Supreme Court Chief Justice dismissed by Musharraf wants Zardari’s $330 million Surray Palace investigated
There is unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo from multicolored writings from non-credible sources and then there is irrefutable fact from reliable sources (Swiss Court, British Court, Pakistani Supreme Court).
Three people have been given a honorary award by Harvard–Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther and CHief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry–and while honoring him, he was addressed as Chief Justice (even though he was in limbo at the time).The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan is as Anti-military as they come–having suffered the humiliation and harassment that he did not deserve. A national crusade of Lawyers, the media, and the entire country restored him—despite the stubbornly incalcitrant reluctance of Mr. 10% and his cabal of nincompoops who came to power by “inheriting” (using a fake will) a political party as if it was a piece of furniture.
LONDON: Troubles for Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari are getting bigger by the day, as the supreme court has now asked the concerned
authorities to investigate as to how he purchased the 365-acre home counties estate in the UK worth £4 million.
It is worth mentioning here that Zardari had purchased the mock Tudor Rockwood Park in the 1990s , which was soon termed as “Surrey Mahal” by the then opposition leaders.
Zardari is alleged to have spent more than £300,000 on renovations of the 20-room mansion, including building his own private polo field and an exact copy of the local village pub, the Telegraph reported on Friday.
The apex court has ordered officials to ask the Swiss government to reopen an investigation into whether the property was bought with laundered money. Source: The Usually Anti-Pakistan Times of India. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Investigate-Zardaris-Surrey-Mahal-SC/articleshow/5353835.cms)
Those corrupt politicians who were protected by the Generals through a NRO have no where to hide–and their protectors in Washington and London cannot help them.
Despite unfounded insinuations to the contrary the **Chief Justice does not belong to any religious party–neither does he have a beard or belong to a family of Islamic scholars. He is not a demonized Pakhtun either. The Honorable Chief Justice in a man of honor–incorruptible and unintimidated. He has issued arrest warrants of arrest of the convicted criminal Interior Minister, the compliant Rehman Malik, and he has has continued his investigation of Mr. Zardari’s ill-gotten wealth. The likes of Mr. Fatah will continue to defend Mr. 10%, but the world is watching as the Swiss Court case is to be resurrected and $80 will be confiscated which are traceable to Mr. Zardari.
Contrary to Mr. Fatah and friends–there is no coup going on Pakistan–the rule of law is being restored–with the scoundrels (whoever they may be) being sent to government facilities. Their property is being confiscated and they will have to serve time. If the cases are brought against the Generals–so be it–the world has seen that Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry cannot be intimidated by a General in uniform. But first things first–Mr. 10% must give up his dictatorial powers (illegally imposed by a dictator). Refusal to give up those powers make him the same as any tin-pot dictator. Mr. Zardari also has to face the music for garnishing $1.5 Billion. After the creation of good governance–others, including Generals will also have to pay the price of corruption–and they will.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A sweeping Supreme Court decision that reopened corruption cases against thousands of politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari, reverberated through the government on Friday as important ministers were barred from leaving the country and ordered to appear before the courts in the coming weeks.
Among those immediately affected were the interior minister, Rehman Malik, who is considered particularly close to the United States, and the defense minister, Ahmad Mukhtar, raising concerns about how effectively the Zardari government, under pressure from a violent Islamic insurgency, could continue to function.
The two men were among 247 officials, also including Salman Faruqui, the chief of staff to Mr. Zardari, placed on what is known as an exit control list. It bars them from leaving Pakistan, a measure Pakistani authorities often use to ensure that those under criminal investigation do not abscond.
At least 52 politicians were called to appear before corruption courts, according to the National Accountability Bureau, the anticorruption unit that was ordered by the Supreme Court on Wednesday to act expeditiously in reopening the cases.
By the end of the day on Friday, Mr. Faruqui had won an interim bail order from the Sindh High Court, a measure that would prevent him from being arrested, legal experts said.
Mr. Malik had also been ordered to appear before the Sindh High Court, according to Pakistan’s Express News television channel. Attempts to reach a spokesman for Mr. Malik were unsuccessful.
President Zardari has immunity from prosecution under the Constitution. He remained defiant on Friday against calls from the main opposition party that he step down.
Moreover, he has no intention of asking cabinet ministers or colleagues facing corruption charges to quit, a media adviser, Farahnaz Ispahani, said Friday.
“The president is fighting fit,” Ms. Ispahani said. “The president was clear that our Pakistan Peoples Party ministers would not be asked to resign merely on the basis of accusation.”
A cabinet reshuffle in which “some people will be out and some will be moved” will be the main response to the revocation of the amnesty by the Supreme Court, Ms. Ispahani said.
But as Mr. Zardari and his party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, the biggest in Pakistan, battled to survive, a groundswell of media and public opinion seemed to exult in the Supreme Court decision.
“We’ve never seen the mighty in this country held accountable,” said Babar Sattar, a Harvard-trained constitutional lawyer.
Now that the court, backed by public opinion, has come down hard on corruption in a way not seen before in Pakistan, the affected politicians are not sure how to react, Mr. Sattar said.
The confused response was evident when Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani dismissed the interior secretary, Qamar-uz Zaman Chaudhry, and three officials of the Federal Investigation Agency on Friday evening for barring Mr. Mukhtar, the defense minister, from traveling abroad on Thursday.
The incident was an embarrassment to the governing Pakistan Peoples Party and the defense minister, who was leaving for China on an official visit and called the move “shameful.”
A statement released by the prime minister’s office stated that the officials had not verified whether the minister’s name was on the exit control list and that their actions had “brought a bad name to the country.”
There was no sign on Friday that the army, which has been increasingly at odds with Mr. Zardari, was aiming to take control. But it has grown more wary of Mr. Zardari as an aura of corruption has continued to mount around his government.
The reputation of the army, stained after the president and military chief at the time, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, imposed emergency rule in November 2007, has grown in the past few months as it has fought Taliban militants, and it will benefit further because of the severity of the Supreme Court decision against the civilian government, analysts said.
Many of the corruption cases that the Supreme Court said must be reopened originate from the 1990s, including cases against Mr. Zardari, who served 11 years in prison. Mr. Zardari contends he was never convicted of corruption, a signal that he and his supporters say shows his innocence.
Lawyers affiliated with the opposition party Pakistan Muslim League and some legal experts dispute Mr. Zardari’s assertion, citing a conviction in Switzerland that Mr. Zardari appealed.
That case was withdrawn by the Pakistani government in 2007 under the provisions of the amnesty against corruption cases imposed by General Musharraf, who later resigned his military post.
In its ruling on Wednesday, the Supreme Court said the Musharraf government had acted improperly in withdrawing the case in Switzerland. It asked the Swiss authorities to resume the proceedings. Swiss officials backed away from the Supreme Court’s demand, saying Thursday that the case would not be reopened unless Pakistan started proceedings against Mr. Zardari.
In tackling the issue of corruption, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who likes to see himself as the “people’s judge,” has gone beyond rolling back the amnesty on individual corruption cases.
This week, the court also took exception to the government’s removing the chief of the country’s main investigative agency.
In a separate ruling from the lifting of the amnesty, the court ordered the government to reinstate the head of the Federal Investigation Agency, Tariq Khosa, who had been dismissed by Prime Minister Gilani.
Mr. Khosa, who was described in the Pakistani press as the country’s toughest corruption fighter, was removed from his job earlier this month in the midst of an investigation. NEW YORK TIMES: December 19, 2009, Pakistan Ministers Are Called Before the Courts By JANE PERLEZ and SALMAN MASOOD
There is an anomaly in nomenclature. The so called “Progressive left” in Pakistan is not the progressive left of Bharat or the US. Amazingly the so called “Pakistani progressive left” are in a holy alliance with the policies of imperialism, Neo-colonialism and their patrons in Washington–not Beijing or Moscow or Islamabad. Many of them, even the progeny of Ghaffar Khan (no called the ANP) are in bed with Washington and their man in Islamabad–the most reviled person in Pakistan–Mr. Zardari. These Pakistani drawing-room Ex-socialists/commies/socialists fully support the imperialistic policies of war and gore in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Groveling Pakistani Native Orientalists”
minions of Western embassies and Western-financed NGOs” and includes the likes of “Ahmad Rashid, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Najam Sethi, Khaled Ahmad, Irfan Hussain, Husain Haqqani, and P.J.Mir”. Mohammad Shahid Alam, a professor of Pakistani origin who teaches at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachussetts. [CounterPunch, 2 Dec 2009]
These “leftist” like Tareq Fatah were recently repudiated by Tariq Ali (himself a known critic of the Pakistani “elite”) and Professor Shaid Alam. The likes of Fatah, are in cahoots with the Ahmed Rashids and Hoodbhoys who are paid agents of America Inc. and continue to employ the tactics of the Neocons. Mr. Rashid was recently eulogized by the Chris Hitchins, one of the most ultra-conservative Islamphobe nut-cases on Fox.
The agenda is simple–try to make Pakistan secular–then claim an absence of difference with Bharat and then amalgamation–hence the “reunification dinners in New York”. Fortunately these people can be counted on the fingers and have been identified as the 5th column. Compliant leaders will face the fate of traitors–as they always have.
The Zardari apologists are irked by the fact that this person who is so very compliant to Washington will be sent home packing, and the next guy in line will assert himself. Already teh visas are being refused to US citizens and no American can go to Pakistan without the approval of the ISI.
