Pakistan: 18 Brits shown exit doors

LONDON: Pakistan has expelled a team of British military trainers sent to help with the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaida, as the fallout from the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden continues to rock relations between Islamabad and its western allies, a UK newspaper reported.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that at least 18 military advisers, deployed as part of a £15m programme to train the paramilitary Frontier Corps, have been withdrawn from Pakistan. Most are already back in the UK.

Their removal is seen as an indirect casualty of worsening relations between Pakistan and the US over the 2 May Navy Seal raid in Abbottabad, which was conducted without Pakistani consent.

Since Bin Laden’s death, Pakistan has sent home at least 120 US military trainers, most of whom were engaged in training the FC. The British team, a mix of seasoned officers and NCOs, had been stationed at a British-funded FC base near the capital of Balochistan, Quetta.

The training scheme began last August and was scheduled to run until at least summer 2013. The MoD hopes to redeploy the team once the tensions abate.

In an email statement, a spokeswoman said the trainers had been withdrawn “on a temporary basis” at the request of the Pakistani government in response to “security concerns”.

MQM Chief Altaf Hussain’s diagnosis: Pakistan suffers from AIDS, gangrene

Karachi – MQM founder Altaf Hussain has said that Pakistan has been struck by gangrene. The common cause of either wet or dry gangrene is loss of an effective local blood supply to any tissue of the body.

In a statement issued from London on Thursday, he lashed out at the Pakistan Navy, saying that it had gone gangrenous as 1,100 soldiers were present at the PNS Mehran air base for its security and safety, but they failed to protect the base.

When four, eight and 12 terrorists entered the base and the 1,100 were not able to counter them, it showed that the “auto-immune system” had collapsed, Hussain remarked. The auto-immune system of institutions had collapsed, which meant that not only AIDS but also gangrene had affected the body, he said, adding that when the system could not stop 12 terrorists from attacking an important air base, how it could defend the country against any foreign intrusion.

“Unfortunately, our institutions are also suffering from gangrene and AIDS. When one has gangrene then it is advisable to save the rest of the body. One has to cut off the effected part of the body as there is no other treatment,” the statement quoted the MQM chief as saying.

Pakistan Senate to Probe into Foreign appointments

By Dr Shahid Qureshi

“Orders of the supreme court of Pakistan must be followed concerning the contract employees in all spheres including foreign service”, said Senator Saleem Saiufullah Khan , Chairman Foreign Relations Committee Senate of Pakistan.

He said, “In many cases politically appointee person will do everything legal or illegal”

He was talking in the context of political appointments of Wajid Shamsul Hassan as High Commissioner in London and Hussain Haqqani ambassador of Pakistan to the USA. “Though government have discretion of appointing 20% out of service cadre that is including defence but merit and competence should be paramount”, he said.

He further said, “Competent individuals from abroad including expats could be contracted in think tanks and other capacities (but not on such sensitive positions).”

“Foreign Relation Committee will be looking into the supreme court orders and appointment matter as well as issuance of bulk visas by Hussain Haqqani including to the double murder accused Raymond Davis,” he said while talking to exclusively to the The London Post.

He was informed about the recent application to the Supreme Court about the appointments of Wajidshamsul Hassan and Hussain Haqqani.

The application states: “In the context of recent orders to remove all contracted officials posted in the government departments. I am suggesting it should also include political appointed ambassador Husssain Haqqani in USA and Wajid Shamsulhasan High commissioner in Britain and others. They are probably not register voters in Pakistan or voted in last two elections in past ten years. They have not spent time in Pakistan but opted residence and/or foreign nationalities. Therefore they are not eligible to be appointed on such sensitive position. It is an eligibility, security issue and discretion of the government. I am requesting you to include them and others in the list of the above mentioned order”.

Zardari regime has crossed all the norms and values in appointing cronies in foreign missions.They have appointed Salis Kiyani a former Mayor of a British town as Pakistan’s community welfare minister, Shanaz Mazhar wife of Pir Mazarul Haq as community welfare counsellor in London. Both are reportedly not register voters in Pakistan. Sarah Najeeb commercial attaché in London has finished her term two years ago but still clinging for five years. She is considered as very close to the High Commissioner.

Defector admits ‘fabricating’ crucial Iraq WMD intel: report

LONDON: The defector whose claims that Iraq had biological weapons were used to justify the 2003 US invasion has admitted that he lied to help get rid of Saddam Hussein, the Guardian newspaper said Tuesday.

Iraq’s elected Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki speaks at a ceremony to mark the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammed at Um al-Qura mosque in Baghdad February 15, 2011.

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials, told the BND, Germany’s secret service, that Iraq had mobile bio-weapons trucks and had built clandestine factories.

Even after he went back on his story after being confronted with denials from another source, his former boss, the BND continued to take him seriously, he told The Guardian.

The false information formed the cornerstone of former US secretary of state Colin Powell’s key address to the United Nations on February 5, 2003.
During the speech, Powell described Janabi as “an Iraqi chemical engineer” who “supervised one of these facilities.”

“He actually was present during biological agent production runs and was also at the site when an accident occurred in 1998,” Powell told the UN.

“Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right,” Janabi told the British newspaper.

“They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy.

“I had to do something for my country, so I did this and I am satisfied because there is no dictator in Iraq any more,” he added.

The Iraq war resulted in more than 100,000 civilian deaths and destroyed the political reputations of the then US president George W. Bush, his defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their ally British prime minister Tony Blair.

Rumsfeld admitted in memoirs released last week that he “made a misstatement” when he claimed Hussein had weapons of mass destruction sites round Baghdad and Tikrit.
Janabi told The Guardian he was “shocked” by Powell’s speech, but played down his role in the conflict.

“Powell didn’t say I was the only reason for war, he talked about three things: Uranium, Al-Qaeda in Iraq and my story (biological weapons),” he said.

And he accused the BND of having broken an agreement that they would not hand over his information to other countries. A German official, named “Dr Paul,” approached Janabi in 2000 after identifying him as a Baghdad-trained chemical engineer with possible inside intelligence of former leader Hussein’s regime.

“He said it was very important, that Iraq had a dictator and I needed to help,” the defector told The Guardian.

Janabi, who fled Iraq in 1995, lied to the BND, telling them Hussein had acquired mobile bio-weapons trucks and built weapons factories.

Later however, the BND confronted Janabi with a statement from Bassil Latif, his former boss at the Military Industries Commission in Iraq, who said there were no trucks or factories.

Janabi told the BND: “OK, when (Latif says) there no trucks then (there are none),” according to the paper.

Despite his admission, Janabi said security officials continued to take his claims seriously.

They told him in 2002 that his pregnant wife might not be allowed to join him in Germany if he refused to cooperate.

But the defector denied that he had lied to the BND in order to secure asylum, claiming he did it purely to topple Hussein.

“I was granted asylum on March 13, 2000. The story…had nothing to do with my asylum claim,” Janabi told the paper during a meeting in Germany.

“I had a problem with the Saddam regime, I wanted to get rid of him. I tell you something when I hear anybody, not just in Iraq but in any war, (is) killed, I am very sad. But give me another solution. Can you give me another solution?”

“Believe me, there was no other way to bring about freedom to Iraq. There were no other possibilities,” he added.

Tyler Drumheller, the former CIA chief in Europe, said Janabi’s “fascinating” admissions “makes me feel better.”

“I think there are still a number of people who still thought there was something in that, even now,” Drumheller told The Guardian.

Spy Chief lost to organized Mafia in Pakistan

The London Post

(London) The organized crime of corruption is not so easy to probe and prosecute due to its complex nature and intricacies. One of them is the mud-slinging device and hue and cry propaganda of the corrupt elements during the early investigations of such cases so as to avoid attention, distort the facts and baffle the minds of the general public. One such example is that of the false accusations manipulated by corruption mafia against the person of ex-Director FIA/ KPK, Fasihuddin, which appeared in Daily The News, Islamabad on 25th Nov, 2010. The report is full of unsubstantiated allegations and twisted facts. This means that the corruption mafia, against whom Director Fasihuddin had opened enquiries and registered cases of misuse of power, has blurred the vision of a newspaper to the extent which has caused aspersions on the good name of freedom of expression.

Some allegations which are extremely personal and tantamount to names-calling is a proof of the underlying malicious designs of corrupt mafia through an unaware journalist, sitting in Islamabad and commenting on the details of FIA enquiries and cases in KPK while having not consulted the case files, the investigation officers or other case documents. This ignorance of facts led to sinister propaganda against the ex-Director Fasihuddin, which is likely to help the accused in some mega scams. Though some newspapers like Pakistan Peshawar (dated 26/11/2010 and 27/11/2010) Daily Express (dated 26/11/2010), the same newspaper The News (dated 26/11/2010& 27/10/2010) have clearly identified and commented that the transfer of Director Fasihuddin was the result of his actions against powerful corruption mafia in WAPDA, TESCO, money launderers, banking sector and some other powerful NGOs and government officials.

However, it is also necessary to issue a rebuttal to the same story and alleged accusations, mostly personal and distorted, and the media friends are requested to publish the same, as to avoid confusion, make things clear and help the country in bringing the corrupt elements to the court of justice who have provided even extremely false information to an esteemed newspaper like The News. I also reserve the right to issue a legal notice to the reporters, who, in my view, should also sue his informers for false statements. However, following are the brief facts in reply to that story:

It is stated in the story that the mega scam of Rs.6.8 billion against TESCO officials was not properly reported by a press statement. This shows the ignorance of the writer as the same newspaper, The News had published a detailed report on the said enquiry by Javed Aziz, on October 18th, 2010 while quoting the Director Fasihuddin. It is the second largest case of FIA after the case of Steel Mills and the steps taken by the Director Fasihuddin like issuing of notices, compilation of record and constituting an enquiry committee for the said purpose in a shortest time was a success story of FIA/KPK. The same newspaper The News on Nov 27th, 2010 has clarified that a lot of efforts and initiatives had been taken so far in this enquiry. Now, the corrupt officials of PESCO against whom 12 cases have been registered for illegal recruitment and TESCO have joined hands with some FIA officials in order to avoid legal action against them and any possible recovery from the Rs. 6.8 billions losses to the national exchequer. The first step was the removal of the Director Fasihuddin as he didn’t accept any pressure to close the enquiry or give relaxation to the accused. This is a fit case to be taken up by the Supreme Court as this involves a huge loss to the public money.

Moreover, enquiry No. 68/2009 against the Adam Gee Paper Mills, which was closed by the predecessor of Fasihuddin now Director Admn Mr. Inam Ghani for no valid reasons, involves a scam of Rs. 5.2 billion (approx) and about 1200 Kanal of government property acquired for industry, was reopened by Director Fasihuddin, is another mega case for which some FIA officials at KPK, in connivance with culprit-mafia, are busy to do away with this another mega corruption case. The Supreme Court of Pakistan may take up this too in addition to another big enquiry, now dormant but ordered to be re-activated by Director Fasihuddin against WAPDA construction also involves multi-million malpractices, was earlier closed by Director Inam Ghani.

This enquiry involves many senior PESCO officials amongst them a few are reportedly the relatives of some senior officials and politicians. It is because of the strong and unbending attitude of the Director Fasihuddin for registration of cases and initiation of enquiries that ultimately led to the twice transfer of the Director with no reasons and that too in a very short span of time of four months. The same mafia is now active to remove the Director from the FIA within 5-months whereas the normal tenure of deputation is 3-years. All these above cases including some other against financial crimes are now coveted decoys for some subordinate FIA officials in connivance with a few senior and some political elites. It is reported that these developments are closely watched by public as well as intelligence agencies, and any action by the Supreme Court will be highly helpful in order to safeguard the national interest.

As for the fleeing of militants from district Dir from Peshawar Airport is concerned, it is a baseless accusation and if there is any proof for the name and ECL reference, it must be enquired against the immigration staff of Peshawar. However, there are a number of agencies working at the airports and the computer system, called PISCES, is very sensitive to any name which is black-listed or on any ECL. Such incident can’t escape the eyes of so many senior officer and watch-dogs, and it is just a malicious accusation in order to malign the FIA/KPK.

Though the character assassination was just an attempt to beguile the general public and divert their attention from such high level corruption cases and to mask the investigation processes, so it is not required to reply further to other personal attacks. The propaganda behind the twice transfer of the Director has been fully explained above. The strength of the mafia of corruption can be judged from the fact that an XEN, a main accused and a friend of a senior FIA officer in the mega case, has been re-posted in the field at the same station Peshawar from desk job within 24 hour of the transfer of the Director. To the accusation of one XEN going on Hajj, it is clarified that the same XEN went to Hajj prior to inclusion of his name in the ECL and who has returned and the enquiry committee has written to his parent department for his removal from his post.

As a last word, the FIA is a national agency and is responsible for taking action against corrupt elements and organized crimes, cyber crimes etc I fully supported the anti-corruption drive of the Federal Minister Mr. Rehman Malak and devised a strategy to implement the same in letter and spirit of which the aforesaid enquiries and cases are a glaring examples. The other FIA officials are responsible for their own official work and any laxity reported is properly dealt by an internal accountability mechanism. However, the strong corruption mafia facilitated the

transfer of the Director Fasihuddin, who is also the Editor -in-Chief of Pakistan Journal of Criminology, the only research based journal on criminology and policing in Pakistan, in connivance with some of the FIA officials, who want to sabotage the investigation of these mega corruption cases and which rightly demands the attention and intervention of the Supreme Court of Pakistan for the protection of the rights of public property and national assets.

NOTE: The above statement can be verified from Fasihuddin (PSP) President of Pakistan Society of Criminology

Kashmir is an issue of self-determination, not just a dispute of land

Kashmir Media Service

London, In London, Stop the War Coalition (STWC), a United Kingdom group has passed a resolution on Kashmir in its general conference. The resolution, which was moved by Khaja Aslam,

a journalist from Indian occupied Kashmir, on behalf of Britain/south Asia solidarity forum (BSASF), condemned the recent killings of over 111 innocent and unarmed young men and teenagers in the occupied territory.

It maintained that Kashmir was not a dispute of land between India and Pakistan but was a core political issue concerning to the future of millions of oppressed Kashmiris who had been deprived of justice since the partition of Indian sub-content. “The issue of Kashmir is the issue of self-determination which was guaranteed under successive United Nations Security Council resolutions. The self-determination of peoples is a basic principle of the United Nations Charter, which has been reaffirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and applied countless times to the settlement of many international conflicts,” it added.

“Presence of 700,000 Indian military and paramilitary forces without any moral, political and legal code has made Jammu and Kashmir the heaviest concentration in human history,” it added. It pointed out that India had put in force draconian laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Disturbed Areas Act in occupied Kashmir that gave Indian troops to act with impunity.

The STWC resolution said that the lingering dispute needed the immediate attention of the world powers. It emphasised that the time had come when the world powers especially the US President, Barack Obama, who is going to visit India next week, should play an effective role in helping to secure a permanent settlement to the dispute in accordance with the Kashmiris’ aspirations.

It is to mention here that the STWC was founded in October 2001, one month after the then US President, George W Bush announced the ‘war on terror’, and has since been dedicated to ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, bringing the troops home and forcing the British and US governments to change their disastrous foreign policies.

It is for the first time that SWTC has included the Kashmir dispute in its agenda. In the conference it was decided that in future there would be a full day discussion on the Kashmir issue to highlight it on international forum.

Zardari’s Swiss cases cause of govt-judiciary row: Nawaz

By Murtaza Ali Shah

LONDON: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif accused President Asif Al Zardari of harming the country and stopped short of saying that Zardari and Pakistan could not co-exist but said the PPP leader was responsible for all the prevailing political and socio-economic problems of the country.

In a no hold barred news conference in London on Sunday, Nawaz Sharif asked Zardari to stop saving his looted millions and apologise to the Pakistani nation. At his press conference here, Nawaz Sharif came out knuckle-bare against the president of Pakistan and accused him of being behind the current crisis Pakistan was facing and alleged that President Zardari was only interested in saving his looted wealth and was bringing the whole country down with him – for his personal greed.

The PML-N chief said that Zardari had breached all the promises and agreements in the past and he could not be trusted with anything and said he didn’t mean it. Nawaz Sharif admitted that he was finding it at his own cost that President Zardari could not be trusted at all.

He said the Supreme Court had sought a written statement from the PM because the government had lost credibility. He said Zardari was the main cause of confrontation with the judiciary because he was facing Swiss cases and other rules of law. He said Zardari neverwanted to restore the judges but had a complete “setting” with the Dogar Court, the nickname for the Supreme Court headed by Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.

He blamed the president for all the ills afflicting Pakistan today and said that he should not exploit the country for his own benefits. He believed that if Zardari had not mismanaged politics, economy and the national interests of the country for his personal motives, the situation in the country would be altogether different.

Nawaz said that Pakistan was in a difficult situation and it was a high time to save the country but minced no words in saying that Zardari and his chosen ones didn’t have any solution to take the country out of the current morass.

Nawaz suggested that all the political parties should join hands and set a 25-year new social charter with a consensus for the survival and progress of the country, saying that it would be called the Charter of Pakistan and would be a step ahead from the Charter of Democracy (CoD).

He said the new charter would be binding on all that no one would support dictatorship and believed that the new charter would bring a new ray of hope for the disappointed nation and said that he was mentally ready to sign the new national contract and termed it the only way forward.

Nawaz said the new charter should include foreign policy, Kashmir solution, price hike, education, health, terrorism and other important issues. Nawaz said the new charter would be a step forward from the CoD he and slain leader Benazir Bhutto had signed but which had not been implemented and which Nawaz accused Zardari of trampling upon it in total arrogance and in complete humiliation of the wishes of his late wife. He heaved a sigh of relief, saying that he had signed the CoD with Benazir Bhutto and not Asif Ali Zardari.

Nawaz Sharif was of the firm view that returning the wealth from foreign bank accounts to Pakistan would improve things and expressed the hope that Pakistani nation would forgive President Zardari for doing so. Otherwise, he warned the president, there was no salvation as the corruption charges – and Zardari’s own guilty conscience that he had plundered the national wealth – would continue to haunt the president and he would never have peace of mind.

Nawaz Sharif said he accepted the mandate of the PPP despite knowing that the polls were heavily rigged against his PML-N but he chose the path of reconciliation in the interest of the survival and continuation of the democratic process.

Nawaz Sharif was frank in warning the president that the path of confrontation he had taken against the judiciary – including the leading media house – would not take him anywhere and he was bound to cost him very dearly. In a no hold barred attack, Nawaz attacked Zardari again and again for being greedy and for being possessed by his personal motives and nothing else and feared that Zardari was out to harm the federation.

He accused President Zardari’s top lieutenants and some of the closest advisers of misleading the president and pushing him to the brink. He told the president that these advisers were motivated by self-interest and would be the first ones to abandon him in his difficult time.

Nawaz said Zardari had not honoured a single promise he had made and said that he took out his ministers from the coalition cabinet after realising that Zardari had no regard for any of the promises he had made.

“We had entered into the coalition government with noble hopes of introducing democracy, good governance and prosperity and economic stability of Pakistan and accountability of those who had devastated Pakistan for nearly eight years.

“We wanted accountability of those who killed Nawab Akbar Bugti, those who brought loadshedding and economic mismanagement to Pakistan, those who had handed over Pakistani citizens to foreign countries, and those who had arrested judges and attacked the courts,” Nawaz said, regretting that none of this was done by President Zardari.

Directly addressing President Zardari, the former premier and the PML-N leader said: “Believe me Mr Zardari, if only you had fulfilled your promises, you would not be in the mess you find yourself in today, and Pakistan would not be in its current state. If the independent judiciary had been restored and the process of accountability started, there would be a better government in place and Pakistan would have started with a clean slate.”

He also made a clandestine attack on Army generals who believed in launching political adventures and by this Nawaz clearly meant the likes of Pervez Musharraf. He said he would not allow the insult of institutions and politicians by those who didn’t care for institutions and the Constitution and killed politicians such as Nawab Akbar Bugti because they didn’t like them personally.

He blamed Asif Ali Zardari for the current unrest in Balochistan and said that 100 percent peace would return to the province if the killers of Nawab Bugti were brought to justice.

The PML-N leader said the government’s failure was not the failure of the democratic process because what Mr Zardari and his close friends were doing had nothing democratic about them and it had everything to do with nepotism and corruption. He said he would not be a part of any effort against the democratic system.

Nawaz alleged that President Zardari never accepted the reinstatement of the superior court judges wholeheartedly and never respected the decisions the court was making. He alleged that Dogar courts were Zardari’s favourite idea of the justice system and he was a witness. He advised Zardari to learn to respect the judiciary and the institutions of the country.

The new, bullying Chief of Staff of Gen (r) Musharraf

By Murtaza Ali Shah

LONDON: A self-proclaimed “chief of staff” and security guard of Pervez Musharraf threatened Shaukat Aziz with physical violence and he had to be restrained by two men from harming the former premier a few days ago in London, several sources and Shaukat Aziz’s close friends confirmed the occurrence of the incidence.

At a private function attended by former president’s close friend, Anjum Parvaz, who is known by various names such as Lord Jim and his preferred name of Jim Chaudhry, openly hurled insults at the former premier over suspicions that the banker was briefing the former president on him and was advising Musharraf to get rid of Jim.

The daredevil attack on the former prime minister in front of a selected social gathering, including the wives and partners of those in attendance, shocked everyone and the gathering was soon dispersed to prevent a real brawl taking place. At least three insiders who were present at that gathering have told The News that Shaukat Aziz has been living in fear for his life ever since the incidence occurred as the man who publicly abused him openly said that he is “the most dangerous man in London” and claimed he has connections with the British police and the London underworld.

It is perhaps for this reason and for the continuing association of Musharraf with Jim that Aziz, who is currently in Australia on a high-profile banking assignment, decided to stay away from launch of the All Pakistan Muslim League in London and a public rally in Birmingham. Jim Chaudhry, however denied having ever threatened Shaukat Aziz in the presence of Pervez Musharraf. When approached by The News, he said: “I never said anything to Shaukat Aziz. There is a lot of propaganda against me and some people who are also close to former president Musharraf are jealous of me. They are spreading lies about me.” However after this correspondent sought his version, he demanded that the story should not be published and also used several others to call this correspondent to request that the story be dropped. Shaukat Aziz was not available for comments because of his engagement in Australia but one of his trusted friends insisted that the former premier was verbally assaulted. Ironically, before becoming the chief lieutenant of Musharraf, Jim was once a friend of former cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan, who was then the most sought-after bachelor in London.

Interestingly, Khan ceased contacts with Jim in 1996 after he saw in astonishment the late legendary singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan storm out of a charity gig for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital in London where the late Princess Diana was the chief guest and Khan’s former wife Jemima Khan was playing the leading role. The music maestro had warned the organisers that he would not tolerate the presence of Jim at the event because, according to the great maestro, Jim, after becoming the handling agent for the singer in the UK, had not fulfilled his commitments on many occasions and there were money issues involved between them.

There is no suggestion that Imran Khan is in contact with him anymore but Jim has apparently become the most trusted man of Musharraf for reasons which baffles the sincerest of supporters of the former president.

Jim is literally acting as the so-called chief of staff and in-charge of operations of the former president. He has taken over control of Musharraf’s diary and friends say Musharraf trusts Jim a lot and doesn’t step outside without his shadow. Jim has travelled with Musharraf to his speaking tours in the US, Europe and Middle East and doesn’t leave his side for a single moment.

This proximity has caused a great level of consternation amongst the APML chief’s close family friends and workers and leaders of the newly-formed party but nobody dares to utter a word against Jim, fearing repercussions, including verbal and real assaults.

“Musharraf was stunned when he saw Shaukat Aziz being humiliated in front of over a dozen guests,” an eyewitness told The News, who was present on the occasion when the former PM was verbally assaulted.

A close mutual friend of Aziz and Musharraf told The News on the condition of anonymity that Aziz had advised Musharraf that he should not be seen too much with Jim as it could distort his image and was also not good for Musharraf’s political ambitions.

“This news somehow made its way to Chaudhry who made it a point to humiliate Shaukat Aziz in front of the most trusted friends of Musharraf so that a clear message goes out to everyone,” said the source. Insiders say from Rashid Qureshi down to UK-based activists of the APML, no-one likes Musharraf’s association with Jim but the former president is keeping him on his side against everyone’s advice. Jim has been seen opening the speaker of his phone when speaking to Musharraf in public to assure the public that his connections with the former president Pakistan are for real.

Obsolete democratic system has failed to deliver: Altaf

KARACHI: MQM Chief Altaf Hussain said that the 63-year-old, worn-out and obsolete democratic system had failed to solve the problems of the people and maintained that this system had only made the ruling elite more corrupt and promoted dynastic politics.

He expressed these views during a live telephonic address from London to the annual fund-raising programme of Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation here at the Jinnah Ground, Azizabad, on Sunday.

“It is said that let democracy prevail, I ask what political process,” Altaf said adding “this 63-year-old rotten democratic system where only grandfathers, fathers, grandchildren, brothers and nephews come to power.”

He asked his critics if they had any alternative plan to enable 98 per cent people of Pakistan to lead a respectable life, they should come up with the same. He demanded that all the politicians should declare their assets from the day they joined politics. He said they had built big industries and palaces using taxpayers’ money and had not donated a penny for the 20 million people affected by the floods.

He criticised those feudal lords who breached the dykes and diverted the floodwater to the hutments of the poor thus saving their own palaces and lands. -Agencies Fasahat Mohiuddin adds: MQM Chief Altaf Hussain has said that he will return to Pakistan if the people want a ‘revolution’.

In a charged telephonic address from London at an annual donation programme under the auspices of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation here at the Jinnah Ground, Azizabad, on Sunday, the MQM founder said that if the people of Pakistan, particularly the youth, are prepared for a revolution on the call given by him and if they respond to such a call, then he is ready to physically join the youth.

He said than he would request the MQM Rabita committee to allow him to come to Pakistan so that he could join the people in bringing about the revolution. He once again urged the Pakistan Army to bring about a revolution in the country. “Patriotic Army generals are those who open fire on corrupt political leaders and not on innocent citizens of Pakistan.”

He said the Army bullets should be fired on corrupt political leaders and those who had looted the national wealth. He asked the Army generals and Jawans that they should take action against the corrupt political leaders and feudal lords and all such corrupt elements be hanged publicly.

He said that now no one could stop the revolution in Pakistan as now each and every citizen of the country was talking about it. Altaf alleged that the day he had started talking about a revolution in Pakistan, he was being called a traitor.

Referring to the Army and the ISI, Altaf said he wanted to see these intelligence agencies to work against the interests of corrupt political leaders, feudal lords and those involved in loot and plunder.

Altaf said he was not against those who had made wealth through fair means and but against those who had become millionaires overnight and sucked the blood of the poor people, against the feudal lords and corrupt political leaders.

The MQM chief urged writers, journalists and intellectuals of the country to join his revolution without any hesitation. He once again recalled that patriotic generals were those who help the innocent citizens during Muharram and Eid Miladun Nabi (SAW).

Altaf recalled that he was not supporting the six-point agenda of former Bangladesh leader Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman. However, when Mujeeb talked on those six points, he was declared a traitor just because his party was of common people.

Addressing the gathering, the MQM chief said the Khimat-e-Khalq Foundation had donated clothes for more than 25,000 children and goods of more than five crore rupees to 10,000 needy people.

Gaza ship raid ‘completely unacceptable’: PM

LONDON – Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that an Israeli raid on Gaza-bound aid ships was “completely unacceptable”.

The raid which killed nine people sparked protests around the globe

In his first public comments on the situation, Cameron said he had also spoken to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “to extend our condolences for the Turkish citizens who have been lost”.

“What has happened is completely unacceptable, we should be clear about that and we should also deplore the loss of life,” Cameron told MPs at his first Prime Minister’s Questions session since taking power last month.

“We should do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again and I stressed this point in a conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel,” he added.

Nine people were killed, reportedly including four Turks, on Monday when a flotilla of boats heading for Gaza was boarded by Israeli commandos in international waters. Britain says 37 British nationals were on board.

Hundreds of activists were detained and are being deported from Israel.

Another ship, the MV Rachel Corrie, is currently en route for Gaza, potentially setting up a fresh showdown.

On the blockade of Gaza, Cameron added: “Friends of Israel, and I count myself a friend of Israel, should be saying to the Israelis that the blockade actually strengthens Hamas’s grip on the economy and on Gaza and it’s in their own interests to lift it”.

In a statement to the House of Commons following Cameron’s remarks, Foreign Secretary William Hague said London had “expressed our disappointment” to Israel over unsatisfactory consular access to Britons.

“We have not yet been given full information about British nationals detained and access to all of them,” Hague said.

“We are urgently pressing the Israeli government to resolve this situation within hours.

“There is real, understandable and justified anger at the events which have unfolded.”