میمو کے پیچھے کون لوگ ہیں

میمو کے پیچھے کون لوگ ہیں تحقیقاتی کمشن کو پتہ لگانا چاہئیے۔ آفاق احمد کی اسلام آباد ٹونائٹ میں گفتگو

میمو کی وجہ سے حکومت بھی چلی جائے تب بھی تحقیقات ہونی چاہییں۔ آفاق احمد

حکومت آنی جانی چیز ہے ملک سب سے زیادہ اہم ہے۔ آفاق احمد

اگر حقانی نے کوئی غلط کام نہیں کیا تھا تو پھر اس سے استعفی کیوں لیا گیا ۔ جسٹس شائق عثمانی

حقانی کا استعفی لینے سے پتہ چلتا ہے کہ حکومت میمو کے معاملہ میں ملوث ہے۔ شائق عثمانی

منصور اعجاز پاکستان نہ بھی آئے تو ججوں کو ثبوت اکٹھے کرنے کا طریقہ آتا ہے۔ شائق عثمانی

منصور اعجاز کے بارے میں حکومتی بیانات ایسے تھے کہ انہوں نے پاکستان نہ آنے کا فیصلہ کیا۔ شائق عثمانی

ہو سکتا ہے کہ منصور اعجاز پاکستان آتے تو ان کے ساتھ سلمان تاثیر والا سلوک کیا جاتا۔شائق عثمانی

منصور اعجاز کا بیان ویڈیو کانفرنس کے زریعے بھی لیا جا سکتا ہے۔ جسٹس سعید الزمان صدیقی

مشرف کے خلاف سینٹ کی قرار داد درست ہے میں اس کی حمایت کرتا ہوں۔ آفاق احمد

مشرف نے ملک کا آئین توڑا تھا ان پر غداری کا مقدمہ چلنا چاہئیے۔ آفاق احمد

مشرف جس وقت ملک سے گئے اس وقت ان کے خلاف کاروائی کیوں نہیں کی گئی۔ شائق عثمانی

اس وقت مشرف کے خلاف کاروائی کرنا انہیں سیاسی نشانہ بنانا ہے۔ شائق عثمانی

عدالت صدر کے استثنی کا فیصلہ آئین کے آرٹیکل دو سو اڑتالیس کے تحت کرے گی۔ شائق عثمانی

حکومت خود فیصلہ نہیں کر سکتی ہے کہ صدر کو استثنی حاصل ہے۔ آفاق احمد

حکومت عدالت کے فیصلے کو نہیں مانے گی تو ملک میں لاقانونیت بڑھے گی۔ آفاق احمد

عدالت نے ضمنی الیکشن کو غیر قانونی قرار دیا ہے الکشن کمشنر کو اسے غیر آئینی کہنے کا حق نہیں ہے۔ شائق عثمای

عدالت کا صدر کے استثنی پر فیصلہ آنے کے بعد حکومت کو سوئس کورٹ کو خط لکھنا پڑے گا۔ شائق عثمانی

اصغر خان پیٹیشن پر گواہیاں مکمل ہیں فوراَ فیصلہ کیا جا سکتا ہے۔ جسٹس سعید الزمان صدیقی

میں نے اصغر خان پٹیشن میں اپنی رائے دی ہے کہ آئی ایس آئی کو سیاست میں دخل دینے کا حق نہیں ہے۔ جسٹس سعید الزمان صدیقی

کراچی میں اب بھی نو گو ایریاز موجود ہیں۔ آفاق احمد

الطاف حسین نے پورے کراچی کو نو گو ایریا بنا دیا ہوا ہے۔ آفاق احمد

الطاف حسین برطانوی پاسپورٹ واپس کر کے پاکستان آ جائے تو میں اس کا استقبال کروں گا۔ آفاق احمد

الطاف حسین کا ٹونی بلیر کو لکھا گیا خط بھی منظر عام پر آ چکا ہے۔ آفاق احمد

کراچی میں امن کے لئیے شہر کو اسلحے سے خالی کرنا ہو گا۔ آفاق احمد

کراچی میں کوئی الطاف حسین کے خلاف بات نہیں کر سکتا۔ آفاق احمد

میں نے عدالت میں پٹیشن دائر کی ہے کہ کراچی کے مسئلے پر عدالت سے جھوٹ بولا گیا تھا۔ آفاق احمد

الطاف حسین کراچی میں اپنے مخالفین کو برداشت نہیں کر سکتا۔ آفاق احمد

آپریشن کے باوجود کراچی کی سکیورٹی کی صورت حال بہت بری ہے۔ شائق عثمانی

کراچی میں جس کے پاس بھی اسلحہ ہو اسے گولی مارنے کا حکم ہونا چاہئیے۔ شائق عثمانی

کراچی میں حکومت کا کوئی کنٹرول نہیں ہے۔ شائق عثمانی

پیپلز پارٹی اور ایم کیو ایم نے تھوک کے حساب سے کراچی میں اسلحے کے لائسنس جاری کئیے ہیں۔ آفاق احمد

کراچی میں امن کی خاطر میں سب کو دعوت دینے کو تیار ہوں۔ آفاق احمد

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Mansoor Ijaz won't testify in Pakistan: Akram Sheikh

ISLAMABAD: A star witness asked to appear by Pakistani judges investigating a major scandal threatening President Asif Ali Zardari will not visit Pakistan over concerns about his safety, his lawyer said Monday.

US businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who is willing to record testimony in London or Zurich, has implicated Zardari in a secret memo seeking US help to curb the power of the military, apparently fearful of being toppled in an army coup.

Ijaz's testimony is considered key to any case against the president, who faces frenzied speculation that he could be forced out over the scandal, ill health and separate legal attempts to re-open old corruption cases.

Police in Islamabad said Monday they were willing to safeguard Ijaz's security, but his lawyer Akram Sheikh told reporters that his client feared being detained indefinitely if he steps foot on Pakistani soil.

"It seems like a well-orchestrated trap to hold Mr Ijaz indefinitely in Pakistan after his deposition before the commission," Sheikh said, adding that his client had requested that his testimony be recorded in London or Zurich.

"Mr Ijaz refuses to walk knowingly into the trap being laid by the government and waits to speak the truth of this case."

In an opinion piece in the Financial Times on October 10, Ijaz alleged that a senior Pakistani diplomat telephoned him asking for help because Zardari needed to communicate an urgent message to the Americans.

Zardari's close aide and then Pakistani ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, who flatly denied writing the memo, has been forced to resign over the scandal known locally as "memogate".

Pakistan's attorney general said everything had been done to ensure Ijaz's security but said there was "no medicine for suspicion".

"We had assured him foolproof security and army was also on board and an army officer was deputed for this purpose," said Maulvi Anwarul Haq.

"I think he does not want to come," he added, saying it was up to the commission to decide how to proceed further.

The panel is expected to determine later this month whether the government endorsed the note, which was delivered on May 10 to Admiral Mike Mullen, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time.

The government has told the commission it cannot obtain allegedly crucial BlackBerry message data sent between Haqqani and Ijaz because the manufacturers refuse to divulge records without customers' permission.

Ijaz's lawyer said his client fears "electronic evidence" can be destroyed and has also declined to appear before a parliamentary committee separately investigating the memo issue.

Tensions between Pakistan's powerful army and weak civilian government have soared over the scandal, one of a series of crises considered likely to force early elections within months.

Pakistan's spymaster, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, advised the Supreme Court to order a judicial investigation based on Ijaz's evidence. AGENCIES

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My name is Sharmila, I may become a senator… even if it isn’t 2020 yet

KARACHI - Four female candidates have been short-listed for the upcoming Senate elections, and one of them is Sharmila Farooqui who was banned for 20 years in 2000 from running for any office. Nevertheless, one of the four candidates would be finalised after an interview at the Sindh Chief Minister’s House on Tuesday (tomorrow). The interview would be conducted by Member National Assembly Faryal Talpur – President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister – and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah. Out of 37 applications received, the Sindh chapter of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has short-listed member of the provincial assembly Humera Alwani, Sadia Javed, Hina Dastagir and Sharmila Farooqui for the reserved seat for women on Sindh’s quota.
Farooqui, a strong candidate for the Senate seat, was removed as chief minister’s information adviser amid the Supreme Court’s pending decision regarding her plea bargain.
On April 12, 2000, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Court-IV in Karachi had convicted Farooqui and her parents in the Pakistan Steel Mills corruption case and barred them from taking part in any election or holding any public office for 20 years. The three had later approached the Sindh High Court against their conviction, following which the high court had referred their case for a retrial on technical grounds to the same NAB court. During the course of the retrial, Farooqui and her parents filed a plea bargain with the NAB court to avoid further conviction.
Their plea bargain was accepted by the then NAB chairman and later approved by the NAB Court-IV. According to the Constitution and opinion of legal experts, a person who receives a plea bargain is deemed to be convicted. On April 28, 2001, the NAB court declared in its judgement that Farooqui and her parents were disqualified to be elected, appointed or nominated to hold any public office for two decades. Despite her conviction, plea bargain and disqualification, Farooqui was appointed chief minister’s adviser, enjoying not only perks and privileges of a public servant, but also an extraordinary political clout.
Besides being illegal on constitutional grounds, the decision to award a Senate ticket to Farooqui could further irk the civil society and Sindhi nationalists who are already irritated on the presence of non-Sindhi senators, inlcuding Shaukat Tareen, Rehman Malik, Farooq Hameed Naik, Dr Aasim and Faisal Raza Abidi, on the votes of Sindhi members of the provincial assembly.
This could be another bone of contention among the PPP’s own ranks, especially in interior Sindh which is the original power base of the party.
On the condition of anonymity, an MPA said, “The PPP is aiming for at least eight Senate seats in Sindh, but this could create problems for the party leadership because voters are questioning the merit of the senators already elected on the votes of the MPAs.”

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Fatima Bhutto Blasts Imran Khan

By Margherita Stancati

Aamir Qureshi/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Imran Khan at a book launch in Islamabad, Pakistan on Jan. 8.

There was a short-lived rumor last month that Fatima Bhutto was flirting with the idea of joining Imran Khan’s opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

Speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday, she made it clear this was unlikely to happen. Ever.

Ms. Bhutto accused Mr. Khan of defending the legacy of former dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, who came to power in the late 1970s after overthrowing Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Fatima’s grandfather and the founder of the country’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party. She also mentioned Mr. Khan’s support for a 2002 referendum allowing Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who had come to power with a coup a few years earlier, to extend his term.“He has an incredible coziness not with the military but with dictatorship,” Ms. Bhutto said of Mr. Khan, a cricket legend-turned-politician who has been billing himself as the face of change in Pakistan.

That’s not where it ended. In what appeared to be a well-rehearsed argument to debunk the political credibility of the former cricket captain, Ms. Bhutto went on to list more reasons why she opposed his political foray.

“As a woman I worry very much about Imran’s politics,” said Ms. Bhutto. She spoke of his opposition to amending a 2006 woman’s bill in favor of victims of rape. She also questioned Mr. Khan’s commitment to secularism and to defending minorities.

“Is he a savior? No, I don’t think so,” said Ms. Bhutto during a Pakistan-focused session at the literary festival.

“Well, that’s the end of Imran Khan,” said news anchor Karan Thapar, who moderated the panel.

Mr. Khan’s political weight, long dismissed as irrelevant, started to gain new relevance in recent months.

Although he started his party more than 15 years ago, only now is it starting to gain traction. On Christmas Day, over 100,000 people turned up to his rally in Karachi, where he vowed to stand up to the U.S. and to fight corruption. 

In October, he drew an even larger crowd in Lahore, leaving some wondering whether the next general elections, slated for 2013, may “mark the moment that PTI went from being ridiculous to respectable in the mainstream,” as an article in The Caravan magazine recently noted.

Mike Clarke/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Fatima Bhutto at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong on March 3, 2008.

At the literary festival, where Ms. Bhutto shared a stage with the Pakistani-American historian Ayesha Jalal, the tone was one of disillusionment with Pakistan’s political class. Ms. Bhutto spoke of the “gulf” that exists between the people in power and the rest of the country, saying that food scarcity – not squabbles between institutions –  is the bigger worry for most people.

Despite her political lineage (another former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, was her aunt), Ms. Bhutto has long eschewed direct involvement in national politics. Best known as a writer and a journalist, Ms. Bhutto hasn’t spared members of her family in her political critiques. Her “Songs of Blood and Swords,” a 2010 memoir centered on the Bhutto dynasty, exposedfeuding in her family and was damning of her late aunt.

Spokespersons of Mr. Khan’s PTI party did not respond to emailed requests for comment. Attempts to reach Mr. Khan or his spokespersons by phone were unsuccessful.

You can follow Margherita and India Real Time on Twitter @margheritamvs and@indiarealtime.

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Voices from Pakistan: Controversial author Fatima Bhutto speaks out about India's western neighbour

Oprah might have been the big attraction at Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday, but a few metres away a packed house got a glimpse of two famous visitors from across the LoC. 

Controversial Pakistani author (and Benazir Bhutto's niece) Fatima Bhutto and renowned historian Ayesha Jalal spoke about the complex dynamics of India's ever-turbulent western neighbour at a panel featuring a huge audience - and a very vocal cow. 

'A nod of agreement from a cow,' said panel moderator and television talk show host Karan Thapar, after a loud 'moo' interrupted Bhutto's assertion about the immense gulf that separates the powerful and the ordinary in Pakistan. 'That's a very holy thing in India.' 

The cow would make itself heard a few more times after the first 'moo,' particularly joining in with the audience's loud applause when Bhutto made clear her distaste over the rise in popularity of another Pakistani who is well-known on this side of the border. 

'Is he (Imran Khan) a saviour?' Bhutto asked and answered her rhetorical question, to sustained applause, with a 'No, I don't think so.' She listed a number of strikes against the World Cup-winning playboy cricketer-turned-politician whose anti-establishment message has been gaining tremendous popularity. 

'As a woman, I worry very much about Imran's politics. I worry about a person who voted against the Women's Bill in 2006,' Bhutto said, informing the audience about the legislation that attempted to amend - to some extent - a Pakistani law that holds rape victims guilty of adultery. 

She questioned Imran's credentials as a genuine alternative to the current political class, saying he didn't seem to be any different from the pro-Army, pro-Islamist characters who dominate Pakistani politics. On a lighter note, she also critiqued the effect the former cricketer is having on the country's punditry. 

'We've got this enormous country with so much in it, and we only seem to be able to talk in cricket metaphors,' Bhutto said to laughs. 'It's embarrassing.'

The problem with Pakistan, for Bhutto, is that the political class is too far removed from the issues that affect people on the ground - the lack of food, devastating floods and the conspicuous absence of energy distribution. 

Jalal, who teaches South Asian history at Tufts University, agreed. She pointed out that despite Khan's apparently unending support, his party had already began making compromises by accepting politicians who didn't share his outsider status. 

'I don't see a major change. What we see is parliamentarians and politicians seeing him (Imran Khan) as the horse to bet on,' Jalal said. 'Which will hurt Imran. It will tie his hands.'

As an alternative, Jalal suggested that Bhutto could get into the political game. 'Fati can join a party. I will join her,' Jalal said, before Bhutto interjected saying she wouldn't do that. 

'The difference between Pakistan and India is in terms of structures and institutions,' Jalal said. 'India has institutions that function. In Pakistan, the only institution that functions is the army. What you're witnessing now is that uncertainty because change is in the air. Still, I think that the army will continue to be the final arbiter for years to come.' It was grim thought to carry back home.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2090367/Fatima-Bhutto-Controversial-author-speaks-Indias-neighbour-Pakistan.html#ixzz1kGpTyPL0

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