Comments - BBC's Stephen Sackur Dismantles Pakistani Opposition's Entire Narrative - PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network 2024-03-28T18:07:57Zhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=1119293%3ABlogPost%3A350411&xn_auth=noPoliticalGuru@PoliticalGuru3C…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-06-30:1119293:Comment:4090632022-06-30T23:28:22.816ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>PoliticalGuru<br></br>@PoliticalGuru3<br></br>Ch Aitzaz Ahsan</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/PoliticalGuru3/status/1542288603341959168?s=20&t=c0igbWf6vmXuUsYB5Eb7Gw" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/PoliticalGuru3/status/1542288603341959168?s=20&t=c0igbWf6vmXuUsYB5Eb7Gw</a></p>
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<p>Video clip of Aitaza Ahsan showing him describing Nawaz Sharif as a fugitive criminal appearing on Pakistan TV and directing the PMLN government of Shahbaz Sharif on running the…</p>
<p>PoliticalGuru<br/>@PoliticalGuru3<br/>Ch Aitzaz Ahsan</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/PoliticalGuru3/status/1542288603341959168?s=20&t=c0igbWf6vmXuUsYB5Eb7Gw" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/PoliticalGuru3/status/1542288603341959168?s=20&t=c0igbWf6vmXuUsYB5Eb7Gw</a></p>
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<p>Video clip of Aitaza Ahsan showing him describing Nawaz Sharif as a fugitive criminal appearing on Pakistan TV and directing the PMLN government of Shahbaz Sharif on running the country.</p>
<p>Aitazaz is also critical of the fact that Salman Shahbaz Sharif, another fugitive from Pakistani law, participating in official meetings in Saudi Arabia.</p> #UK denies #NawazSharif's vis…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-08-06:1119293:Comment:4018312021-08-06T00:05:29.379ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>#UK denies #NawazSharif's visa extension request.<br></br>In a video statement, Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that Pakistan had already requested the UK authorities not to give refuge to people involved in #corruption in the country. <a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2314053/british-govt-rejects-nawaz-sharifs-visa-extension-plea" target="_blank">https://tribune.com.pk/story/2314053/british-govt-rejects-nawaz-sharifs-visa-extension-plea</a><br></br><br></br>In a statement,…</p>
<p>#UK denies #NawazSharif's visa extension request.<br/>In a video statement, Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that Pakistan had already requested the UK authorities not to give refuge to people involved in #corruption in the country. <a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2314053/british-govt-rejects-nawaz-sharifs-visa-extension-plea" target="_blank">https://tribune.com.pk/story/2314053/british-govt-rejects-nawaz-sharifs-visa-extension-plea</a><br/><br/>In a statement, Marriyum said the UK's Home Department had refused to extend Nawaz Sharif's stay in the country, adding that the PML-N leader can challenge the decision in the immigration tribunal.<br/><br/>She said that the former prime minister's lawyer's had filed an appeal for visa extension with the immigration tribunal, adding that the UK Home Department's decision would remain ineffective till the immigration tribunal reaches a verdict.<br/><br/>Answering a question, Marriyum said that “this does not in any way amount to a political asylum and is only a request for an extension in stay on medical grounds”.<br/><br/>The Islamabad High Court (IHC), however, had declared him a proclaimed offender on December 2 as the former premier failed to appear before the bench – originally formed to hear his appeals against his convictions – despite various notices.<br/><br/>According to a report published in London-based Financial Times newspaper in October last year, Pakistan also asked the British government to repatriate Nawaz Sharif through a letter that Adviser to the PM on Accountability Mirza Shehzad Akbar wrote to British Home Secretary Priti Patel.<br/><br/>In March, the Ministry of Interior recommended the Foreign Office to not renew the passport of Nawaz, saying that the former prime minister had failed to satisfy the government on why his passport should be renewed and therefore he cannot be given ‘further relief’ until he appears in court.<br/><br/>The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sent a request to the Pakistan High Commission in the UK to renew the passport of the three-time premier which was later sent to the interior ministry for further processing.<br/><br/>The interior ministry, while rejecting the request, said that both the IHC and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have declared Nawaz Sharif a proclaimed offender and therefore he cannot be given further relief until he appears in court.<br/><br/>"Nawaz Sharif could not satisfy why his passport should be renewed further. If he wants to return, he can apply for an emergency travel document (ETD). The Pakistan High Commission should respond to Nawaz's request in writing that his passport cannot be renewed," the letter further stated.</p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> #PMLN leaders now claim that…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-06-07:1119293:Comment:4005382021-06-07T01:13:10.377ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>#PMLN leaders now claim that they did nothing wrong and are blameless for #Pakistan’s #economic woes. I suggest to them that they watch <br></br>@MiftahIsmail explain @MIshaqDar50’s missteps in keeping PKR overvalued leading to low #exports & BoP crisis #PTI faced</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLzHHVzohvQ" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLzHHVzohvQ…</a></p>
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<p>#PMLN leaders now claim that they did nothing wrong and are blameless for #Pakistan’s #economic woes. I suggest to them that they watch <br/>@MiftahIsmail explain @MIshaqDar50’s missteps in keeping PKR overvalued leading to low #exports & BoP crisis #PTI faced</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLzHHVzohvQ" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLzHHVzohvQ</a></p>
<p><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1401589995324928002?s=20" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1401589995324928002?s=20</a></p> Malcolm Turnbull says News Co…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-04-18:1119293:Comment:4002992021-04-18T17:03:58.517ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Malcolm Turnbull says News Corp the most powerful Australian political actor<br></br><br></br><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/utterly-unaccountable-turnbull-labels-news-corp-the-most-powerful-political-actor-in-australia-20210412-p57idq.html" target="_blank">https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/utterly-unaccountable-turnbull-labels-news-corp-the-most-powerful-political-actor-in-australia-20210412-p57idq.html</a><br></br><br></br><br></br>Giving evidence by video link, Mr Turnbull said the…</p>
<p>Malcolm Turnbull says News Corp the most powerful Australian political actor<br/><br/><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/utterly-unaccountable-turnbull-labels-news-corp-the-most-powerful-political-actor-in-australia-20210412-p57idq.html" target="_blank">https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/utterly-unaccountable-turnbull-labels-news-corp-the-most-powerful-political-actor-in-australia-20210412-p57idq.html</a><br/><br/><br/>Giving evidence by video link, Mr Turnbull said the Murdoch media business had evolved into a powerful political force that, unlike political parties, was unaccountable to the Australian public.<br/><br/>“This is the fundamental problem that we’re facing: the most powerful political actor in Australia is not the Liberal Party or the National Party or the Labor Party. It is News Corp. And it’s utterly unaccountable,” Mr Turnbull said. “It’s controlled by an American family and their interests are no longer, if they ever were, coextensive with our own.”<br/><br/>Mr Turnbull, a Liberal, has joined former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd as a strident critic of News Corp and has backed his push for a royal commission into the influence of the Murdoch empire on the Australian media and political landscape. The media diversity inquiry, which is examining issues of media concentration in Australia, was established by the Senate after more than 500,000 people signed a petition by Mr Rudd voicing those concerns.<br/><br/>In his evidence to the inquiry in February, Mr Rudd said News Corp used systematic character assassinations to cultivate a culture of fear among politicians and engaged in campaign journalism against issues such as action on climate change.<br/><br/>At the same public hearing, News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller dismissed Mr Rudd and Mr Turnbull’s criticisms as “a convenient diversion from their own failings” during his evidence. News Corp executive Campbell Reid gave evidence the company was “professional, accountable media” that operated in the Australian landscape “with an extraordinary degree of both government, and indeed regulatory, oversight and legal oversight if we get things wrong”.<br/><br/>“Our editing process – for all professional media – is high stakes because we can be charged with contempt of court, our journalists can be threatened with jail, we can be taken to the Press Council, and we can be held up to scrutiny by other organisations, which is completely different to the misinformation industry that is perpetuated by and is a driver of, frankly, profit online,” Mr Campbell told the inquiry in February.<br/><br/>Mr Turnbull echoed many of Mr Rudd’s concerns, saying he had experienced “bullying and standover tactics” from News Corp when he served in the Parliament.</p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> "Despite these issues, many c…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2020-12-19:1119293:Comment:3588312020-12-19T05:07:22.469ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>"Despite these issues, many consider the 1973 constitution to have been Zulfikar’s greatest achievement and credit it with holding West Pakistan together as a single country. It was, by any standards, extraordinary that Zulfikar managed to push it through with no one in the National Assembly voting against it. Mubashir Hassan described how the final hold-out – a cleric – was persuaded to vote in favour with a payoff: ‘The amount was settled and Bhutto described the scene to me how when the…</p>
<p>"Despite these issues, many consider the 1973 constitution to have been Zulfikar’s greatest achievement and credit it with holding West Pakistan together as a single country. It was, by any standards, extraordinary that Zulfikar managed to push it through with no one in the National Assembly voting against it. Mubashir Hassan described how the final hold-out – a cleric – was persuaded to vote in favour with a payoff: ‘The amount was settled and Bhutto described the scene to me how when the fellow came to President’s House to collect the money, Bhutto threw a packet of notes on the floor and ordered him to pick it up. There the man was, moving over the carpet on all fours, picking a bundle from here and a bundle from there. Bhutto was mightily amused.’83 By using all his political skills – bribery included – Zulfikar had made a significant contribution to Pakistan’s national story. ‘The country owes him everything,’ said Hafeez Pirzada, the man who worked on the constitution for Zulfikar, ‘even its continuance as a sovereign country. He was not the founder, but the saviour of the country.’84 It’s a fair point – 1971 was as big a disaster as could be imagined, and Zulfikar dealt with it in a way that it is hard to imagine any other civilian or military leader in the country’s history having been able to do"<br/><br/>Bennett-Jones, Owen. The Bhutto Dynasty (pp. 107-108). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> A survey held by Gallup Pakis…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2020-12-19:1119293:Comment:3586522020-12-19T02:42:42.245ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>A survey held by Gallup Pakistan has revealed which party is likely to win if elections are held today.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/760678-which-party-is-likely-to-win-if-elections-are-held-today" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/760678-which-party-is-likely-to-win-if-elections-are-held-today</a></p>
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<p>To begin with, a majority of the people (22%) were not sure of what their choice would be</p>
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<p>Setting that lot…</p>
<p>A survey held by Gallup Pakistan has revealed which party is likely to win if elections are held today.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/760678-which-party-is-likely-to-win-if-elections-are-held-today" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/760678-which-party-is-likely-to-win-if-elections-are-held-today</a></p>
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<p>To begin with, a majority of the people (22%) were not sure of what their choice would be</p>
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<p>Setting that lot aside, 17% of the people responded by saying they would vote for PTI, 13% said they would support PML-N and 13% picked PPP.</p>
<p>MQM-P were not far behind with 12% of the vote.</p>
<p>JUI-F got 4%, PSP 3%, whereas MMA and independent candidates got 1% of the vote each.</p>
<p>The remaining 13% chose "others" among the options given.</p>
<p>The survey consisted of face-to-face interviews of 535 people taken between October 27 and November 17.</p> Legal Trail of Hudabiya Caseh…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2020-12-07:1119293:Comment:3521162020-12-07T00:35:15.996ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Legal Trail of Hudabiya Case<br></br><br></br><a href="https://courtingthelaw.com/2017/12/14/commentary/legal-trail-of-hudabiya-case/" target="_blank">https://courtingthelaw.com/2017/12/14/commentary/legal-trail-of-hudabiya-case/</a><br></br><br></br>The members of ‘House of Sharifs’, facing inquiries by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and trials before the Accountability Court for alleged corruption, abuse of public funds, money laundering and tax evasion, have been claiming of being billionaires…</p>
<p>Legal Trail of Hudabiya Case<br/><br/><a href="https://courtingthelaw.com/2017/12/14/commentary/legal-trail-of-hudabiya-case/" target="_blank">https://courtingthelaw.com/2017/12/14/commentary/legal-trail-of-hudabiya-case/</a><br/><br/>The members of ‘House of Sharifs’, facing inquiries by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and trials before the Accountability Court for alleged corruption, abuse of public funds, money laundering and tax evasion, have been claiming of being billionaires since the 1940s. Their main defense is that the assets owned by them, at home and abroad, have been earned through the family business. They claim that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) could not find a single proof of any kind of corruption, embezzlement or financial favours by abuse of public office. Ousted/disqualified Nawaz Sharif bitterly and repeatedly mentions that his conviction is on iqama and not Panama.<br/><br/>The reality is that in 1981 when Nawaz Sharif was picked by a military dictator as the Finance Minister of Punjab, the family owned only one re-rolling mill. In the next few years, the business empire of the family expanded “miraculously”: Ittefaq Sugar Mills (1982), Brothers Steel (1983), Farooq Barkat (Pvt) Ltd (1985), Brothers Textile Mills (1986), Brothers Sugar Mills Ltd (1986), Ittefaq Textile (1987), Ramzan Buksh Textiles (1987) and Khalid Siraj Textile Mills (1988). In all these years, Nawaz Sharif was close to General Ziaul Haq, served as the Punjab Finance Minister/Member Punjab Advisory Board (1981-1984) and Chief Minister, Punjab (1985 to 1990). It was during 1981 to 1989 that the ‘House of Sharifs’ received generous loans from banks for “extraordinary expansion”. But strangely, even after all this extraordinary expansion in business, wealth tax returns filed by all members of the ‘House of Sharifs’ till 1990 showed net wealth of less than Rs. 50 million!<br/><br/>In 1992, the Information Wing of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) released an account of alleged corruption of Nawaz’s rule in a booklet, The Plunder of Pakistan. A spokesperson of the then ‘Ittefaq Group’ said in a counter-statement that the group “has obtained loans worth Rs. 4.420 billion only from the commercial banks contrary to Salman Taseer’s claim of Rs. 12 billion.” According to the spokesperson of Ittefaq Group, they had only 14 companies with assets of Rs. 6 billion.<br/><br/>It is a matter of record that Nawaz Sharif, in his speeches after the release of Panama Papers admitted that after losing industrial units in East Pakistan and the nationalisation of Ittefaq Foundry by Bhutto, the family was left with nothing. He claimed that after nationalisation his father tried his luck in the United Arab Emirates where a steel re-rolling mill was set up. Mian Muhammad Sharif returned home within a year or two after the start of operations of this mill. Obviously, in such a short time, he could not have earned millions after losing everything to what was termed as a “cruel act” by Bhutto!<br/><br/>It is an incontrovertible fact that lady luck smiled on the Sharifs after General Ziaul Haq returned them Ittefaq Foundry without any payment and appointed Nawaz Sharif as the Finance Minister of Punjab in 1981 and then Member of the Punjab Advisory Board. Later, he became the Chief Minister of Punjab in 1985, served as the Caretaker Chief Minister and got re-elected for the post in 1988. In 1990, Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister of Pakistan—a position he held three times (November 1, 1990 to July 18, 1993; February 17, 1997 to October 12, 1999; and June 5, 2013 to July 28, 2017).<br/><br/></p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> Bennett-Jones, Owen. The Bhut…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2020-12-07:1119293:Comment:3520372020-12-07T00:34:37.702ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Bennett-Jones, Owen. The Bhutto Dynasty (pp. 102-104). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. Excerpt:<br></br><br></br>One of the families affected was the little-known Sharif family, who were persuaded by the loss of their steel foundry that, to continue doing business, they would have to get into politics. Zulfikar thereby unwittingly laid the basis of a dynasty that would go on to challenge his own. Faced by this resistance, Zulfikar was left flailing around as he told his finance minister to…</p>
<p>Bennett-Jones, Owen. The Bhutto Dynasty (pp. 102-104). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. Excerpt:<br/><br/>One of the families affected was the little-known Sharif family, who were persuaded by the loss of their steel foundry that, to continue doing business, they would have to get into politics. Zulfikar thereby unwittingly laid the basis of a dynasty that would go on to challenge his own. Faced by this resistance, Zulfikar was left flailing around as he told his finance minister to threaten to hang businessmen who did not bring back foreign exchange. But as Mubashir Hassan pointed out, the government had left ‘no way for the industrialists to cooperate with us... "we neither got their money nor their cooperation".<br/><br/><br/>Some nationalisations did reduce the power of families that controlled industrial assets, although, as the Sharifs showed, many went on to thrive. But any gains have to be judged alongside the economic problems that arose. Political, rather than economic, factors came to influence decisions on where plants were opened. Loss-making firms were not declared bankrupt for fear of the political impact of job losses. And the numbers employed in the state-owned companies skyrocketed as politicians handed out jobs as gifts to constituents. No Pakistani leader since Zulfikar has tried to emulate his nationalisation programme.<br/><br/></p>
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