Aitzaz & Co and the Hijacking of SCBA Elections

Reading about the SCBA elections, this bit gave me the giggles:

“Former president SCBA Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has kept himself at distance from the bar politics. He had gone abroad and would not return till the polling day. However, Hamid Khan’s group is claiming his support. Lahore has gained significant importance in the polls, as almost half of the eligible voters are registered here.”

Ah, so this is how Aitzaz was had played it — the usual double-crossing way. That Hamid Khan was so naive is something I had not expected. To think that Aitzaz was “keeping himself at a distance from bar politics” and supporting Hamid Khan’s group was foolish to the extreme. Aitzaz (behind the scenes) and his cronies (openly) were certainly working for Asma Jehangir (also see Past Heros, Now Zeros and Past Heros, Now Zeros – II). Aitzaz of course was found standing on Asma’s podium at LHC on election day — so much for keeping himself at a distance. Also supporting/canvassing for her were Musharraf’s PCO judges.

Babar Awan:

The role Babar Awan too must not be over-looked. He distributed hundreds of millions to the bars and even managed to snag Qazi Anwar in the week before the election (How could Qazi be so stupid to accept the check from him and appear in the press with Awan is beyond me. And to top it off, Qazi returning the check a couple of days later certainly didn’t help).

Federal Law Minister Babar Awan, a close aide of President Asif Zardari also spent election day in Lahore and is (rightly) believe that the minister had come there to make last-minute “arrangements” for Asma’s election.

Let’s not also forget the stunt Babar Awan pulled a couple of days before the election: His meeting Chaudhry Pervaiz of PML-Q which started a media frenzy on the last day before SCBA elections and hogged all air time away from the elections.

Another name that needs mentioning is the other crooked PPP lawyer group of Latif Khosa which too was working for her.

BTW: Watch this clip of Aitzaz on one of the talk shows (News Beat With Meher Bokhari October 22th , 2010) before the election where he plays the innocent one:

Aitzaz begins (starting at about 3:54):

“Let me first commend you that you have managed to catch me when I am on the plane…um…Like Noon Meep Rashid said “Zaindagi say bhaag ker aaya houN main!” but zindagi has followed me here (in Spain)..”

Yes, Aitzaz! I believe you that our media is so good they can track and get hold of someone (who didn’t want to be found) IN A PLANE all the way over the skies in Spain (Curiously, why did he choose Spain to run to? Managing some legal matters for the other “Chaudhries of Gujrat” who have siphoned most of their monies there?)

Role of the Media:

The media certainly played a huge role in this victory for Asma. Of the tens of talk shows I watched, most featured only people from what I call the “Aitzaz Asma Zardari” group, pretending to be offering differing opinions but in fact going against the judiciary and the other group. I only saw three shows that featured the other group and that too in a very negative way. Two (including the one above) featured Qazi Anwar and one featured the other candidate Ahmed Owais (A hatchet job was performed on him by Kamran Shahid in Front Line, who had Owais on the phone and Asma in studio. Karman blatantly lied, attributing statements to Owais which he had never stated). In all such cases, the hosts seemed to be handed their talking points by the winning side.

After the election, we saw analysis like “The defeat of bigotry” to define Asma’s win. Huh? WTF?? The writer “is a lawyer and political commentator based in London”, Ayesha Khan is using another dirty trick played by Asma’s team and blaming the Hamid Khan group for it (“somebody” distributed pamphlets saying a vote for Asma was a vote for Qadyanis. Of course no one else was behind it but her team itself. At least it confirms her being a Qadyani, something I have heard about Aitzaz as well).

Salman Taseer’s Daily Times described the victory thus:

Asma Jahangir represents modern, progressive and forward-looking sections of Pakistani society across the globe. Her election to the office is bound to bring about a sea change in Pakistan’s perception around the world, as a state of strife struggling to counter the menace of Talibanisation of society.

Before the election, we also saw repeatedly items like:

People like Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood, Abid Hassan Minto, Muneer Malik, Aitzaz Ahsan and others stand above politics. (Source)
[And let’s not forget to add Ali Ahmed Kurd and Athar Minallah to this list and the shame-of-all-shames Justice Fakharuddin G. Ibrahim]

Of course these were total lies as all those named (except Aitzaz of course 😉 ) were openly supporting Asma and campaigning for her and stood shoulder to shoulder with her of election day…

Notes:

Well, at least some other big “champions of truth” stand exposed. Now I had already written about the others but never suspected Fakhuruddin G. Ibrahim and Abid Hassan Minto to be part of the cabal. So it is pretty safe to say that all the names we know, we know why we know them: they have been hand-picked to easily insert themselves into any ‘threat’ that appears on the horizon and hijack any such movement.

Aitzaz of course is a master of this and the more I find out about him, the uglier the picture gets. Here I would like to point out a couple of things that I have become aware of lately that leave no doubt about him being a “Sayan”:

• Talking to some former school mates of his (Aitchison College, Lahore) I discovered that Aitzaz was ‘recruited’ way back in high school. I am told that back then Aitzaz was invited to every American Consulate function and they thought it was something odd though they could never put their finger on it.
• And do you know that Aitzaz had pulled the “I-was-thrown-out-of-PPP-but-now-I-am-back-with-PPP” trick that he pulled during the lawyers movement to gain their trust once before? Well, he did, and there his victim was none other than Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto himself. It happened during the PNA Movement against ZAB in 1977 (When Bhutto claimed the Americans were behind it, he was 100% correct. Let’s remember here Kissinger’s warning — “We’ll make an example out of you!” — to him and the fact that a lot of foreigners descended on Pakistan under the cover of being “reporters” and dollars flowed freely — so much so in fact that in those days of strict currency restrictions where you could buy dollars only from the State Bank, dollars were available on the street at lower than the currency exchange rate). Using the excuse about some lawyers being shot, he abandoned ZAB at that most crucial of times. He of course falsely claims he was “thrown out” of the party. What exposes that lie is that right after the coup by Zia ul Haq, he managed to rejoin PPP as a central leader (if he was really thrown out by ZAB, why would the party accept him at that trying time?). We see the same script being followed just before the second Long March, where he had managed to loose favor with the lawyers and they were openly accusing him for siding with Zardari against the movement. There he pulled the “thrown out of CEC bit by Zardari” and managed to sabotage the movement by calling off the Long March before it got to Islamabad (remember he was NOT part of the lawyers leadership at the time but it was he who made and announced the decision to stop on their part. The fool who was the leader at the time — Ali Ahmed Kurd — managed to get himself stuck in the middle of nowhere — at the Balochistan/Sindh border — leaving Aitzaz to make the call. It must also not be forgotten how Aitzaz just managed to insert himself into the vehicle of Nawaz Sharif that day and how Kiyani also called him instead of the lawyers’ leadership). Kurd today of course stands in the pocket of Aitzaz.
• The next chapter in this Aitzaz saga that must be remembered is his role in dismembering the Sikh resistance. Remember In July 1989, working as the Interior Minister under the Benazir Bhutto Government, Aitzaz Ahsan personally handed the complete list of Sikh activists who were working in league with Pakistani intelligence (so it couldn’t be with Pakistani intelligence’s ashirwat). Within weeks of his handing over the list the entire top Sikh brass that was working with Pakistan was eliminated, something from which the Sikh Seperatist Movement never recovered. So maybe when he gave that list of sikhs to India, he wasn’t following BB’s orders but those of the (common?) master, the US.

RELATED:
Asma Jahangir and Anti-Iftikhar Chaudhry forces win in SCBA
Reactionary Forces Win SCBA
Other Articles on Aitzaz on this blog

Of ‘Supreme’ Pigelitarians And More On April Fools Day

Apologies in advance for being haphazard. Want to write about all these but don’t have the time — or electricity. So here are some links to things that passed before me and caught my interest. Here it goes in no particular order:

Journalist Amar Jaleel revisits BB’s murder in ‘From Nowhere to Everywhere‘ and talks mostly about Zardari and his ‘rise’. He does seem to suggest it was AZ behind the murder and what he has managed to do since then:
“He has literally purchased the opposition in Pakistan.”
Indeed! So Nawaz fans, what do you say?

Speaking of the BB murder, Zardari has blocked the release of UN report for now so in the meantime you can read the new book out by Shakeel Anjum titled “Who Assassinated Benazir Bhutto”

In “The story of the pet goat”, Taj Khattak talks about the army’s rise and attributes it to the failings of the politicians.

Ameer Bhutto disappoints with his “The sky is not falling, it’s just democracy” as he turns it into…well read the last bit yourself:

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto spoilt the nation by getting the 1973 Constitution passed through parliament unanimously. Maybe that is why we now expect everything to be done by consensus. But that was the outcome of the genius as well as strong and sincere leadership of a giant among men. Expecting the insignificant self-styled politicians who now happen to occupy his seat because of a tragic kink of history, and who have their own personal agendas, to perform the same miracles is a joke.

Well, Ameer, they appear to have done it. So should we now equate the two? (Take your pick: “geniuses” or “insignificant self-styled politicians” both?)

On the US/Pakistan talks, Asif Ezdi’s title says it all: “Strategic dialogue or strategic farce?”

You might also like GHQ winning like never before from a few days ago…

Proving they don’t believe it themselves, 20 MPs send bill to NA speaker to ensure parliament’s supremacy. The group is led by — now don’t laugh — Marvi Memon. Rest are bozos I have never heard of.

Of course army cannot survive without lies so we have Gen Masood telling us “Swat operation saved country from terrorism“. Well, you know which dick he is smoking…

Speaking of liars and cheats, here are a few stories from today’s paper:
Zardari stunned, sends four aides to support a jailed crook (whose son he is hiding in the presidency and paying him a salary of more than Rs 4 lacs)

“He will certainly be accommodated but his title will be decided after he walks out of the prison,” one of them said. “The government has many ways to install its pets at lucrative berths like Dr Qayyum Soomro has no official title, yet the clout and power he carries is known to all and sundry simply because of his closeness to the president.” Beneficiaries of the sprawling wealth of Sheikh allegedly abound in different segments of the society.

Sheikh’s replacement of course is Sheikh’s replacement: Another FIA eagle has a rude crash landing
ISLAMABAD: Sajjad Haider, the blue eyed staff officer of the interior minister, was unceremoniously dismissed from service, within a day of another dubious high flying FIA eagle (Riaz Sheikh) getting its wings clipped and falling straight inside Adiala Jail.

Sajjad Haider is also the co-accused with Interior Minister Rehman Malik in a corruption case alleging misappropriation of funds in unauthorised release of imported yellow cab cars. As The News broke the story Wednesday about how an accused had not only been kept in service notwithstanding the court verdict on NRO, the secretary interior took action and sent Sajjad packing by reverting his status to that of October 5, 2007, when he stood a dismissed assistant director of the FIA.

Which brings us of course to Rehman Malik. Appears NAB is set to challenge withdrawal of cases against Malik.

Oh, and here’s another piece on him from a couple of days ago:
Reference filed against Rehman Malik in Senate

The Federal Interior Minister Senator A Rehman Malik, already loaded with litigation, gets another one to field as a Pakistani citizen residing in the United Kingdom has challenged his eligibility before the chairman Senate arguing that Malik stood dismissed from service at the time of filing his nomination papers as senator from Sindh

Ansar Abbasi rightly asks:
If accused advocates and govt join hands, what can courts do? I must say Mr Abbasi is being a bit optimistic when he states:

This is going to cause hue and cry. However, all were mum at that time; the NAB was mum; and criminals were being acquitted. This class of people wants the return of Dogar era when all the big guns, capitalists, bureaucrats, ministers, and rulers were safe, all their crimes notwithstanding. The courts even paid them respect. But now a change has come to Pakistan and we must learn to live in a changed country.

Read the stories linked above and you will see how the full of shit out upper houses are…

But before going I must give you at least one story that made me laugh:
Nawaz wants several new Dubais in Balochistan
Nawaz does crack me up. Does he not know how trouble Dubai is in? I think Balochistan ought to take a pass on this one! 😛

A Quickie: Zardari Tries To Hide Behind The Dead Body Of Benazir

From Fresh move to stop reopening of Swiss cases:

The federal government submitted in the Supreme Court on Monday that reopening Swiss cases would be like putting the late Benazir Bhutto on trial and it was against all norms of justice, decency, morality and law…

One thing I don’t understand: Why is SC allowing them to continue with this absurdity? They know these are only attempts to delay and not implement their verdict.

Also — and more importantly — WHY is SC ignoring the fact that the Swiss courts already convicted both Zardari and Benazir Bhutto???

Eric Margolis — hardly a part of the ‘establishment’ had an interesting piece a little while back:
Mr. 10%: Our Man in Islamabad

In it, Eric sets the record straight about that Swiss case that the SC too seems to be ignoring:

“Skeletons are dancing out of Zardari’s closets: $63 million in illegal kickbacks and commissions allegedly hidden in Swiss bank accounts; accusation of laundering $13.7 million in Switzerland. Charges of kickbacks on helicopter and warplane deals. In 2003, Swiss magistrates found Zardari and Bhutto guilty of money laundering, sentencing them to a six month suspended jail term, a fine of $50,000, and ordering them to repay $11 million to Pakistan’s government.”

Let me repeat:

“In 2003, Swiss magistrates found Zardari and Bhutto guilty of money laundering, sentencing them to a six month suspended jail term, a fine of $50,000, and ordering them to repay $11 million to Pakistan’s government.”

And exactly why is this fact not mentioned by our press??? Why is the SC ignoring it??? Why is the impression given as if the case was still ongoing and stopped in the middle??? I am even surprised SC talked of “reopening the Swiss case” when no reopening is needed. They should just be asking for implementing the Swiss verdict.

BTW: Here’s another interesting piece from the article:

Washington is almost back to square one in turbulent Pakistan. When Zardari goes or is kicked upstairs as an impotent figurehead, attention will turn to Pakistan’s 617,000-man military and its commander, Gen – or should we say “president-elect” Ashfaq Kiyani? He is already in almost constant contact with the Pentagon.

And of course we know where he is right now….

A Quickie: Benazir DID Break ‘The Deal’

I have always maintained that Benazir was killed because she broke the deal she had made with the Americans/British/Saudis/Musharraf/Kiyani, etc.

That such a deal existed and that it was broken has once again been confirmed by Musharraf.

The ‘Zardari was Elected’ Myth

All PPP representatives, the opposition, the lawyers and judges, media and alternate medai  seem not to tire of repeating this myth that “Zardari is the constitutionally elected President of Pakistan”. That cannot be further from the truth. It is but a complete fabrication. A blatant lie put forth to give legitimacy to this so called democracy. To see it, one must look at how he got to where he is:

Facing Islamist chaos and America’s Rambo, Pakistan is turning to No 10

…In a notoriously difficult foreign policy arena, injected with precious few new ideas, there are signs that Brown is ready to take Zardari seriously. The Foreign Office has already played a vigorous and little known role in getting Zardari elected president: Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the FCO political director, used his offices to elegantly strong-arm Pakistani political factions exiled to the UK into voting for the PPP’s presidential candidate. In a daring move, the MQM party, which has offices in north London – and was set against the PPP – was talked into becoming temporary champion of a PPP machine it had previously only bombed and shot at….

Zardari is the New Musharraf

…Financial and political support from Washington helped engineer Zardari into power. He has been put in charge of the millions a month in overt and secret cash flow from Washington — $11.2 billion officially since 2001 — that Musharraf used to buy influence. Contrary to Washington’s claims it was neutral in the race between Zardari and his rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Washington spent a great deal of money and energy trying to sideline Nawaz, who has long been unpopular in Washington as insufficiently responsive to US interests….

Here’s James Petras in ‘Masters of Defeat: Retreating Empire and Bellicose Bluster‘

…The ‘election’ of the US client and convicted warlord and thug, Asif Ali Zadari, as President of Pakistan, will not in anyway contribute to the recovery of US influence outside of very limited elite political and military circles…

I know, I know. He is the “elected” representative of the people — people from the UK Foreign Office and US State Department 😛

Desperate Zardari Buries Benazir Bhutto

Zardari seems to be reaching new levels of desperation. Yesterday, he tried to ban Dr Shahid Masood’s program “Meray Mutabiq” by stopping it’s transmission from Dubai (though it still made the airwaves).

Another sign of his desperation is that he seems to have dug out the old picture of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and buried the picture of Benazir Bhutto — do excuse the pun.

Here are a few pictures from earlier:

And here is one from their meeting yesterday:

Additional Reading:
Rule by Thieves
PPP covering up Musharraf crimes
Government stops NAB from presenting annual report
NAB says lists are ok, as per files
If NRO ministers go, the president has to follow
Bhagwandas declines FPSC job
(If I recall, Justice Bhagwandas was looking into the oil companies scam and gave his report against which no action has yet been taken)
Poor getting poorer
Missing persons still untraced, AG informs Supreme Court

Rise and Fall (of Zardari)

(This piece appeared in The News the day of the NRO debacle by Zardari)
Monday, November 02, 2009
Nawab Mumtaz Ali Bhutto

Mumtaz Bhutto

Readers will recall my repeated warnings that a man with Zardari’s reputation, who has no educational or political background and lacks all the other prerequisites of leadership, will be an absolute disaster in a minor office, let alone the top position in the country. This has proved to be true in a short period leading to a nationwide upheaval. His claim to fame rests entirely on being the husband of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and spending eight years in jail. Let us look at these laurels a bit closely.