LGs set to return in entire Sindh

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD:

After scathing criticism for running two different systems in Sindh, the provincial government has decided to restore the Local Governments System 2001 (LGS) in whole of the province.Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon announced Sunday night that Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has taken the decision to extend the LGS to all parts of the province. He said a draft to this effect had been sent to Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad. Till the filing of this report, the chief minister was in a meeting at the Governor’s House and an ordinance to this affect was likely to be signed anytime. President Asif Ali Zardari also phoned Ebad and talked about the new measure. Meanwhile, President Zardari has invited senior leaders of the party to meet at Awian-e-Sadr today (Monday) to discuss the issue. Sources said that senior PPP leaders including the Sindh chief minister have expressed their support to the idea.The PPP-led government, which had reintroduced the old commissionerate system in the province last month, restored the local governments system in Karachi and Hyderabad on the instance of MQM, but kept it in rest of the Sindh. The government was facing immense pressure from the Sindh nationalists and its ally Awami National Part to adopt a uniform system. Though both these forces favoured commisionerate system, but the government under pressure from MQM decided that if it has to adopt a unitary system, it would be the LGS.The nationalists have given a strike call in Sindh today (Monday) over the issue of adoption of two different systems in the province.On the other hand, strongly reacting to reverting back to district government system in Karachi and Hyderabad, the ANP called its parliamentary party meeting today (Monday) at the Parliament House to discuss the matter.ANP Central Information Secretary Zahid Khan said that the meeting has been called by Senior Vice-President Bushra Gohar to review the changes made in the administrative setup in Sindh. He said that PPP has not taken them on board while taking the decision of withdrawal of the commissionerate system following their negotiations with the MQM on Saturday.Sources aware of the developments taking place on this front informed The Nation that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had phoned PML-Functional chief Pir Pagara Saturday night to take him into confidence regarding their new deal with the MQM to bring normalcy and peace to the port city of Karachi. Sources further said that Pir Pagara in his conversation with Gilani highlighted the significance and utility of the commissionerate system and did not approve the measure.Zahid Khan commenting on the situation questioned as to how a province could function under two separate local bodies system, adding that restoration of the district governments system in Karachi and Hyderabad was tantamount to accepting their status as a separate province. He demanded of the PPP to address the reservations of the ANP.Bushra Gohar said that the situation in Karachi was so critical and the government should have taken all the stakeholders on board while taking any decision about the city

PML-N wants govt to prepare formula for new provinces

ISLAMABAD:

The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N is likely to finalise on Monday its plan on the issue of making new provinces in the country.

A meeting of the party to be presided over by its president Nawaz Sharif will devise a strategy to deal with rising demands for creation of new provinces in the light of recommendations prepared by a 15-member committee it had set up last week.
The committee, headed by Senator Raja Zafarul Haq, will present its report to the party on Monday.
According to sources, the committee has suggested that the party should ask the government to first devise a formula on the basis of which a new province should be created and that formula should be applicable to all parts of the country and not only to areas where the demands for new provinces are being raised.
It says that the formula should be based on population, area, resources, sources of income and other important factors to resolve the issue on a permanent basis.
The PML-N, the sources said, wanted the government to initiate a consultative process to develop a broad-based consensus among all the political parties inside and outside parliament before taking any practical step towards creating a new province.
They said there was a feeling within the party ranks that the Pakistan People`s Party (PPP) was only exploiting the issue to gain political mileage against the PML-N. The PML-N believes the government cannot take any step for the division of Punjab without its support.
The sources said that the PML-N would not allow anyone to dictate his terms on the issue.
The PML-N had constituted the special committee in the light of a policy statement given by Mr Sharif after his election as the party president last month.
Giving up the party`s traditional resistance against demands for new provinces, Mr Sharif had said that Muslim League was not against new provinces but they should be made on administrative grounds.
Mr Sharif had said that he was in favour of creating new provinces when and where they were necessary. He, however, had warned that if new provinces were made on linguistic, racial or group basis, then it would damage the country`s security and integrity.
The PML-N committee comprised Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Zulfiqar Khosa, Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal, Mamnoon Hussain, Yaqoob Khan Nasir, Abdul Qadir Baloch, Salahuddin Tirmizi, Tehmina Daultana, Arshad Khan Leghari and Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal.
Javed Hashmi is the only member of the committee who has been openly supporting the demand for new provinces.
Speaking in the National Assembly last week, the veteran leader from Multan said he wanted his party to take the lead and announce “creation of three to four new provinces” in Punjab. He said that with increase in population new provinces had become the need of the hour.

|In April while taking part in the debate in the assembly on the presidential address to parliament, Mr Hashmi had proposed splitting up the four provinces into up to 16 for good administration

Elements other than Moonis behind my suspension: Qureshi

LAHORE:

 Zafar Qureshi, the suspended Additional Director General of Federal Investigation Agency, believes that elements other than those involved in the Moonis Elahi case are equally responsible for his latest predicament.

“Federal Commerce Minister Amin Fahim, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and a son of an influential person are other people responsible for the suspension,” a source in FIA quoted Mr Qureshi as saying.
“Mr Fahim and others fear that I may unearth their ‘share’ in the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam while Mr Malik pressurised me to follow his instructions in future investigations,” the former ADG was quoted as saying by the source.Mr Qureshi was reinstated in the FIA after the Supreme Court suspended on July 1 the notification of his transfer to the National Police Foundation.
After assuming the office on Saturday, Mr Qureshi wrote a letter to FIA Director General Tahseen Anwar Shah, asking him to restore deputy director Javed Shah, assistant directors Mohammad Ahmed and Khalid Anees and inspector Mohammad Sarwar (transferred to DI Khan, Turbat, Peshawar and Gwadar, respectively) – to their previous place of posting (Lahore) as they had assisted him in the NICL probe.
The letter said: “The transfer of the officials in question is tantamount to violation of the Supreme Court orders. It shows mala fide intention and aims at creating hurdles in the investigation of the scam.”A copy of the letter was also dispatched to the Supreme Court registrar.
The establishment division on Sunday issued a letter to Mr Qureshi asking him to explain his position for “releasing the letter’s content to media and talking to it over the issue”. Following Mr Qureshi’s ‘unsatisfactory’ reply, the interior ministry suspended him on Monday under Rule 9 of the Government Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 1973.An FIA official told Dawn that names other than that of Moonis Elahi had also surfaced during the investigation of the scam. “No investigator other than Mr Qureshi could lay hand on them after gathering concrete evidence,” he said.
There are reports that Mr Fahim had conveyed his ‘anger’ to President Asif Zardari over the reinstatement of Mr Qureshi and demanded his immediate removal. After that, Rehman Malik summoned Mr Qureshi to Islamabad and warned him not to create any further trouble for the government. Mr Qureshi, however, reportedly refused to ‘oblige’ his boss. “The government then had no other option but to suspend him,” the FIA official said.
The PML-Q circles are of the view that since Mr Qureshi had done all the ‘damage’ that he could in the Moonis case, he was no longer a threat to him (Moonis).
“Qureshi had interrogated Moonis for 14 days in the FIA custody and submitted a challan of his will in the banking court. Now all the witnesses have testified and an acquittal application has been filed in court. What can he do now? Will Qureshi dictate the court to give a verdict against Moonis?” a senior PML-Q leader said while talking to Dawn.
“People in the PPP have sent Qureshi packing to pre-empt his future ‘moves’,” he said.
According to the FIRs registered with Lahore office, Mohsin Habib Warraich’s company, Messrs Privilege, purchased 803 kanals from the NICL at Mauza Toor, Lahore, for Rs1.68 billion in February last year. The company allegedly sold the land without getting the property mutated in its favour.
In another case, the NICL sold the land measuring 20 kanal at Lahore Airport Road to Mohsin Warraich for Rs1.7 billion. It sold the land at the rate of Rs53 million per kanal although its market value was much higher, causing a loss of Rs915 million to the exchequer.

The FIA has arrested 13 people, including former NICL chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi. Three other accused Mohsin Habib Warraich, Amin Qasim Dada and Javed Syed are at large. An amount of Rs420 million is yet to be recovered from the accused and ‘suspects’.

NICL scam investigator suspended

ISLAMABAD / LAHORE:

The government on Monday suspended Zafar Hussain Qureshi, an Additional Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency who was investigating the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) financial scam in which the elder son of federal minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is the main accused.
Mr Qureshi was reinstated in the FIA after the Supreme Court suspended on Friday the notification regarding his transfer to the National Police Foundation. The Supreme Court had ordered bringing back Mr Qureshi to the NICL investigations – the assignment from which he was removed in April this year, apparently to appease PML-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.
The PML-Q later joined the federal government in May. A preliminary inquiry has found Chaudhry Moonis Elahi, who is a member of the Punjab Assembly, involved in making money through shady deals made in the NICL.
According to the notification, signed by a deputy secretary of the interior division, Mr Qureshi was suspended for giving a television interview on Saturday. The order cited rule 9 of the Government Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) rules for the action.
The interior ministry asked Mr Qureshi to explain his position for giving statements in the media on July 2. But the official did not reply to the ministry’s query.
“You had been given a fair chance of rendering an explanation within 24 hours on receipt of the letter and it was made abundantly clear that failing this it shall be presumed that you have no explanation to offer and you should render yourself liable to be proceeded against under the rules,” the order said.
The interior ministry also accused Mr Qureshi of releasing the content of the letter to the media and termed his action a “sheer violation” of the provisions of Rules 18 and 22 of the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1964.
Although the PPP government has repeatedly dithered on decisions of the Supreme Court, the suspension of Mr Qureshi could set off a head-on collision between the executive and the judiciary. “The issue has the potential to upset the judiciary,” commented an analyst.
According to sources in the prime minister’s secretariat, the decision to suspend Mr Qureshi was taken after a meeting earlier during the day between the prime minister and the Chaudhrys. Interior Minister Rehman Malik attended the meeting, too.
According to the sources, the government had assured PML-Q leaders that it would help secure the release of Mr Moonis Elahi once the party joined the ruling coalition.
Soon after his reinstatement as additional director general of FIA on Saturday, Mr Qureshi had written a letter to his boss – Director General Tahseen Anwar Shah – to restore the four officials of his team to their previous position (in Lahore) for their
‘utility’ in the NICL scam. These officers were: deputy director Javed Shah, assistant directors Mohammad Ahmed and Khalid Anees, and inspector Muhammad Sarwar.
The letter said: “The transfer of the officials in question is tantamount to violation of the Supreme Court’s orders. It shows mala fide intention and aims at creating hurdles in the investigation of the scam.”
BOSSES HIT BACK: According to sources, this letter annoyed Mr Qureshi’s bosses in the interior ministry who eventually struck back by getting him suspended.
Earlier, despite the Supreme Court’s rulings, Prime Minister Gilani had refused to reappoint Mr Qureshi as an investigation
officer into the NICL scam. The secretaries of the establishment and interior divisions, as well as the principal secretary to the prime minister, were served contempt of court notices for not complying with the court’s orders.
On July 1, the Supreme Court ordered cancellation of the transfer orders of Mr Qureshi from FIA to the National Police Foundation and directed him to complete the investigations into NICL scam.
The Supreme Court, in its July 1 decision, had described the progress made by Mr Qureshi as head of investigation into the NICL scam as remarkable, saying that an officer who had shown professionalism by bringing back looted money should not have been punished by taking him off the investigation.
In its order the bench also noted the government had acknowledged Mr Qureshi was an honest officer. He was able to bring back a huge amount of Rs1.74 billion, the bench observed.
Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq admitted that Mr Qureshi was an honest officer and had carried out the investigation
properly and successfully.
After suspending the notification, the court ordered the Director General of FIA to extend all assistance to Zafar Qureshi for investigating the cases registered in Lahore over the NICL scam.
According to sources, Interior Minister Rehman Malik had a meeting with him in Islamabad on Sunday and asked him to be ‘cooperative’.
Mr Qureshi’s work had led to the arrest of Moonis Elahi and he had Federal Commerce Minister Amin Fahim in his sights, too, over allegations that he had received Rs200 million in the NICL land deal in Dubai.

Mr Moonis has already been indicted after a challan submitted to the banking court. Amin Fahim’s case is pending with the Karachi wing of the FIA.

NICL case: SC declares Zafar Qureshi suspension 'null & void'

ISLAMABAD:
Supreme Court (SC) has declared suspension of investigation officer in NICL scandal case Zafar Qureshi as 'null and void', Geo News reported on Monday.
Three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaurdhary while hearing the case declared suspension notification of Zafar Qureshi as null and void and ordered his restoration on the same post.
Justice Shakirullah Jan announced the verdict reserved in suspension of Zafar Qureshi case.
The court has also constituted a commission headed by Justice Ghulam Rabbani to investigate into political interference in the case besides anti-judiciary campaign in media. It also ordered Secretary Establishment and Home Secretary to extend cooperation to the commission.
The court had ordered restoration of Zafar Qureshi as investigation office in NICL scandal case on July 01.
It may be noted here that the government had suspended Qureshi on the next day on the charges of issuing statements in media.
Meanwhile, the court has directed Zafar Qureshi to bring looted money back by investigating at the earliest. The SC has also ordered DG FIA for not intervening Qureshi's work.

PML-N’s testing time at Punjab Assembly

LAHORE:

For the first time in the history of Pakistan, one federating unit, Punjab, is facing a unique situation regarding the creation of a new province, since the opposition has submitted a resolution to initiate the subject at the largest provincial legislative house, which will be seeing the daylight on August 11, when the Punjab Assembly meets for its 29th session.

Political analysts are of the considered opinion that now it will be the test of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s political acumen and pragmatism, and provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah’s constitutional wisdom. However, it is yet to be seen how they respond to a ‘unique’ move. Also, it remains to be seen whether the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid’s resolution is technically knocked out during the business committee meeting on the given day or it is placed before the House for debate, followed by voting.

The speaker has the authority to say no to the resolution and deny making it part of the agenda under the pretext of ‘public interest’. If he does so, even then the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz will be exposed for being against the idea of new province. If he allows, and reaches the stage of voting, and the N-League opposes it, the party will be on the slippery pitch again.

The reason for the resolution is to put the PML-N to test since the PPP-PML-Q duo knows very well that it does not have the mandatory two-thirds majority in the assembly.

Certainly, whatever Punjab legislators are going to decide, it will have a lasting impact on the next general elections, which are not too far in the future even if the current assemblies complete their constitutional term.

Also, a huge pressure is mounting on the provincial legislators, to the likes of Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood, Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari and others, since they will be closely watched by all and sundry across the province, whether they would rise above their party affiliations, and address the issue, which they have kept close to their hearts since long. Also their electorate will be watching them whom they have many a time fed on the sloganeering regarding the creation of a province. However, it is believed that MPs from southern Punjab would outplay their colleagues from the rest of Punjab in delivering sermons and dishing out advices enumerating benefits of one more province.

To some experts, passing of the resolution from the Punjab Assembly is not doable, and even if the first stage is completed after constitutional requirement of doing it with two-thirds majority is actualised, it will open many fronts leading to further divisions of provinces on either linguistic or ethnic basis, which nobody will ever envy.

Political pundits maintain that the ruling party of the province, PML-N, in its heart of hearts does not want a new province since it will lead to divide its own strength as well as resources, while lesser is believed to be pouring in from southern Punjab, except in the form of raw material. No-one has answered the question, “Which part pays more taxes?” Similarly, the PPP, which is deemed to be playing a political card to make the N-League cripple under pressure and lose ballot, does not intend to complete the move since Sindh would also stand divided into Sindhi and non-Sindhi at some point of time, if not now. One part will have majority of the Urdu-speaking and Pashtuns with Sindhis in minority, while in the second, the situation will be reversed with certain other elements coming to the fore. Also, other provinces will demand the same division. Already, the Hazarites of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are demanding Hazara as a new province, while Balochs are for separating Pashtuns from them after dividing Balochistan.

The constitutional experts believe that if the Punjab Assembly passes a resolution, and other mandatory steps are actualised, then Punjab would have 40 seats in the Senate, while the other province would have 25 each. This would create more bitterness among the other federating units, who have been repeatedly alleging Punjab of dominating other parts of the country.

Nevertheless, the PML-N is sitting on a hot seat, and PPP’s political move, which is primarily aimed at denting its adversary’s vote bank and eroding its credibility, is so far gaining moss, and has successfully diverted people’s attention from other pressing issues of huge importance.

‘US has plan to seize Pak nuclear weapons’

NEW YORK.

The fact that the US has a contingency plan to seize Pakistan’s nuclear weapons – if it feared they were about to fall into the wrong hands – if is no longer a secret, a major American television network says.

“It is no secret that the United States has a plan to try to grab Pakistan’s nuclear weapons – if and when the (US) president believes they are a threat to either the US or US interests,” NBC reported.

“As US-Pakistani relations spiral downward, the spectre of a showdown between the increasingly antagonistic allies is garnering more attention, including the worst-case scenario of the US attempting to snatch Pakistan’s 100-plus nuclear weapons if it feared they were about to fall into the wrong hands,” the report said.

It added that ensuring security of those weapons has long been a high US security priority even before 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The NBC said, “There were increasing suspicions among US officials that Osama had support within the ISI and the Abbottabad operation had emboldened those in Washington who believe an orchestrated campaign of raids to secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could succeed.”

“In the aftermath of the bin Laden raid, US military officials have testified before Congress about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and the threat posed by loose nukes – nuclear weapons or materials outside the government’s control. And earlier Pentagon reports also outline scenarios in which US forces would intervene to secure nuclear weapons that were in danger of falling into the wrong hands.” In an interview with NBC News, former president Pervez Musharraf warned that a snatch-and-grab operation would lead to all-out war between the countries, calling it total confrontation by the whole nation against whoever comes in. “These are assets which are the pride of Pakistan, assets which are dispersed and very secure in very secure places, guarded by a corps of 18,000 soldiers,” said Musharraf.

“This is not an army which doesn’t know how to fight. This is an army which has fought three wars. Please understand that,” he said.

Pervez Hoodboy too says a US attempt to take control of Pakistan’s nukes would be foolhardy. “They are said to be hidden in tunnels under mountains, in cities, as well as regular air force and army bases,” he said. “A US snatch operation could trigger war; it should never be attempted.”

Despite such comments, interviews with current and former US officials, military reports and even congressional testimony indicate that Pakistan’s weaponry has been the subject of continuing discussions, scenarios, war games and possibly even military exercises by US intelligence and special forces regarding so-called “snatch-and-grab” operations