The Pakistan Update

By Sadiq Saleem

The purpose of this particular type of accountability was never to deal with the problem of corruption but to create hype about it. Hence, phrases like “Looti hui daulat qaum ko wapis kee jaye” (Return the looted wealth to the nation) are bandied about without dealing with the substantive legal issues.

The reason why former Ehtesab supremo, the notorious Saif-ur-Rehman, came up with the figure $1.5 billion as the amount “stolen” by Zardari was that it sounded good in propaganda. Otherwise his Ehtesab Bureau never really identified properties or initiated substantive cases that amounted to that value. The Supreme Court must ask the Ehtesab Bureau’s successor NAB why, if its claim of $1500 million in assets is correct, cases in international courts led to freezing of only $73 million ($60 million in Swiss courts and $13 million in the case of the Surrey Mansion in England).

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Tags: Accountability Court, Asif Zardari, National Accountability Bureau, NRO, Pakistan, PPP, Supreme Court

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By Asif Ali Zardari

Two years ago the world stopped for me and for my children. Pakistan was shaken to its core and all but came apart. Women everywhere lost one of their greatest symbols of equality. And Islam, our great religion, lost its modern face.

On Dec. 27, 2007, my wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated. She was the bravest person I have ever known, and the second anniversary of her death is an appropriate occasion to reflect upon what she achieved for our country, and how her legacy must be preserved against those who would return Pakistan to darkness.

Twice elected prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir had an immense impact. She stood up and defeated the forces of military dictatorship. She freed all political prisoners. She ended press censorship. She legalized trade and student unions, built 46,000 primary and secondary schools and appointed the first female judges in our history. (more…)

Tags: Benazir Bhutto, Democracy, Pakistan, Pakistan Peoples Party, PPP, President of Pakistan, Zardari

Posted in Blog | 2,225 Comments »

By Mark Siegel

For those of us who knew and loved Benazir Bhutto, not just as a great political leader but as an irreplaceable friend, the days between Christmas and New Years can never ring with joyous holiday spirit and celebration.  December 27th is a dreaded day on the calendar of the people of Pakistan, democrats all around the world, and the family and friends of Benazir Bhutto.  It is a day of remembrance, reflection, and inevitable thinking of what could have been had she lived to govern Paksistan once again.

To so many she was an icon but to me she was a friend, a colleague, an intellectual sparring partner, an aunt to my children and a soul mate to my wife.  On top of all the great things that she had done, and the endless possiblities of what she could have accomplished had she lived, I genuinely miss her on a personal level.

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Tags: Assassination, Benazir, Benazir Bhutto, Bhutto, Democracy, Featured, Pakistan, Politics, PPP

Posted in Blog, News | 4,220 Comments »

By Ahmed Naeem

The Supreme Court verdict on the National Reconciliation Ordinance — commonly known as NRO — was not unexpected, yet the media hype created a sense of chaos in the country, sparking fears of military coup.

Notwithstanding that military as well as civil bureaucracies have never been happy with the liberal and centre-left ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and have always tried to destabilise and overthrow its governments, in the present situation it seems unlikely that the military might be able to take power.

But the situation is not as unstable as it appears to be and the dust will settle in the coming days if the players do not cross over their limits.

The steps taken by the Supreme Court after its ruling on the NRO, which stepped on the turf of the administrative and legislative branches of the state, made it seem that the country is heading towards a judicial dictatorship. Formation of different judicial committee and sub-committees to monitor the performance of different state institutions will limit the authority of the government eroding its control over the administration.

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Tags: Chief Justice, Judiciary, NRO, Pakistan, PPP, President of Pakistan, Supreme Court, Zardari

Posted in Blog | 1,378 Comments »

By Tarek Fatah

On Thursday morning as Pakistan’s Defence Minister was preparing to board a flight to China for an official visit, he was detained by Pakistani security officials and was told he had been barred from leaving the country. An altercation ensued, but the country’s top civilian defence official was told by the police and soldiers that they take orders from senior generals and judges, not government ministers.

Minister Ahmad Mukhtar was told by the security officials that they were acting on instructions from the National Accountability Bureau, an arm of Pakistan’s intelligence service created by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to harass political opponents with corruption charges. The Defence Minister was told his name was on an ‘Exit Control List’ even though he has never been convicted of a crime. Clearly, Pakistan has entered a decisive stage. Imagine the U.S. Defence Secretary being detained by U.S. marshals at JFK airport or the RCMP telling Peter MacKay, he cannot leave the country.

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Tags: Army, Husain Haqqani, Judiciary, Military Coup, NRO, Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, PPP, Supreme Court, Terrorism, US, Zardari

Posted in Blog | 1,089 Comments »