں جنرل مشرف نے نواز شریف کی بنائی ہوئی اسی خصوصی عدالت سے انہیں طیارہ ہائی جیکنگ کے الزام میں عمرقید کی سزا دلوائی۔

تو کیا ایک دفعہ پھر عاصمہ نے اس طرح کی پیش گوئی کر دی ہے کہ دوبارہ نواز کا انجام وہی ہوگا کیونکہ وہ ایک دفعہ پھر جرنیلوں کے ساتھ مل کر سیاست اور جمہوریت کے خلاف ایک نیا کھیل کھیل رہے تھے جس میں ان کو ہی نقصان ہو گا۔ وہ آج خود ایک وزیراعظم اور پارلیمنٹ پر ایک آرمی چیف کو ترجٰیح دے رہے ہیں، تو پھر کل کلاں کو وہ وزیراعظم بن کر کیسے آرمی چیف سے آنکھ اٹھا کر بات کر سکیں گے اور جو کچھ ان کے ساتھ کارگل پر کیا گیا وہ کیسے بھول گئے ہیں؟

تیس دسمبر کے فیصلے سے وہ سب لوگ غلط ثابت ہوئے ہیں جو سمجھتے تھے کہ جنرل مشرف کے نو مارچ دو ہزار سات کے چیف جسٹں کو معطل کرنے کے بعد فوج اور عدلیہ کے تاریخی اتحاد میں دارڑ پڑگئی تھی اور اب عدالتیں عوام اور پارلیمنٹ کے ساتھ ہوں گی۔ پانچ سال بعد وہ دوستی کے نئے بندھن میں جڑ گئے ہیں اس لیے آج جنرل کیانی اچھے اور پارلیمنٹ سے منتخب کردہ حکومت بری ہوگئی ہے جس کے ارکارن اس وقت ڈیسک پیٹ پیٹ کر بے ہوش ہو رہے تھے جب وزیراعظم گیلانی ججوں کو رہا کرنے کا حکم دے رہے تھے۔

عدالت میں ایک دفعہ پھر فوج سچی اور سیاستدان اور سیاسی حکومتیں جھوٹی ثابت ہوئی ہیں۔
آج سے چار سال قبل چوہدری شجاعت درست کہتے تھے کہ فوج اور عدالت ایک ساتھ ہیں۔ اگر وقتی طور پر ان میں اختلافات پیدا ہو گئے تھے تو ہمیں ان کے باہمی جھگڑے میں نہیں پڑنا چاہیے ۔ کون جانتا ہے کہ وہ دوبارہ گلے مل جائیں۔

تیس دسمبر جسے عاصمہ جہانگیر نے عدلیہ کے لیے ایک سیاہ دن قرار دیا، واقعی دو چیفیس دوبارہ گلے لگ گئے ! اس پر مجھے ایک سرائیکی کا محاورہ یاد آرہا ہے کہ جنج پرائی تے احمق نچے۔ اس پورے کھیل میں احمق سیاستدان ہی ثابت ہوئے ہیں !

Source: Top Story

The circus is in town. Tahir-ul-Qadri is back with invaluable suggestions for forming and running a new government. The other usual suspects, to a man, are there too. Suddenly everybody has forgotten that Sipah-e-Sahaba is a banned organisation. The Kashmir jihad may be over but Hafiz Saeed is now determined to teach NATO a lesson. I thought Ijaz-ul-Haq, like most politicians, did not publicly own Zia-ul-Haq anymore. How wrong I was! Hameed Gul and Sheikh Rasheed can never be away from action when national security is at stake. Everybody is using the opportunity to thrash the MFN status awarded to India; this outpouring of outrage may have come now because Kayani took a long time before disliking the proposal – perhaps he was too occupied with the memo thing earlier. Jamaat-e-Islami had helped make it possible for Musharraf to pass the 17th amendment. Before that, it had the best time among the political crowd during the Afghan war; but all of a sudden now it is against the US – as are the other traditional beneficiaries of US aid. It doesn’t matter if none of the 60 parties comprising the formidable Difa-e-Pakistan Council has any seat in the parliament – and they might never have many either. Still, they have delivered time and again as a pressure group. The army itself will come round sooner rather than later, and the NATO supply line will resume as soon as a good bargain is achieved. Where will all this aggression be directed once US again ceases to be our enemy? You don’t need a PhD degree to answer that. By the way, ‘Mullah nassya wich hijab’ fame Abdul Aziz wants to rebuild Jamia Hafsa, for which of course, he has court orders.

Meanwhile, the Ghairat Brigade is not very happy. The president has successfully lobbied in the US leading up to the affidavit of James Jones. The two columnists who were to help guide the SC solve the memo mystery may not be able to do it now. They must be devastated now considering that they were earlier jumping up and down in joyous anticipation. ISPR is adamant that Kayani just had a one minute phone conversation with Zardari, as if it were a crime to talk to the president. A leading Ghairat Brigade trooper reported in the Urdu press that Hussain Haqqani was desperate to get into Zardari’s helicopter but the PM didn’t let him. Since this reporter is notorious for passing his desires off as news, it was most probably a made up story. However, in the unlikely event of it being true, it raises a question: considering that only ISPR could’ve let this news spill, where do these Ghairat Brigade reporters get their stories from?

We have always been used to hearing that despite the best efforts of our enemies within and without, it is only because of our brave army that we are still on the world map. Then there was this welcome addition of the journalist community that started regularly saving the country from untold disasters. It must be said that the journalists have proven their credentials by being properly reverential towards the original saviours. The judiciary has made its entry relatively recently but boy, did they join the club with a bang! We now welcome the cable operators who have passed the ultimate test of patriotism by shutting down the BBC transmission and vowing to do the same with the local channels if a word goes on air against the army. With this quartet in place, our nation is now well and truly secure.

The experts on TV have suddenly stopped advising Hussain Haqqani to sue Mansoor Ijaz and The Financial Times, for they know that any scrutiny of the ISI in a court outside Pakistan can be detrimental to the security of the nation. Of course, Haqqani might still do it if he feels threatened here in the SC, but that is not very likely now. Nawaz will continue using the SC’s shoulder, Pasha will continue investigating the memo, Imran will keep showing his outrage and the Jamaat will become even more desperate. With every passing moment though, the frustration on the part of the above parties is building up. The prospect of Zardari having the last laugh, again, is giving them ulcers. But the most pitiable community is that of our TV anchors.

His adversaries often forget this but Zardari has spent eleven defiant years in jail. He is easily the most strong-nerved politician around. People who hoped he would give in without jeopardising the very existence of a few sacred things around simply don’t understand his temperament. The circus is in town. But so is the president.

The writer is a member of the band Beygairat Brigade that has recently released the single Aaloo Anday.

Source: Pakistan Today

Related posts: Imran Khan’s Vice President Ejaz Chaudhry’s links with sectarian terrorists!

Imran Khan’s message to the Defence of Pakistan rally in Lahore – by Hakim Hazik

Imran Khan says he won’t allow any militant group to operate from Pakistan

Imran Khan’s Lahore rally offers no hope to Pakistan’s religious and ethnic minority groups

Sunday 18 December 2011 will be remembered as an important day in Pakistan’s history because Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) openly joined two banned terrorist organizations (Lashksar-e-Jhangvi and Lashkar-e-Taiba) in a pro-army rally clandestinely organized by Pakistani spy agency ISI. 

For those PTI supportors who are in denial about Imran Khan’s links with banned Jihadi groups, please refer to Daily Times, “SECOND EDITORAIL: Hate speech at a bigoted rally”  

On that day, a loose federation of Deobandi-Wahhabi religio-political organizations with known connections with Pakistan’s military establishment held a massive Difa-e-Pakistan rally (Defence of Pakistan Conference) to express support for Pakistan army and condemn “evil designs” of India, USA, Hindus, Ahmadis, Shias, Jews and the West in general.

Amongst others the rally was attended by the following radicalized Wahhabi/Salafi and Deobandi Jihado-sectarian groups: Jamiat Ahle-Hadith (Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer – Salafi/Wahhabi), Sipah-e-Sahaba /Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi – Deobandi), Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam (Sami-ul-Haq – Deobandi), Jamaat-ud-Dawa/Lashkar-e-Taiba (Hafiz Muhammad Saeed – Salafi/Wahhabi), Jamaat-e-Islami (Liaquat Baloch – Deobandi), Inter Services Intelligence (General Hamid Gul – Salafi/Wahhabi) and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insasf (Imran Khan – Deobandi).

The conference was engineered by Pakistan Army / ISI in order to to pressurize the NATO and the USA and to mobilize Pakistan’s public opinion in support of Pakistan army. However, the conference was able to attract only a section of Deobandi and Wahhabi mullahs and madrassah students. The majority of Pakistan’s peaceful moderate Sunnis (Barelvis), Shias, Ahmadis, Christians etc did not participate in the conference.

Overall, the Difa-e-Pakistan Conference was a radicalized Deobandi-Wahhabi show of power on the behest of Pakistan army.

While Imran Khan could not attend the conference in person, his PTI workers participated in the conference and Imran Khan’s special message was read out on his behalf to the conference participants right before the Sipah-e-Sahaba leader Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi’s speech.

(2:20 Imran Khan’s message to the conference was read out by a PTI leader.)

Imran Khan and PTI’s participation along with at least two banned terrorist organizations, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP aka Lashkasr-e-Jhangvi LeJ) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT aka Jamat-ud-Dawa JuD), confirms his sectarian and jihadist tendencies.  While many of his elitest urban followers are in denial about his links and ideological ties to banned Jihado-sectarian organizations, they should pay heed to the fact that this incident is not a one off and cannot be denied away with one-sentence sweeping non-rebutals.  Here is another instance of PTI supporting a hate rally against the minority Ahmadi Muslims that took place earlier this year:

Imran Khan’s deputy from the Tehreek-e-Insaaf is here, Jamaat-ud-Daawa is here, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq is here. The first to speak is the PTI man. He says on behalf of Imran Khan (“Imran Khan ki taraf se…”) that the PTI will not tolerate any amendment to the blasphemy laws. (This is the opposite of what King Khan told his adoring British followers in The Guardian of London just a few weeks ago.) Quickly he moves from that to the Raymond Davis incident, saying that Muslims must also consider (in addition to theological issues) the very real dangers faced by poor people in Muslim societies today. This becomes a pattern: every speaker starts with the blasphemy law but ends with the American man’s killing of three people in Lahore. Source: Friday Times

Previously it has been documented that Imran Khan’s PTI and its various leaders (e.g. Vice President Ijaz Chaudhry) have close links with Sipah-e-Sahaba / Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Khatam-e-Nabuwat terrorists.

Here is a news report from Pakistan Today newspaper (18 Dec 2011):

Is the SSP out of the closet?

LAHORE – Sunday witnessed the rebirth of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) as thousands of flags and weapons-waiving, SSP activists participated in the procession at Minar-e-Pakistan, contrary to the claims of Jamat-ud-dawa that the procession was aimed at discussing the ‘defence’ of Pakistan. Whereas the cause of the procession was generally appreciated, even the participants raised their eyebrows at the presence of a banned organisation that has been accused of killing Shia Muslims inside the country. After its ban in 2002, Dafa-i-Pakistan Council’s Sunday rally was the first occasion on which the elements of SSP appeared on the scene and vowed their full support for the JD and their stance of ridding the country of the US.

Many religious clerics and madrassa students under the supervision of Almuhammadia Students Organisation of Pakistan were gathered on Sunday in the ground of Minar-e-Pakistan but the presence of members of banned organisation, armed was the main highlight of the evening. SSP’s activists accompanied JD workers on the city roads and encouraged people to attend the DPC’s rally. “It seems as if the government has lifted the ban from banned organisations. In the name of protesting against the NATO attacks, these organisations are being allowed to roam freely and this will lead to sectarian clashes,” said Zafer Ali, a student, adding that the government was making a mistake by allowing organisations like JD and SSP to function openly.

“Instead of giving a positive impression, clerics chose to call a banned organisation which came with weapons and flags. Even though the cause of the rally is a good one, but I smell danger because everyone will get the impression that the aim of the rally was to recruit terrorists,” said Usman, another citizen.

Members of the banned organisations were also seen tearing the billboards and posters of former dictator Pervaiz Musharraf at Nasir Bagh where a session was being held. They also raised slogans against him.

STUDENTS AVOID THE RALLY: Although a large number of madrassa students joined the procession at Minto Park, students of schools, colleges and universities abstained from it. According to sources, most students at the procession were forcefully brought from the religious madaris of Deoband, Ahl-e-hadis and Ahl-e-Sunat but the students from the universities and colleges could not be attracted. Source: Pakistan Today

Report by BBC Urdu

مینار پاکستان پر ہونے والے اس جلسے کا اہتمام دفاع پاکستان کونسل نامی تنظیم نے کیا تھا اور اس جلسے میں کالعدم تنظیموں کے کارکنوں کی بڑی تعداد نے شرکت کی۔ دفاع پاکستان کونسل نامی اس تنظیم میں مختلف مذہبی جماعتیں شامل ہیں تاہم اس جلسے کی تیاری اور انتظامات میں مذہبی تنظیم جماعت الدعوۃ پیش پیش تھی اور یہی وجہ تھی کہ جلسے گاہ میں سب سے بڑی تعداد میں جماعت الدعوۃ کے جھنڈے نظر آئے۔

کالعدم تنظیم سپاہ صحابہ پاکستان کے کارکنوں بڑی تعداد میں اس جلسے میں شرکت کرنے کے لیے صوبہ پنجاب کے مختلف علاقوں سے لاہور آئے تھے اور جماعت الدعوۃ کے علاوہ اس جلسے میں کالعدم تنظیم سپاہ صحابہ کے جھنڈے بھی نظر آ رہے تھے۔

جلسہ گاہ کے ارگرد جو بینرز لگائے گئے ان پر’بھارت کا جو یار ہے غدار ہے غدار ہے ، بھارت سے رشتہ کیا نفرت کا انتقام کا ، پاکستانی دریاؤں کےپانی پر قابض بھارت کا ایک ہی علاج الجہاد الجہاد‘ جیسی عبارتیں درج تھی۔
مقررین نے خبردار کیا کہ اگر نیٹو کی سپلائی لائن بحال گئی اور بھارت کو پسندیدہ ملک قرار دیکر واہگہ بارڈر کھولا گیا تو اس پر احتجاج کیا جائے گا۔

جلسے سے خطاب کرتے ہوئے جماعت الدعوۃ کے امیر حافظ سعید نے کہا کہ امریکی مہمان بن کر آئیں اور سفارتخانوں میں اپنا سفارتی کام کریں تو ان کی عزت کریں گے لیکن اگر وہ سڑکوں پر ہمارے لوگوں کو ماریں گے تو اس کی اجازت نہیں دیں گے۔ انہوں نے الزام لگایا کہ اسلام آباد میں بھارت کو پسندیدہ ملک قرار دینے کی سازشیں تیار ہو رہی ہیں اور بقول ان کے پارلیمنٹ سے ایسی کوئی قرارداد منظور نہیں ہونے دیں گے۔ خافظ سیعد نے مطالبہ کیا کہ شمسی ائیر بیس کی طرح دیگر اڈے بھی خالی کرائے جائیں۔

جمعیت علماء اسلام (س) کے سربراہ مولانا سمیع الحق نے جلسے کے اختتام پر شرکاء سے دفاع پاکستان کے لیے جہادی جذبے سے لڑنے کا حلف بھی لیا۔ انہوں نے اعلان کیا کہ دفاع پاکستان کونسل کا تیرہ جنوری کو راولپنڈی اور بائیس جنوری کو کراچی میں جلسہ ہوگا

جلسے کے خاص خاص مقررین میں جماعت اسلامی کے سیکرٹری جنرل لیاقت بلوچ، آئی ایس آئی کے سابق سربراہ جنرل حمید گل ، مسلم لیگ ضیاء کے اعجاز الحق اور اہلسنت والجماعت کے مولانا محمد احمد لدھونوی شامل تھے۔

Source: BBC Urdu

Xenophobic declaration of the conference

Leaders of terrorist organizations LeJ, LeT etc and their affiliates at the conference

Supporters of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan aka LeJ conspicuous due to their flags keenly listen to Imran-Khan’s anti-USA speech (previous occasion)

Sipah-e-Sahaba’s flags in Imran Khan’s anti-Drone rally

Before anything else, the first order of national business should be a ban on the teaching of history. For this is a country with no use for history. We have been going around in circles for the last 60 years and seem destined to move in circles forever. “Frightful thing!” said Hugo, “…an incurable destiny!”

Anyone can have a heart condition. There is nothing special about that. But there is something special about the speculation and frenzy surrounding President Asif Zardari’s heart condition, if it is truly that, and his leaving for Dubai and checking into a hospital. Conspiracy experts, of whom there is no shortage here, are placing this squarely in the context of the ongoing saga dubbed by the commentariat as Memogate.

Confused messages from the government about the president’s departure haven’t helped matters, but this is a secondary issue. The main issue is something more sinister: working overtime to convert an absurdity into a national crisis; and the army and ISI treating the testimony of a known Pakistan-basher as the gospel truth.

Mansoor Ijaz’s memo may have been a serious indictment of the army and may have sought US help to bridle the high command and preempt a coup. But did anyone take it seriously? Certainly not Admiral Mike Mullen who barely remembered receiving it. Ah, but our man in Washington, and President Zardari’s confidant, Husain Haqqani, had a hand in shaping it, a circumstance borne out by the transcript of his BBM exchanges with Mansoor Ijaz. But action has been taken against him. He is no longer our man in Washington.

In most other countries this would be considered enough of a sacrificial offering. Not in Pakistan where, the evidence suggests, the memo is being used for a larger political purpose: bringing down the Zardari presidency and initiating some vague form of change – vague because even the most enthusiastic cheerleaders, and we have a list to choose from, don’t seem too sure about what exactly they want.

Getting rid of Zardari is what unites them. But what comes after? At this point vagueness sets in. This has always been the Pakistani way. We have known what to bring down or destroy: sometimes democracy, sometimes Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, sometimes Benazir Bhutto, occasionally Nawaz Sharif. We have been less clear about the alternatives.

Gen Jim Jones, Obama’s former national security adviser who took Ijaz’s memo to Mullen, has said something harsh about Pakistan, that this was a country bent on self-destruction. Enough in our history tends to support this judgement. We pay India a compliment by saying it wants to destroy us. Often it seems we are self-sufficient in this respect.

There is enough material on record to show the lengths to which, over a period of time, Mansoor Ijaz has gone to malign the Pakistan Army and ISI. There is no shortage of elements in Washington who consider the Pakistan Army a ‘rogue’ army. Ijaz has been of this fraternity. Yet, the Pakistani establishment – for which read the army command and its advanced school of ideology, the ISI – is relying on his word to make out a case against Zardari.

Let’s not delude ourselves. Memogate is not about endangered national security. It was never endangered. Predator missiles were not about to hit the GHQ or our nuclear installations. Memogate is about Zardari, the establishment’s bête noire from day one.

In a TV interview Ijaz has called Zardari a “naïve buffoon”. The memo has over-smartness written all over it. This should rule out any input from a naïve buffoon. Ijaz and Haqqani are of a kind and deserve each other. But Pakistan’s leading school of national ideology has its own way of measuring things. Haqqani, once in the ISI’s good books (long time ago), is the prime villain in this affair and Ijaz the star witness.

A concerted effort is also afoot to lend credence to another Mansoor Ijaz claim: that Zardari and Haqqani could have known of the May 2 assault on Sheikh Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad hideout. He doesn’t say that there is anything factual to prove this, but that his analysis – some analysis – leads him to this conclusion. No shortage of pundits who are treating this claim seriously. Obama shared the secret with Haqqani who then passed it on to Zardari. Even the gods would be hard put to decide whether to laugh or cry.

But as knives are out, and the flavour of the season is treason and Article Six of the Constitution, the thing most in demand is for heads to roll. The latest target is Wajid Shamsul Hasan, our man in London, who is being taken to task for saying that Pakistan knew about Osama’s hideout and had cooperated with the US assault.

Enraged patriots forget that when the assault took place and our army was caught with its pants down, and we were being hard put to explain what Osama bin Laden had been doing all this time in the shadow of PMA Kakul, about the smartest thing to say was that, no, we weren’t caught unawares, we knew what was afoot.

This was the government’s first reaction and PM Gilani was smart enough to even congratulate the Americans. But this was before the army command, red in the face, swept into the act and raised the banner of violated sovereignty. Osama bin Laden hadn’t violated our sovereignty but the Americans had. When it comes to selective patriotism there is no one to beat us.

The line I plugged the first day on television was precisely the line the government had taken…that there was no way the Americans could have come to Abbottabad without our knowledge and cooperation. It was only when evening came that the truth sunk in that we had truly been had. By then the civilians had been driven into a corner and the army had taken over, and it was a sight not for pretty eyes, so palpable was the army’s confusion.

Even so, Osama’s Abbottabad discovery should have been an occasion for profound self-introspection. How did we get ourselves into this mess? But we turned all our anger on the Americans.

Some things never change. The delayed reaction to Kargil was Musharraf’s treacherous coup of October ‘99. Instead of Musharraf being put in the dock for Kargil, Nawaz Sharif was put in the dock for plane hijacking, a strange reversal of events.

The delayed reaction to the embarrassment and humiliation of May 2 is Memogate, another exercise in extended irony. No one has been made to answer for the multiple failures of Abbottabad: the failure to detect the Sheikh’s presence on our soil; the failure to detect the incoming American helicopters as, in the silence of that moonless night, they came skimming over our mountains. But for a piece of paper with shared input from two outstanding charlatans the knives are out for another luckless head of a civilian dispensation.

Whatever revisionist twist the PPP may now give to the events of ‘99, it rejoiced when Nawaz Sharif was overthrown, and only changed its stance when Musharraf did not take it as a sleeping partner. Today the PML-N, forgetting the history of its own sorrows, is being too clever by half, thinking it is acting as an instrument of national rejuvenation. Pity our delusions. It is paving the way for the fulfillment of other ambitions.

In the run-up to Oct ‘99, the Grand Democratic Alliance put together by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan raised the cry that Pakistan and Nawaz Sharif could not co-exist together. The coup de grace was administered, as always, by Pakistan’s highest court of constitutional authority, 111 Brigade. But the atmosphere was made conducive by Pakistan’s leading democrats. In our case certainly, the road to hell is paved with the noblest intentions.

In 1988 President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Gen Aslam Beg acted on the principle that Pakistan and Benazir Bhutto could not coexist together. In 1977 the parties of the PNA were prepared to go to any lengths to get rid of Bhutto. Today the same mantra revolves around the person of President Zardari: with him around Pakistan’s survival is at stake.

We go around in circles and refuse to learn. Perhaps we deserve our fate.

Email: winlust@yahoo.com

Source: The News

Source: Daily Jang