Veena Malik: Trouble is her middle name

Her dad won’t talk to her, she’s involved in a multi-million dirham lawsuit over a photoshoot and she risks possible arrest in Pakistan over sedition charges. But if you think any of this has Veena Malik even remotely perturbed, think again

There’s one woman who feels “honoured” to be tagged sexy and it’s Veena Malik, even if it often gets her into trouble. The dark haired beauty, famous for her Lollywood and Bollywood roles and outspoken views on fighting Pakistani Muslim traditions, has recently been caught up in yet another scandalous affair posing half naked on the front cover of India’s FHM magazine. But will she quit showbiz and become a reserved housewife? She says, never!

After starting work with a Pakistan news channel in 2007, Veena went on to star in a number of films and some reality TV shows and quickly became a sex symbol. But she has now become a lot more well-known for her outspoken views than flaunting her curvy figure in sexy shoots.

A week after the FHM cover was released, a Dh7.5 million court battle exploded between the 24-year-old and the magazine’s publishers. Pakistan courts are threatening to have her arrested with charges of obscenity and sedition.

We caught up with her in Mumbai and asked her how she feels about getting a bad reputation for scandalous jobs.
Your name has been in articles all over the world after your apparent nude photo shoot in India’s FHM magazine. How does it feel to be involved in another media frenzy?

I have a strong personality; I speak my mind; I’m not shy. Yes, I did a bold shoot but I did not do a nude shoot. If I had decided to do a nude shoot then I’d have the guts to stand up and admit it. If it was a decision I had made I would’ve been proud of it. But I did not pose nude.

How do you explain the claims that the magazine has a video of the photo shoot showing you posing nude?

If they have video of me naked why aren’t they showing it? I didn’t sign any video contract. During the shoot there was a guy coming in and out of the room with a video camera. The first time he did it I was wearing a T-shirt and hot pants and I kept telling him, “You can’t video it’s not in any contract”. We had a verbal contract and I kept telling them video was not agreed. The second time he came in I was in a bikini and fur coat but I protested again. So they have some video clips but only of me in a bikini.

Why did you use the initials ISI (Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence) in the shoot?

I wanted to give the ISI a positive image. If something bad has happened in India people always say, “the ISI is behind it”. I wanted to change that. They can think whatever they want, but I did it with a positive view in mind. To me the ISI is just an institution in Pakistan. I don’t even know what they do. It’s not a forbidden word is it?

Your country has reacted badly to these nude photo shoot claims. How does it feel to be wanted by the police?

I have heard that papers are with a Pakistan court wanting my arrest but I just need time to prepare my side. If I’ve done something against the law then I will pay the consequences, but I’ve broken no laws.

The Pakistan courts have to wait and see if FHM can prove what they’re saying.

But seriously, how can anyone take action against me? There’s no crime here. Pakistan has an issue with me because I speak for women’s sexuality. I have no idea why they have a problem with women’s sexuality and women’s bodies. If men were topless there would be no problem.

Do you like being caught up in controversy? Do you think it’s good for your career?

I believe that every woman, no matter which part of the world she is from, should feel sexy and beautiful. It’s important. I’m completely comfortable and honoured with the ‘sexy’ tag. If that brings controversy then so be it. I’m an entertainer, I work in showbiz, people will always talk about me, that’s my career.

How do your family react to your fame? Is it a problem?

It is a problem. My father won’t speak to me on the phone right now. My mother told him I didn’t pose nude but he doesn’t want to listen. So I will not speak to him until I have proof in my hand that I did nothing wrong. Yes, I did a bold shoot but not a nude shoot.

My father knows the type of personality I have. He knows I’m a strong person with my own mind. But he’s really upset with me right now. But I will explain my side of the story when all this mess is over. He has asked me to quit show business many times but I can’t, I enjoy it too much.

You’ve been famously engaged twice, quite rare for a Muslim woman. What do you look for in a man?

I’ve had lots of relationships in the past but they all failed because they wanted to change me. I’m an independent strong girl and sometimes it’s a problem for men. I look for loyalty, honesty, and unconditional love in a man. But I am my own person with my own personality and colour and I won’t change for anyone, my man has to love me for the person I am.

Have you kept in touch with your ex-partner, jailed Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Asif?

Yes, I saw him two days before he went to prison. We were very close when we were together, we got on well, but he wasn’t honest. Even though he was jailed last month I think about him a lot. He made a mistake and now he’s paying the consequences. I just hope the day he gets out of the jail he is a different person.

He came to see me two days before he went to jail. He needed my help. He’s asked me if I would help him out and I am considering paying his £10,000 (Dh56,876) fine.

I can’t forget how close we were and how in love we were. I can help him and it would mean he could get out of prison early. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m definitely considering it.

Do you think you will marry one day?

I really believe in love and marriage. I’m a real romantic and I want to be a wife some day but it has to be with the right person. I know someone will come along eventually. I believe that if you look for something you will eventually find it.

If you were in Hollywood and you were asked to do a nude scene in the future, would you?

Who knows. In Pakistan I work within the culture and in India or Bollywood I do the same. When I’m in Hollywood I would do what is expected of me within their industry. I’m an entertainer after all.










Publication Date 3 January 2012

Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga among top US young achievers

The iconoclastic singer Lady Gaga stands tall among rising stars.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, human rights activist Ronan Farrow and pop stars Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are people to watch, according to Forbes magazine's list of top-achieving people under age 30.

Artist JR, 28, who creates large scale guerrilla photo installations, film producer David Ellison, the son of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison who has funded films like True Grit, and the upcoming Brad Pitt movie World War Z, also made the "30 Under 30" list of people in 12 categories that the magazine predicts will be tomorrow's brightest stars.

"While many on this list are well known, others like Danielle Fong, a Canadian-born science prodigy who entered a Princeton PhD program at age 17 before founding alternative energy company Lightsail at 20, are just getting their first taste of the limelight," Forbes Executive Editor Michael Noer said in a statement.

"But it is nearly certain that we will all be hearing much more from them in the decades to come," he added.

Farrow, a US State Department policy expert who was recently named a Rhodes Scholar, is the only biological child of actress Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen. He made the law and policy list.

Donald Glover, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Lawrence and 13-year-old Jaden Smith, the son of actor Will Smith, were on the entertainment list, while the music category features British singer Adele and US pop stars Katy Perry and Rihanna and American rapper Lil Wayne.

Other categories included art and design, energy, food and wine, media, social/mobile and technology, which included Peter Cashmore, the founder and CEO of the tech news site Mashable.

Thirty people were chosen from each category. The full list is available at www.forbes.com/under30 and will be published in the January edition of the magazine.

Pentagon plan changes game in Asia

People's Daily Online

The Pentagon issued a new defense plan on Thursday. The new strategy reduces defense spending in the next 10 years, ends the policy of maintaining constant strength to fight two wars at once and prepares the US to fight one war while waging a holding operation elsewhere against a second threat.

This is a contractive strategy in general, but gives prominence to the Asia-Pacific region. According to the officials of Pentagon, the changes in strategy are mainly aimed at Iran and China.

In front of such a US strategic adjustment, China should remain sober. Since it has become a firm strategic target of the US, its efforts to improve Sino-US relations have proved incapable of offsetting US worries over its rise. China can only use its strength to gain friendship from the US from now on.

The US and China are carrying out competition unprecedented in history. Under the aegis of globalization, the two are closely linked economically, which makes it impossible for the US to fully contain China. Dealing with the US containment attempts should be one of China's diplomatic strategic goals. China should unite with all possible forces and keep certain strategic initiatives against the US.

The US strategic adjustment highlights Iran's importance to China. Iran's existence and its stance form a strong check against the US. China should not treat Iran following US cultural, social and political values.

The US takes China's anti-access capabilities as another target. China should come up with countermeasures. It should strengthen its long-range strike abilities and put more deterrence on the US. The US must realize that it cannot stop the rise of China and that being friendly to China is in its utmost interests.

Fast economic development has become the biggest advantage that China has when dealing with the US. The US can hardly provoke China in the economic field, unlike its developing military strength which gives excuses for the West to suppress China. The more the two focus on economic competition, the more the situation will tilt China's way.

The growth and decline in economic strength is the starting point for national competition as well as its destination. It reflects national tendencies. But military and politics are often powerful tools to disturb or twist the trend. China should try to avoid a new cold war with the US, but by no means should it give up its peripheral security in exchange for US' ease in Asia.

Bahrain: The Revolution That Wasn't

Arab revolts against secular leaders have been much more successful over the past year than those against monarchs. The one monarchy that faced a serious threat was the tiny Persian Gulf island of Bahrain. But after weeks of protests, troops from Saudi Arabia rolled into the country, the Bahraini regime imposed martial law, and a government crackdown followed. Kelly McEvers made several trips to Bahrain this past year and filed this report as part of NPR's series looking at the Arab Spring and where it stands today.

Bahrain's uprising didn't get quite as much attention as some of the others in the Arab world last year. But it was one of the first, beginning on Feb. 14.

One man, who has been in and out of jail since then and could only talk to me while hunkered down in his car, was there.

"I remember the 14 February night — I cannot forget this night. Really I cannot forget," says the man, who asked not to be named. "Even my wife, she was telling me you'll be crazy. At the end, you will be crazy. Nothing will happen. A few people will protest and they will crush them and that's all."

No, he told his wife. This time it's different.

Bahrainis had protested before, mainly about the fact that the country's majority Shiites remain poor and disenfranchised by the Sunni monarchy. But they'd never protested like this.

At first the protesters asked for things like an elected Parliament, a new constitution. But then when demonstrators started getting killed, tens of thousands of Bahrainis converged on a place called the Pearl Roundabout to call for the fall of the ruling Al Khalifa family.

Bahrain State TV called protesters traitors and agents of Iran, which is nearby and also has a Shiite majority.

In Bahrain, pro-government thugs attacked protesters, and protesters fought back. Just one month into the uprising, Bahrain's ruling family authorized some 1,500 troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to enter the country.

Apache helicopters circled overhead as authorities cleared the Pearl Roundabout of all protesters. They never made it back.An Uprising Supressed

And so Bahrain became the one Arab country whose uprising was definitively put down. One reason, argues Toby Jones, a professor of Middle East history at Rutgers University, is that the United States and its allies wanted it that way.

For all America's talk during the Arab Spring about supporting those who seek freedom, Jones says, Bahrain was different.

"If there is a place globally where there is not just distance but a huge gap between American interests and American values, it's in the Persian Gulf," Jones says. "And its epicenter is in Bahrain. Bahrain is ground zero for the Arab Spring in the Persian Gulf. And the United States has chosen sides. It has decided that it wants to see the Bahraini regime survive and endure. And that's important not only for the American relationship with Bahrain but for Saudi Arabia."

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, giving the U.S. a major presence that has only increased in significance following the U.S. withdrawal of forces from Iraq.

In addition, Saudi Arabia didn't want protests in its own backyard, Jones says. And it didn't want a Shiite-led uprising to encourage its archrival, Shiite-dominated Iran.

Bahrain's uprising was suppressed in a harsh crackdown. Thousands of people were rounded up, detained, and sometimes tortured. Two of those detained were elected members of Parliament. Others were doctors who treated protesters, journalists who wrote about them, and lawyers who defended them. Several people died while in custody.

Bahrain largely silenced the uprising, but not entirely. Sporadic protests continued and human-rights groups condemned the government actions.
After The Revolt, An Investigation

Eventually, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa commissioned a group of international jurists to investigate. The commission recently issued its findings at one of the king's palaces.Nigel Rodley, a human-rights lawyer who served on the commission, says the group didn't have enough time to discover who ordered the crackdown. But it was clear the army, police and intelligence services were all using the same sinister tactics.

"They were all using the same methods of apprehension, detention, ill treatment, and so on, which suggested a policy across different branches of government," he said.

For a moment, activists in Bahrain thought these findings might help revive their revolution. But while committees and commissions have been formed to implement some of the report's recommendations, no single high-ranking official has been held accountable for the deaths and the torture.

Back during the protests, Sadiq Abdullah, a doctor, was interviewed by Al-Jazeera about protesters who had been shot by security forces.

He eventually was called in for questioning by the intelligence service. Three months later and 40 pounds lighter, the doctor was released, but he still faces charges.

He and his wife, Nidhal, recently took me to their private clinic, in a building that houses a dozen or so other clinics.

"Everyone in this building was in jail," Nidhal said.

Sadiq used to be the only doctor in Bahrain who could do kidney transplants. Now he has been fired from his position at the government hospital. One of his students does the transplants.

"They've done two cases in the last eight months," Sadiq said.

And there are 98 people on the waiting list. Sadiq is furious at a government that would deprive its people of such care. Still, he has a lot to lose here in Bahrain. At the clinic he can earn in one day what he made in a month at the government hospital.

Karzai demands US hand over Bagram prison

President Hamid Karzai demanded Thursday that the U.S. detention center at Bagram Air Base be handed over to Afghan control within a month, along with all Afghan citizens held by the coalition troops across the nation.

Meanwhile, three NATO service members were killed in an explosion in the south of the country, the coalition said. It did not provide any other details about the incident.

A presidential statement said that keeping Afghan citizens imprisoned without trial violates the country's constitution, as well as international human rights conventions.

The prison, inside the sprawling U.S. base at Bagram north of Kabul, abuts a well-known public detention center known as Parwan, which is run jointly by Afghan authorities and the U.S. military.

It's unclear how many high-value detainees are being held at the U.S. facility. Human rights groups have claimed that detainees were menaced, forced to strip naked and kept in solitary confinement in windowless cells.

A statement from Karzai's office said he issued instructions to a commission consisting of the ministers of defense, interior and justice, as well as other top government and judicial officials, "to complete their job regarding the handing over of the (Bagram) prison and other prisoners who are held by foreign forces."

"The work should be completed within a month," it said.

The U.S.-led NATO coalition is gradually handing over responsibility for security to the Afghan police and army. The process is due to be completed in 2014, when most foreign troops are scheduled to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Karzai's demands are the most recent in a series of exercises in political brinksmanship by the president, as he tries to bolster his negotiating position ahead of renewed talks for a Strategic Partnership Document with America that will determine the U.S. role in Afghanistan after 2014.

Among the conditions that Karzai has set is an end to night raids by international troops and complete Afghan control over detainees.

Karzai is walking a tightrope. Although he routinely plays to anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan by denouncing the U.S., he needs America's military and financial strength to back his weak government as it battles the Taliban insurgency.

The CIA's infamous secret network of "black site" interrogation centers is now gone, but suspected terrorists in Afghanistan are being held and interrogated for weeks at temporary sites, including one run by elite special operations forces at Bagram Air Base. The detainees include those suspected of top roles in the Taliban, al-Qaida or other militant groups.

Also Thursday, Afghan police said they arrested two British private security contractors and two Afghan colleagues after finding a cache of weapons in their vehicle. They are being held for investigation into illegal arms transport.

Karzai has ordered all the protection companies shut down by March and replaced by a unified government-run protection force, though recruitment is proceeding at a slow place.

Authorities ordered the immediate shutdown of Afghanistan operations of their company, the international security consulting firm GardaWorld, and are questioning other company employees.

In the latest violence, attackers gunned down a local government official on his way to a mosque in southern Afghanistan in another hit on a government figure. Hundreds of Afghan government officials have been killed in recent years as the Taliban pursue a sweeping assassination campaign seeking to weaken confidence Karzai's administration and discourage people from joining the government.

Haji Fazel Mohammad was shot on his way to evening prayers Wednesday in the volatile district of Sangin in Helmand province, the governor's office said. The attackers escaped.

The Taliban's assassination campaign has also hit senior figures.

In September, a suicide attacker with a bomb in his turban killed former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who led a government council seeking a political settlement with the insurgents. The assassin was posing as a Taliban peace emissary.

PPP’s fight for survival against institutions

Daily Times
In a bid to subside the mounting pressure from institutions, the PPP-led government is weighing the option of an early elections provided a quid pro quo is offered to it by other stakeholders of the political system, particularly the PML-N.

Sources in the PPP said the party leadership was concerned over the PML-N’s inclination towards the institutions, and wanted to make pre-emptive moves before doctored changes take roots.

They said the two parties appeared to be at odds over the memo case and the PML-N’s suggestion for military courts in Karachi. However, the sources added, the differences could be resolved since both the parties were sailing in a same boat of the existing system and comprehending dangers posed to it.

“Dangers to the system are both short term and long term,” they said.

A federal minister from Sindh says, currently, the government is coping with the ‘short-term danger’ of a possible executive-judiciary collision over the implementation of Supreme Court’s verdict on NRO. The court has directed the government to implement the verdict till January 10.

Another executive-judiciary tussle can be the findings of the judicial commission tasked with probing the memo scandal. In this case, the executive is in direct clash with the powerful security and intelligence establishment for having contradictory views on the existence of the memo as well as on the methodology to reach to the bottom of the scandal.

The establishment, the minister said, had so far edged out the government as it had a favourable SC judgement on the petition it sought to file either by PML-N President Nawaz Sharif or PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

“To counter moves aimed at weakening the regime and democratic system, the government will opt for deferment of matters pertaining the NRO judgement,” the sources said.

“In the meantime, the government will be eyeing a concrete outcome from the Parliamentary Committee on National Security on the memogate scandal to work at and to ward off an anticipated hostile verdict from the judicial commission.”

A possible way out for the government of the emerging situation in the next couple of weeks is to create a political environment where all political forces find it appropriate to have fresh elections at an agreed timeframe – rather than putting the government in dock.

Insiders in the PML-N say the party knows when and where to play its cards “as of now it has been exerting all-out possible pressure on the Gilani government to concede to its demand of early elections”.

A PML-N leader from Punjab said the party is cautious of the fact that the PPP government needs to be put under a calculated pressure to make it concede to the demand of early polls.

He said the PML-N had been avoiding street agitation against the government as it did not want political atmosphere where “undemocratic forces find a chance to dictate terms to the political players”.

Realising that no change in government is possible through parliament – where the PPP-led government is comfortably placed with the help of its allies – the PML-N moved the SC on the memo and NRO cases.

“The PML-N resorted to these pressure tactics as it was under enormous pressure in the wake of the shift of right-wing vote to Imran Khan’s PTI,” said the PML-N leader.

He said the PML-N was aware of the “miracles” the intelligence apparatus could do to help win a “hand-picked party” a two-third majority in parliament.

The PML-N leader conceded his party “has the experience of working with or under the shadow of the establishment to win elections or marginalised the mandate of rivals”. “Such a similarity can be traced behind the rise of the PTI,” he added.

“By signing the Charter of Democracy, the PML-N has sought an apology from people for serving the military junta of Gen Ziaul Haq and an establishment-driven political party till the late 90s,” he said, adding, “The people of Punjab have perhaps forgiven the PML-N but not those from other provinces.” “The PML- needs to add more democratic credentials to its identity,” he said.

He said the PML-N leadership was ready to iron-out a “workable plan” with the PPP and its allies for the future course of democratic system in the country. “The PML-N will like the PPP to concede to the demand of opposition forces, which see early elections as only option to ward off possible threats to the existing system.”

Zardari hails Bhutto, recalls Simla pact

President Asif Ali Zardari paid homage to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on Thursday by recalling that the Simla pact he signed with India in 1972 led to the longest spell of peace in South Asia.

In a message to mark Bhutto's 84th birth anniversary, Zardari said the "Shaheed" employed
negotiations to recover the territory lost to India in the 1971 war that gave birth to an independent Bangladesh.

Bhutto also brought back Pakistani prisoners of war from India and prevented the war trials of its military officers for large-scale killings in then East Pakistan to protect the country’s honour and name.

The Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) quoted Zardari as saying that it was the Simla Accord, which Bhutto and Indira Gandhi signed after the 1971 war, that led to the "longest spell of peace between India and Pakistan".

That is "a lasting monument to Shaheed Bhutto’s negotiating skills", he added.

Zardari was married to Bhutto's daughter Benazir, a former Prime Minister who was assassinated in 2007. Bhutto, founder leader of the Pakistan's People's Party (PPP) which now rules Pakistan, was hanged by the military in 1979.

Bhutto took power in Pakistan following the breakup of Pakistan after the 1971 war. More than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers and pro-Pakistan militia surrendered to the Indian military in December 1971.

In a separate message, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Bhutto's greatest success was reviving the confidence of the Pakistani people after the country's eastern wing broke away.

This, he said, "does not have any parallel in world history".

Bhutto created in "the broken nation a new hope and a desire to look forward and infused a sense of self-confidence and self-esteem" after the military rout by India.

PPP hints at early general election

Amid speculations that the coalition government may be wrapped up or face a ‘big blow’ before Senate elections scheduled for March 11, the Pakistan People’s Party leadership decided on Thursday to hold them in mid-February, a senior party member told Dawn.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the PPP’s core committee, jointly presided over by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at the Presidency.

Some private TV channels quoted the Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Khursheed Shah, as saying that the next general election could be held any time after the presentation of budget in June.

A source in the PPP said President Zardari had called a meeting of all heads of coalition parties on Friday to take them into confidence on the decision taken by the core committee.

The party sources said the committee had reiterated its earlier decision of not writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen a money-laundering case against President Zardari.

Political observers see the move as an indication of a fresh confrontation between the government and the judiciary.

The Supreme Court had ordered the government to write the letter by Jan 10. Another significant decision taken by the committee was that President Zardari would not submit a statement before a judicial commission formed by the Supreme Court to investigate the memo issue.

The PPP leaders believe that the federation’s reply submitted to the court during the hearing on maintainability of petitions filed by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and others in the memo case should be treated as a reply from the president.

“Under the Constitution we can hold Senate elections any time within one month before March 11,” Leader of the House in Senate Nayyar Bokhari told Dawn.

The Senate elections are held after every three years after the retirement of 50 per cent of its members. The term of a senator, however, is six years. Last elections were held on March 3, 2009 — nine days before the scheduled oath-taking of new members.

Article 224 of the Constitution says: “An election to fill seats in the Senate which are to become vacant on the expiration of the term of the members of the Senate shall be held not earlier than 30 days immediately preceding the day on which the vacancies are due to occur.”

The PPP leadership also decided to hold by-elections on seats recently vacated by legislators who had joined the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf.

“The meeting decided to hold by-elections on all vacant seats and complete legal formalities for the purpose at the earliest,” the president’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said.

Former law minister Dr Babar Awan said: “The ruling party will stick to its previous stance that no case can be tried against the sitting president.”

The meeting decided to hold consultations with coalition partners on the issue of creation of new provinces and take legislative measures in parliament for Seraiki province in the light of consultations with coalition partners.

The sources said Pakistan Muslim League-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali, who met the president separately after the core committee meeting, had endorsed the PPP decisions on creating new provinces and holding Senate polls in mid-February.

The meeting praised the cabinet’s decision to support a private member bill seeking to make it mandatory for all servants drawing salary from the public exchequer to declare and make public details of their assets in the same manner as the parliamentarians do.

“The meeting noted that in the past such initiatives were thwarted on flimsy grounds and decided to push through the proposed legislation with vigour and political determination,” Farhatullah Babar said.

He said the meeting had rejected a proposal by some political circles to set up military courts and termed it undemocratic, uncalled for and undermining of civil and democratic institutions. “The PPP will resist any such move.”

The prime minister briefed the meeting on the gas, electricity, sugar and fertiliser situation and said the government was giving top priority to domestic gas consumers and there would be no interruption in supply.

Mr Babar quoted the prime minister as saying: “Gas supplies to industry, cement, fertiliser and thermal power sectors will remain suspended during the current month because of an expected increase in consumption by domestic users.”

Mr Gilani said the cabinet committee had been asked to introduce reforms in the energy sector as early as possible and to take steps to reduce system losses by gas companies.

Mr Babar said a committee, headed by Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain, had been asked to hold talks with stakeholders in Sindh to share some of the gas produced in the province with Punjab and submit its report.

The meeting decided to mobilise people and hold rallies and public meetings at divisional levels to be addressed by senior party leaders, including the prime minister.

It asked the president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PPP, Senator Sardar Ali to make preparation for holding a public meeting in tribal areas — the first of its kind by the PPP after Political Parties Order was extended to the region by President Zardari in August last year.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik briefed the meeting on the law and order situation.

The meeting was also attended by Nayyar Bokhari, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, Syed Khursheed Shah, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Syed Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Faisal Raza Abidi, Sardar Ali, Nazar Gondal, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Rana Farooq Saeed Khan, Rukhsana Bangash, Fouzia Habib and Farhatullah Babar.

‘Closed Swiss cases cannot be revived, even if Pakistan asks for it’

The Express Tribune

Cases against President Asif Ali Zardari cannot be reopened in Swiss court, even if Pakistani authorities write a letter to the Swiss authorities, concerned quarters said while talking to The Express Tribune.

The only conviction in the case was set aside in 2003 after it was appealed by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and President Zardari.

Sources quote the Swiss attorney general who claimed in April 2010 that the cases could not be revived, even if Pakistan asked, due to lack of incriminating evidence and immunity enjoyed by President Zardari under international law.

Factitious documents

The Swiss cases were born during Nawaz Sharif’s second term, sources in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said on condition of anonymity.

The then-chairman Ethesab Bureau, Saifur Rehman, prepared factitious documents and presented them before Pakistani and Swiss courts, sources added.

Benazir and Zardari challenged the documents before the accountability bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC). On their application, the bench directed then-registrar of LHC, Moazzam Hayat, to visit Switzerland and meet with Daniel Devaud, the then-Examining Magistrate in Geneva to verify the authenticity of the documents.

When the registrar requested the Swiss magistrate to attest the copies of documents presented to LHC, assuming that the original documents were presented in the Swiss Court, the magistrate refused, saying no original documents were submitted in the Swiss courts either.

Sources said the then-accountability chairman had hired ‘special services’ of Hasan Waseem Afzal to design the cases, who managed it through the services of a High Court judge, Malik Qayyum.

On the basis of non-original documents, however, Devaud awarded a sentence of up to six months to Benazir and Zardari in July 2003.

Benazir subsequently appealed, and the conviction was set aside by a Geneva tribunal on November 4, 2003.

Cases resurface

The cases were revived when Benazir started exerting pressure on General Pervez Musharraf for her return. Afzal was made the deputy chairman NAB and after several visits to Switzerland, he managed to activate the cases.

Musharraf, sources in NAB claim, wanted Benazir and Zardari convicted by Swiss courts, and even sought an early verdict, to gain an upper hand before striking a deal with her for her return.

On April 1, 2006, the Court of Appeal of Geneva allowed Afzal to represent the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in the criminal proceedings against Benazir and her allies on charges of money laundering.

Musharaf’s enthusiasm, however, dampened after an intelligence agency officer, and originator of the infamous ‘tape scandal’, Rana Abdul Rahim expressed his willingness to appear before the Swiss court as a witness. Pakistani courts had acquitted Benazir and Zardari due to lack of incriminating evidence, and Pakistani authorities, sensing that the Swiss cases might meet a similar end following the witness’ appearance, backed out from their demand of an early verdict, NAB sources conjectured.

On April 1, 2008 Pakistan’s then-attorney general wrote a letter to Swiss courts, and dropped out of a $59.6 million money-laundering case against Zardari.

Sources in NAB say the purpose of the letter was two-fold: Musharraf wanted to show Benazir that he is following through with the deal but by ‘dropping out,’ he wanted to publicly tarnish her image.

But, in fact, Musharraf knew there was no evidence which could convict the couple, an official said.

Cases dropped

On August 26, 2008, Swiss judicial authorities closed the money-laundering case against Zardari and released $60 million frozen in Swiss accounts over the past decade.

Daniel Zappelli, Geneva’s chief prosecutor, said he had no evidence to bring Zardari to trial.

He declined to say exactly who owned the accounts holding the $60 million, citing confidentiality. Zardari’s lawyer, Saverio Lembo, had welcomed Zappelli’s decision to shelve the long-running case.

“It confirms what my client has pleaded since 1997. In the SGS/Cotecna case, no funds belonging to Benazir Bhutto were found,” Zappelli said.

Cannot be reopened

The alleged money-laundering case against President Zardari could not be reopened in Swiss courts, Swiss attorney general Daniel Zappelli said in an interview in April 2010.

Since the president enjoyed immunity under international law, Swiss courts could not entertain any request to reopen the cases against him, even if the Swiss authorities received a proper request from Pakistan with all the required stances through an official channel, Zappelli was quoted as saying.

Zardari stands up to military

www.stltoday.com

The Pakistani government has mounted a counterattack against moves by the country's military and Supreme Court, an action that could result in what critics call a constitutional coup against President Asif Ali Zardari. The Supreme Court had set a Jan. 10 deadline for the government to request that a Swiss court reopen a corruption case against Zardari, but his ruling Pakistan People's Party said Thursday that the government would ignore it. The party also said Zardari wouldn't respond to a summons from a judicial inquiry ordered by the Supreme Court to investigate allegations that a top Zardari aide had sought White House help to dissuade the Pakistani military from staging a fifth coup in 64 years. The moves figured to prolong a standoff that has brought Pakistani politics to a standstill and threatens to imperil U.S. efforts to enlist Islamabad's help in achieving peace in neighboring Afghanistan.

'Fashion learner' Kunis is latest Dior face

Mila Kunis has been revealed as the new face of Christian Dior, despite being a "jeans and T-shirt" kind of girl.

Kunis, who appeared alongside Miss Dior Chérie face Natalie Portman in 2010 thriller Black Swan, is the latest in a long line of movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly, to be associated with Dior.

The 28-year-old actress is thrilled with her appointment, although admits her day-to-day style doesn't always match the luxurious Dior aesthetic.

"I'm honestly just learning about fashion," Kunis told WWD January 5, adding she's a "jeans and T-shirt" type.

In Kunis's just-released images for Dior, the star can be seen showcasing the latest versions of the Miss Dior handbag.

French actress Marion Cotillard, who has fronted the Lady Dior bag since 2008, is set to continue her associations with the brand and Dior is planning for a similarly long-running partnership with Kunis.

"Mila Kunis is a very talented young actress; she embodies the true modern woman. Her performance in Black Swan was remarkable. She is very gifted," said Dior's Delphine Arnault.

"We are looking forward to a long relationship with her."

Kunis's Dior Spring campaign, shot by Mikael Jansson, will break in international fashion publications starting January 15. The news comes on the same day that the first images of Twilight actress Ashley Greene's new ads for US brand DKNY have been unveiled. The campaign will hit international fashion magazines starting February.

Military cuts force U.S. adjustments

New Pentagon defense strategy puts more focus on Asia

President Barack Obama unveiled a defense strategy on Thursday that calls for greater U.S. military presence in Asia and envisions cutting troops in Europe as the Pentagon seeks to reduce spending by nearly half a trillion dollars after a decade of war.

Obama, in a Pentagon news conference alongside Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, released a strategy document that calls for the United States to maintain a force that can win one war while still having the capability to deter the objectives of an adversary in a second conflict.

That is a shift away from the military's often repeated goal of being able to fight and prevail in two wars in different theaters simultaneously.

The strategy also calls for the U.S. military to "rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region" even as it continues to actively counter the threat of violent extremism.

"Even as our troops continue to fight in Afghanistan, the tide of war is receding," Obama said at the news conference. "Even as our forces prevail in today's missions, we have the opportunity - and the responsibility - to look ahead to the force we need for the future.

"Our nation is at a moment of transition," Obama wrote in the introduction to the strategy, which also calls for increased investment in cyber capabilities and suggests the United States may be able to shrink its nuclear arsenal further without jeopardizing security.

The shift in focus to Asia comes amid increasing concern at the Pentagon over China's strategic goals as it begins to field a new generation of weapons that could prevent U.S. naval and air forces from projecting power into the Far East.

Obama initiated the strategic review last summer after asking the Pentagon to begin planning for major cuts to the U.S. defense budget after a decade of growth. The strategy is meant to identify U.S. strategic priorities and guide defense spending as the military begins to cut back.

Obama and Congress agreed in August to reduce projected national security spending by more than $450 billion in the next decade. They also agreed on automatic spending cuts that could slash another $600 billion from the Pentagon budget unless Congress agrees on an alternative.

The strategy document released on Thursday addressed U.S. interests in broad brush-strokes but did not get into specifics about how many troops would be reduced or deal with specific budgetary issues.

But administration officials speaking before the roll-out of the strategy on Thursday said Army and Marine Corps personnel numbers would be cut by 10 percent to 15 percent in the next decade, a figure that translates into tens of thousands of troops.

The strategy underscores the United States' "enduring interests" in Europe and the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization but says the force posture in Europe must "evolve" with the changing times.

Administration officials have said the United States is likely to further reduce the number of ground forces in Europe by another combat brigade, a unit of 3,000 to 4,000 people depending on its composition.

The strategy document underscores a U.S. interest in maintaining stability in the Middle East while responding to the aspirations of the people as expressed in the Arab Awakening last year. It also says the United States will continue working to halt nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea.

"U.S. policy will emphasize Gulf security, in collaboration with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries when appropriate, to prevent Iran's development of a nuclear weapon capability and counter its destabilizing policies," the strategy document says.

The document expresses concern about new weapons being developed by China and Iran that could make it difficult for the United States Navy and Air Force to project power abroad.

"The United States must maintain its ability to project power in areas where our access and freedom to operate are challenged," it says.

‘Nawaz, Imran two sides of same coin’

Adviser to the president Naveed Chaudhry has said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Mian Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) head Imran Khan are two sides of the same coin.

Addressing a conference at the Lahore Press Club, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader slammed the PML-N chief for his statement regarding setting up military courts in Karachi.

Naveed Chaudhry claimed that some ‘political vultures’ were trying to derail democracy in the country, which would not be endorsed by the people of Pakistan.

He alleged that Nawaz Sharif had also become part of the ‘political vultures’ who wanted to rule through military courts.

Saudi woman held over affair with Lanka expat

So-Called Religious police arrest divorced local for having illicit affair
Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police arrested a divorced local woman for having an affair with a Sri Lankan man.Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice seized the woman with the Sri Lankan private driver at his room in the eastern province of Ihsa, 'Sabq' said.

“She confessed to having a relationship for nearly four months with the Sri Lankan driver and that she was pregnant,” it said. “They also found obscene pictures of the woman in the driver’s mobile phone.”

Talking With the Taliban

EDITORIAL

The Taliban’s announcement that they plan to open an office in Qatar and possibly begin peace negotiations deserves a close look and a full draught of skepticism.

This is the same group of militants, led by Mullah Muhammad Omar, that ruled Afghanistan with such medieval brutality, denying women access to an education or health care. It is the same group that gave sanctuary to Al Qaeda before Sept. 11, 2001, and that is still killing NATO troops and terrorizing and murdering the Afghan people. But if there is even a remote chance of a political settlement — one that does not reimpose the Taliban’s horrors — it must be explored.

Tuesday’s announcement was short on specifics, but it did make clear that the militants want to talk to Washington, not Kabul. Early talks with American officials might get things moving. But there can be no deal without full Afghan participation, and the Obama administration should consider appointing an international mediator to bring a broad mix of participants — including Afghanistan’s meddling neighbors — to the table.

For months, the administration has been signaling its interest in talks, and we don’t know why the Taliban responded now. One theory is that they are being squeezed by American and NATO military operations. Another is that the Taliban are hoping to use the negotiations to speed up an American withdrawal and lock in Taliban terms. Either way, coalition forces must keep pushing back hard.

Apart from wanting the Americans out, it is not clear what the Taliban will demand. Washington must not budge on its insistence that as part of any agreement, the Taliban must sever all ties to Al Qaeda, renounce violence and accept the Afghan Constitution and its commitments to political and human rights for all Afghans.

There are many more big questions, including whether other Afghan extremists — most notably the Haqqani network — will come to the table, whether there can be a peace deal if they don’t and whether their patrons in Pakistan can be persuaded to support serious negotiations or will work to undermine them.

As a confidence-building measure, Washington is considering a Taliban request that it transfer some Taliban detainees to custody in Afghanistan or Qatar from the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Any prisoner release will first require careful vetting, and then there will have to be vigilant monitoring to ensure that the prisoners don’t go back to the battlefield. There is also talk from Americans of identifying some cease-fire zones where the Taliban’s interest in stopping the fighting could be tested.

President Obama has pledged that the bulk of NATO troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. That will be easier to achieve if there is a political agreement with the Taliban, but it must be one that ensures that Afghanistan does not again become a launching pad for attacks on this country and doesn’t revert to the horrors of Taliban rule.

Iran intensifies efforts to influence policy in Afghanistan

The Washington Post

Worried that U.S. troops could stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Iran is mounting an aggressive campaign to fuel anti-American sentiment here and convince Afghan leaders that a robust, long-term security partnership with Washington would be counterproductive, Afghan officials and analysts say.

The Iranian initiative involves cultivating closer relations with the Taliban, funding politicians and media outlets, and expanding cultural ties with its eastern neighbor. Although the effort has been underway for years, Iran has been moving with increased vigor in recent months because the United States and Afghanistan are negotiating a security agreement that could set the parameters for a U.S. troop presence here after 2014.

Iran’s overtures to the Taliban coincide with a renewed push by Washington to hold peace talks with the insurgent group in
Qatar, as well as growing tension between Iran and the United States in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s strategy in Afghanistan is reminiscent of its maneuvering in Iraq, where it helped fuel the insurgency and persuaded Iraqi politicians not to yield on allowing the Americans a small military presence beyond 2011.

Tehran inked a bilateral defense agreement with Afghanistan last month. As the deal was being finalized, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi argued that foreign military bases in the region are the main cause of instability here. He expressed confidence that Afghanistan’s nascent security forces could secure the country without U.S. help.

The presence of American troops on Iran’s eastern and western flanks for much of the past decade has deeply concerned officials in Tehran. They fear that U.S. bases in the region enhance the West’s ability to gather intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program and could give the United States a major strategic advantage if the two countries go to war. Tension between Washington and Tehran soared last month after Iranian authorities recovered a CIA surveillance drone that had been launched from Afghanistan.

Sebghatullah Sanjar, who heads the Republican Party of Afghanistan, said the Iranian government in recent years has cut off fuel imports to Afghanistan during the winter and threatened to deport tens of thousands of Afghan refugees from Iran.

“They use this to pressure the Afghan government,” said Sanjar, who is also a policy adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai but said he was not speaking for the government. “They know the Afghan government cannot take all those people back.”

Looking beyond 2014

Having failed to keep a small contingent of troops in Iraq past a 2011 withdrawal deadline, U.S. officials appear eager to reach a deal with Afghanistan that would include a substantial military partnership beyond 2014, when the Obama administration has pledged to end major combat operations in the country. The United States has far more leverage in Afghanistan than it did in Iraq because Kabul is expected to remain heavily dependent on foreign aid for years.

U.S.-Afghan negotiations over an agreement for an extended American military presence, initially planned to be finalized last year, have lagged as Karzai has used them as leverage to press his objections to night raids by U.S. forces in Afghan villages. American diplomats handling the negotiations have sought to mitigate the problem by encouraging Afghan military participation in the raids. U.S. officials said they expect the talks to resume this month, in hopes that an agreement can be concluded by late spring.

The United States has said that it seeks no permanent bases in Afghanistan, but the Pentagon hopes to leave 10,000 to 30,000 troops here. It has said that they would be positioned on Afghan bases.

But Iran has rejected the distinction, making clear its opposition to the American military presence and taking advantage of the U.S.-Afghan disagreement to press its case.

In their public comments, Iranian officials have emphasized their desire to play a constructive role in Afghanistan — and have suggested that the motives for the U.S. presence are nefarious. At an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany, last month, Salehi, the Iranian foreign minister, condemned what he called the “violation of human rights by foreign military forces, including frequent attacks on residential areas.”

“Certain Western countries seek to extend their military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 by maintaining their military bases there,” Salehi said at the conference, which was attended by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Regional cooperation in Afghanistan would succeed, he said, only if the Afghans “discard the presence of foreign military forces and especially disallow the founding of foreign military bases in Afghanistan.”

A Western diplomat in Kabul said Iran appeared to make a concerted effort to influence a meeting convened by Karzai in November to get input from Afghan leaders about the type of long-term partnership Kabul should seek with Washington.

The diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said that participants in the meeting — known as a jirga — indicated that some members of the group had received millions of dollars from Iranian proxies.

But the participants concluded that Afghanistan ought to seek a long-term security partnership with the United States.

“Whatever influence Iran has, the people at the jirga got the importance of the U.S. relation,” the diplomat said.

Cultivating Taliban ties

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Iran’s policy in Afghanistan are steps Tehran has taken to open lines of dialogue with the Taliban. Iran and Afghanistan nearly went to war when the Taliban was in power in the 1990s, and relations have long been strained.

But members of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, which is tasked with brokering talks with the Taliban, say Iran recently began allowing Taliban representatives to operate openly in Tehran and Mashhad, an Iranian city close to the border with Afghanistan.

Arsallah Rahmani, a member of the council who was a deputy minister during the Taliban regime, said Taliban contacts have told him that Iran has courted the militant Islamist movement in an attempt to derail its exploratory talks with Washington.

“Iran will not let [the Taliban] join the peace process,” Rahmani said.

Iran has done little to publicize its overtures to the Taliban, but it invited a delegation from the group to a state-sponsored Islamic conference in Tehran in September.

“Bringing the Taliban to the Islamic Awakening conference took great courage and was a sign to the international community,” said Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a member of the peace council.

He said Iran and the Taliban are being pragmatic because they have a common goal of ensuring that the Americans withdraw fully from Afghanistan.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Mujahid said. “Both sides are using this logic.”

Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said he could not confirm whether the group has dispatched envoys to Iran, but he noted that the Taliban wants constructive relationships with all of Afghanistan’s neighbors. The Iranian Embassy in Kabul did not respond to requests for an interview.

U.S. diplomats and military officials in Kabul said they had no information about reports that Taliban representatives have an active presence in Iran. The United States has accused Iran of funding and arming certain Taliban commanders and playing a spoiler role in the war.

‘Iran is a cancer’

Iran has sought to keep a low profile in its efforts to influence policy in Afghanistan, though not always successfully. Karzai acknowledged in 2010 that presidential aides regularly received bags of cash from the Iranian government; he characterized the money as routine aid.

Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan lawmaker who chairs the defense committee in parliament, said Iran has spent millions of dollars expanding its influence in Afghanistan.

“Iran is a cancer,” she said. “It has affected all the Afghan government and nongovernmental bodies. They are everywhere: in the higher-education system, working with the media, working with civil society.”

Another lawmaker, Fauzia Kofi, said Iran has strengthened its influence over Afghan institutions in the past year. Key among those is parliament, which is expected to vote on the bilateral agreement with Washington.

“They have strong networks and a lot of money,” Kofi said in an interview. “They go to different parliamentarians and tell them what to do and what not to do. They have become more active to try to keep this [U.S.-
Afghan] partnership from happening.”

Karzai concerned over role in Afghan peace talks

fghan President Hamid Karzai is concerned over being sidelined in US efforts to bring Taliban insurgents to the negotiating table, a government official said Thursday.
The hardline Islamists announced this week that they planned to open an overseas political office, a move seen as a precursor to talks to end the long and bloody war in Afghanistan.
A senior official in Karzai's administration told AFP that the Afghan president was unhappy over the process as it had not involved his government.
"Any peace process without Afghanistan's government in the lead is meaningless," the official said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
"The US officials that we are in contact with say that once the office is set up and talks gets underway the lead will be given to Afghanistan's government. Without that no talks could succeed," he told AFP.
"But so far, the Afghan government has not been involved."
On Wednesday Karzai's office said it "agrees with the negotiations between US and Taliban that will end up in creating an office for Taliban in Qatar".
But the government official said it was essential that the Afghan government played a lead role in any peace talks.
"We have said we agree with talks between Taliban and the United States. We have not said that we support this.
"We only support a peace process that is led by the Afghan government."

Z A Bhutto: The birth of a legend

Daily Times
BY:By Sharmila Faruqui
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s visionary leadership shaped the events of the contemporary age according to the needs of the time. His vision was futuristic. His policies became the guiding principles for all times to come. The way he coped with most difficult circumstances and insurmountable difficulties and solved the trying problems of his country, made him a legend. His history offers us two approaches to study the theory of great men: First, history makes great men and the second, great men make history. Similarly, a renowned historian once alluded that history is the mere biography of great men. Thus, a concise look at the history of Pakistan suggests that if Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the maker of Pakistan, then Quaid-e-Awam, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the architect of Pakistan. Post-independent Pakistan’s history was taken hostage by the feudal autocrats and military-bureaucratic despots which led to the tragic disintegration of the country in 1971. And it was Quaid-e-Awam who lifted the forlorn Pakistan and made it stand on its feet. Soon after the fall of Dhaka, the first elected prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, appeared on national TV and promised to build a new Pakistan; a Pakistan free of exploitation and social injustices, and history stands witness to the fact that he built a new Pakistan as envisaged by its founders: towards a welfare Islamic Republic.

Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s visionary leadership shaped the events of the contemporary age according to the needs of the time. His policies became the guiding principles for all times to come. The way he coped with most difficult circumstances and insurmountable difficulties and solved the trying problems of his country, made him a legend in his life time, not only in his own country but also in the world. He changed the course of history in South Asia in the sense that his courageous actions and overwhelming influence saved his country from further disintegration and united it with the binding force of Islamic Socialism and wide ranging social, political, economic, industrial, labour, educational, administrative reforms.

But the chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born to accomplish great deeds. He inspired his nation with a new hope and proved his worth by immediately launching courageous and revolutionary political, economic, agrarian, educational, industrial, labour, administrative and social reforms and saved his war-weary and famished country from total collapse and utter ruination. Pakistan, politically shattered and economically doomed, entered 1972, under the wise and dynamic leadership of president Bhutto, with much of the self-confidence restored and was ready to gain equilibrium. The frustrated and the defeated nation of the 1971 war with India, now under the guidance of an energetic, intelligent, brave, industrious, patriotic and able leader was slowly gaining momentum, power and prestige. The dawn of the new era was dimly visible and the new Pakistan of president Bhutto’s conception was slowly-emerging from the ashes of the old feudal, discredited and dismembered Pakistan and was taking concrete shape.

Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has earned a place in the pantheon of Islamic Leaders who earned everlasting fame in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism. The politics of Pakistan revolves round his name who set the guiding principles for political, social and economic spheres. Born on January, 5, 1928 in Larkana, Bhutto went on to become a legend in the politics of Pakistan. Bhutto’s foundation of PPP in 1967 was a set back for the reactionary forces in a country long dominated by the Right. The slogan of ‘Roti, Kapra Aur Makan’ shifted the focus of Pakistan politics from theological to economic issues. This focus has never shifted back. He was the voice of the voiceless and the guiding light of the oppressed and marginalised peasants, workers, women and the youth of Pakistan. Bhutto nationalised the commanding heights of the economy and transferred resources towards the dominant rural economy by setting higher prices for agricultural products and by introducing the land reforms of 1972.

Bhutto’s finest hour came in the reconstruction of Pakistan after the traumatic dismemberment of Pakistan upon the fall of Dacca on December 16, 1971. He successfully put the derailed nation back on the track by rebuilding national institutions. He raised the morale of a demoralised nation, recovered 5000 sq miles of territory and brought back 90,000 prisoners of war. Bhutto’s contribution in fortifying the prosperity, integrity and security of Pakistan has been phenomenal. He established the Pakistan

Steel Mill, Heavy Mechanical Complex Taxila, Port Qasim Authority, Pakistan Ordnance Factory, the Karakoram Highway and the Kamra Aeronautical Complex. Bhutto paved the road not only for the industrial progress in Pakistan but also set benchmarks for educational, literary and cultural progress. The establishment of National Council of Arts, Academy of Letters, Pakistan Lok Versa, National Book Foundation, Quaid-e-Azam and Alama Iqbal Open University improved the image of Pakistan in the World. It was due to his efforts that the issue of Aid to the poorest Islamic Countries was raised in the OIC Summit at Lahore in 1974.

The Constitution of 1973, passed unanimously, is yet another lasting legacy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Shaheed. Time has shown that it cannot be replaced. The Senate of Pakistan was created in which the provinces had equal representation, in order to redress the balance of power issue. The creation of Council of Common Interest also gave the provinces a greater weight in the federal dispensation. It was Bhutto who established Azad Kashmir as an autonomous area and gave Balochistan provincial status.

Bhutto was the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program. He developed Pakistan into a unique Muslim State with a nuclear capability for which he paid with his life. In his book “If I am assassinated” written from the death cell, Bhutto revealed how Kissinger had said, “We will make an example of you”. His mission was to develop Pakistan as a modern, democratic nation free from exploitation and dogmatism. He helped the people of Pakistan in shaping their own destiny.

The age of Bhutto was an age of revolution. Although his life and career were cruelly terminated, he set a glorious example of martyrdom for the cause of resurrection of democracy. He had the courage to lay down his life rather than compromise or seek appeasement. He was not only a spokesman of the Islamic world but also the leading light of the third world countries. Today, on his 84th birthday we pay homage to a legendary son of Pakistan who was brutally and judicially murdered for his conviction of principles and ideals in his struggle to rebuild Pakistan as a federal, democratic and egalitarian state. Let us join our hands together to carry forward the mission of Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to defeat all anti democratic forces, the menace of extremism and terrorism which is gnawing the very roots of our great nation.

Zulfikar Bhutto created political, social awareness among masses

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has said the dynamic and inspiring leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto created political and social awareness among the masses that paved the way for better conditions for the poor and common people in Pakistan.In a message on 84th birth anniversary of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto falling on January 5, the Prime Minister congratulated the the nation and workers of Pakistan Peoples Party on the birth anniversary of the leader.The day marks the birthday of a great leader in history of Sub-continent, who is known as a symbol of struggle against the forces of exploitation, injustice and oppression, he added.

He said Shaheed Zulfikar Bhutto chose to sacrifice his life for the sake of principles and became immortal, while his tormentors stand condemned in the annals of history.
He said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is not the name of a personality but that of a movement and ideology, which would continue to inspire and motivate people to struggle against exploitation and oppression.
After Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a true leader who had deep roots among the masses and the way he managed the affairs of Pakistan after the Fall of Dhaka by reviving the confidence of the people does not have any parallel in the world history, he noted.
The Prime Minister said he created among the broken nation a new hope and a desire to look forward and infused a sense of self-confidence and self-esteem among them.
“Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a great leader of the poor. He was a kind-hearted leader and a great statesman of his times and the vagaries of time will not extinguish the fire of his memories. He changed the course of history at a time when oppression and exploitation held sway in the country,” he added.
Gilani said Bhutto gave the poor their voice and a hope to live. He was a man of iron-like determination and did not cave in to ruthless dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq.
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took many steps of historic significance for the stability of democracy and security of the country, he continued.
He said the continuity of democracy in Pakistan today owes itself largely to the vision and courageous leadership of Shaheed Bhutto. His historic initiatives included the Constitution of 1973, the holding of the Islamic Summit, the launching of Pakistan’s atomic programme, establishment of RCD comprising Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, Pakistan Steels Mills, agricultural, industrial and administrative reforms, neutral foreign policy and Pakistan-China Boundary Agreement.
He said the biggest contribution of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was to create political awareness about the importance of vote, so critical for longevity of democracy in the country.
The present democratic government represents a continuation of the shining struggle of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for democracy, he added.
The Prime Minister said, “the ideals of Shaheed Bhutto are beacon of light for us and we would make Pakistan a moderate Islamic welfare state in accordance with his vision.”
“We want to give this message to the world on this occasion that the people of Pakistan are peace-loving and democratic nation. We do not entertain any aggressive designs against anyone in the light of Shaheed Bhutto’s concept of foreign policy.”
“We want to have friendly relations with all the countries. We want to remind the world that Pakistan is ready to play its constructive role for establishment of peace in the world to make it a worth living place for all the people living on this planet,” he added.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto! (January 5, 1928-April 4, 1979)

BY:M Waqar

January 5, we celebrate birthday of Z A Bhutto, a leader, politician, revolutionary, who after his execution in Pakistan on April 4, 1979, still lives on in the hearts and minds of millions of Pakistanis, and the party that he founded still possesses the largest permanent voting bank in Pakistan. The possibility of the secular, democratic Pakistan that he had in mind, like Pakistan 's founder, Jinnah has earned ZAB the title of Quaid-i-Awam . Z. A. Bhutto has still more charisma than any politician in Pakistan. Mr Bhutto was inducted into office as the President of Pakistan in 1971 and was removed in 1977, both events took place around midnight; one in the wake of a war and the other in the shadow of a civil war. In between he gave the country what even his sympathizers and admirers would concede was a 'strong' government, he mobilized his country's first mass-based political party around a socialist ideology and highly independent foreign policy. Pakistan's modernizer Zulfikar Ali Bhutto left deep footprints in the sands of history. To his lasting credit remains the 1973 Constitution of the country, the
Shimla Accord of 1972 which brought the longest peace between India and Pakistan, the social reforms to build an egalitarian society, the non-aligned foreign policy, the nuclear programme and the building of the social, economic and military infrastructure of the country. He was a thinker, author and orator. He was deliberate, discreet, and competent; honest, upright and keeper of his covenants. He was a friend of the poor, downtrodden and oppressed. Fearless in his beliefs he refused to bow before any man or power other than the Almighty. His courage was such that he preferred to face death for his beliefs and embraced martyrdom. He had profound faith in freedom and the liberation of humanity. Under his government, Pakistan gave overt and covert support to the African nations than under apartheid and minority rule. He rejected fanaticism. He gave pride to the poor.
He gave voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless of the country. He helped them shape their own destiny and the destiny of their country. He was a man of honour who gave honour and raised the honour of his country and his people. He was able to do this because the people of the country from Khyber to the shores of the Arabian sea in Karachi loved him and supported him. Bhutto brought back 90,000 prisoners of war, prevented their war crime trials and also restored the territory lost on the battlefield. As leader of the Third World he spoke boldly against racism, colonialism and imperialism. He fearlessly defended the right of nations to independence. When the 1973 Ramazan war broke out, he sent Pakistan's military to defend the borders of the Muslim countries, including the Golan Heights of Syria. ZAB's short life of 50 years was spent in the service of many international, regional and national causes. The most important and the most enduring legacy of the Quaid-i-Awam was raising the consciousness of the people for democracy. He awakened the masses, making them realise they were the legitimate fountainhead of political power. He enlightened the farmer, the industrial worker, the student, the woman and the rest of the common people of their importance and of their right of franchise, which is the definite means of bringing changes for the betterment of the lives of the common people. Z. A. Bhutto's rule brought a transformation of Pakistan's rules of the game, a new populist style of governance, a new governmentality, he favoured a much more active role of the state in relation to society, he reshaped the economic and political landscape of Pakistan. He reached out to masses, aroused their feelings and disciplined their minds. The role of Bhutto family in the uplifting of the poor is unforgettable. Z A Bhutto is the first person in Pakistan who has given voice to the common people. Z. A. Bhutto remains alive in hearts of millions of Pakistanis. It was a miracle that in less than half a decade a defeated nation had become a significant entity in the comity of nations. Pakistan had friends all around the globe from Africa to the far corner of Asia and from Europe to South America. We were regarded as a nation which had proved itself. Pakistani manpower was exported in the Middle East and the statesmanship of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had started bearing fruit. Under Z A Bhutto's rule, a new vision of Pakistan was born. Within a few years of the defeat in 1971, Pakistan began to see itself not as some beleaguered non-entity in South Asia, as the Indian establishment was prone to see it, but as a strategically located middle-sized power straddling the two worlds of South and West Asia, uniquely poised to take advantage of a host of geopolitical possibilities and enjoying widespread support among the Islamic states. He is one of the few Pakistani leaders that energized the nation and gave it a sense of optimism. Z A Bhutto, saw the future of Pakistan. Like Jinnah he outwitted Indira Gandhi at Shimla and formed alliances with various world leaders, from Sadaat, to Boumediene to Qaddafi to Faisal. Pakistan survives today because of those alliances that enabled him to build the Nuclear bomb. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto understood the geo-political realities of the region. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has earned a place in the pantheon of leaders from the Third World who earned everlasting fame in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism. He had the privilege of interacting with many of those leaders who played a great role in the epic struggle for national independence in the 20th century, including Mao Tse Tung, Ahmed Soekarno, Chou-en Lai, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Salvador Allende. During the period between the end of the Second World War and the end of the Cold War, the world was divided into two blocs: The Capitalist West and the Socialist East. All these leaders aspired to aspects of a socialist pattern of economy. Bhutto shared their faith in a leading role for the public sector as an instrument of self-reliance. Bhutto's foundation of the PPP was a setback for the reactionary forces in a country long dominated by the Right. The slogan of "Food, Shelter and Clothing" shifted the focus of Pakistan politics from theological to economic issues. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had the courage of his conviction to decide to lay down his life rather than compromise or seek appeasement. The last chapter of his life is a glorious example of martyrdom for the cause of resurrection of democracy. At the time of his overthrow, Bhutto was emerging as a spokesman of the World of Islam and the leader of the Third World. The age of Bhutto was an Age of Revolution, he was the architect of the China Policy, Pakistan Steel Mill, Agriculture Reforms. Although his life and career were cruelly terminated, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto will forever shine in history as one of the Great leaders who took part in the liberation of the Third World from the yoke of Imperialism and Neo Colonialism during the Twentieth Century. He could have easily entered into a deal, as others did, at the cost of principles, to save his life and move out. How cruel it strikes to bring down such a sincere leader like Bhutto with rare caliber, competence and integrity, Bhutto never colluded with generals, he confronted them. Mr. Bhutto remains a memorable figure . He commanded the allegiance of millions of people inside Pakistan, across the Muslim world and in the Third World as a hero of the people. His leadership gave pride to his followers, to his Nation and to oppressed people everywhere. He conquered the hearts of a Nation through supreme qualities of leadership, vision, intellectual breadth, charisma, dauntlessness, bravery, boldness and a programme for political redemption of an exploited people, he built the foundations of education and industrialization in the country. He liberated the small farmers and peasants from the repression and cruelty of big landlords and banished the jagirdari and sardari system declaring that all citizens are born equal and must live with equal rights. The Taliban, the terrorist groups and the new war against terror are the direct result of the overthrow of the modernizing government of Z. A. Bhutto and its replacement by a clique of military officers that cynically used the name of religion to promote their own illegal stay in power. Quaid e Awam was murdered but his memory lives on in the monuments he built. It lives on in his ideas. And it lives on in the hearts of all men and women who believe that humanity can only progress when there is tolerance, freedom, dignity and equal opportunity for all. Pakistan survived due to the leadership of a bold and courageous leader, a people's leader, who had the vision to break the shackles of poverty to emancipate his people and lead them into a new decade of glory, strength and achievement. Quaid e Awam built the most modern schools, colleges, universities, professional colleges, vocational training institutes, including Quaid-e-Azam University, Allama Iqbal Open University, Chandka Medical College and many others. He built hospitals to take care of the sick and poor. He opened the way for the middle classes to develop and prosper in the fields of medicine, engineering , law and other specialist studies. He introduced peaceful nuclear energy to help treat cancer setting up the first cancer treating institutes in the four provinces of Pakistan. He built roads in the tribal areas and the Northern areas knowing how poor and oppressed people in the distant areas of Pakistan were. Internationally, using his experience as Foreign Minister, he hosted the Islamic Summit Conference in Lahore. It was at this conference that the Palestinian Liberation Organization was recognized as the authentic voice of the Muslims. He advocated closer relations with the Muslim countries arguing for a common economic bloc with banking and other financial institutions long before regional blocs became identified as the economic way forward. Bhutto pushed politics out of the posh drawing rooms into real Pakistan - into the muddy lanes and villages of the poor. Bhutto's inspiring leadership filled Pakistanis with hope, energy and strength. There was a sense of purpose and direction in the country in pursuit of peace and prosperity. The economic growth rate increased and money poured in from expatriates who got the universal right to passport. The Muslim countries donated roughly $500 million annually to Pakistan, freeing it of international financial institutions. The people got jobs and opportunities. Women of the country were emancipated entering the police force, Foreign, Civil Service and subordinate judiciary for the first time in the country's history. There is a story that the American President John F. Kennedy was much impressed with the then Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. When they met, Kennedy walked with him in the Rose Garden and said, "Bhutto, if you were an American, you would be in my Cabinet". To which Zulfikar Ali Bhutto smilingly replied, "No, Mr. President. If I were an American, you would be in my cabinet". Z A Bhutto, was highly skilled negotiator and an international statesman, he secured the agreement between USSR and Pakistan, he signed an agreement with China on demarcation of the Sino-Pak boundary. When he became President, Pakistan had innumerable problems, but he was not a man to be cowed down by knotty problems, he was in fact, a dynamo of inexhaustible and boundless creative energy, he was born to solve problems , he had to tackle the problems of shattered country by a methodical system of fixing priorities. Bhutto the adroit politician and statesman tackled the difficult problems of his country one by one with devotion, determination and patriotic zeal and solved them successfully. Since his assumption of power this great man of vision and destiny, equipped with resolute will, extraordinary intelligence and seething patriotic zeal fought successfully against the landlords, capitalists, industrialists, religious fanatics, corrupt bureaucrats, saboteurs, foreign intriguers and spies, he stood like a rock against all odds and achieved national unity, he worked hard for the emancipation of the exploited working class and illiterate masses. His cruel and barbaric murder by military despots caused revulsion across the globe, Z A Bhutto dedicated his life to remove the sorrows from the hearts of the poor and the oppressed, to remove the tears from the children of his poor nation. He lived consciously to make history and to leave a legacy in the form of the development of his nation, his fight was a fight against the policies of IMF, which serve to perpetuate the backwardness of the developing nations. Bhutto is rightfully credited with saving Pakistan at this dark moment in its history, as French President Giscard d'Estaing said, "he was the man who incarnated Pakistan at a dramatic hour of its history. Tolstoy in the last volume of his War and Peace expressed that history is a movement of ideas in which political leaders play a minor role. Sometimes the movement of ideas is indeed rapid. Yet, at times, the movement of ideas is slower than the melting of the glaciers. The movement of ideas is facilitated in a vibrant political and democratic culture, which gives room for dissent and disagreement. In dictatorial societies, history remains static in a cold freeze. And so it was in Pakistan before Quaid-i-Awam. He was the one who converted that static and decayed dictatorial polity into a vibrant and dynamic democratic society; the cost of which he paid with his own life. He who gave his blood, and the blood of his sons and daughter, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, knew that there can be no sacrifice greater than the sacrifice for the people whose respect, honour and dignity is the respect and dignity of the Nation. Quaid e Awam made the people proud of themselves and of their Nation. The 20th century has seen many great leaders, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is one of them. Due to his glorious achievements, Mr. Bhutto rules the hearts of the Pakistani people from his grave. He was not only the leader of Pakistan, he was the leader of an Islamic world, the leader of Third World. He will forever be remembered by his countrymen as Quaid-e-Awam. As his followers say, "Zinda Hai Bhutto, Zinda Hai"--Bhutto lives, he lives. Indeed he does, in the hearts of all those who dream of a better tomorrow. Long Live Bhuttoism….

Nawaz Sharif's prank

Editoria:Frontier Post

Is it mere hypocrisy, skullduggery, petty politicking or just a sheer puerility, this prank of the head honcho of his own PML faction, Mian Nawaz Sharif? He says if his PML (N) returns to power in the next election, he would set up yet again military courts in Sindh to rid the province of what he termed the dacoit rule. But these military courts were declared unconstitutional by the nation’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, he surely would know. Then how does this erstwhile conqueror of the Supreme Court and Amirul Momineen-aspirant square up his fancy of military courts with his new clothing of a reinvented democrat wholly devoted to noninterference of military in the civilian affairs and whole-heartedly committed to the independence of judiciary? Of course, time will test the new-acquired credentials of this intrinsically a dwarf who by a conspiracy of circumstances has been catapulted to a position of eminence in the national politics, although the portents have never been any cheery, notwithstanding the flattering chirpings of the shoal of his acolytes, sidekicks and hangers-on. His track record is, verily, not any inspiring. If for sheer opportunism he could ditch his pals of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM),

which incidentally he himself had cobbled up, and fling into the electoral ring under the military dictator without a prick of conscience, what guarantee is there he would not kick out a democratic norm he would find inconvenient and rebuff a judicial verdict found uncomfortable or hard? But is it written in some scriptures that he has to put on display his intellectual shallowness and innate irrationality again and again? Courts come later; first come the nabbing of criminals. After all, you cannot put the cart before the horse. What then has he thought of catching criminals? That is crucial to know but he is just blank on that score. But if practice tells a man, not his vow, Nawaz

certainly fares very poorly on that critical scale. For chasing and nabbing criminals and law-breakers, you necessarily have to have the full police force out on public duty, not on VIP duty. But right under his own nose in his bastion of Punjab, the bulk of police force and police assets are deployed on VIP security, not the people’s protection, under the watch of his own younger sibling. And if media reports are to be believed, he himself is savouring that privileged protection to the fill.So if that is to be the practice, which in all probability it would be, if he does make to the guddi yet again, then where will be a police force to catch criminals and bring them up to his touted military courts for trial and punishment? Surely, the dacoit raj of his perception would keep ruling the roost. It is as simple as that. But, for a change, this self-professed reinvented democrat could afford to give a pause to a distraught and weary people and not play pranks on their nagging distresses and woes. Fighting out criminality and criminals, he must know, is a very serious business. It is not just establishment of military courts. It is more policies, strategies and action plans. He has not shown as yet if he has anything in his mind on this score. Had he had it, Punjab definitely would not have been in the lap of mounting criminality as is it in veritably. He would have guided his younger sibling in ridding their Punjab bastion of the vile scourge. Obviously, his mind is bereft of any ideas or plans. Indeed, had the two brothers purged Punjab of crime, Nawaz would have come across a credible preacher and campaigner to the people of Sindh to free them from the wickedness of criminals. But since in the sea of criminality Punjab is sailing as badly, if not worse, as Sindh, his listeners in Sindh must be laughing in their hearts that if military courts are such a silver bullet in mowing down the thugs, why have the brothers not used it in their own domain. Of course, one can understand the nervousness that a rising political star has driven the brothers into unbearably by storming into their long-held barns. But petty politicking couldn’t be unbounded. One has to refrain from playing politics on a people’s distress and grief and not add insult to their injury. Certainly, the people of Sindh would do without his joke of military courts. Those, in any case, were not as popular with them as has he mistakenly given himself to the belief. Those were very controversial, despite his blatant use of the then state-controlled electronic media to put a very charming contour on them. Perhaps, he doesn’t know this.

Dacoits’ raj begins in Punjab at sunset

Opposition members in the Punjab Assembly staged a walk out from the House on Tuesday for being not allowed to speak on the deteriorating law and order situation in the province.While raising the slogans of “Shame Shame”, the opposition members said the situation in the province has gone from bad to worse but no one was ready to listen to the views of the elected representatives. They said no body from the provincial government was ready to respond to the opposition demands and in their place speaker starts giving his opinion.Leader of the Opposition, Raja Riaz said that as night falls in Punjab, dacoits become active and start ruling the entire province.Speaking on a point of order, he said that the provincial chief minister was absent in this situation and taunted that perhaps he has gone to Turkey. Raja Riaz said there is no government worth its name and police have failed.He said 14 people were killed in Gujranwala during broad day light while seven others were murdered in Lalamusa. He opined that bribe rate at police stations has increased ten times.At this Law Minister Raana Sanaullah stood up and said they would tell the opposition where the corruption has increased by 10% and 110%. He said those who plundered the national wealth were disturbing the atmosphere in the house to divert people’s attention from their own corruption.When Raja Riaz again tried to speak, the speaker did not give him the floor. This infuriated the opposition and some of the PPP and PML-Q members walked out of the house. However, opposition seemed divided over the walkout issue as some of their colleagues remained sitting and raising slogans against the behaviour of the treasury benches.While Speaker Rana Mohammad Iqbal in a louder voice asked the opposition to return to their seats, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah held the speaker responsible for the situation by not allowing the opposition to speak.