Reading recent Hamid Mir column made me search out for this fella article. Here is what G. PARTHASARATHY wrote in his column..
The February 2008 elections in Pakistan, in which Gen Pervez Musharraf’s loyalists were routed across the country, sent the diplomatic establishments in the White House in Washington and South Block in New Delhi into a tailspin. Despite warnings about Gen Musharraf’s growing unpopularity, the diplomatic establishments in New Delhi and Washington remained wedded to the “Musharraf is our best bet” syndrome and wrongly believed, till the very last moment, that Gen Musharraf was invincible and irreplaceable in Pakistan.
Read rest of the article here
Showing posts with label Pervez Musharraf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pervez Musharraf. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
President staying in Rs. 2 million room - Amazing
The Senate was stunned, the treasury benches speechless, when it was disclosed on Thursday that President Pervez Musharraf, during his recent four-day visit to London, stayed in the royal suite of a hotel where one night’s rent was 17,000 UK pounds or Rs 2 million.
A total of about 68,000 pounds (Rs 8 million) were paid only on account of room rent for four nights of the hotel facing the Hyde Park, London.
The impact of this disclosure was so severe that even caretaker ministers like Nisar Memon, Nisar Ghumman and others became speechless, not standing up on the floor of the House to say anything in Musharraf’s defence.
Even the caretaker Minister for Petroleum Ehsanullah Khan, who toured the European countries with President Musharraf and stayed at the expensive hotel in London, could not gain the moral courage to stand up and say a few words.
Besides the Rs 8 million paid for four nights, the rest of the expenditures in these four days of stay were not disclosed. The official entourage of the president, including ministers and advisers, also stayed in the most- expensive hotel of London, where usually international celebrities, Hollywood actors and actresses pass their time.
The total bill of Musharraf’s eight-day-long trip to four European nations was also not given in the House.
When contacted by The News, president’s spokesman Maj Gen (retd) Rashid Qureshi said he had no idea how much rent was paid for one night’s stay of Musharraf.
He said he would check with the Pakistani high commissioner to the UK to get the details as he did not know at all about the total expenditures or other such details.
Earlier, the Upper House was taken by surprise when Senator Azam Swati stood up on a point of order to drop the bombshell that President Musharraf had stayed in a hotel where the rent per night was 17,000 pounds and he lived in this royal family suite for four nights.
"Look how our president has lavishly spent the taxpayers’ money in London," Swati said, waving a report in his hands which clearly mentioned that the hotel was paid Rs 2 million rent per night.
Swati said the same royal suite was used by the president to distribute official photocopies of letters and documents among British journalists to show
how the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had been receiving bogus petrol and medical bills of a few thousand rupees, which ultimately became one of the reasons for his ouster.
Swati, who was fully backed by the opposition benches, wondered how the president of a poor country like Pakistan could stay in a room whose rent was Rs 2 million per night.
During his four-day stay, President Musharraf had only one big official engagement – one-hour meeting with PM Gordon Brown. The British Foreign Office had also made it clear that Musharraf was not invited by the UK but he himself had requested to visit London.
During the rest of the three days there, Musharraf spent time with his old buddy Brig Niaz with whom he played bridge. Then, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz took him out for a lavish dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Musharraf also addressed a think-tank and members of the Pakistani community.
The presidential entourage, which visited London along with him, included PM’s Adviser on Finance Dr Salman Shah, Petroleum Minister Ehsanullah Khan, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Shamshad Akhtar, Commerce Minister Shahzada Manoo Alam, Maj-Gen (retd) Rashid Qureshi, Adviser Dr Ashfaq, Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan, Secretary Board of Investment Mushtaq Malik and others.
They all stayed at the same hotel, but it is not known how much was spent on their rents per night.
Courtesy : The News
Friday, February 29, 2008
By Rauf Klasra
A total of about 68,000 pounds (Rs 8 million) were paid only on account of room rent for four nights of the hotel facing the Hyde Park, London.
The impact of this disclosure was so severe that even caretaker ministers like Nisar Memon, Nisar Ghumman and others became speechless, not standing up on the floor of the House to say anything in Musharraf’s defence.
Even the caretaker Minister for Petroleum Ehsanullah Khan, who toured the European countries with President Musharraf and stayed at the expensive hotel in London, could not gain the moral courage to stand up and say a few words.
Besides the Rs 8 million paid for four nights, the rest of the expenditures in these four days of stay were not disclosed. The official entourage of the president, including ministers and advisers, also stayed in the most- expensive hotel of London, where usually international celebrities, Hollywood actors and actresses pass their time.
The total bill of Musharraf’s eight-day-long trip to four European nations was also not given in the House.
When contacted by The News, president’s spokesman Maj Gen (retd) Rashid Qureshi said he had no idea how much rent was paid for one night’s stay of Musharraf.
He said he would check with the Pakistani high commissioner to the UK to get the details as he did not know at all about the total expenditures or other such details.
Earlier, the Upper House was taken by surprise when Senator Azam Swati stood up on a point of order to drop the bombshell that President Musharraf had stayed in a hotel where the rent per night was 17,000 pounds and he lived in this royal family suite for four nights.
"Look how our president has lavishly spent the taxpayers’ money in London," Swati said, waving a report in his hands which clearly mentioned that the hotel was paid Rs 2 million rent per night.
Swati said the same royal suite was used by the president to distribute official photocopies of letters and documents among British journalists to show
how the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had been receiving bogus petrol and medical bills of a few thousand rupees, which ultimately became one of the reasons for his ouster.
Swati, who was fully backed by the opposition benches, wondered how the president of a poor country like Pakistan could stay in a room whose rent was Rs 2 million per night.
During his four-day stay, President Musharraf had only one big official engagement – one-hour meeting with PM Gordon Brown. The British Foreign Office had also made it clear that Musharraf was not invited by the UK but he himself had requested to visit London.
During the rest of the three days there, Musharraf spent time with his old buddy Brig Niaz with whom he played bridge. Then, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz took him out for a lavish dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Musharraf also addressed a think-tank and members of the Pakistani community.
The presidential entourage, which visited London along with him, included PM’s Adviser on Finance Dr Salman Shah, Petroleum Minister Ehsanullah Khan, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Shamshad Akhtar, Commerce Minister Shahzada Manoo Alam, Maj-Gen (retd) Rashid Qureshi, Adviser Dr Ashfaq, Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan, Secretary Board of Investment Mushtaq Malik and others.
They all stayed at the same hotel, but it is not known how much was spent on their rents per night.
Courtesy : The News
Friday, February 29, 2008
By Rauf Klasra
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Mr. President & The Powerful Elite Narrow Escape
I now understand why chief justice was thrown out on the basis of suicide attacks. Read on...
COURTESY : THE NEWS by RAUF KLASRA
The Supreme Court has dismissed the case against 499 Chak Shahzad farm owners, including President Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz and many other members of the powerful elite.
After six months of unstoppable tension, these 499 owners of big farm houses, worth over Rs 75 billion, have finally something to cheer about because they have been cleared of misusing farm lands for their residence.
Attorney General of Pakistan Malik Qayyum confirmed to The News on Wednesday that the pending case against these farm owners of Chak Shahzad had been dismissed by the Supreme Court, as the issue of price hike and farms did not relate to the court.
He said, while dismissing the case, the SC bench had observed that the issue did not warrant any intervention on the part of the court as there were other institutions to take note of the price hike issue.
Malik Qayyum said the court had asked the CDA authorities to act upon their own laws. He also confirmed that the court had observed that the CDA had allotted these farm houses in the hilly areas where the availability of water was a big problem.
Meanwhile, PPP Senator Enver Baig, who was also regularly appearing in the Supreme Court as one of the stakeholders to represent the consumers rights, said he had argued with the honourable judges that the Supreme Court should not throw this important case out as the people were suffering because of high prices and non-availability of essential goods and these farm owners were supposed to grow vegetables and poultry products which they never did.
The former Supreme Court bench, headed by the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, had started suo motu proceedings against the price hike in the country. The Supreme Court had then summoned CDA authorities for allotting big farm houses at throwaway prices to those powerful people in the name of growing vegetables and poultry products where residential places, marriage halls, golf courses, swimming polls, etc, were constructed.
During the court proceedings before Nov 3, it had emerged that these powerful owners had a total of 2,500 acres of prime land in the suburbs of Islamabad worth about Rs 75 billion. The earlier Supreme Court proceedings against these 499 owners of Chak Shahzad, according to many observers, was one of the causes of the removal from office of the ex-chief justice as his action had offended these top guns sitting in the Shaukat Aziz government.
Following the court proceedings, the CDA had also served show-cause notices on 70 owners of these farms, accused them of violating the terms and conditions on which they got these farms.
COURTESY : THE NEWS by RAUF KLASRA
The Supreme Court has dismissed the case against 499 Chak Shahzad farm owners, including President Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz and many other members of the powerful elite.
After six months of unstoppable tension, these 499 owners of big farm houses, worth over Rs 75 billion, have finally something to cheer about because they have been cleared of misusing farm lands for their residence.
Attorney General of Pakistan Malik Qayyum confirmed to The News on Wednesday that the pending case against these farm owners of Chak Shahzad had been dismissed by the Supreme Court, as the issue of price hike and farms did not relate to the court.
He said, while dismissing the case, the SC bench had observed that the issue did not warrant any intervention on the part of the court as there were other institutions to take note of the price hike issue.
Malik Qayyum said the court had asked the CDA authorities to act upon their own laws. He also confirmed that the court had observed that the CDA had allotted these farm houses in the hilly areas where the availability of water was a big problem.
Meanwhile, PPP Senator Enver Baig, who was also regularly appearing in the Supreme Court as one of the stakeholders to represent the consumers rights, said he had argued with the honourable judges that the Supreme Court should not throw this important case out as the people were suffering because of high prices and non-availability of essential goods and these farm owners were supposed to grow vegetables and poultry products which they never did.
The former Supreme Court bench, headed by the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, had started suo motu proceedings against the price hike in the country. The Supreme Court had then summoned CDA authorities for allotting big farm houses at throwaway prices to those powerful people in the name of growing vegetables and poultry products where residential places, marriage halls, golf courses, swimming polls, etc, were constructed.
During the court proceedings before Nov 3, it had emerged that these powerful owners had a total of 2,500 acres of prime land in the suburbs of Islamabad worth about Rs 75 billion. The earlier Supreme Court proceedings against these 499 owners of Chak Shahzad, according to many observers, was one of the causes of the removal from office of the ex-chief justice as his action had offended these top guns sitting in the Shaukat Aziz government.
Following the court proceedings, the CDA had also served show-cause notices on 70 owners of these farms, accused them of violating the terms and conditions on which they got these farms.
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