Friday, January 6, 2012

Relations with Israel could help Pakistan






Relation with Israel could help Pakistan, former president Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf said in an interview with Israeli newspaper.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, former ruler said that Israel is a reality and we have to accept it. He said that Pakistan is an ideological state like Israel.

Musharraf said that acceptance of Israel could also help to bring Pakistan and India closer. He stressed that Pakistan should hold diplomatic relations with Israel same as various other Muslim countries.

He said that Pakistanis are not anti-Jews but anti-Israel due to Palestine crises. Former ruler said that Pakistan would continue to support Palestinian’s demand for independent state.

Musharraf said that he took initiative of having meeting between Pakistani former minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and the then Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom in Istanbul.

Violence changes Pakistan song book





He sings about peace and hope, but Gulzar Alam lives in fear. He has survived three attempts on his life and moves regularly to keep one step ahead of the Taliban.

Once inspired by romance, Alam is part of a growing number of Pakistanis changing the lexicon of the song book, writing less about affairs of the heart and more about the tragedy of suicide attacks and insurgency.

“O Peshawar, I watch helplessly when your lovers’ blood becomes rain. Helplessly, with tears in my eyes, I read their funeral prayer,” he sings in one of his greatest hits in the northwestern city on the Afghan border.

Being a singer in one of the most dangerous parts of the world can be lethal. The Taliban think music is ungodly. Music shops are bombed. Dancers have been killed and singers threatened with death.

In 2004, Alam was worried enough to move to Quetta, the then relatively peaceful capital of Baluchistan in the southwest.

But he was hit by a speeding car, critically injured and now has a rod in his right leg and uses crutches to walk.

He blamed militants and returned to Peshawar in 2008. That October, gunmen opened fire on his car on the outskirts of the city. He survived a second time.

“I can see tears in people’s eyes, when I sing and I want to create an awareness using my voice,” Alam told AFP in the dank basement flat where he lives with his wife and six children, with no name plaque on the gate.

“We have stopped giving musical shows,” he said. “I have received dozens of phone calls and SMSs threatening me to stop singing.”

Peshawar, the largest Pashtun city in the world and once a base for Osama bin Laden during the 1980s’ CIA-sponsored mujahedeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan, has been on the frontline of a Taliban insurgency for years.

More than 500 bomb attacks have killed 4,700 people across Pakistan since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

They have maimed hundreds more, targeting government security forces and ripping through shops, mosques and restaurants.

Although there has been a drop in attacks in the eight months since bin Laden was killed at his Pakistani compound on May 2, fear remains palpable.

Sitara Younus made waves on YouTube this year with her lyrics: “I am a suicide blast, I do everything by force and I rule everywhere”.

The song was a track from the Pashtu film “Sabar me Tamam Sho” which translates as “I have lost my patience”.

“Do not chase me, I am a cheater, I am a suicide blast. I have looted people’s hearts,” she sings, as an actress wiggles her hips suggestively with bare arms and a relatively low-cut top.

It may not have been popular among conservative Pashtuns and criticised as “vulgar”, but it showed how far violence has permeated popular culture.

Many artists and singers have retired. Certainly they keep a low profile.

Even shopkeepers dice with death to sell music.

On September 19, a motorcycle bomb killed five people and wounded 28 others at a CD market in Peshawar. Traders say hundreds of music shops have been destroyed in recent years.

Amjad Naveed, a writer and producer of several low-budget, limited-distribution Pashtu films, also believes that violence has ushered in a new trend of preaching peace and patience through music.

“You see the trend in Pashtu music changing because of the bombings,” he told AFP.

“People are dying, children are dying and poets write such things when they see the devastation and singers sing it,” he added.

Abasin Yousafzai, a renowned poet and professor of Pashtu at the University of Peshawar, agrees.

“Poets are always inspired by what happens around them. Poets and singers are sensitive people and they serve society through their poetry,” he said.

Neither is the trend limited to the northwest. Ali Azmat, one of Pakistan’s most famous rock stars, has a hit song “Bom Phata” (Bomb Exploded) that exposes not just the violence, but the shortages and inflation facing Pakistanis today.

In the video, people are shown standing by in frustration, waiting for electricity, food and water while Azmat sings about bombs exploding everywhere until a mob storms the stage, violence erupts and shots are fired.

“We are killing each other, why blame others. We are each others enemies, why blame others,” sings Irfan Khan, another famous Pashtu singer.

Conspiracy theories run rife in Pakistan, where it is common currency to blame the Americans and the war in Afghanistan for the country’s ills.

But many singers believe that until Pakistanis face up to reality and take their own destiny into their hands, nothing will change.

“We are a part of this society and we are trying to create awareness,” Khan told AFP.

Former Pakistani envoy to U.S. fears for his life

The Washington Post


The ex-ambassador’s quarters, decorated in placid blue, lie behind a half-dozen security gates. Outside are pine-studded gardens to stroll in. He has left the compound only three times in six weeks.

It is a dramatic change of pace for Husain Haqqani, who two months ago darted about Washington as Pakistan’s envoy to the United States. Now facing a court investigation in connection with a memo that is roiling Pakistani politics and led to his resignation, Haqqani says he fears that leaving his guest suite at the prime minister’s residence would be to invite death on the streets of his own country. “I could be killed by a suicide bomber for being an American lackey,” Haqqani said in an interview this week, referring to one common characterization of him here. “There’s so much hype against me that I could meet the fate of Salman Taseer.”

Taseer was a liberal ruling party governor who was assassinated one year ago by his own police guard, who disagreed with the politician’s criticism of Pakistan’s controversial anti-blasphemy laws. The accusations circling Haqqani — that he committed treason by engineering a memo asking for American help to rein in Pakistan’s powerful military — provoke similar passions here, his supporters say.

Haqqani’s attorney has offered another reason he must stay inside: The fearsome Pakistani military intelligence agency, she said, might capture and torture him into giving a false statement. And so Haqqani confines himself to an official mansion, offering what might be the starkest illustration yet of the chasm between Pakistan’s embattled civilian government and the military it technically directs.

That gap has only widened as furor over the scandal, known here as Memogate, escalates, plunging this volatile nation into deeper crisis. It came to light three months ago when a Pakistani American businessman, Mansoor Ijaz, said he delivered the memo to former U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, who has said he ignored it.

Ijaz later said he wrote the memo on Haqqani’s instructions. Haqqani has denied involvement, and many Pakistani observers initially expected his resignation to quell the commotion. That did not happen.

Ruling party officials and some analysts say the saga is aimed at bringing down Pakistan’s U.S.-backed government, or triggering the impeachment of President Asif Ali Zardari, who is himself so unpopular that he rarely appears in public. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has suggested a military plot is underway. But many — among them opposition politicians, sections of the media and the military — are convinced Haqqani arranged the memo on Zardari’s orders, and they are doggedly pursuing the matter.

On Thursday, U.S. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) issued a statement condemning the “harassment” of Haqqani, whom they called a “principled advocate” for Pakistan.

As ambassador, Haqqani, a former journalist and Boston University professor, was a seemingly tireless man-about-Washington, combining seductive sound bites and scholarly analysis to crystallize Pakistan’s case on the Hill, in television interviews and at exclusive dinner parties. But in Pakistan, his deft handling of Americans — and his history of switching political sides — was viewed as suspect. Pakistan’s generals saw him as Zardari’s ambassador, not Pakistan’s.The controversy has reached the Supreme Court, which is admired by many as the most independent in the nation’s history but is regarded by the ruling Pakistan People’ Party as a tool of the army and the opposition. After he returned to Pakistan in November to face questions over the scandal, the court banned Haqqani from leaving the country, though he has not been charged with a crime. Last weekend, the court appointed a fact-finding judicial commission to investigate the origin of the memo, which, among other things, promised to hand over terrorism suspects to the United States or allow U.S. forces to capture or kill them in Pakistan.

Haqqani’s attorney, prominent human rights lawyer Asma Jehangir, denounced the court for overstepping its boundaries and acting as an “acolyte” of the military establishment. She has refused to appear before the commission.
Babar Sattar, a constitutional law expert, said the court had acted appropriately and showed rare willingness to take up a matter involving national security, an area long ceded to the military. But he and other legal experts questioned the court’s quickness, even as it allows other cases implicating the military establishment to languish.

“The criticism is that the judicial scrutiny is happening only because the military wants it to happen, and that that’s not a level playing field for Husain Haqqani and Asif Ali Zardari,” Sattar said.

The civil-military divide is clear in affidavits presented to the Supreme Court. Government officials denied involvement and noted that a parliamentary committee was already probing the matter. But spy chief Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha said that Ijaz, during an October meeting in London, presented “enough corroborative evidence to prove” his story.

So far, the bulk of evidence has come from Ijaz, who released logs of what he says are BlackBerry message conversations between him and Haqqani. Haqqani’s attorneys say none directly refer to the memo.

The scandal is distracting attention from graver national problems, some analysts argue, including shortages of gas used to heat homes and power cars, a faltering economy and regular insurgent attacks.

The memo “has led to no consequences for Pakistan ... so what is all the fuss about?” said Ayaz Amir, an opposition politician who is critical of Haqqani.

The judicial commission is expected to report its findings to the Supreme Court at the end of January. At that point, the court could drop the matter, urge parliament to pursue Zardari’s impeachment or order investigators to charge Haqqani with a crime such as treason, which carries the death penalty. Neither of the latter two options would proceed quickly, legal experts said.

Another possibility, viewed as remote, is that the commission could fault Pasha for traveling to meet Ijaz without the prime minister’s permission, Sattar said.

Haqqani, who has written critically about military dominance in Pakistan, said he is ready for a long stay at the prime minister’s residence. There, he greets a stream of visitors and sends e-mails energetically, just as he did as ambassador. He said he has left to go to the dentist, to meet his lawyer and to testify before a commission examining the U.S. raid to kill Osama bin Laden.

Haqqani shrugged off the loss of liberty.

“If that’s all I wanted, I would have remained a correspondent or a professor,” Haqqani said. “You come into politics because you believe in something. In a country like this, you take risks.”

Pashto poet suffers brain haemorrhage,Financial help sought for ailing progressive poet Murad Shinwari

Financial help sought for ailing progressive poet Murad Shinwari



our salute to such a huge personality who served the pashto literature for such a long time


Prominent Pashto poet, fictionist, critic and song writer Murad Shinwari was admitted to the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) after he suffered brain haemorrhage on Wednesday night.

Literary and welfare organisations including Hamza Baba Adabi Jirga Landikotal, Khyber Agency, Culture Journalists Forum Peshawar and Hamza Adabi Society have appealed to the governor and Culture Directorates of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata to extend financial help to the ailing Pashto poet and script writer.

Murad Shinwari, the lone son of Baba-e-Pashto Ghazal Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari, is one of the pioneers of new trends in the modern Pashto poem. Of late, he was living a miserable life as he was drawing a meagre pension from the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation. He was admitted to Khyber Teaching Hospital after a brain haemorrhage on Wednesday night, his family sources said.

“Nobody from anywhere has contacted us. Two years ago when my father suffered a minor heart attack, we had appealed to the governor for financial assistance but it had fallen on deaf ears.

Afghan government offered to get my father’s poetry published which is in the press in Peshawar but I look up to the Pakistani government to do the job,” revealed Sajjad Ali, the elder son of the poet.

Murad Shinwari was born on 1928 at Landikotal. He got his early education from a government school in Peshawar and then did Bachelor of Teaching from the Punjab University and master in Pashto literature from University of Peshawar.

He was awarded gold medal for his outstanding position and appointed as librarian, lexicographer and translator at the Pashto Academy, University of Peshawar. He also served in Khyber Rifles as senior instructor but switched over to Radio Pakistan, Peshawar and retired as senior script editor in 1989.

Murad Shinwari is considered as the pioneer of ‘azad nazm’ (free verse) in Pashto and author of several books in Pashto, Palwashay (short stories collection) and Khyber Adab. The translation of two plays of Shakespeare including ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘The Lady of Shallot’ in versified Pashto were his masterpieces.

He wrote screenplays and songs for more than 50 Pashto films in which he projected real Pakhtun culture.

He regularly contributed articles to numerous Pashto magazines and newspapers on various literary and social issues. “I had received a phone call from the Governor’s House long ago after my appeal appeared in the press but it was followed by a complete silence. My father has immensely contributed to Pashto language and literature, but who cares,” complained the dejected Sajjad Ali.

ANP to support constitutional efforts only

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Thursday said his party was not against the creation of new provinces provided all the constitutional requirements were fulfilled.

Replying to the demands by Qalandar Lodhi of the PML-Q and Javed Iqbal Abbasi of the PML-N seeking support of the ruling parties, ANP and PPP, for the unanimous passage of the resolution regarding the creation of Hazara province, Mian Iftikhar said he would support the constitutional efforts made for the creation of a new province in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“It is strange that the elected representatives of Hazara are supporting a person who is not their well-wisher and his past track record is a testimony to the fact,” he said referring to the Hazara province movement leader Sardar Haider Zaman.

In an emotional tone that was applauded by the treasury benches, he reminded that Haider Zaman had formed a political party to campaign for the Hazara province and was no longer the unanimous leader of the movement. The minister, who belongs to the ANP, claimed the resolution submitted by the MQM in the National Assembly was nothing but a political stunt.

“The provincial assembly has the right under Article 239(4) of the Constitution to pass a resolution with two-thirds majority about setting up of new provinces,” he added. He said the statement of MQM leader Altaf Hussain about the new provinces was unconstitutional and unlawful. He said that after the passage of the 18th Amendment the provincial assemblies had the right to pass any resolution for creating new provinces with two-thirds majority.

The minister said that his party struggled for 60 years for renaming the province as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “But we never became involved in any kind of blackmailing or ethnic discrimination while continuing our struggle for renaming the province,” he stressed.

He said the chief minister had announced the establishment of Abaseen division in Hazara division by bringing together Battagram, Kohistan and Torghar districts. He said after completion of the population census the new Abaseen division would become functional.

A Leaner Pentagon




With his new defense strategy, President Obama has put forward a generally pragmatic vision of how this country will organize and deploy its military in the 21st century, while also addressing its deep fiscal problems.


It is based on the idea that the country must be smarter and more restrained in its use of force — a relief after President George W. Bush’s disastrous war in Iraq. It will mean a significant reduction in the size of the Army and Marine Corps. But it doesn’t minimize the fact that the world is a very dangerous place and says the country must still be ready to fight a major land war — although one lasting for years would require another buildup.

It argues, persuasively, that many of the challenges out there can be dealt with by air power, intelligence, special operations or innovative technologies like drones.

Mr. Obama wants to spend less on nuclear weapons — the most unnecessary part of the arsenal — although how much less is unclear. He plans to focus more resources on naval and air power in the Strait of Hormuz, to contain an increasingly assertive Iran, and in Asia, to moderate and counterbalance China’s ambitions. We agree that the United States needs to be more engaged in both areas, but the new Asia focus, in particular, must not be an excuse to avoid other needed budget cuts.

With all American troops out of Iraq and Mr. Obama’s pledge to draw down in Afghanistan, it is time for a serious evaluation of the strategic environment and this country’s role and responsibilities. The fiscal crisis has made that more urgent.

Congress has already mandated nearly $500 billion in cuts in Pentagon spending over the next decade, and this strategy takes those into consideration. The failure of the Congressional supercommittee to reach a deficit deal means almost $500 billion more are supposed to kick in next January, but it is unclear how that would affect the new strategy. Both sets of cuts can be absorbed, if made prudently. No one should feel sorry for the Pentagon: It has had a blank check for a decade, and even with these cuts, the budget will continue to grow.

Republicans are predictably in high dudgeon over the decision to jettison the cold-war concept of being able to fight and win two conventional land wars simultaneously. It was always an artificial construct intended mainly to ensure the Pentagon got all it wanted.

Still, the United States must be ready to face multiple contingencies. Our own chilling list includes a collapsing Pakistan, another state hijacked by Al Qaeda, Iran blocking oil shipping as it pursues its nuclear ambitions or a weak or unbalanced North Korean leader making a suicidal run across the South Korean border.

At a Pentagon briefing where Mr. Obama put his personal stamp on the strategy, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, insisted that the country “will always be able to do more than one thing at a time. More importantly, wherever we are confronted and in whatever sequence, we will win.”

They gave few details on what the new strategy will mean in practice. According to reports in The Times, the Pentagon plans to shrink the Army even below current targets, dropping to 490,000 soldiers over the next decade. That sounds reasonable, but there must be a clear plan on how to build up again quickly if needed.

We understand the importance of sending a clear message that this country is not ceding anything in the Pacific to China. But that cannot become the Pentagon’s newest argument for unrestrained spending. The Times reported that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has already made the mistaken decision not to eliminate any of the Navy’s 11 aircraft carriers; even scaling back to 10 could save at least $4 billion over the next decade.

It came at the barrel of a budget-cutting gun, but President Obama has begun to bring more rationality to military planning. The real impact of the strategy will be seen in the budget he unveils later this month.

A Leaner Pentagon


With his new defense strategy, President Obama has put forward a generally pragmatic vision of how this country will organize and deploy its military in the 21st century, while also addressing its deep fiscal problems.

It is based on the idea that the country must be smarter and more restrained in its use of force — a relief after President George W. Bush’s disastrous war in Iraq. It will mean a significant reduction in the size of the Army and Marine Corps. But it doesn’t minimize the fact that the world is a very dangerous place and says the country must still be ready to fight a major land war — although one lasting for years would require another buildup.

It argues, persuasively, that many of the challenges out there can be dealt with by air power, intelligence, special operations or innovative technologies like drones.

Mr. Obama wants to spend less on nuclear weapons — the most unnecessary part of the arsenal — although how much less is unclear. He plans to focus more resources on naval and air power in the Strait of Hormuz, to contain an increasingly assertive Iran, and in Asia, to moderate and counterbalance China’s ambitions. We agree that the United States needs to be more engaged in both areas, but the new Asia focus, in particular, must not be an excuse to avoid other needed budget cuts.

With all American troops out of Iraq and Mr. Obama’s pledge to draw down in Afghanistan, it is time for a serious evaluation of the strategic environment and this country’s role and responsibilities. The fiscal crisis has made that more urgent.

Congress has already mandated nearly $500 billion in cuts in Pentagon spending over the next decade, and this strategy takes those into consideration. The failure of the Congressional supercommittee to reach a deficit deal means almost $500 billion more are supposed to kick in next January, but it is unclear how that would affect the new strategy. Both sets of cuts can be absorbed, if made prudently. No one should feel sorry for the Pentagon: It has had a blank check for a decade, and even with these cuts, the budget will continue to grow.

Republicans are predictably in high dudgeon over the decision to jettison the cold-war concept of being able to fight and win two conventional land wars simultaneously. It was always an artificial construct intended mainly to ensure the Pentagon got all it wanted.

Still, the United States must be ready to face multiple contingencies. Our own chilling list includes a collapsing Pakistan, another state hijacked by Al Qaeda, Iran blocking oil shipping as it pursues its nuclear ambitions or a weak or unbalanced North Korean leader making a suicidal run across the South Korean border.

At a Pentagon briefing where Mr. Obama put his personal stamp on the strategy, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, insisted that the country “will always be able to do more than one thing at a time. More importantly, wherever we are confronted and in whatever sequence, we will win.”

They gave few details on what the new strategy will mean in practice. According to reports in The Times, the Pentagon plans to shrink the Army even below current targets, dropping to 490,000 soldiers over the next decade. That sounds reasonable, but there must be a clear plan on how to build up again quickly if needed.

We understand the importance of sending a clear message that this country is not ceding anything in the Pacific to China. But that cannot become the Pentagon’s newest argument for unrestrained spending. The Times reported that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has already made the mistaken decision not to eliminate any of the Navy’s 11 aircraft carriers; even scaling back to 10 could save at least $4 billion over the next decade.

It came at the barrel of a budget-cutting gun, but President Obama has begun to bring more rationality to military planning. The real impact of the strategy will be seen in the budget he unveils later this month.

Obama Testing 2-Tier Strategy for Re-election

NYT.COM

Just three hours after President Obama announced that he was defying Congressional Republicans to fill a high-level regulatory position while lawmakers were out of town, Mitt Romney sent out the obligatory news release ripping the president. “Chicago-style politics at its worst,” Mr. Romney fumed, accusing the president of “circumventing Congress.” The statement was just what the White House wanted. It put the Republican presidential front-runner squarely on the side of the Republicans in Congress, a group with toxic poll numbers that the president’s campaign hopes will hurt his rivals for the White House.

“Our presidential election campaign is not a campaign against Congress,” a senior administration official said on Thursday. “We know we’ll run against a person.” But insofar as Mr. Obama has decided to target Republicans in Congress — a body with historically low approval ratings after a year of jousting with the president — he will also be seeking to twin his opponent, to any extent he can, with the 112th Congress.

Upon the president’s return from Hawaii, the Obama campaign this week unleashed a carefully scripted and deliberately aggressive strategy that showed a White House in combative re-election mode as the president and his advisers sought to ensure that the Republicans did not get all the political limelight. Mr. Obama inserted himself into the media blitz of what was supposed to be an all-Republican show, the Iowa caucuses, when his campaign took out a huge advertisement on the home page of The Des Moines Register on caucus day and he spoke by video conference to Democrats gathered in the state.

“The Republican candidates are leaving Iowa. But their terrible plans are here to stay,” was the declaration that greeted readers who went to the newspaper’s Web site to get caucus updates.

On Wednesday, after waiting until the dust in Iowa had settled, clearing out space in newspapers and on television, Mr. Obama delivered another jab, announcing four recess appointments, including that of Richard Cordray as head of a new consumer protection agency, despite Republican opposition. On Thursday, the president went to the Pentagon and outlined a new military strategy that embraces hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to what is a Republican sacred cow, and made it clear that American ground forces would no longer be large enough to conduct prolonged, large-scale counterinsurgency campaigns like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Friday, he will take a victory lap with Mr. Cordray in a visit with the staff of the new Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.

White House and administration officials insist that all of Mr. Obama’s actions this week — with the exception of the advertisement — are policy decisions made for the good of the country. But from Marine One — the helicopter where Mr. Obama and Mr. Cordray revved up on Wednesday for the forthcoming fight — to the West Wing corridors to his campaign offices in Chicago, the president’s battle for re-election is quickly escalating as he sets out to use the advantages of his office to full effect.

The president’s move last fall to take his jobs plan on the road to try to sell it to the American public, an effort that culminated in the payroll tax extension battle that is now widely perceived as a win for Mr. Obama and a debacle for Congressional Republicans, was just the beginning, administration officials and Mr. Obama’s advisers say.

David Plouffe, one of Mr. Obama’s senior political advisers, has argued in meetings at the White House that Republicans will overreach in their efforts to oppose the president’s initiatives. And administration officials believe that is what House conservatives did in the case of the payroll tax cut, with the Tea Party wing of House Republicans initially balking at a compromise deal that Senate Republicans had signed on to and sparking a backlash in the public. The refusal of Senate Republicans to allow many of Mr. Obama’s nominees to be confirmed, White House officials believe, could also end up hurting the Republicans, if it feeds the notion that they are standing in the way of the business of government.

“It is a matter of fact that the contenders for the Republican nomination have all endorsed and adopted the position espoused by the House Republicans” in the recess appointment battle, a senior administration official said on Thursday. And that, administration officials have concluded, puts Mr. Obama at an advantage as he seeks to establish a narrative this year of him as the defender of middle-class Americans and the Republicans in Congress of the rich.

So in the next few weeks, there will be more executive initiatives that will portray the president as refusing to wait on a hostile Congress to take action to help Americans, officials say.

And there could be more recess appointments, if not in the coming days, then next month, when Congress is expected to recess over the Washington’s Birthday Day holiday. Some Senate Republicans, furious over the recess appointments, said they would retaliate by not approving any more Obama nominees. But since so many of Mr. Obama’s nominees have been held up anyway, the president may simply continue the precedent he established Wednesday, and use the break in February to appoint another batch of people, administration officials said.

There will also be announcements of more “We Can’t Wait” projects — the term the White House has adopted for executive action initiatives, like a plan to provide summer jobs to young people, which the White House announced on Wednesday.

Veena Malik: Trouble is her middle name

Her dad won’t talk to her, she’s involved in a multi-million dirham lawsuit over a photoshoot and she risks possible arrest in Pakistan over sedition charges. But if you think any of this has Veena Malik even remotely perturbed, think again


There’s one woman who feels “honoured” to be tagged sexy and it’s Veena Malik, even if it often gets her into trouble. The dark haired beauty, famous for her Lollywood and Bollywood roles and outspoken views on fighting Pakistani Muslim traditions, has recently been caught up in yet another scandalous affair posing half naked on the front cover of India’s FHM magazine. But will she quit showbiz and become a reserved housewife? She says, never!


After starting work with a Pakistan news channel in 2007, Veena went on to star in a number of films and some reality TV shows and quickly became a sex symbol. But she has now become a lot more well-known for her outspoken views than flaunting her curvy figure in sexy shoots.

A week after the FHM cover was released, a Dh7.5 million court battle exploded between the 24-year-old and the magazine’s publishers. Pakistan courts are threatening to have her arrested with charges of obscenity and sedition.

We caught up with her in Mumbai and asked her how she feels about getting a bad reputation for scandalous jobs.
Your name has been in articles all over the world after your apparent nude photo shoot in India’s FHM magazine. How does it feel to be involved in another media frenzy?

I have a strong personality; I speak my mind; I’m not shy. Yes, I did a bold shoot but I did not do a nude shoot. If I had decided to do a nude shoot then I’d have the guts to stand up and admit it. If it was a decision I had made I would’ve been proud of it. But I did not pose nude.

How do you explain the claims that the magazine has a video of the photo shoot showing you posing nude?

If they have video of me naked why aren’t they showing it? I didn’t sign any video contract. During the shoot there was a guy coming in and out of the room with a video camera. The first time he did it I was wearing a T-shirt and hot pants and I kept telling him, “You can’t video it’s not in any contract”. We had a verbal contract and I kept telling them video was not agreed. The second time he came in I was in a bikini and fur coat but I protested again. So they have some video clips but only of me in a bikini.

Why did you use the initials ISI (Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence) in the shoot?



I wanted to give the ISI a positive image. If something bad has happened in India people always say, “the ISI is behind it”. I wanted to change that. They can think whatever they want, but I did it with a positive view in mind. To me the ISI is just an institution in Pakistan. I don’t even know what they do. It’s not a forbidden word is it?

Your country has reacted badly to these nude photo shoot claims. How does it feel to be wanted by the police?

I have heard that papers are with a Pakistan court wanting my arrest but I just need time to prepare my side. If I’ve done something against the law then I will pay the consequences, but I’ve broken no laws.


The Pakistan courts have to wait and see if FHM can prove what they’re saying.

But seriously, how can anyone take action against me? There’s no crime here. Pakistan has an issue with me because I speak for women’s sexuality. I have no idea why they have a problem with women’s sexuality and women’s bodies. If men were topless there would be no problem.

Do you like being caught up in controversy? Do you think it’s good for your career?


I believe that every woman, no matter which part of the world she is from, should feel sexy and beautiful. It’s important. I’m completely comfortable and honoured with the ‘sexy’ tag. If that brings controversy then so be it. I’m an entertainer, I work in showbiz, people will always talk about me, that’s my career.

How do your family react to your fame? Is it a problem?

It is a problem. My father won’t speak to me on the phone right now. My mother told him I didn’t pose nude but he doesn’t want to listen. So I will not speak to him until I have proof in my hand that I did nothing wrong. Yes, I did a bold shoot but not a nude shoot.

My father knows the type of personality I have. He knows I’m a strong person with my own mind. But he’s really upset with me right now. But I will explain my side of the story when all this mess is over. He has asked me to quit show business many times but I can’t, I enjoy it too much.

You’ve been famously engaged twice, quite rare for a Muslim woman. What do you look for in a man?

I’ve had lots of relationships in the past but they all failed because they wanted to change me. I’m an independent strong girl and sometimes it’s a problem for men. I look for loyalty, honesty, and unconditional love in a man. But I am my own person with my own personality and colour and I won’t change for anyone, my man has to love me for the person I am.

Have you kept in touch with your ex-partner, jailed Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Asif?

Yes, I saw him two days before he went to prison. We were very close when we were together, we got on well, but he wasn’t honest. Even though he was jailed last month I think about him a lot. He made a mistake and now he’s paying the consequences. I just hope the day he gets out of the jail he is a different person.

He came to see me two days before he went to jail. He needed my help. He’s asked me if I would help him out and I am considering paying his £10,000 (Dh56,876) fine.

I can’t forget how close we were and how in love we were. I can help him and it would mean he could get out of prison early. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m definitely considering it.

Do you think you will marry one day?

I really believe in love and marriage. I’m a real romantic and I want to be a wife some day but it has to be with the right person. I know someone will come along eventually. I believe that if you look for something you will eventually find it.

If you were in Hollywood and you were asked to do a nude scene in the future, would you?

Who knows. In Pakistan I work within the culture and in India or Bollywood I do the same. When I’m in Hollywood I would do what is expected of me within their industry. I’m an entertainer after all.










Publication Date 3 January 2012

Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga among top US young achievers



The iconoclastic singer Lady Gaga stands tall among rising stars.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, human rights activist Ronan Farrow and pop stars Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are people to watch, according to Forbes magazine's list of top-achieving people under age 30.

Artist JR, 28, who creates large scale guerrilla photo installations, film producer David Ellison, the son of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison who has funded films like True Grit, and the upcoming Brad Pitt movie World War Z, also made the "30 Under 30" list of people in 12 categories that the magazine predicts will be tomorrow's brightest stars.

"While many on this list are well known, others like Danielle Fong, a Canadian-born science prodigy who entered a Princeton PhD program at age 17 before founding alternative energy company Lightsail at 20, are just getting their first taste of the limelight," Forbes Executive Editor Michael Noer said in a statement.

"But it is nearly certain that we will all be hearing much more from them in the decades to come," he added.

Farrow, a US State Department policy expert who was recently named a Rhodes Scholar, is the only biological child of actress Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen. He made the law and policy list.

Donald Glover, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Lawrence and 13-year-old Jaden Smith, the son of actor Will Smith, were on the entertainment list, while the music category features British singer Adele and US pop stars Katy Perry and Rihanna and American rapper Lil Wayne.

Other categories included art and design, energy, food and wine, media, social/mobile and technology, which included Peter Cashmore, the founder and CEO of the tech news site Mashable.

Thirty people were chosen from each category. The full list is available at www.forbes.com/under30 and will be published in the January edition of the magazine.

Pentagon plan changes game in Asia

People's Daily Online

The Pentagon issued a new defense plan on Thursday. The new strategy reduces defense spending in the next 10 years, ends the policy of maintaining constant strength to fight two wars at once and prepares the US to fight one war while waging a holding operation elsewhere against a second threat.

This is a contractive strategy in general, but gives prominence to the Asia-Pacific region. According to the officials of Pentagon, the changes in strategy are mainly aimed at Iran and China.

In front of such a US strategic adjustment, China should remain sober. Since it has become a firm strategic target of the US, its efforts to improve Sino-US relations have proved incapable of offsetting US worries over its rise. China can only use its strength to gain friendship from the US from now on.

The US and China are carrying out competition unprecedented in history. Under the aegis of globalization, the two are closely linked economically, which makes it impossible for the US to fully contain China. Dealing with the US containment attempts should be one of China's diplomatic strategic goals. China should unite with all possible forces and keep certain strategic initiatives against the US.

The US strategic adjustment highlights Iran's importance to China. Iran's existence and its stance form a strong check against the US. China should not treat Iran following US cultural, social and political values.

The US takes China's anti-access capabilities as another target. China should come up with countermeasures. It should strengthen its long-range strike abilities and put more deterrence on the US. The US must realize that it cannot stop the rise of China and that being friendly to China is in its utmost interests.

Fast economic development has become the biggest advantage that China has when dealing with the US. The US can hardly provoke China in the economic field, unlike its developing military strength which gives excuses for the West to suppress China. The more the two focus on economic competition, the more the situation will tilt China's way.

The growth and decline in economic strength is the starting point for national competition as well as its destination. It reflects national tendencies. But military and politics are often powerful tools to disturb or twist the trend. China should try to avoid a new cold war with the US, but by no means should it give up its peripheral security in exchange for US' ease in Asia.

Bahrain: The Revolution That Wasn't





Arab revolts against secular leaders have been much more successful over the past year than those against monarchs. The one monarchy that faced a serious threat was the tiny Persian Gulf island of Bahrain. But after weeks of protests, troops from Saudi Arabia rolled into the country, the Bahraini regime imposed martial law, and a government crackdown followed. Kelly McEvers made several trips to Bahrain this past year and filed this report as part of NPR's series looking at the Arab Spring and where it stands today.

Bahrain's uprising didn't get quite as much attention as some of the others in the Arab world last year. But it was one of the first, beginning on Feb. 14.

One man, who has been in and out of jail since then and could only talk to me while hunkered down in his car, was there.

"I remember the 14 February night — I cannot forget this night. Really I cannot forget," says the man, who asked not to be named. "Even my wife, she was telling me you'll be crazy. At the end, you will be crazy. Nothing will happen. A few people will protest and they will crush them and that's all."

No, he told his wife. This time it's different.

Bahrainis had protested before, mainly about the fact that the country's majority Shiites remain poor and disenfranchised by the Sunni monarchy. But they'd never protested like this.

At first the protesters asked for things like an elected Parliament, a new constitution. But then when demonstrators started getting killed, tens of thousands of Bahrainis converged on a place called the Pearl Roundabout to call for the fall of the ruling Al Khalifa family.

Bahrain State TV called protesters traitors and agents of Iran, which is nearby and also has a Shiite majority.

In Bahrain, pro-government thugs attacked protesters, and protesters fought back. Just one month into the uprising, Bahrain's ruling family authorized some 1,500 troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to enter the country.

Apache helicopters circled overhead as authorities cleared the Pearl Roundabout of all protesters. They never made it back.An Uprising Supressed

And so Bahrain became the one Arab country whose uprising was definitively put down. One reason, argues Toby Jones, a professor of Middle East history at Rutgers University, is that the United States and its allies wanted it that way.

For all America's talk during the Arab Spring about supporting those who seek freedom, Jones says, Bahrain was different.

"If there is a place globally where there is not just distance but a huge gap between American interests and American values, it's in the Persian Gulf," Jones says. "And its epicenter is in Bahrain. Bahrain is ground zero for the Arab Spring in the Persian Gulf. And the United States has chosen sides. It has decided that it wants to see the Bahraini regime survive and endure. And that's important not only for the American relationship with Bahrain but for Saudi Arabia."

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, giving the U.S. a major presence that has only increased in significance following the U.S. withdrawal of forces from Iraq.

In addition, Saudi Arabia didn't want protests in its own backyard, Jones says. And it didn't want a Shiite-led uprising to encourage its archrival, Shiite-dominated Iran.

Bahrain's uprising was suppressed in a harsh crackdown. Thousands of people were rounded up, detained, and sometimes tortured. Two of those detained were elected members of Parliament. Others were doctors who treated protesters, journalists who wrote about them, and lawyers who defended them. Several people died while in custody.

Bahrain largely silenced the uprising, but not entirely. Sporadic protests continued and human-rights groups condemned the government actions.
After The Revolt, An Investigation

Eventually, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa commissioned a group of international jurists to investigate. The commission recently issued its findings at one of the king's palaces.Nigel Rodley, a human-rights lawyer who served on the commission, says the group didn't have enough time to discover who ordered the crackdown. But it was clear the army, police and intelligence services were all using the same sinister tactics.

"They were all using the same methods of apprehension, detention, ill treatment, and so on, which suggested a policy across different branches of government," he said.

For a moment, activists in Bahrain thought these findings might help revive their revolution. But while committees and commissions have been formed to implement some of the report's recommendations, no single high-ranking official has been held accountable for the deaths and the torture.

Back during the protests, Sadiq Abdullah, a doctor, was interviewed by Al-Jazeera about protesters who had been shot by security forces.

He eventually was called in for questioning by the intelligence service. Three months later and 40 pounds lighter, the doctor was released, but he still faces charges.

He and his wife, Nidhal, recently took me to their private clinic, in a building that houses a dozen or so other clinics.

"Everyone in this building was in jail," Nidhal said.

Sadiq used to be the only doctor in Bahrain who could do kidney transplants. Now he has been fired from his position at the government hospital. One of his students does the transplants.

"They've done two cases in the last eight months," Sadiq said.

And there are 98 people on the waiting list. Sadiq is furious at a government that would deprive its people of such care. Still, he has a lot to lose here in Bahrain. At the clinic he can earn in one day what he made in a month at the government hospital.

Karzai demands US hand over Bagram prison



President Hamid Karzai demanded Thursday that the U.S. detention center at Bagram Air Base be handed over to Afghan control within a month, along with all Afghan citizens held by the coalition troops across the nation.

Meanwhile, three NATO service members were killed in an explosion in the south of the country, the coalition said. It did not provide any other details about the incident.

A presidential statement said that keeping Afghan citizens imprisoned without trial violates the country's constitution, as well as international human rights conventions.

The prison, inside the sprawling U.S. base at Bagram north of Kabul, abuts a well-known public detention center known as Parwan, which is run jointly by Afghan authorities and the U.S. military.

It's unclear how many high-value detainees are being held at the U.S. facility. Human rights groups have claimed that detainees were menaced, forced to strip naked and kept in solitary confinement in windowless cells.

A statement from Karzai's office said he issued instructions to a commission consisting of the ministers of defense, interior and justice, as well as other top government and judicial officials, "to complete their job regarding the handing over of the (Bagram) prison and other prisoners who are held by foreign forces."

"The work should be completed within a month," it said.

The U.S.-led NATO coalition is gradually handing over responsibility for security to the Afghan police and army. The process is due to be completed in 2014, when most foreign troops are scheduled to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Karzai's demands are the most recent in a series of exercises in political brinksmanship by the president, as he tries to bolster his negotiating position ahead of renewed talks for a Strategic Partnership Document with America that will determine the U.S. role in Afghanistan after 2014.

Among the conditions that Karzai has set is an end to night raids by international troops and complete Afghan control over detainees.

Karzai is walking a tightrope. Although he routinely plays to anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan by denouncing the U.S., he needs America's military and financial strength to back his weak government as it battles the Taliban insurgency.

The CIA's infamous secret network of "black site" interrogation centers is now gone, but suspected terrorists in Afghanistan are being held and interrogated for weeks at temporary sites, including one run by elite special operations forces at Bagram Air Base. The detainees include those suspected of top roles in the Taliban, al-Qaida or other militant groups.

Also Thursday, Afghan police said they arrested two British private security contractors and two Afghan colleagues after finding a cache of weapons in their vehicle. They are being held for investigation into illegal arms transport.

Karzai has ordered all the protection companies shut down by March and replaced by a unified government-run protection force, though recruitment is proceeding at a slow place.

Authorities ordered the immediate shutdown of Afghanistan operations of their company, the international security consulting firm GardaWorld, and are questioning other company employees.

In the latest violence, attackers gunned down a local government official on his way to a mosque in southern Afghanistan in another hit on a government figure. Hundreds of Afghan government officials have been killed in recent years as the Taliban pursue a sweeping assassination campaign seeking to weaken confidence Karzai's administration and discourage people from joining the government.

Haji Fazel Mohammad was shot on his way to evening prayers Wednesday in the volatile district of Sangin in Helmand province, the governor's office said. The attackers escaped.

The Taliban's assassination campaign has also hit senior figures.

In September, a suicide attacker with a bomb in his turban killed former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who led a government council seeking a political settlement with the insurgents. The assassin was posing as a Taliban peace emissary.

PPP’s fight for survival against institutions

Daily Times
In a bid to subside the mounting pressure from institutions, the PPP-led government is weighing the option of an early elections provided a quid pro quo is offered to it by other stakeholders of the political system, particularly the PML-N.

Sources in the PPP said the party leadership was concerned over the PML-N’s inclination towards the institutions, and wanted to make pre-emptive moves before doctored changes take roots.

They said the two parties appeared to be at odds over the memo case and the PML-N’s suggestion for military courts in Karachi. However, the sources added, the differences could be resolved since both the parties were sailing in a same boat of the existing system and comprehending dangers posed to it.

“Dangers to the system are both short term and long term,” they said.

A federal minister from Sindh says, currently, the government is coping with the ‘short-term danger’ of a possible executive-judiciary collision over the implementation of Supreme Court’s verdict on NRO. The court has directed the government to implement the verdict till January 10.

Another executive-judiciary tussle can be the findings of the judicial commission tasked with probing the memo scandal. In this case, the executive is in direct clash with the powerful security and intelligence establishment for having contradictory views on the existence of the memo as well as on the methodology to reach to the bottom of the scandal.

The establishment, the minister said, had so far edged out the government as it had a favourable SC judgement on the petition it sought to file either by PML-N President Nawaz Sharif or PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

“To counter moves aimed at weakening the regime and democratic system, the government will opt for deferment of matters pertaining the NRO judgement,” the sources said.

“In the meantime, the government will be eyeing a concrete outcome from the Parliamentary Committee on National Security on the memogate scandal to work at and to ward off an anticipated hostile verdict from the judicial commission.”

A possible way out for the government of the emerging situation in the next couple of weeks is to create a political environment where all political forces find it appropriate to have fresh elections at an agreed timeframe – rather than putting the government in dock.

Insiders in the PML-N say the party knows when and where to play its cards “as of now it has been exerting all-out possible pressure on the Gilani government to concede to its demand of early elections”.

A PML-N leader from Punjab said the party is cautious of the fact that the PPP government needs to be put under a calculated pressure to make it concede to the demand of early polls.

He said the PML-N had been avoiding street agitation against the government as it did not want political atmosphere where “undemocratic forces find a chance to dictate terms to the political players”.

Realising that no change in government is possible through parliament – where the PPP-led government is comfortably placed with the help of its allies – the PML-N moved the SC on the memo and NRO cases.

“The PML-N resorted to these pressure tactics as it was under enormous pressure in the wake of the shift of right-wing vote to Imran Khan’s PTI,” said the PML-N leader.

He said the PML-N was aware of the “miracles” the intelligence apparatus could do to help win a “hand-picked party” a two-third majority in parliament.

The PML-N leader conceded his party “has the experience of working with or under the shadow of the establishment to win elections or marginalised the mandate of rivals”. “Such a similarity can be traced behind the rise of the PTI,” he added.

“By signing the Charter of Democracy, the PML-N has sought an apology from people for serving the military junta of Gen Ziaul Haq and an establishment-driven political party till the late 90s,” he said, adding, “The people of Punjab have perhaps forgiven the PML-N but not those from other provinces.” “The PML- needs to add more democratic credentials to its identity,” he said.

He said the PML-N leadership was ready to iron-out a “workable plan” with the PPP and its allies for the future course of democratic system in the country. “The PML-N will like the PPP to concede to the demand of opposition forces, which see early elections as only option to ward off possible threats to the existing system.”

Zardari hails Bhutto, recalls Simla pact




President Asif Ali Zardari paid homage to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on Thursday by recalling that the Simla pact he signed with India in 1972 led to the longest spell of peace in South Asia.



In a message to mark Bhutto's 84th birth anniversary, Zardari said the "Shaheed" employed
negotiations to recover the territory lost to India in the 1971 war that gave birth to an independent Bangladesh.

Bhutto also brought back Pakistani prisoners of war from India and prevented the war trials of its military officers for large-scale killings in then East Pakistan to protect the country’s honour and name.

The Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) quoted Zardari as saying that it was the Simla Accord, which Bhutto and Indira Gandhi signed after the 1971 war, that led to the "longest spell of peace between India and Pakistan".

That is "a lasting monument to Shaheed Bhutto’s negotiating skills", he added.

Zardari was married to Bhutto's daughter Benazir, a former Prime Minister who was assassinated in 2007. Bhutto, founder leader of the Pakistan's People's Party (PPP) which now rules Pakistan, was hanged by the military in 1979.

Bhutto took power in Pakistan following the breakup of Pakistan after the 1971 war. More than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers and pro-Pakistan militia surrendered to the Indian military in December 1971.

In a separate message, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Bhutto's greatest success was reviving the confidence of the Pakistani people after the country's eastern wing broke away.

This, he said, "does not have any parallel in world history".

Bhutto created in "the broken nation a new hope and a desire to look forward and infused a sense of self-confidence and self-esteem" after the military rout by India.

PPP hints at early general election



Amid speculations that the coalition government may be wrapped up or face a ‘big blow’ before Senate elections scheduled for March 11, the Pakistan People’s Party leadership decided on Thursday to hold them in mid-February, a senior party member told Dawn.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the PPP’s core committee, jointly presided over by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at the Presidency.

Some private TV channels quoted the Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Khursheed Shah, as saying that the next general election could be held any time after the presentation of budget in June.

A source in the PPP said President Zardari had called a meeting of all heads of coalition parties on Friday to take them into confidence on the decision taken by the core committee.

The party sources said the committee had reiterated its earlier decision of not writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen a money-laundering case against President Zardari.

Political observers see the move as an indication of a fresh confrontation between the government and the judiciary.

The Supreme Court had ordered the government to write the letter by Jan 10. Another significant decision taken by the committee was that President Zardari would not submit a statement before a judicial commission formed by the Supreme Court to investigate the memo issue.

The PPP leaders believe that the federation’s reply submitted to the court during the hearing on maintainability of petitions filed by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and others in the memo case should be treated as a reply from the president.

“Under the Constitution we can hold Senate elections any time within one month before March 11,” Leader of the House in Senate Nayyar Bokhari told Dawn.

The Senate elections are held after every three years after the retirement of 50 per cent of its members. The term of a senator, however, is six years. Last elections were held on March 3, 2009 — nine days before the scheduled oath-taking of new members.

Article 224 of the Constitution says: “An election to fill seats in the Senate which are to become vacant on the expiration of the term of the members of the Senate shall be held not earlier than 30 days immediately preceding the day on which the vacancies are due to occur.”

The PPP leadership also decided to hold by-elections on seats recently vacated by legislators who had joined the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf.

“The meeting decided to hold by-elections on all vacant seats and complete legal formalities for the purpose at the earliest,” the president’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said.

Former law minister Dr Babar Awan said: “The ruling party will stick to its previous stance that no case can be tried against the sitting president.”

The meeting decided to hold consultations with coalition partners on the issue of creation of new provinces and take legislative measures in parliament for Seraiki province in the light of consultations with coalition partners.

The sources said Pakistan Muslim League-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali, who met the president separately after the core committee meeting, had endorsed the PPP decisions on creating new provinces and holding Senate polls in mid-February.

The meeting praised the cabinet’s decision to support a private member bill seeking to make it mandatory for all servants drawing salary from the public exchequer to declare and make public details of their assets in the same manner as the parliamentarians do.

“The meeting noted that in the past such initiatives were thwarted on flimsy grounds and decided to push through the proposed legislation with vigour and political determination,” Farhatullah Babar said.

He said the meeting had rejected a proposal by some political circles to set up military courts and termed it undemocratic, uncalled for and undermining of civil and democratic institutions. “The PPP will resist any such move.”

The prime minister briefed the meeting on the gas, electricity, sugar and fertiliser situation and said the government was giving top priority to domestic gas consumers and there would be no interruption in supply.

Mr Babar quoted the prime minister as saying: “Gas supplies to industry, cement, fertiliser and thermal power sectors will remain suspended during the current month because of an expected increase in consumption by domestic users.”

Mr Gilani said the cabinet committee had been asked to introduce reforms in the energy sector as early as possible and to take steps to reduce system losses by gas companies.

Mr Babar said a committee, headed by Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain, had been asked to hold talks with stakeholders in Sindh to share some of the gas produced in the province with Punjab and submit its report.

The meeting decided to mobilise people and hold rallies and public meetings at divisional levels to be addressed by senior party leaders, including the prime minister.

It asked the president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PPP, Senator Sardar Ali to make preparation for holding a public meeting in tribal areas — the first of its kind by the PPP after Political Parties Order was extended to the region by President Zardari in August last year.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik briefed the meeting on the law and order situation.

The meeting was also attended by Nayyar Bokhari, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, Syed Khursheed Shah, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Syed Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Faisal Raza Abidi, Sardar Ali, Nazar Gondal, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Rana Farooq Saeed Khan, Rukhsana Bangash, Fouzia Habib and Farhatullah Babar.

‘Closed Swiss cases cannot be revived, even if Pakistan asks for it’

The Express Tribune

Cases against President Asif Ali Zardari cannot be reopened in Swiss court, even if Pakistani authorities write a letter to the Swiss authorities, concerned quarters said while talking to The Express Tribune.

The only conviction in the case was set aside in 2003 after it was appealed by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and President Zardari.

Sources quote the Swiss attorney general who claimed in April 2010 that the cases could not be revived, even if Pakistan asked, due to lack of incriminating evidence and immunity enjoyed by President Zardari under international law.

Factitious documents

The Swiss cases were born during Nawaz Sharif’s second term, sources in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said on condition of anonymity.

The then-chairman Ethesab Bureau, Saifur Rehman, prepared factitious documents and presented them before Pakistani and Swiss courts, sources added.

Benazir and Zardari challenged the documents before the accountability bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC). On their application, the bench directed then-registrar of LHC, Moazzam Hayat, to visit Switzerland and meet with Daniel Devaud, the then-Examining Magistrate in Geneva to verify the authenticity of the documents.

When the registrar requested the Swiss magistrate to attest the copies of documents presented to LHC, assuming that the original documents were presented in the Swiss Court, the magistrate refused, saying no original documents were submitted in the Swiss courts either.

Sources said the then-accountability chairman had hired ‘special services’ of Hasan Waseem Afzal to design the cases, who managed it through the services of a High Court judge, Malik Qayyum.

On the basis of non-original documents, however, Devaud awarded a sentence of up to six months to Benazir and Zardari in July 2003.

Benazir subsequently appealed, and the conviction was set aside by a Geneva tribunal on November 4, 2003.

Cases resurface

The cases were revived when Benazir started exerting pressure on General Pervez Musharraf for her return. Afzal was made the deputy chairman NAB and after several visits to Switzerland, he managed to activate the cases.

Musharraf, sources in NAB claim, wanted Benazir and Zardari convicted by Swiss courts, and even sought an early verdict, to gain an upper hand before striking a deal with her for her return.

On April 1, 2006, the Court of Appeal of Geneva allowed Afzal to represent the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in the criminal proceedings against Benazir and her allies on charges of money laundering.

Musharaf’s enthusiasm, however, dampened after an intelligence agency officer, and originator of the infamous ‘tape scandal’, Rana Abdul Rahim expressed his willingness to appear before the Swiss court as a witness. Pakistani courts had acquitted Benazir and Zardari due to lack of incriminating evidence, and Pakistani authorities, sensing that the Swiss cases might meet a similar end following the witness’ appearance, backed out from their demand of an early verdict, NAB sources conjectured.

On April 1, 2008 Pakistan’s then-attorney general wrote a letter to Swiss courts, and dropped out of a $59.6 million money-laundering case against Zardari.

Sources in NAB say the purpose of the letter was two-fold: Musharraf wanted to show Benazir that he is following through with the deal but by ‘dropping out,’ he wanted to publicly tarnish her image.

But, in fact, Musharraf knew there was no evidence which could convict the couple, an official said.

Cases dropped

On August 26, 2008, Swiss judicial authorities closed the money-laundering case against Zardari and released $60 million frozen in Swiss accounts over the past decade.

Daniel Zappelli, Geneva’s chief prosecutor, said he had no evidence to bring Zardari to trial.

He declined to say exactly who owned the accounts holding the $60 million, citing confidentiality. Zardari’s lawyer, Saverio Lembo, had welcomed Zappelli’s decision to shelve the long-running case.

“It confirms what my client has pleaded since 1997. In the SGS/Cotecna case, no funds belonging to Benazir Bhutto were found,” Zappelli said.

Cannot be reopened

The alleged money-laundering case against President Zardari could not be reopened in Swiss courts, Swiss attorney general Daniel Zappelli said in an interview in April 2010.

Since the president enjoyed immunity under international law, Swiss courts could not entertain any request to reopen the cases against him, even if the Swiss authorities received a proper request from Pakistan with all the required stances through an official channel, Zappelli was quoted as saying.

Zardari stands up to military

www.stltoday.com

The Pakistani government has mounted a counterattack against moves by the country's military and Supreme Court, an action that could result in what critics call a constitutional coup against President Asif Ali Zardari. The Supreme Court had set a Jan. 10 deadline for the government to request that a Swiss court reopen a corruption case against Zardari, but his ruling Pakistan People's Party said Thursday that the government would ignore it. The party also said Zardari wouldn't respond to a summons from a judicial inquiry ordered by the Supreme Court to investigate allegations that a top Zardari aide had sought White House help to dissuade the Pakistani military from staging a fifth coup in 64 years. The moves figured to prolong a standoff that has brought Pakistani politics to a standstill and threatens to imperil U.S. efforts to enlist Islamabad's help in achieving peace in neighboring Afghanistan.