“IMF, the ‘lifeline’ of Pakistan”

 

Since the creation of Pakistan, its policy makers, politicians, and the rulers, all have been struggling to manage its balance of payments, but with the few exceptions, Pakistan had no choice but to ask the global lenders for the financial aids. This practice has been going on since the first borrowing request was made in 1958, just a few years after joining the IMF in 1950. And this was the beginning of the practice that has never stopped!

Diving deeper into Pakistan’s economy one finds out that in its entire history there have been only just two occasions when Pakistan produced account surpluses (more exports than imports) and thus did not have any need to go to the IMF, World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), etc., for financial assistance. Incidentally, however, in both these periods, the country was ruled by military strongmen but under the guidance of highly qualified, respected, and experienced economic teams.

Currently, Pakistan is the fourth-largest debtor of the IMF, with a total outstanding debt of $7.85 billion. To address the economic contraction and global inflation in the aftermath of the Covid and further fueled by the Ukraine-Russia war, the IMF has recently approved 1.1 billion to address these devastations and to avert yet another imminent default.

As of 2021, Pakistan is servicing its debt by borrowing the funds at a rate of 8.7%, which is much higher than of other nations in the same socio-economic group. For example, Bangladesh is financing its debt at 7.3% rate, which is about 16% lower than Pakistan’s.

This clearly shows that Pakistan is paying millions of dollars just to service its debt even before making any payments to reduce its borrowed principals. For this persistent parasitic ailment cause, everyone points finger to others, but no one seems to have courage and political will to correct it by charting out sound economic, investment and industrial policies.

The lender agencies provide free of charge unbiased advice after carrying out their own due diligence every so often that even if the recommendations have been implemented in every tenth year, Pakistan would have been out of its economic miseries, like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries have successfully demonstrated!

 

Fast forward, during the Covid pandemic, Pakistan along with every country regardless of their social and economic status, they all have suffered through the economic contractions due to the lockdowns of their entire economies.

On the other hand, middle and the lower middle-income countries like Pakistan were devastated much deeply compared to the others due to the onslaught of the Covid virus on its population due to lack of sustainable national healthcare system.

Additionally, the lack of healthcare infrastructure to monitor and control Covid spread, having no clear vaccines’ commitments and its availability (in terms of quantity and timings) and experience in vaccination of the population on a massive scale made the things worst. These factors made it impossible to maintain any level of economic activity, particularly for the daily wage earners who make up majority of Pakistan’s population. In the aftermath of the Covid and its depredation, Pakistan has been working closely with the IMF and other lender agencies to get more funding to sustain its economic activities and provide means for its population of over 220 million people for their daily lives’ needs. However, to get any additional fundings, Pakistan has experienced very strong headwinds. To get the promised loan amounts from the IMF, like any other donors, the IMF had put very stringent certain conditions before releasing any next tranche of money. It is fair to say that Pakistan has always come short to satisfy all the IMF conditions in order to secure the promised funds. In addition to the tax reforms and subsidies to the energy and power sectors, corruption, money laundering and tax collections have been the major shortcomings and roadblocks for getting the IMF fundings.

And these situations, like prior to the Covid and its post pandemic, have been creating a balance of payment crisis and in turn creating liquidity problems for the country. But with the timely financial assistance from China and brotherly countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Pakistan has been able to dodge liquidity crises time and time again.

Miraculously, the current coalition government under the prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has been able to secure the eighth tranche of the funding from the IMF and this could have been sufficient enough to take care of the balance of payments at some reasonable level. However, the devastating floods in the country have created a situation that was unexpected and brought further financial hardships for the government. Even though, a large number of countries and institutions, including the United Nations, have acknowledged that these devastating floods were caused by the global warming and these kinds of events will continue to happen if the industrialised economies, the major producers of the greenhouse gases (GHG), one of the major causes of the global warming, not take the climate change challenge seriously.

Many countries have given generous donations but not enough to take care of the entire devastation created in the aftermath of floods. Under the leadership of the current coalition government, Pakistan has brought back a former finance minister, Ishaq Dar, whose public statements about the donor agencies, including the IMF, are found to be unsavoury, to say the least. Therefore, the country is now required to battle a much stronger headwind. For the additional fundings, the IMF has asked Pakistan to provide a blueprint to show how it will handle the floodings in the future to reduce the level of the devastation it has experienced during the recent floods! This situation has created an unprecedented impasse between the IMF and Pakistan and if it persists for long time, there will be additional frictions between Pakistan and multilateral agencies, including the IMF. This means the “lifeline” will continue to get weaker with more stringent conditions, much higher interest rates than those for others and reduced amounts of fundings, resulting in balance of payments and liquidity crises more frequently!

THE LOST GAME

 

Let me give a short background, the story dates back to 7 March 2022 when the Islamic Republic of Pakistan had been suffering from the worst period of its survival and many economic pundits had given the verdict of a state default and the risk for default increased day by day, there came news of the much expected and most awaited no-confidence motion from the opposition against IK government which had been discussed in the opposition backdrop quarters for a long time but it was just a “news” and it was just normal as the opposition had been discussing it every day but now the things had been changed and any “electable” of the PTI had been agreed to change their loyalties, pardon me they actually came out of the unnatural alliance which they had been forced in earlier after the 2018 general elections. Fast forward to April 3, 2022, the no-confidence motion was presented before the honorable Deputy Speaker National Assembly but to all utter surprise, the motion was rejected in a very short speech by Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri on the pretext of linking it with article 5 (foreign involvement) and all the game changed with Imran khan announcing the dissolution of Assembly and sent it to the president and got it signed within minutes. The PDM was surprised but found their way to changing the game by going to the Supreme court, SC took a suo moto on it and the case started, the court gave a verdict within a few days and ordered the government to formally begin the proceedings and allow the voting on the no-confidence motion on 10 April and PDM successfully overthrow the government at the night of 10 April after a long delay in the proceedings.

Now I may start the “The lost game’. After losing badly the no-confidence motion Kaptaan Imran khan started the campaign for the “Haqiqi Azaadi” and put everything at stake even the Military institutional integrity and chanted slogans against America publicly and directly addressed the deep state with his usual way of criticism and publicly at many stages he would usually say that we do not want that Shahbaz Sharif and Asif Zardari should be appointing the new Army chief as Imran khan wanted to appoint Lt Gen Faiz Hamid as Army Chief and Imran khan was against LT Gen Asim Munir but it all went in vain as on 24 November 2022 LT Gen Asim Munir was officially appointed the 17^th COAS. Following are all the points where Imran khan lost the game during the past 8 months.

v  Imran khan wanted to make a judicial commission on the cipher story which he fabricated in his own words but this narrative was rejected in an apex committee meeting of the NSC.

v  Ik wanted to prove the alleged US conspiracy behind his ouster from the government but he lost this too and could not prove it till today

v  Imran khan wanted to have early elections but he failed.

v  IK had said of gathering 2 million people rallying to Islamabad on 25 May but he couldn’t even manage to gather 0.1 million people despite having his own setups in KPK AJK and Gilgit

v  IK wanted to stick on the torn same page with the establishment but he failed there too.

v  IK did his level best through every means but he failed to keep his man as Governor Punjab and lost it to Baligh Ur Rahman

v  IK Played over Usman Buzdar’s resignation citing it as full of mistakes and ambiguities but Lost it

v  Ik wanted to keep make anyone as CM Punjab from his Party but lost it too and the Punjab ka sub say bara Dakuu won the seat and what a miracle for all, that a man with just 10 seats in assembly has won the premiership of Pakistan’s largest province  

v  Ik Always claimed to be against the family politics but gave the ticket to Meherbano Qureshi (daughter of Shah Mehmood Qureshi) and she lost the elections to a double defeat for Ik

v  Ik made claims of collecting 15 billion rupees through his telethons but sadly this claim was refuted by Sania NIshtar who said just 4 billion have been collected so far

v  Ik through some way or other tried to stop the verdict of the Toshakhana case and foreign funding case but lost both the cases

v  There were two shooters according to IK in his shooting case but lost it too as all the claims have been refuted by the authorities

v  Ik tried to register an FIR with a sitting DG- c name in it but he lost it

v  Ik chanted slogans against the “Dirty Harry’ but he could not manage to prove and win it

v  Ik tried to de-seat the Chairman of Senate but he lost it

v  IK accused the Chief Election commissioner of several things but could not prove it and instead, CEC proved him wrong by arranging a neutral election in Punjab

v  Imran khan tried everything through his speeches interviews tweets and through his tigers so that General Bajwa takes an extension but he lost it

v  IK tried everything to stop Maryam Nawaz from leaving the country but she got acquitted by the court and she left the country

v  Ik tried to stop the media from discussing Farrah Gogii but he failed

v  IK tried to make his people stick to his views and party but lost it and Faisal Vawda left PTI

v  Imran khan tried through every way to stop LT general Asim Munir from becoming the COAS but IK lost and Asim Munir is the New COAS.

At last I will say that Ik played at every ground and lost but PML(N) and PPP who wanted the government before November 2022 to appoint a new Chief themselves and they won it. One thing which all the political parties should learn from past 8 months is that always stick to the political rules and let your arena be the elections and mature politics and never see the establishment to help you in gaining your own political gains and this is also a lesson for our Army to keep their mandate to a well circumscribed perimeter and keep yourself out of the national politics and yes the establishment should give their input in every matter of country but it should be just an advisory role but if establishment believes that their any project can take the country to a progressive level so they may  be allowed then too. We all hope that the new COAS will try his level best to keep the institute apolitical and will work to regain the lost integrity and honor of the institute which we all had been proud off ,let’s wait and see

 

From Bhatti's to Moonis Elahi

 While the nation is busy but specifically, let me use this disturbing word PTI kay “londay laparay or youthiyay” are very busy in the” HAQIQI AZAADI MARCH”. All the provincial machinery is extensively used so that our Khan saab doesn’t get any issues with proceeding with his march. The Punjab government is trying its best to provide all the facilities to the participants specifically khan and the company, not the general public. In this all scenario moreover I call it an eyewash, the people have forgotten that PTI is on the ruling seat in Punjab, sorry it isn’t PTI it’s Punjab “ka sub say bara Daku” with just 10 seats, and hats off to Pervez Elahi’s politics it is rather the first time since 1947 that a party with just 10 seats in the assembly is ruling the province. Having said that earlier that all are busy in the long march no one is paying heed to the fact that PTI and PMLQ are ruling the largest province. What the people have gained since 22 July 2022 election the answer is simple nothing has been gained and only one thing has been done and that is the rise of Bhatti,s in Punjab during the rule of Pervez Elahi. Bhatti always rose to fame during Elahi’s tenure. Let us discuss the Bhatti episode which is a real inspiration for all. We will surely forget the inspirational stories of Steve jobs and mark Zuckerberg. Let me tell you the dream story of a Pakistani man.

Dating back to October 2007 when Pervez Elahi was the chief minister he provided the people with many jobs and that’s when Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti was inducted as a peon in the health department.

It was the moment when Nawaz Bhatti thought that he can’t make ends meet in this low-earning job so he decided to set up a business so in October 2007 even before receiving the first salary he thought to set up a sugar mill. One of his cousins (Mazhar abbas) who was a student at that time decided to set up a mill and eventually the founder of the mill. They came to know that there is a mill being set up by the makhdoom brothers of Rahimyar khan (makhdoom Umer sheryar and makhddom khusro Bakhtiar). The Makhdoom brothers were unable to get a NOC for the mill so the Bhatti decided to be a partner in the mill and we will get you the NOC the Makhdoom brothers eventually got the NOC for the mill. Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti soon becomes fed up with the money and no one knows how they got the money from 2011 – 2014 they transferred the shares to various accounts. Nawaz Bhatti is still a peon and Mazhar Abbas is now a patwari in the Punjab revenue department. The transferred shares now involved many people and Umar makhddom's shares increased the money eventually deposits in an offshore company and to people's surprise the offshore company is of none other but Moonis Elahi. Now the story turns towards Muhammad khan Bhatti who is the cousin of Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti and Mazhar Abbas and currently he is the Principal Secretary of Chief Minister Pervez Elahi. Muhammad khan bhhati was inducted as a grade 7 clerk and that too by Pervez Elahi. Muhamad Nawaz Bhatti's elder brother Ahmed khan Bhatti was a caretaker of the Chaudhry brothers and he introduced Muhammad to Elahi’s family. In 1997 Pervez Elahi became the CM and inducted Muhammad khan Bhatti with himself into the assembly secretariat as stare officer which is a grade - 16 position Muhammad khan never looked back then and till 2022 Muhammad Bhatti reached grade -22 and this rapid promotion never witnessed in Pakistan. Now let us look at PMLQ where the parliamentary leader of it is Sajed Bhatti, is the nephew of Muhammad khan Bhatti and Sajed Bhatti's brother Wajid Bhatti is accused in Moonis Elahi money laundering case. Wajid Bhatti now takes the plea that these shares are mine and is indirectly helping Moonis elahi from being indicted in the case as Wajid says that my father has invested all the money in the mill. But the FIA has now taken the stance that how come the Wajid Bhatti father invested and what was the source of money. In 2019 Sajed Bhatti cousin Abid Bhatti was employed as peon in Punjab assembly secretariat and even before being employed he had transferred 34 crores to moonis elahi off shore company. The transferred money had been then provided the safe passage by sohail awan a former employee of Allied Bank. During the Pandora box revelations, the investigative journalists found out that a woman Mahrukh Jahangir who declared herself as a barrister and when her account details were studied the journalists came to know that the transferred money from Pakistan was received by Mahrukh and She transferred that money to Tehreem (Moonis Elahi wife) now the interesting is that Mahrukh jehnagir is the mother in law of Moonis Elahi and this all was created to just give a legal cover that a daughter received money from her mother as a gift. Now the story turns towards Sabir Munir Hussain who is the chief financial officer of RYK sugar mill and upon inquiry the FIA found out that Mahar Abbas transferred the shares to Sabir Hussain and his wife. RYK mill which is well known that it belongs to Makhdoom brothers is comprised of 50% shares of Moonis Elahi  and 6% shares belong to sabir Hussain and the rest is of the Makhdoom brothers.

A classic case of ajab corruption kii ghazab kahani but no our Khan saab busy in regaining a lost prime Minister seat and that too through a blame game where he knows he is on the wrong side but “ Awwam ka kia unhain tu bus aik Islamic touch day kar apna narrative baich na hai”.

sad story of our country we never leant the lessons from 4 martial laws. Imran khan's corruption cases to be unearthed soon. TO BE CONTINUED ….

Local Government role in "democracy"

 The history of local government system in the subcontinent is old. The Aryans, for the first time, introduced a local government system in the region. The panchayat system proved its efficiency and was used to govern local affairs, such as the allocation of land to peasants for cultivation, tax collection, dispute resolution and the provision of basic necessities of the population/ settlements. State functionaries were interested primarily in maintaining law and order and collecting revenue for the central government. The local bodies flourished as an active organ of the village community and performed development, administrative and judicial functions, not in the modern sense, but in their own way.

In Pakistan, the first extensive local government system was introduced through Basic Democracies Ordinance 1959, after the military assumed power through a coup by Gen Ayub Khan. He dissolved the higher tiers of elected governments in 1959 and revived local governments as the only representative tier of the government. Later, he introduced the Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960, which had a hierarchical system of four linked tiers. The lowest tier was union councils consisting of elected members. The union council members elected the chairman from amongst themselves. The military again got control of state power through Gen Ziaul Haq’s coup in 1977 when it ousted the government of Pakistan People’s Party. Zia introduced the most coercive and centralized state apparatus through the imposition of Martial Law and put the constitution in abeyance. A local government system was introduced in the absence of national and provincial governments under the direct control of the military. Under this law, local government elections were held on party less basis in all provinces in Pakistan. The local governments introduced under this system worked till 2000. Gen Musharraf introduced a new local government system through Local Government Ordinance (LGO) 2001. The major distinction of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance (PLGO) 2001 compared with previous ordinances was the elimination of urban-rural divide. Local governments were created at three levels: union council, tehsil council and district council. After Musharraf’s ouster in 2008, the Pakistan People’s Party came to power and introduced the 18th Constitutional Amendment that enhanced provincial autonomy.

The constitutional restriction on amending the Local Government Ordinance of 2001 already expired in2009. It thus became possible for the provinces to legislate a local government system of their choosing. Consequently, different provinces opted for different structures for their local governments. The provincial assembly of Baluchistan passed the Local Government Act in 2010 whereas the provincial assemblies of the Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa passed their local government acts in 2013. Local governments in the Punjab were dissolved by the PTI-led Punjab government in May 2019. For the last three years, a whole tier of our democratic system was missing. Unfortunately, this was not the first time that people were deprived of their democratic right.

Overall, following colonial legacy, local governments were controlled by the bureaucracy. Deputy commissioners and commissioners, chief bureaucrats at the district and the division level, respectively, had the power to annul any proceedings or decisions taken by the local councils. Empowered local governance ensures equitable distribution of resources, gives a sense of ownership to the people, mobilizes more resources for development, ensures greater responsiveness and accountability and helps in strengthening federalism.

Our democratic governance system has been either inefficient or completely suspended. This is arguably a major cause for week democratic institutions and democratic values in our society. Municipalities are responsible for the provision of quality municipal services to the citizens. The access to municipal services and the quality of their provision strongly influences the social, economic and environmental performance of a city as well as its urban development. Several of the tasks related to municipal services are in the process of being transferred or already under the local governments. However, this transfer o responsibilities often does not go hand in hand with the simultaneous transfer of structures, financial resources and authority to consider and decide matters at the local level. How can we best organize and manage these services? Cities are key actors in national development strategies.

Therefore, greater attention must be paid to the development of national urban policies with the purpose of bringing about sustainable and inclusive urban development. This is also in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable), specifically referring to urban areas. It is important to mention that Article 140-A of the constitution enjoins all provincial governments to establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility to the elected representatives of the local governments.
Local government systems need more funds to perform better and to cater to the needs of the ever- growing population requirements. Organizations like the Punjab Municipal Development Fund Company and initiatives like the Punjab Cities Programs are doing exactly that. Under the World Bank-funded PCP with a budget of $236 million, the focus is on municipal services like water supply, sewerage, urban roads, parks, streetlights and solid waste management along with the institutional strengthening of local governments. The credibility of local governments among their citizens often depends on their experience with core services the municipalities are supposed to offer. Here, municipal companies, which are tasked with the provision of such municipal services, play a key role as the quality of such service provision strongly influences the performance and livability of a city. But the public sector is often unable to respond due to deficits in planning and management capacity, so urban and rural settlements alike are lacking basic municipal services and quality infrastructure provision required for efficient service delivery. Local governance ensures equitable distribution of resources, gives a sense of ownership to the local people, mobilizes more resources for development, ensures greater responsiveness and accountability and helps in strengthening federalism and national integration through a satisfied citizenry. With the rapid urbanization in Pakistan, the need for effective local governments has grown more acute

Revisiting the French Elections

 

As Pakistan was busy facing the political unrest and allegedly there has been a regime change on American conspiracy but on the other far away from Pakistan a new transition of government took place in France without any major disturbances.
As expected, center-right French President Emmanuel Macron won the second term by defeating far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the runoff of the 2022 presidential elections on March 24. Macron got 58.5 percent of the votes while Le Pen bagged 41.5 percent.
Macron is the first French president to win re-election since Jacques Chirac in 2002; his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande had left office after only one term.
Even though Macron won by a margin of nearly 17 percent against Le Pen, it was the best result for a far-right candidate. Le Pen gained nearly 2.7 million more votes compared to the 2017 elections while Macron lost 2 million votes.
In the 2017 runoff between the same two candidates, Macron polled nearly 66 percent of the votes. The election results clearly show that the support for the far-right has increased in recent years, and it seems to have consolidated its position and support base.
Le Pen narrowly edged past far-left candidate Jean Luc Melenchon in the first round. Melenchon got 22 percent of the votes in the first round and missed out on the runoff with a narrow margin of just 1.2 percent. The Left once again missed an opportunity to put forward a joint candidate to defeat Le Pen in the first round; in total the Left got nearly 30 percent.
Melenchon as a joint left candidate could have qualified for the runoff against Macron. But leftist parties failed to agree on a single candidate and thus paved the way for Marine Le Pen to contest against Macron in the runoff. This result is disappointing for progressives who were expecting to come second and face Macron in the second round.
In the absence of a left-wing candidate in the second round, many leftist voters supported Macron against Le Pen. Forty-two percent of leftist or progressive voters supported Macron in the second round. Macron lacked the active and enthusiastic support he had enjoyed in 2017. His pro-capitalist neoliberal economic policies disappointed many working people and left-wing voters. The first round of presidential elections was held on April 10. Twelve candidates contested the first round of presidential elections but only three candidates got more than 10 percent votes. Macron, Le Pen, and Melenchon got more than 20 percent of the votes. Since none of them received more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round, the top two candidates Macron and Le Pen faced each other in a runoff on April 24. The turnout was around 72 percent, the lowest in 20 years.
Both the right-wing capitalist Republicans and the Socialist Party-dominated French politics for decades. The Republicans' Valerie Pecresse came in fifth with around 5 percent of votes, while the Socialists' Anne Hidalgo came 10th with a record-breaking low for the party at 2 percent. This is the worst result for socialists in its history. They got a combined vote of just 7 percent. Like many other social democratic parties in Europe, the socialists in France lost significant support among workers and the middle class over the years. The neoliberal pro-market economic policies adopted by the socialists after the collapse of the Soviet Union proved costly for the party.

So at the end it was a contest between a rightwing, pro-market neoliberal capitalist Macron on the one hand, and a far-right nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-European Union capitalist Le Pen on the other hand.Young people overwhelmingly voted for Macron – 61 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 years voted for him. Macron also enjoyed solid support among the old as more than 71 percent of voters in their 60s and 70s voted for him.
Marine Le Pen was backed by middle-aged voters. The majority of 40–60-year-old voters cast their ballots for her. Big cities supported Macron, while rural areas and small towns went behind far-right Le Pen. For instance, Macron bagged 85 percent votes from the French capital Paris while Le Pen just got 15 percent votes. Macron did well in the west of France, the Ile-de-France region, the east, and Occitanie where the most urban population lives.

Marine le Pen did well in the south-east of France, the north, and the deindustrialized east, in the eastern periphery of the Paris region as well as in the south-west, and made a breakthrough in Corsica and overseas regions where people mostly live in villages and small towns. The majority of rich, upper, and middle-class sections of the population supported Macron as did the majority of graduates and people earning more than 3,000 euros a month. On the other side, the majority of low-income and less educated sections of the population voted for Le Pen; 56 percent of people earning less than 1,300 euros per month voted for her while 57 percent of employees, 67 percent of workers, and 64 percent of the unemployed also voted for her. Many working class and young people also abstained from the runoff. The abstentions reached a record high of 28 percent. A record number of voters had abstained in the 1969 presidential elections when abstentions reached an all-time high of 31 percent.

Unemployed youth and many workers are not happy with their economic situation and lack of decent jobs. For the working-class youth, high inflation, the rising cost of living, fewer job opportunities, the housing crisis, and falling incomes are real issues of concern. They want better health facilities, an increase in wages, and a lower cost of living. Macron's victory is a sign of relief not only for French capitalists but also for EU leaders. Far-right Le Pen's victory could have been a nightmare for EU leaders. She is Euro-skeptic and staunchly anti-EU. Her victory could have been a devastating blow to the EU project.

 

Daughter of Sindh

It has been 14 long  years that the jiyalas and the nation has been mourning the death of the ex-PM Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto (BB).

The tragic incident of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s assassination took place on 27 December 2007 and it occured during the caretaker government when General Musharraf was President. It was not the first time when BB had been attacked. In 1993 Abdul Shakoor, Yousaf Ramzi, Capt Abdul Hakim Majid, Munir Ibrahim and Abdul Shakoor planned to assassinate Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto during her election campaign at Nishtar Park, Karachi. 

In another attempt on December 12, 2007, one of the terrorists was able to touch the vehicle of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto after a PPP gathering at Pabbi.

Another planned assassination attempt on BB was carried out at Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar after public meeting on December 26, 2007.

The initial investigation was carried out by the then hierarchy and it was very surprising that the crime scenes were washed away immediately after the crimes both in Karsaz Karachi and Liaquat Bagh Rawalpindi, whereas the washing of crimes is never done in such cases especially in murder cases as in the case of former prime minister of the country. Instead of keeping the evidence safe, they were ordered to clear, which raises several questions. All these aspects and various suspicions were taken seriously so that investigations could be carried out to uncover the facts and reach the real culprits.

The case of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto assassination was transferred from Punjab police to FIA under the orders of the then federal government. A high-powered JIT was constituted for further investigation of the case. The team (JIT) of FIA led by Tariq Khosa, included Khalid Qureshi, the then Director CTW/FIA as lead investigator, Bin Amin, the then IGP Islamabad, Azad Khan, Sajjad Haider and Ghulam Asghar Jatoi. The outcome of the investigation by the JIT is fully reflected in the report. This report dispels the false impression engineered by some with their ulterior motives that the PPP leadership during its tenure had been unable to investigate the case to its logical conclusion which stands negated as below. The summary of the investigation will further shed light on the investigation and trial and also how Ch Zulfiqar Ali, the special prosecutor of this case, was assassinated. It remained a mystery as to how only US drone hit in Khyber Agency to kill Obaid-ur-Rehman alias Chattan who was the main handler of Bibi’s murder plan.

Despite all the difficulties, a hidden force was acting odd to stop the investigation, the courageous police and FIA officers managed to arrest many and were able to piece the evidence together and bring the accused to justice. The accused were found guilty, the competent court convicted them and the matter is now pending in the court. The investigation process was very transparent and both the parliament and the Sindh Assembly were kept informed. It has been recently found that one suicide bomber, Ikramullah, who slipped away from the scene and after spending a long time with Baitullah Mehsud, moved to Afghanistan. The incumbent chief of TTP Mufti Noor Wali has confirmed his presence in Qandahar.

Rehman Malik(former Interiro minister) has been quoted as saying:-

"I had written a letter to then Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on January 30, 2018 demanding that a request be made to Afghan President to deport Ikramullah, a surviving suicide bomber, and Abu Mansoor Asim Mufti Noor Wali, the author of “Inqilab Mehsud" .I had stated interrogating Ikramullah and Abu Mansoor Asim Mufti Noor Wali will further unearth the facts of the conspiracy behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” I had also requested that Interpol be also requested to issue red notices against Ikramullah and Abu Mansoor Asim Mufti Noor Wali enabling Pakistan to request for the deportation of these two TTP leaders.Sadly, no progress was reported despite of the second reminder to expedite Ikramullah deportation. I had also written to the government of Afghanistan for their deportation but no response"

The salient features of the said investigations are as under:
The crime scene was washed away by the then administration within one hour and twenty minutes of the incident, which had a negative effect on the collection of forensic evidence of the incident. The washing away of the crime scene of any such incident was nothing but to hamper the investigation of the case. This act of the then administration was, therefore, clearly against the law. Senior police officers who were found involved in tampering with the police official log register were prosecuted and convicted. The JIT also investigated the washing away of the crime scene and found the involvement of officials. The JIT interviewed and interrogated several people in this regard and the list is in the JIT report.

The UN investigators also found that the then government did not provide adequate security to the former prime minister according to the Blue Book. Investigators found that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had been on the hit list since 1993. The responsibility was fixed wherein the then CCPO Rawalpindi was responsible for removing the security escort to another place of duty.The contingency plan in case of an emergency was not followed and the damaged vehicle of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was diverted to a hospital further away from the incident scene. The ambulance and paramedical staff were not detailed in the security plan.The then CCPO of Rawalpindi did not allow the doctors to carry out post-mortem of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and gave false statements in this connection. The then federal government had invited a team of Scotland Yard police of UK with a very limited scope of investigation. They were only tasked to find out the cause of death. Although the team concluded that Mohtarma was not hit by any bullet which caused her death, but this conclusion was not in absolute terms.

It may be mentioned here the PPP leadership was of the firm view that assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had international dimensions with a wider conspiracy plan. The PPP government, therefore, requested the UN Secretary General to constitute an inquiry commission to investigate the case to unearth the conspiracy. The inquiry commission submitted its report in May 2010 wherein it primarily held the then federal government responsible for not providing Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed adequate and proper security. It also discredited the findings of the committee appointed by then Punjab government with regard to washing of the crime scene.

On the basis of the findings of the inquiry commission, the federal government decided to transfer the case to FIA for further investigation and constituted a high-powered JIT.

The investigation carried out by the JIT had led to the facts that are on record:-

The conspiracy was hatched at Room No 96 of a madrassa at Akora Khattak by the former student of the said madrassa. Ibad-ur-Rehman, a former student of the madrassa Haqqania, had brought the suicide bomber to the madrassa from then TTP chief Baitullah Mahsud and stayed in Room No 96 overnight.The JIT collected the original admission record with photographs, addresses and parentage from the madrassa of those students who conspired and then executed the conspiracy.Accused Nasrullah, who had brought suicide bombers in Rawalpindi on December 26, 2007, and Ibad-ur-Rehman, the planner and ex-student of the madrassa were later on found to have been killed in separate operations by the LEAs.

The JIT did their best and brought facts to the light as all those involved in the assassination of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto were identified, chased, arrested, prosecuted and convicted under the law. Unfortunately, a two-member Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court comprising Justice Mirza Waqas and Justice Sardar Serfraz granted bail to Abdul Rashid, Aitzaz Shah, Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul and Sher Zaman on their appeal. Since the case is still pending in the court.

I am personally very surprised after writing all the details of the investigations that why Rehman malik who is now explaining the things and blaming many people did not himself investigated the case and brought it to a logical end during his tenure (2008-2013).In 5 long years why did not he provide the court and authorities with all proofs he had been keeping close to his chest. As a nation we are now well acustomed with these types of blame game as still the nation is waiting for a clear decision on plane crash of General Zia ul Haq ,the mysterious killing of General Asif nawaz janjua and The kiling of BB.

As a nation, we are so unfortunate that we lost such a visionary, heroic and charismatic international leader.

     Story of the Pending Cases

The provincial capital Peshawar takes pride in submitting that it has topped the pendency list with 36,648 cases in the 47 courts of Civil and Session Judges. Each judge has a heavy burden of 779 cases of civil and criminal nature. Nowshera district has grabbed the overall second position in this competition and has 14,407 pending cases with each judge having 758 cases.

The official data has revealed that 506 courts of Civil, Additional, and Session Judges are functional in the 35 districts of the province. Around 86,756 criminal and 15,5963 civil nature cases are pending in lower courts. The following is a postmortem of each district which has contributed in this competition and made the judiciary proud.

District Peshawar has 47 courts of Civil and Session Judges while 36,648 cases are pending in these courts.

The home district of Law Minster Fazal Shakoor (Charsaddah) has 20 courts with11,047 cases still waiting for the final blow.

District Mardan has 35 courts and 24,402 cases. Sawabi has 13092 cases, 24 judges, 

Malakand has 3,397 cases, 11 judges. Swat has 14,016 cases ,34 courts. Shangla 1,728 cases eight judges are working.

The NA -7 star  Bashir khan's District (Lower dir) has 17 courts and 5235 cases are pending and 11 courts in Upper Dir with 3,843 cases still pending. 

There are 12 courts and 3,436 cases in the Buner district and eight courts with 2,669 cases are pending in Chitral.

DI Khan,the home town of Kashmir affairs minister Ali Amin Gandapur has 26 judges and 16,445 cases.

Tank has eight judges and 1,822 cases. 

Bannu has  22, judges with a burden of  8231 cases.

Lakki  Marwat has 12, judges and 6,344 cases.

Kohat has 20 judges, 9,771 cases.

Hangu seven judges, 1,895 cases.

Karak 14 judges, 7,900 cases, 

Haripur 25 judges, 13,248 cases, 

Abbottabad 28 judges while 17,873 cases are pending.

District Mansehra has 14,026 cases, 26 courts, 

Batagram, 1,071 cases, nine judges, 

Kohistan Upper 310 cases, nine judges, 

Torghar 237 cases, and five judges to deal with these cases.

District Bajaur seven judges and 1,592 cases pending.

District Khyber eight judges,3,057 cases,

Mohmand six judges,961 cases

Orakzai seven judges,389 cases, 

Khurram six judges, 1,484 cases

North Waziristan five judges, 777 cases,

South Waziristan six judges, 462 cases.

Following are some of the reasons due to which these much number of cases are pending

The judiciary of Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa has 596 posts of judges but 470 are working while 126 posts are vacant. 

The Peshawar High Court has 20 judges but 14 are working and six are vacant. 

Similarly, the posts of 29 Additional District and Sessions Judges are vacant. Out of a total of 159, only 130 judges are working. However, there are 97 vacancies for civil judges, judicial magistrates and family judges. As many as 224 judges are working on 338 posts.

Judges will have to discourage adjournment for speedy decisions of cases as well as dismiss frivolous cases. Here a statement of Justice (retd) kazim Ali Malik comes to my mind when he was giving interview to a social media outlet, where he said that once the trial commence, the courts will be adjourned only on three occasions:"On the date fixed, the judge dies or on the date fixed the lawyer dies or on the date fixed the accused dies."

All the vacant positions should be filled soon so that the burden on the existing judges will be decreased and  it can enable speedy justice.