SLAMABAD: President Asif Zardari has set a new record within a year by taking one-third of all the expensive gifts presented to all Pakistani presidents and prime ministers. Of the gifts totalling Rs160 million, Zardari has taken gifts worth Rs62 million during the first year of his presidency.
In his foreign visits so far, Zardari has been given 27 gifts worth Rs62 million,which is one-third of the accumulated cost of the 3,039 gifts, which were given to presidents and prime ministers in three decades.
Zardari is said to have got two BMWs and two foreign manufactured Toyota Jeeps as gift by Libyan leader Colonel Qadafi during his visit to Libya, which he took to his home, after paying a sum of only Rs9.3 million as retention cost.
These shocking figures were produced before the Senate standing committee on cabinet division by the cabinet secretary on Monday during a presentation to its members. Zardari is now richer by Rs50 million within one year in the presidency, without doing a single rupee irregularity as this all was done under the law as he paid 15 per cent of the total cost of two BMWs and two jeeps and retained them.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
SBP list submitted in court includes Nawaz period
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave a final warning to those who have managed to get their loans written off from financial institutions during the last 38 years and directed the State Bank to furnish a list of loan defaulters right from 1971 to date.
“Only one chance will be given to defaulters to return the loans and strict action will be taken against them without any discrimination,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed while heading a three-member bench of the apex court hearing a suo moto case of Rs 54 billion written-off loans.
“If anyone said that the court has crossed its limits we are ready to take the blame in the best interest of the nation,” the chief justice remarked, adding the court would look into the State Bank Circular 29 regarding writing off loans under Article 25 of the Constitution.
“Only one chance will be given to defaulters to return the loans and strict action will be taken against them without any discrimination,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed while heading a three-member bench of the apex court hearing a suo moto case of Rs 54 billion written-off loans.
“If anyone said that the court has crossed its limits we are ready to take the blame in the best interest of the nation,” the chief justice remarked, adding the court would look into the State Bank Circular 29 regarding writing off loans under Article 25 of the Constitution.
Guantanamo ‘hell on Earth’, says Somali detainee
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
A Somali just home from eight years in the US jail at Guantanamo Bay told AFP the prison was “hell on Earth”, and alleged torture there had scarred some of his fellow inmates.
Mohamed Saleban Bare, who arrived in his hometown of Hargeisa on Saturday, said he was innocent of any charges that would have caused security forces to arrest him in Pakistan in 2001 and transfer him to the US jail via Afghanistan.
“Guantanamo Bay is like hell on Earth,” he said in an interview on Monday with an AFP reporter who visited him at his hotel in Hargeisa, capital of the northern breakaway state of Somaliland.
“I don’t feel normal yet but I thank Almighty Allah for keeping me alive and free from the physical and mental sufferings of some of my friends,” he said.
Sporting short hair and a long scrawny beard, Bare says he is in good physical health but looks dazed, speaks very softly and walks gingerly. Bare, 44, was among a dozen Guantanamo detainees from Afghanistan, Yemen and the breakaway Somalia region who were sent home at the weekend, bringing the number of detainees at the “war on terror” prison in Cuba to below 200.
He and another Somali, 45-year-old Osmail Mohamed Arale, were handed over to their relatives in Hargeisa by the International Representative Committee of the Red Cross in the presence of Somaliland authorities.
“Some of my colleagues in the prison lost their sight, some lost their limbs and others ended up mentally disturbed. I’m OK compared to them,” he said.
Bare said he was picked up in Karachi in December 2001, weeks after the United States launched its “war on terror” following the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York.
He claims he had been there for some time with several relatives who had fled the violence in Somalia and were hoping to find asylum in a western state. After about four months he was transferred to US military prisons in Kandahar and Bagram in Afghanistan, he said.
“At Bagram and Kandahar, the situation was harsh but when we were transferred to Guantanamo the torture tactics changed. They use a kind of psychological torture that kills you mentally,” he said.
This included depriving prisoners of sleep for at least four nights in a row and feeding them once a day with only a biscuit, he said.
“And in the cold they let you sleep without a blanket. Some of the inmates face harsher torture, including with electricity and beating,” he said. Bare was reluctant to answer questions about his alleged ties with Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya, a Somali Islamist movement which produced many of the current leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked Shebab. “Guantanamo is a place of humiliation for Muslims. All the inmates are Muslims but they (Americans) claim the prison is for terrorists. Why don’t they arrest non-Muslims belonging to these so-called terror groups?”
“No human rights convention stands in Guantanamo. Interrogators force inmates to confess crimes they didn’t commit by torturing them and sullying their religion,” Bare said.
“They would desecrate the Holy Qura’an and raise the volume of their music during prayers,” he recounted. Bare said the US authorities had never told him why he was arrested.
“They used to ask many questions, most of them relating to my background like what I was doing in Somalia and about the people I know. It was all about suspicions and not a clear case,” he said.
US President Barack Obama has vowed to close down the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention facility by January with some of the inmates to be moved to a maximum-security prison in the state of I
A Somali just home from eight years in the US jail at Guantanamo Bay told AFP the prison was “hell on Earth”, and alleged torture there had scarred some of his fellow inmates.
Mohamed Saleban Bare, who arrived in his hometown of Hargeisa on Saturday, said he was innocent of any charges that would have caused security forces to arrest him in Pakistan in 2001 and transfer him to the US jail via Afghanistan.
“Guantanamo Bay is like hell on Earth,” he said in an interview on Monday with an AFP reporter who visited him at his hotel in Hargeisa, capital of the northern breakaway state of Somaliland.
“I don’t feel normal yet but I thank Almighty Allah for keeping me alive and free from the physical and mental sufferings of some of my friends,” he said.
Sporting short hair and a long scrawny beard, Bare says he is in good physical health but looks dazed, speaks very softly and walks gingerly. Bare, 44, was among a dozen Guantanamo detainees from Afghanistan, Yemen and the breakaway Somalia region who were sent home at the weekend, bringing the number of detainees at the “war on terror” prison in Cuba to below 200.
He and another Somali, 45-year-old Osmail Mohamed Arale, were handed over to their relatives in Hargeisa by the International Representative Committee of the Red Cross in the presence of Somaliland authorities.
“Some of my colleagues in the prison lost their sight, some lost their limbs and others ended up mentally disturbed. I’m OK compared to them,” he said.
Bare said he was picked up in Karachi in December 2001, weeks after the United States launched its “war on terror” following the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York.
He claims he had been there for some time with several relatives who had fled the violence in Somalia and were hoping to find asylum in a western state. After about four months he was transferred to US military prisons in Kandahar and Bagram in Afghanistan, he said.
“At Bagram and Kandahar, the situation was harsh but when we were transferred to Guantanamo the torture tactics changed. They use a kind of psychological torture that kills you mentally,” he said.
This included depriving prisoners of sleep for at least four nights in a row and feeding them once a day with only a biscuit, he said.
“And in the cold they let you sleep without a blanket. Some of the inmates face harsher torture, including with electricity and beating,” he said. Bare was reluctant to answer questions about his alleged ties with Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya, a Somali Islamist movement which produced many of the current leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked Shebab. “Guantanamo is a place of humiliation for Muslims. All the inmates are Muslims but they (Americans) claim the prison is for terrorists. Why don’t they arrest non-Muslims belonging to these so-called terror groups?”
“No human rights convention stands in Guantanamo. Interrogators force inmates to confess crimes they didn’t commit by torturing them and sullying their religion,” Bare said.
“They would desecrate the Holy Qura’an and raise the volume of their music during prayers,” he recounted. Bare said the US authorities had never told him why he was arrested.
“They used to ask many questions, most of them relating to my background like what I was doing in Somalia and about the people I know. It was all about suspicions and not a clear case,” he said.
US President Barack Obama has vowed to close down the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention facility by January with some of the inmates to be moved to a maximum-security prison in the state of I
Ponting fitness to be assessed tomorrow
SYDNEY: Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting will try to prove his fitness on Thursday ahead of the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan.
Ponting was restricted to fielding practice on Wednesday at the MCG as his team mates had a session in the nets.
He is nursing a left elbow injury after he was hit while batting during last week’s third Test against the West Indies in Perth.
Ponting will bat in the nets on Thursday, and if he does not come through, opener Phil Hughes will take his place in the national squad.
Aafia’s mother casts doubts on US lawyer Panel
KARACHI: Imprisoned doctor Aafia Siddiqui’s mother Asmat Siddiqui has said she does not trust the panel of American lawyers.
Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, she said that she has sent a formal letter to the judge of a US court, stating her serious concerns on the panel of American lawyers. While copies of the letter have also been sent to President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhmamad Chaudhry.
“Dr Aafia has already spent enough time in jail, and even if we accept that the case against her is correct, she has completed her sentence,” Asmat Siddiqui added.
During the press conference, International Bar Association’s (London) member and head of a Human Rights organization Qadir Khan Mandokhail Advocate said, with the permission of Dr Aafia’s family and the government of Pakistan, he is offering his services free of cost for the case.
Courts give judgments on merit: CJ
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said that the apex court always gives its verdict according to the constitution.
However, one party welcomes it, while the other party feels sad and says judge could not understand the case.
The CJP expressed this at a meeting in Supreme Court (SC) with office barriers of Rawalpindi Divison’s bar associations.
However, one party welcomes it, while the other party feels sad and says judge could not understand the case.
The CJP expressed this at a meeting in Supreme Court (SC) with office barriers of Rawalpindi Divison’s bar associations.
Everyone is busy in looting national wealth: CJP
ISLAMABAD: A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry adjourned hearing of Zarco money laundering case till tomorrow. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in his remarks during the hearing of the case on Wednesday said it is regretfully observed that everyone has been involved in plunder of the national wealth. He urged for return of the national wealth at any cost. The counsel of Zarco company S.M. Zafar in his arguments said it is not a case of theft or dacoity and termed the FIA intervention in the case as illegal. He said the business of the accused has been closed and they have been kept in jail.
Bijli Mehgi.........IMF approves fourth tranche for Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the fourth tranche worth $1.2 billion for Pakistan which is expected to be received by the end of the year. The decision to approve the fourth tranche has been taken in the IMF executive board meeting in Washington. The tranche is part of an agreement with the fund under which Pakistan will receive a total of $11.3 billion to avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves. Pakistan had initially negotiated a $7.6 billion loan with the IMF in November 2008 but the loan was later increased to $11.3 billion in July 2009. The fund has so far disbursed more than $5 billion. The government has had eliminate subsidies on various items and increase power rates by 20 per cent in order to keep its budget deficit down to 4.8 per cent of GDP as per the conditions imposed by the IMF under the loan agreement.
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