Monday, September 7, 2020
Exposé On Former General's Vast Wealth Spurs Debate About Military Privilege In Pakistan
But a recent report about the vast family business of a former army general who is a senior government adviser has prompted debate about alleged corruption among military elites and the apparent impunity they enjoy in contrast to civilian elites – both of which have taken turns ruling the country during its 73-year history.
Just days after independent journalist Ahmad Noorani published his August 27 article linking former Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa’s rise through the military to his family’s estimated $100 million fortune, Pakistani officials were scrambling to come up with a response amid public pressure.
Bajwa declared the report a “malicious propaganda story” and government supporters and former army officers have called it a conspiracy against their country as well as the Chinese investments Bajwa oversees. Late on September 3, Bajwa issued a detailed press release to counter Noorani’s report.
Noorani, a fellow at the Missouri School of Journalism, says the wealth of Bajwa’s family grew “unbelievably” after he joined the staff of military dictator Pervez Musharraf in 2002 and later headed the military’s public relations wing. He eventually led troops in the restive southwestern Balochistan Province until retiring in September 2019.
“The narrative about corruption is changing in Pakistan after my investigation came to light,” he told RFE/RL’s Gandhara website. “The corruption debate was limited only to graft allegations about politicians, but now people are discussing this issue in relation to the military and its powerful officers.”Noorani says he hopes his exposé will break the atmosphere of fear in Pakistan, where the military is frequently accused of blanket censorship and severe intimidation of activists and journalists.“My story proves that while [the military does] not allow anyone to investigate their dealings and most of their dealings are not part of the public domain, it is possible many similar stories are out there,” he said.
He argues that the financial dealings of officers should be made public.
“You can bar reporting on some [sensitive] national-security issues but allow the press and government accountability organizations to look into the financial dealings of top officers,” he said. “It will establish transparency.”
But Pakistan’s current accountability laws exclude the military and the judiciary.
Senior military figures have maintained they do not need external oversight because they have internal accountability mechanisms. They point to the many sackings and punishment of officers as evidence of the system’s effectiveness.
Author Ayesha Siddiqa, a research associate at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, says Noorani’s investigation is the first of its kind to attempt to undo a decades-old narrative about corruption in public life in Pakistan.
“What this story has done is at least partly puncture the myth that military generals are honest and that they shouldn’t be accountable,” she told Gandhara. “There is a case to be made for their accountability.”Siddiqa’s 2007 book, Military Inc: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy, argues that decades of political dominance have turned Pakistani generals into a privileged class with the lion’s share of power, wealth, and privileges.She says corruption and anti-corruption have dominated politics ever since military dictator General Ziaul Haq dissolved a civilian government over corruption allegations in 1988.In the 1990s, the two leading political parties -- the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) -- accused each other of graft and targeted each other’s leaders over the issue. Corruption allegations figured prominently in General Pervez Musharraf’s military coup in 1999.
He later formed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an antigraft body focused on politicians and civil bureaucrats.
“In recent years, the main political rhetoric has been that there is no left-wing or right-wing ideology and the main struggle is over corruption and anti-corruption,” she noted.
“The [Pakistan Tehreek-e Isnaf] took benefit of this and made it to power,” she said, referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI party, which campaigned against alleged corruption by the PPP and PML-N to eventually win parliamentary elections in July 2018 by incorporating many turncoat leaders from the two parties. Opposition leaders blamed the military for orchestrating the PTI’s win through rigging and manipulation.
As chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority and Khan’s media adviser, Bajwa holds an important position within Khan’s administration.
But minutes after Noorani’s story was posted on his website, Factfocus.com, Bajwa rejected the report. “A malicious propaganda story published on an unknown site, against me and my family, (just uploaded on social media) is strongly rebutted,” he tweeted.
In a detailed response issued late on September 3, Bajwa called Noorani’s report “incorrect and false.” He denied his wife is a shareholder in the family business or that the family business is linked to his rise in the military ranks. “If one were to look at the actual figures, the inescapable conclusion would be that the news item has been spread with a view to malign my reputation,” he wrote in a four-page press release.
Amjad Shoaib, a former army general, declared the exposé a conspiracy against Pakistan hatched by Islamabad's archrival, India, and others.
“Has Noorani conducted any investigative story about many megacorruption cases in this country?” he asked.
As a leading investigative reporter, Noorani has distinguished himself by probing sensitive stories. He says his reporting led to years of harassment by the military, which culminated in a violent attack by unknown men in October 2017 that left him with head injuries.
In a statement on September 1, the global media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists condemned threats against Noorani after he published his report.
Opposition politicians stung by the government’s accountability drive through NAB cases are gradually raising questions about Bajwa’s alleged fortune. "Allegations have been made against him [Bajwa] and he should answer them," PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said.
Nawaz is seen as the heir apparent of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
In July 2017, the Supreme Court ousted him from office over undeclared assets. But Sharif insisted his removal was part of an effort to undermine democracy and civilian supremacy.
"If you have been appointed to a government post on taxpayers' money and allegations are made against you and evidence is presented, you should face them," she said. The PPP has also called for a probe of the alleged wealth of Bajwa’s family. On September 1, a Pakistani court gave Sharif a “chance to surrender” if he returned home within 10 days or else risk being declared a fugitive from justice. The court wants him to appear for a corruption hearing. Sharif has been in London since being allowed by the court in November to fly there for medical treatment.
https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/expos%C3%A9-on-former-general-s-vast-wealth-spurs-debate-about-military-privilege-in-pakistan/30819120.html
Civilians Accuse #Pakistani Military Of Mass Arrests, Beatings After Taliban Attack
Civilians in a remote area of western Pakistan have accused the country’s powerful army of mass arrests and torture after the Taliban claimed a bomb attack that killed and injured members of the army.
Residents of Shaktoi, a rural mountainous area of South Waziristan district, say security forces imposed a curfew, arrested local men, and conducted aggressive home searches after a roadside bomb killed three soldiers and injured four others last week.
Officials in the region, however, have rejected accusations of military abuses.
“We faced abuses and arrests after the attack,” Abdul Mutalib, an eyewitness, told Radio Mashaal. “They beat many people in their homes during a search operation and arrested many locals and some 100 laborers working on a road,” he added. “They broke the arms and legs of some of them during torture.”
Mutalib said some 40 soldiers conducted aggressive house searches in Anakhel, a village close to the site of the September 3 attack on the Pakistani Army. “They arrested men who were at home or just walking down the street. Some of them are still being detained at a local school used by the army,” he said.
Shaktoi is administratively part of South Waziristan but is approached from a road in neighboring North Waziristan. Most residents of the region are members of the Mehsud, a Pashtun tribe. Nearly half a million Mehsuds were displaced for a decade after a large-scale 2008 Pakistani military operation against the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the umbrella organization of the Pakistani Taliban.
Activists in Waziristan say the displacement and abuses by the Taliban and the military led to the emergence of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a movement for the protection of Pashtuns, in February 2018. Since then, the supporters of the civil rights movement have protested military abuses and Taliban attacks in their homeland. Ending aggressive searches and collective punishments is a key PTM demand.
In a protest in Tank, a city adjoining South Waziristan to the east, and in the southern seaport city of Karachi, PTM members protested the alleged abuses in Shaktoi on September 7.
“We are demanding the immediate release of detained civilians,” Alamzeb Mahsud, a PTM leader, told Radio Mashaal at the protest in Tank. “We can no longer tolerate such treatment,” he said. The army is “still imposing collective punishment years after claiming to clear our homeland from terrorists.”
Hayat Preghal, another PTM activist, says civilians are helpless in the face of seemingly unending hostilities between the army and the Taliban. “We feel sandwiched between these two forces,” he told Radio Mashaal. “Ultimately, we will have no choice but to abandon Waziristan altogether to protest against the two and protect our people from their reprisals and infighting.”
But Shaukat Ali, the police chief in South Waziristan, says they have received no report of abuses even though search operations are common in the region in response to a recent uptick in Taliban attacks.
“I find it strange that people begin protests against abuses before lodging an official complaint,” he told Radio Mashaal. “If they complained about innocent civilians being detained, I could have asked the army and the police to release them.”
In a September 3 statement, the Pakistani military’s media wing said an officer and two soldiers had been killed while four others were injured by improvised explosives while they were providing protection to a road construction crew in Waziristan. “Security forces cordoned off the area,” the statement said. “Search operation being carried out for area clearance.”
The PTM plans to hold more protests against the alleged army abuses.
صحتمند و تعلیم یافتہ نسل کی پرورش ہی ایک پرامن، خوشحال اور مضبوط ملک کی ضمانت ہوتی ہے۔ چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹوزرداری
پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا ہے کہ پاکستان ان
ممالک میں دوسرے نمبر پر ہے، جہاں سب سے زیادہ بچے اسکولوں سے باہر ہیں۔ پاکستان میں تقریباً 22.8 ملین بچے اسکولوں سے باہر ہیں۔ انہوں نے شرحِ خواندگی میں اضافے کے لئے اجتماعی کوششوں اور ذمہ داریوں پر زور دیا ہے۔
یونیسیف کی جانب سے عالمی یوم خواندگی کے موقع پر جاری کردہ اپنے پیغام میں پی پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ ہم آہنگی سے محروم معاشروں کے لیئے ناخواندگی ایک زرخیز میدان ہے، اور قوم کو اس بات کا نوٹس لینا چاہئے کہ اسکولوں سے باہر بچوں کی تعداد میں فی صد اضافہ ہورہا ہے۔ بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ تعلیم ہر بچے کا بنیادی حق ہے اور جو قومیں یہ حق دینے میں ناکام ہوتی ہیں، انہیں اس کا خمیازہ بھگتنا پڑتا ہے، کیونکہ صحتمند و تعلیم یافتہ نسل کی پرورش ہی ایک پرامن، خوشحال اور مضبوط ملک کی ضمانت ہوتی ہے۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی نے ہمیشہ خواندگی اور تعلیم کی بہتری کے لئے جدوجہد کی ہے، کیونکہ اس جماعت کو پاکستان میں سب سے زیادہ تعلیمی ادارے قائم کرنے کا اعزاز حاصل ہے، جبکہ آمرانہ حکومتوں کے دوران تعلیمی سرگرمیوں کو بہت زیادہ نقصان اٹھانا پڑا، جب سیاسی بے اصول افراد و کٹھ پتلیوں کی حمایت حاصل کرنے کے لیئے گھوسٹ اسکول کی عمارتوں کو بطور سیاسی رشوت متعارف کرایا گیا۔ بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے نشاندہی کی کہ پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کی سندھ حکومت نے اپنے صوبائی بجٹ کا ایک چوتھائی سے زیادہ حصہ تعلیم کے لیئے مختص کر رکھا ہے اور اُن بچوں کو تعلیم کی جانب راغب کرنے کے لیئے مختلف پروگرام بنائے جا رہے ہیں، جو اسکولوں سے باہر ہیں۔ https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/23709/
یونیسیف کی جانب سے عالمی یوم خواندگی کے موقع پر جاری کردہ اپنے پیغام میں پی پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ ہم آہنگی سے محروم معاشروں کے لیئے ناخواندگی ایک زرخیز میدان ہے، اور قوم کو اس بات کا نوٹس لینا چاہئے کہ اسکولوں سے باہر بچوں کی تعداد میں فی صد اضافہ ہورہا ہے۔ بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ تعلیم ہر بچے کا بنیادی حق ہے اور جو قومیں یہ حق دینے میں ناکام ہوتی ہیں، انہیں اس کا خمیازہ بھگتنا پڑتا ہے، کیونکہ صحتمند و تعلیم یافتہ نسل کی پرورش ہی ایک پرامن، خوشحال اور مضبوط ملک کی ضمانت ہوتی ہے۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی نے ہمیشہ خواندگی اور تعلیم کی بہتری کے لئے جدوجہد کی ہے، کیونکہ اس جماعت کو پاکستان میں سب سے زیادہ تعلیمی ادارے قائم کرنے کا اعزاز حاصل ہے، جبکہ آمرانہ حکومتوں کے دوران تعلیمی سرگرمیوں کو بہت زیادہ نقصان اٹھانا پڑا، جب سیاسی بے اصول افراد و کٹھ پتلیوں کی حمایت حاصل کرنے کے لیئے گھوسٹ اسکول کی عمارتوں کو بطور سیاسی رشوت متعارف کرایا گیا۔ بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے نشاندہی کی کہ پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کی سندھ حکومت نے اپنے صوبائی بجٹ کا ایک چوتھائی سے زیادہ حصہ تعلیم کے لیئے مختص کر رکھا ہے اور اُن بچوں کو تعلیم کی جانب راغب کرنے کے لیئے مختلف پروگرام بنائے جا رہے ہیں، جو اسکولوں سے باہر ہیں۔ https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/23709/
#Pakistan - Chairman #PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Message on International #LiteracyDay
In his message on the International Literacy Day is observed tomorrow under the aegis of Unicef, the PPP Chairman said that illiteracy is the fertile ground for disharmonious and intolerant societies and the nation should take notice that the number of out-of-school children was growing per cent-wise.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that every child has the basic right to education and nations who fail to provide this right ultimately suffer because nurturing a healthy and educated generation was the only guarantee for a peaceful, prosperous and strong country. He said that PPP has always struggled for improvement in literacy and education as it has the distinction of establishing the largest number of educational institutions in Pakistan while academic activities suffered a lot during dictatorial regimes when ghost school buildings were introduced as a political bribe for free-wheeling political puppets in exchange for their support.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari pointed out that PPP’s Sindh government has earmarked more than a quarter of its provincial budget on education and the province was planning programs to attract out-of-school children to attend schools.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/23707/