FIA DG resigns over NICL probe

ISLAMABAD:-

                            FIA Director General Tehsin Anwar Shah submitted his resignation to establishment secretary on Wednesday, after he presented the same in the Supreme Court and was told by the court to tender it to the authorities concerned.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general told a three-member bench hearing the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam case on Wednesday that he could not work under a junior. Tehseen said: “I am head of FIA, therefore, cannot work under Zafar Qureshi and tender my resignation as this is also against the FIA Act 1975.” The chief justice said to the DG, “Don’t give this kind of threats and submit your resignation before the competent authority.”

The chief justice also directed Zafar Qureshi’s team members Deputy Director Javed Hussain Shah, Assistant Director Mohammad Ahmed, Assistant Director Khalid Anees and Inspector Muhammad Sarwar to work under Qureshi with same vigour and honesty and if they feel pressure from any quarter, inform him (CJP) in his chamber. The chief justice directed the team members, who expressed willingness to continue the investigation, to complete the investigation soon, adding the investigation in the NICL case would continue even after the retirement of Zafar Qureshi.

During the course of proceedings, Justice Amir Hani Muslim put a question to FIA Lahore Director Waqar Haider, “Who had ordered to lock up the gate on August 13?” He replied that on that day he was in Islamabad for an official meeting but when he came to know about the incident he directed the officials at the FIA camp office Lahore to immediately call the bomb disposal squad and inform the police. The honourable judges further inquired from Waqar Haider, “Why did you not hand over the NICL case files to Zafar Qureshi earlier.” The director stated that the files were with FIA Lahore Deputy Director Basharat Shahzad, who had gone to Umrah. However, the DG FIA handed over the NICL case files to Zafar Qureshi before the bench.

Justice Amir Hani asked the director, “By telling a lie you are aggravating the contempt charges against you.” He inquired from the FIA director where the prisoners locked up at the FIA camp office were shifted on August 13. Justice Hani further questioned, “Was the record of prisoners on that specific day maintained and where they were shifted?”

FIA Assistant Director Khawaja Hammad appearing before the bench informed that on Friday (August 12) Director Waqar Haider came to his office and said that he was under pressure, therefore, adopted such a plan that Zafar Qureshi could not enter the building. Hammad said as he had a close relationship with Zafar Qureshi, therefore, he had informed him on telephone on August 12 at night that there would be some drama at the Camp Office to prevent him from entering the building. He also said a similar incident had happened when Moonis Elahi was brought at the trial court.

The chief justice directed Hammad to prepare his statement during the course of the day and submit a copy of it at the SC Registrar office and give one copy to Waqar Haider so that he could file his reply in the next date of hearing.

Attorney General for Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq placed on record the copy of FIR registered at the Civil Lines Police Station, Lahore, regarding a hoax call on August 12. The court directed the PPO Punjab to ensure independent investigation of it and submit its report at the SC Registrar office.

The court has deferred the contempt of court proceedings against those FIA officers who had defied August 8, 2011 SC order. The DG FIA and others relevant authorities were directed in the judgment not to create hindrance in the investigation being conducted by Zafar Qureshi and his team. The case was adjourned for an indefinite period of time.

Nawaz demands immediate elections

LAHORE:-

                   PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif has demanded that fresh elections should be held in the country immediately.

Talking to a private TV channel on Wednesday, the PML-N chief said problems faced by the country could only be solved if elections were held immediately. He added it was the responsibility of the nation to stand up against the government and ensure that no one played with their mandate. On supporting the PPP, Nawaz said his party tried working with the PPP initially but there was no substance to the relationship.

Nawaz Sharif said all the political parties should go to the people and the people should decide about the future of Pakistan.

The two-time premier said he had advised President Asif Ali Zardari four months ago to hold fresh elections. “It was a sincere advice but President Zardari turned down the proposal,” he said. He said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani could dissolve the National Assembly or lower house of the parliament and announce fresh elections just as he (Sharif) had done in 1993 when he was the premier.

The PPP-led government has rejected similar demands from other opposition parties and said fresh elections will be held in early 2013 after it completes its five-year term.

Sharif has been critical of the government’s policies since he pulled the PML-N out of the ruling coalition in 2008 but never sought fresh polls. The PML-N had joined the government after the 2008 general election in the national interest but could not go along with the PPP because of its policies, he said.

This is the first time that Sharif has called for fresh polls, though other leaders of his party have often said the country’s problems, including corruption and the perceived inefficiency of the Pakistan People’s Party-led government, can only be resolved through mid-term elections.

Meanwhile, PPP’s Information Secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira said that Nawaz Sharif should focus on the next general elections instead of long march as it would be useless. Talking to the media at Allama Iqbal international Airport here before leaving for India, he said staging a long march was right of everyone but the PML-N president should justify it and tell the masses if it aimed at toppling the government.

He said the PPP wanted stability in the country and it was effort of the government and the party to resolve issues by taking all parties on board.

He advised Nawaz Sharif “to resolve problems within the PML-N and to prepare for the next elections which were only one-and-half year away

Indian Congress hints at US hand in Anna Hazare protest

Indian Congress hinted at an American hand behind Anna Hazare-led protests, asking why had the US spoken in favour of an agitation in the country for the first time since Independence. It urged the government to probe the angle of the hidden hand trying to destabilize the country. The party stuck to its charge that Anna was indulging in blackmail by imposing its draft of the Lokpal bill on Parliament and said House's dignity was being sullied which cannot be tolerated.

But it was the talk of the US hand that surprised observers. The conspiracy theory, floated by AICC spokesman Rashid Alvi, drew from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement in Parliament where he said India should not fall prey to the forces envious of country's rise as an economic power.

Briefing both the Houses about Anna's arrest, the PM said, "We are emerging as one of the important players on the world stage. There are many forces that would not like to see India realize its true place in the comity of nations. We must not play into their hands."

But while Singh only hinted at the possibility, Alvi went a step further. The Congress spokesperson said the sophisticated nature of the orchestrated campaign called for urgent attention to the hidden hand while recalling in the same breath the surprise statement from the US State Department urging the Indian government to respect democratic protests.

"Anna is alone. He has no organization. Then how did this movement start and grow? Who are these people spreading the word on internet and telephones; the way video message was recorded prior to arrest," he said, while adding, "The US had never spoken about any movement in India. This is the first time that it did. We show the path of democracy to others, what was the need for the US to say it. This has created suspicion," Alvi said

Pakistan amends tribal laws said to fuel militancy: report

The weak, U.S.-backed government of Pakistan’s unpopular president, Asif Ali Zardari, is receiving rare domestic praise this week for a move that even opponents say could help accomplish something that has long been the domain of the Pakistani army: pacifying the militant-riddled tribal belt.

Last week, Zardari authorized long-discussed reforms allowing political parties to campaign in the northwestern tribal region and relaxing dated laws that hold entire tribes accountable for one person’s crime. The changes chip away at measures that are widely viewed as violating the fundamental rights enjoyed by the rest of Pakistan’s 180 million people — and that have inspired little loyalty to the state among residents of the borderlands.

The changes have yet to be implemented, and some observers and tribal representatives complain that they barely scratch the surface of the problems. But in Pakistan, where governance is characterized more often by side-switching and potshots than by policymaking, the development is being greeted as a stride toward civilian control in an area where the power players have long been the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the army.

“These steps are very, very important,” said Khadim Hussain, a university professor who directs a research institute focusing on the tribal areas. “So many times, people there tell me, ‘You have given us a national identity card, but you have not given us a feeling that we belong to Pakistan.’ ”

The mountainous, conservative tribal belt has long been as isolated politically as it is geographically. For decades, British colonialists and the Punjabi-dominated Pakistani state attributed that to the “warrior-like” culture of the area’s Pashtun population. Now there is general agreement that oppressive and unique laws, long encouraged by the powerful military, marginalized the region — and, in recent years, made it a sanctuary for terrorists.

The belt is known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, and it is divided into seven sections overseen by an appointed “political agent.” The agent often serves as little more than a conduit for patronage, analysts say. There are no state police, and courts consist of politically influenced tribal councils or Taliban tribunals. Political parties are barred, so the region’s 12 elected representatives in Pakistan’s national assembly have had little incentive to sit in the opposition.

“Any government would be able to purchase their votes,” said Babar Sattar, a legal expert and newspaper columnist in Islamabad, the capital. “People weren’t really represented — individuals were represented.”

The most notorious problem is a British-era criminal code enacted to suppress Pashtun opposition and long assailed by human rights activists and FATA residents. Among other things, the regulations allow whole tribes to be jailed or their businesses blocked if one member is suspected of a crime; political agents can deny bail, imprison people to “prevent” killings and expel those they deem “dangerous fanatics.”

One elder of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe in South Waziristan agency said the political agent there recently suspended state stipends to his tribe and the salaries of those who work for the tribal police. The reason, he said, was that militants had fired mortar rounds at an army camp near the tribe’s settlements.

“We are at war, and there could be firing of gunshots from any quarter,” said the elder, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “How could we be punished for a crime we neither committed nor saw?”

Amid the vacuum of governance, Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters have set up shop, and domestic Taliban insurgents have cemented their sway through systematic killings of tribal leaders. Today, the tribal belt is a virtual no man’s land, even for political agents. That has suited the military, which prefers minimal civilian oversight in a strategic area where it carries out regular operations and is accused of nurturing militants to act as proxies in Afghanistan, Hussain said.

Under the amended laws, political parties can attempt to win and represent voters, and residents will be able to appeal political agents’ decisions before a new tribunal. Women, children and people older than 65 are exempt from collective punishment, and the national auditor is authorized to scrutinize political agents’ use of state funds.

Until now, the political agent “was answerable to none,” said Abdul Latif Afridi, a politician and lawyer from Khyber agency, in the tribal areas.

Analysts have raised plenty of caveats, starting with the question of whether and how quickly the changes will take root. Militant threats will also make political campaigning difficult, if not impossible, Afridi said.

Many observers add that the changes are too piecemeal. To fully “mainstream” the FATA, they say, it must be declared a province or incorporated into another province, a police force should be formed, and the British-era criminal code must be abolished. Hussain, the FATA researcher, said numerous surveys have found that the region’s residents agree.

Zardari promised reforms two years ago, but enactment was slowed by the endless wrangling of Pakistan’s unstable coalition government and by resistance from the military, one person involved in negotiations said. Some worry that the army allowed the changes in exchange for another ordinance recently signed by Zardari, which legalized some of the military’s unchecked powers to detain and try terrorism suspects in the restive northwest.

“The basic status of the region remains the same,” said Imtiaz Gul, an analyst and author of “The Most Dangerous Place,” a recent book on the tribal areas. “This represents fears within the bureaucracy, who have been opposed to any overnight change, saying it would disturb the social-political structures in the tribal areas.” (The Washington Post

Mufti Saab garmi mei Ghalib

It was a dark and stormy night, with rain lashing violently, thunder booming like cannons and dogs howling like banshees. I raced across the deserted graveyard, dodged past the lady in white with backward pointing feet and crashed through the aik kamray ki jhopri in which we lived.

“Maa,” I yelled “Mei aap ki dawa ley aaya huun Maa!”
My frail, diseased mother was prostrating on the janamaz. She stirred listlessly, then got up with tears in her broken, cataract-riddled eyes and said to me, “Bete, dawa tou lay aaye ho, magar internet meme kab laao gay?”

“

Nahiiiiiiiii…”

The internet meme is to our age what the novel was to the turn of the century. The greatest truths of our era seem to be contained in biting Charlies and Paedobears circulating the internet.
As this art form is still quite novel (see what I did there?) it has slowly traversed across the planet, varying by the degree of technological penetration and amount of useless hours available to its populace. Once this critical point is reached, the internet meme – like any art form – begins to manifest reflections of its own society.
The first one that I can imagine being dubbed a genuine internet phenomenon has to be the iconic Chand Nawab video. It came at a time when the media was slowly gaining ubiquity, but like the travelers who keep interrupting his piece-to-camera, no one was quite sure what to do about it. Soon after, there was the video where a future Prime Minister showed he could fondle like Ronaldinho could pass – without needing to look at the recipient. And there was the bainul-aqwami super hit when a student protested at the cruel humour of automatic doors by running through glass. And no one can ever forget the philosophical inquiry into the construction of the modern Saudi state which started in the desert.
But none of these viral videos have spawned the sheer expanse of catchphrases, remixes, motivational posters and entire subcultures that have come the way of the All-Stars of 2011.
First up, there was the Veena Malik rant, immortalized in the refrain “Mufti Saab, yeh kya baat hui?”  which was a pithy expression for the conflict Pakistan was facing within itself.

Then, the accidental heroism of Zohair Toru, who etched “Garmi mei kharab” into our collective psyche. Once again, those immortal words captured everything imaginable about Pakistani politics, its youth and the points at which the two converged.

And now there is the veritable Dr. Aamir Liaquat – no stranger to the virtues of the internet, having allegedly received his PhD from its recesses. In what is a rapidly disappearing video, the roohani rockstar is seen to have an off-camera persona that rapidly veers from the profane to the profound.

Typically, the kind doctor has claimed that the video is fake and a conspiracy. From a technological perspective, the claim that the voice has been faked and re-dubbed is pretty much impossible. But what appears to be even tougher to fake is the doctor’s repeated horizontal fist-pump, which doesn’t really need any words to convey its meaning.

But to focus on these trivialities would mean missing out on understanding the true significance of this moment. It would be ignoring the existential dilemma at the heart of this story, this society and these wretched times.

The question we all need to be asking ourselves is: Ghalib film dekhi hai aap ne?

Violence intensifies in Karachi; 23 killed

KARACHI:-
                     There was no rest in violence in the city as 23 more people were killed since Wednesday night, DawnNews reported.
AP quoted a senior police official as saying that 33 people have been killed in the last 24 hours.
Karachi police chief Saud Mirza said Thursday that authorities were investigating the cause of the fighting.
“Most of the killings have resulted from clashes between criminal gangs operating in Lyari and surrounding areas,” a senior police official said.
“It’s not the kind of fighting that we saw last month, this is more of a gang war.”
But police said turf wars between gangs dealing in drugs and extortion rackets were by no means a new development in Lyari.
“These gangs regularly clash and kill members and supporters of rival groups,” the senior official said.
“Many times, innocent people are also targeted in this rivalry. However, many of those killed end up linked to one gang or the other. Some of these gangs do have political support and backing, but still you cannot term this as a political war as such.”
He acknowledged that “a few” of those killed may have been targeted over their ethnic or political affiliation.
Sixteen bodies have been found in different parts of the metropolis while one man was gunned down in the Baldia Town.
Four bodies were recovered from the Shershah area, three each from Baldia Town, Kakri Ground and the Garden area.
Two bodies were found in Maripur while one from the Mangoper area.
One body recovered from the Baldia Town was of a fire extinguisher Liaquat Azhar who was kidnapped yesterday by unknown men. All the bodies bore marks of torture and gun shots.
The hike in violence started after a former lawmaker of the Pakistan People’s Party was killed in the Lyari area on Wednesday. Three other people were also killed in the firing incident.
Bomb attacks and firing incidents have resulted in deaths of 40 people in last 24 hours in the city.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has said there were at least 490 political, ethnic and sectarian killings in Karachi during the first half of the year

FIA DG given in Zafar Qureshi’s subordination

ISLAMABAD:-

                          Additional DG FIA Zafar Qureshi in National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) multibillion scam probe.Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday while hearing NICL case directed ‘the DG FIA to henceforth be associated with the team, investigating the multibillion scam and supervised by Zafar Qureshi.’ Qureshi was reinstated as Additional DG FIA on the Supreme Court’s judgement on August 08, 2011.A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ghulam Rabbani was hearing a sou moto regarding violation of Public Procurement Rules, 2004 in loss of billions of rupees to exchequer caused by NICL.The DG FIA was also ordered to cancel the leaves of all the FIA officers, who were associated with Zafar Qureshi in NICL scam. The additional DG complained that according to his information, all the officers, working with him in NICL scam, were sent on leaves. He said that despite the court’s order hindrances had been created in his way, instead of assisting.The FIA officers have been directed to appear before the court today (Wednesday). The DG FIA was asked to inquire from Inspector General of Police Punjab if any case had been registered against the person who had spread the rumour of bomb at FIA camp officer Lahore on August 13.During the course of proceeding Zafar Qureshi informed the court that on Friday night (August 12) Khawaja Hamad phoned him and told about the planting of the bomb. He said Hamad had asked him not to come to office tomorrow (Saturday), adding: “When on 13th August I reached the FIA office I was told that a bomb is planted in the building.” He stated the main gate was locked and he was not allowed to enter though some FIA officers were inside the building.The bench observed that DG FIA should have registered the case against Kh Hamad in the concerned police station under PPC 505, who had telephoned Qureshi so the police could have inquired the matter and dealt in accordance with law. The Chief Justice asked the DG FIA to collect the record of telephone call and not to destroy it.Zafar Qureshi, earlier, narrated in detail the facts about non-cooperation by Secretary Interior Khawaja Siddique Akbar, DG FIA and Director FIA Lahore Waqar Haider. He told the bench that after passing of the order by Supreme Court on August 8, he had written letters to Secretary Interior and DG FIA but they extended no cooperation.Although he has assumed the charge of additional DG FIA on August 11, the investigation team already attached with him had not been made available and reportedly Javed Hussain Shah was sent on casual leave.