THE PUZZLE

  The Pieces of the Puzzle

#1—Renewed interest by Scotland Yard in the Imran Farooq murder in London

#2—The unconditional and abject apology by the MQM before the Supreme Court of Pakistan

#3—The Qadri intervention

#4—MQM’s prompt and total support of the Qadri intervention.

#5—Surge in US Drone attacks with TTP being targeted.

#5—Pakistan military’s changed threat perception with the internal threat identified as the main threat and a public announcement of this realization.

#6—US/UK/NATO compulsion to exit Afghanistan in an orderly manner and the need to protect Afghanistan from external inroads in the vulnerable post exit period

#7—Pakistan’s centrality in the entire exit strategy including safe passage for logistic movement.

#8—The political situation in Pakistan and the US/UK desire for status quo so that their exit strategy continues to get support.

 

The Mosaic

The US and UK decide that an electoral change in Pakistan that could have unpredictable results is not in their interest at this stage. They need the present political and military set up in Pakistan in 2013-2014 to get out of Afghanistan, push the peace process in Afghanistan forward and not face the ignominy of a post exit chaos in Afghanistan. Pakistan must therefore be accorded a central role and given an assurance of continuity of the status quo.

The US/UK does not favor an internal upheaval in Pakistan and want ‘democracy’ to continue. They sense that the people want change and reform to give them a better future and not more of the same that the elections seem to promise. The US and UK do not want a change that triggers a change in policies that may change the relationship with the US.

Enter Qadri with limitless funds and superb organizational ability. He promises reform and elections under a competent and impartial interim government. The implication being that the interim government will have to be given time for the reforms. The MQM ‘decides’ to join Qadri and clears itself with the Supreme Court—surprising many on both counts. To ward off criticism The MQM leader threatens a political Drone strike—obviously a disclosure of some sort.

The military readies itself to face the new threat and an expected disruption in the already serious internal security situation. Increased Drone strikes ratchet up the pressure on insurgents who may be expected to retaliate in Pakistan’s urban areas heightening the internal threat.

The major power players react as expected. The PPP (government) soft pedals the MQM turnabout and goes along with the evolving situation as status quo suits it. The military and the judiciary are satisfied that the Constitutional provisions are being respected. The PML(N) and the PTI are lost in the fog and likely to remain lost.

The interim government is given access to IMF and World Bank funds and acts to reform not just the electoral process but takes long overdue steps to establish the rule of law, to provide services and security to the people through effective governance, tackles the internal threat and puts the country on the road to economic recovery. The people heave a sigh of relief.

THE DEAD MEMO

Some facts are clear. There was a memo. It was written by an affluent Europe based US citizen of Pakistani origin whose self stated loyalties are to the US and not Pakistan. It was delivered to Admiral Mike Mullen when he was the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff in May 2011 by a retired four star general of the US Army on the request of the Pakistani American author. The author of the memo had been in extended contact with Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States and they had discussed the content and thrust of the memo as well as its destination. Almost five months later the memo was deliberately resurrected by public exposure in a newspaper article written by the author of the memo. After its publication the chief of Pakistan’s intelligence agency personally contacted and subsequently met the author of the memo as part of an investigation and later briefed Pakistan’s Army Chief on his findings. The Army Chief briefed the President and as a result Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US resigned and ‘memogate’, as it began to be called, became the subject of two separate investigations—one by a Parliamentary Committee ordered by the government and one by a judicial Commission set up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in response to a petition filed by the opposition political party. These investigations are ongoing and are the subject of much speculation—mostly in a segment of the local Pakistani media.

There are some grey areas. Was the memo the brain child of the Pakistani Ambassador and did he use the Pakistani American to write the memo and have it delivered or was the memo the idea of its author who used the Ambassador to discuss his ideas thereby involving him inextricably? Did the Ambassador act on his own in his interaction with the Pakistani-American gentleman or did he get the matter approved from his superiors? Did the Ambassador provide input and give encouragement if the memo was not his own idea? These are the questions to which the investigative bodies have to get answers in order to reach a final conclusion. This is by no means an impossible task.

There is one important factor that overshadows everything else. The accusations being hurled at each other, the efforts to undermine credibility, the deliberate obfuscation of facts and the attempts to kill the memo all combine to hide the fact that there is a basic convergence in the long held and often stated views of the two main protagonists. Both have a pathological hatred of the Pakistan military and its intelligence agency. Others share this view because they see these two institutions as being the center of gravity in Pakistan that must be undermined— and it is these ‘’others” who are busy explaining the memo as a plan to undermine the democratically elected government by the military/intelligence establishment. There are many in Pakistan who, foolishly, are furthering such an agenda. This makes the result of the investigations most important—-the memo is dead, long live the memo.

By Ghalib Sultan

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

Rs 300 billion corruption but NAB fails to respond

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: On the eve of a new global report on corruption, the Transparency International Pakistan has claimed that the TIP alone has identified corruption cases worth Rs 300 billion in different federal government departments during one year.

Talking to The News Chairman TIP Adil Gilani lamented that the government did not show any interest in probing these cases of corruption. He, however, said that it was only the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly and the PPRA, which took notice of some of these corruption cases.

He explained that generally the identified corruption cases involved violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules of 2004. The Transparency International is releasing its report on Tuesday at 2 pm amid indications that Pakistan is all set to hit further lows amongst the world’s most corrupt nations. The 2009 report showed Pakistan climbing five numbers from the previous 47 to become the 42nd most corrupt country in the world.

Gilani expressed his disappointment that there was no effective accountability apparatus presently operational in Pakistan due to which corruption was on the rise. He explained that the TIP referred a number of corruption cases to the NAB but it did not proceed even in one single case.

Amongst the mega corruption cases, he said the Rental Power Projects of the government, presently under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, was on the top. He claimed that under the Rental Power Projects, the government awarded 14 contracts in violation of the PPRA rules as also stated in the ADB report, causing a loss of over US$ 2 billion. He said that the TIP had also written to the apex court on this case of massive corruption and irregularity.

He said that the TIP also wrote to different authorities about corruption in Pakistan Steel, whose sale policy and procurement had caused reported loss of Rs 22 billion. This corruption case, though ignored by the government, had taken been up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Gilani also talked of the alleged violation of Pubic Procurement Rules 2004 by Pakistan Railways in the tender for procurement of 150 locomotives, only US made, which might have caused a loss of at least Rs 40 billion to the national exchequer. The project, he said, is presently on hold.

Regarding the OGDCL, which made headlines in the recent past when Prime Minister Gilani appointed his jail mate and a convict who was not even a graduate as its managing director, Gilani said that the TI had also reported to the government authorities about the purchase of compressors for $30 million for Qadirpur Gas Field without inviting public tenders from M/s Valerus, which is a violation of the Public Procurement Rules 2004. He said the TIP also reported another violation of the Public Procurement Rules 2004 in tender for supply of rental drilling rigs costing the Government of Pakistan Rs 3 billion per year. He added that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan awarded contracts at exorbitant rates to cartels of Stevedores and Transporters in 2009, wheat and fertiliser, causing loss of over Rs2 billion.

Regarding the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), he said, it saved a claim of US $2.2 million for extra/additional work to the contractor of Expo 2010-Shagnahi, China, which was also supported by the Ambassador of Pakistan in China. On TIP objections, he said, the TDAP rejected the claim.

About the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL), he said, the TIP identified a case of purchase of 803 kanal-19 marla plot in Dubai’s Liberty Tower at the rate of UAE Darham 2,750 per square feet against the market price of AED 1,200 per square feet. Alleged loss to exchequer in this case, he said, was Rs 900 million. In another case, 10-acre plot was purchased in Korangi Deh Phihai, in August 2009 at the rate of Rs 90m per acre, against maximum market price of Rs 20m per acre. It caused a total loss of Rs 7 billion.
In yet another case pertaining to the NICL, land was purchased in Lahore in 2009 for Rs1.5 billion against market value of Rs 30 million. It caused a loss of Rs 1.2 billion to public kitty.

In case of EOBI, he said that the TIP challenged the EOBI to invest in one of the four Centaurus Towers in Islamabad and the Intercontinental Hotel, Islamabad. The EOBI was also purchasing Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway and investing Rs 27 billion against the provisions of EOBI Act but the PAC later stopped this move.

Regarding the NHA, he said that according to the AGP Report 2008 NHA has irregularities of Rs 29 billion out of Rs 42 billion annual fund. He said that after eating away its annual development budget of 2010, now the NHA intends to reconstruct the M-9 Karachi-Hyderabad through some other investment. It needs Rs 27 billion for the project. He said that the NHA management planned to use EOBI funds for M-9.

Gilani said that Zafar Iqbal Gondal (brother of a PPP minister), who was Member Finance NHA, has been transferred and posted in January 2010 as Chairman EOBI. Asad Ullah Shaikh, another PPP appointee, who refused to allow Rs 27 billion to be used for a losing project, was sacked to make way for Gondal. He said that after these changes, the EOBI made a proposal to become a partner of the NHA on the M-9 under the Public Private Partnership Scheme of the GoP as BOT (built, operate & transfer) Project, based on the recovery of toll tax.

Gilani said that nowhere in world, road projects on BOT basis are financially viable but still the EOBI decided to own M-9 and build it. In 2005, he said, the board of trustees of the EOBI had decided to invest in the real estate. He added that for this purpose, PRIMACO (Pakistan Real Estate Investment and Management Company Ltd) was established, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of EOBI. PRIMACO has been registered with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and this company has launched many real estate projects.

The PRIMACO, he said, has overstepped its mandate and prepared a proposal for the EOBI to build the M-9 at Rs 27 billion. They have also proposed to make the NHA as executing agency for award of consultants and contractors’ contract, total 10 numbers, and appoint PRIMACO as project managers of this project. The NHA, he said, has already awarded 10 contracts to blue-eyed contractors and consultants, without public tendering, biggest being Rs 4 billion contract to one contractor against PPRA Rules, and are awaiting approval of the EOBI to send an official letter of government approval to proceed. According to the EOBI Act and rules, he said the EOBI cannot invest public pension funds in an infrastructure project. The EOBI under Rule 2 (i) can invest two-and-a-half per cent of the portfolio. The EOBI’s current portfolio is around Rs 120 billion, minus billion of rupees losses in share market. This means only Rs 1.8 billion can be invested in M-9. But M-9 is a Rs 27 billion project.

Gilani added that in July 2010, the TIP wrote a letter to the NHA for its failure to obtain CAR, (Contractor All Risk Policy) from the NLC Northern Bypass Shershah bridge contracts causing the exchequer to pay Rs 170 million for the reconstruction of the bridge.

Additionally, contracts in 2008 & 2009 worth Rs 467 million, Rs 203 million and Rs 124 million were awarded to NESPAK in violation of Public Procurement Rules 2004. Gilani added that none of the contracts awarded by the NHA in the last two years are in compliance with the Public Procurement Rules 2004. In case of PEPCO, the TIP chief said that it reported Rs 2-2.5 billion corruption in purchase of 30 million energy saver bulbs scheme costing Rs 6 billion.