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.

TLP: - From Inception to Induction

 

Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan aka TLP was formed on 1 August 2015 by the late Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi. Since the inception in the political stream TLP has always championed the cause of Khatm-e-Nabuwat and Namoos-e -Risalat but all this through violence and it has always been a tradition of our religious parties that they resort to violence and ransacking of the public property and in the end they usually get clean chits from our old school courts. 

This article explores the evolution and political activism of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a religio-political group, from a protest movement to a political party, while retaining its character as a movement. Consequently, TLP has a hybrid structure where the lines between the movement and party are blurred. As a movement, TLP used protests and agitation for their political agenda, while utilizing the political structures to demand or block policies deemed detrimental to its religious interests. The emergence of TLP is a by-product of post-9/11 religio-political developments in Pakistan and the changing patterns of state patronage towards religious groups.

TLP represents the Barelvi sub-sect, the largest Muslim sub-sect in Pakistan. The party gets its inspiration from the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, the assassin of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer. The governor was gunned down by one of his guards for being critical of the blasphemy law. In the eye of a considerable section of society, even a soft criticism of the blasphemy law is itself blasphemous and thus constitutes an unpardonable act.

The execution of Mumtaz Qadri and the promulgation of the Election Act, 2017 – which catapulted the TLP into popular politics took place when the PML-N, Barelvis’ first electoral choice, was in the saddle. The TTP’s rise was also aided by the changing political ethos under which politics has become largely a squalid affair in which demonizing rivals, showing zero tolerance for dissent, and the ability to command mindless submission from supporters have come to be prized as the foremost virtues of a leader. The TLP made adroit use of social media where the audience is remarkably impressionable and can be beguiled with myth-spinning without much ado.

The TLP was allotted crane as its election symbol in 2017. In its inaugural general elections in 2018, the TLP fielded 571 candidates including 178 for the National Assembly. Although it secured only two provincial assembly seats significantly enough, both in Karachi the party emerged as the fifth largest party nationwide with 2.2 million votes, accounting for 4.2 percent of the total votes cast, narrowly behind the relatively moderate alliance of MMA’s 2.56 million votes. In the Punjab province and the two biggest cities each, the TLP finished third in terms of votes obtained.

In order to explain the rise of the TLP, we need to briefly and broadly take stock of the circumstances that are crucial for a political parties’ birth and growth. Typically, these include political ideology, creed, ethnicity, location, caste or race and social class. In Pakistan, a multiethnic, multi-faith society, creed (religion or sect) and ethnicity have constituted far more significant cleavages than social class. This explains why society has not yet seen the rise of a workers’ party.

This has been at work in the case of the rise of the TLP as well. Barelvi political parties, such as the JUP, have contested national elections since 1970. The electoral appeal of these relatively moderate parties remained largely confined to urban Sindh, notably Karachi. Other sects or sub-sects have also had their political parties. Over the years, the electorate has not been much impressed with religious parties and overwhelmingly voted for the mainstream political parties. The rise of the MQM in the mid-1980s strengthened the ethnic cleavage in urban Sindh at the expense of religious parties. As a result, parties like the JUP were reduced to a rump. In other parts of the country, the Barelvi vote bank was mainly captured by the PML-N. Despite the presence of the Barelvi-Deobandi cleavage, an electorally viable political party could not be mobilized. The efforts of Allama Tahirul Qadri, a renowned Barelvi scholar who founded the Pakistani Awami Tehreek, to make a niche for himself in electoral politics also came to grief. Disillusioned with the electorate, he reposed his faith in agitation politics.

Unlike most mainstream parties, the TLP’s leadership is drawn from the lower middle and bottom of the economic heap. Rizvi himself was a man of humble origins. Those two factors placed him in an excellent position to garner support of the underprivileged sections of society. The combination of religion and economics that the TLP represents may turn out formidable if the people are convinced that their economic plight is underpinned by the prevalence of an ‘un-Islamic’ culture and system.
The violence of TLP finally met its last blow as the PTI government has issued a notification to ban the ultra-right-wing party under the anti-terrorism laws and has been inducted in the list of proscribed organizations. The interior ministry issued a notification declaring TLP as a proscribed organization on the pretext of threat to National security after the federal cabinet approved a summary to ban the party and Saad Hussain Rizvi has been placed in the fourth schedule under the anti-terrorism act 1997. The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) has recommended the government to take over madrassas operated by the TLP and crack down on its sources of funding.

Many political pundits and defense analysts fear that although government has banned TLP but it can regroup and organize again under a new name as this has been a traditional practice in Pakistan as we have the examples of Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jama’at-ud-Da'wah which are now working under the names of  Millat-e-Islamia and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba respectively and lastly the rise of right-wing politics is a matter of grave concern, because mixing religion and politics is a dangerous game for a multi-creed territory like Pakistan.

 

 

Fate of Wasim Akram Plus

                                            

v  The fate of the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar (Wasim Akram plus ) as referred by the respectable PM Imran khan  has become a permanent feature of the country’s political discourse. A similar round of speculations about his status erupted in the wake of the Senate elections. However, so far there is no clear indication that he is on his way out.

      Causes

·       The larger problem is the poor record of governance in Punjab. Whether it is the failure of the waste management system.

·         The frequent change in the bureaucracy has also tarnished the image of the civil services of Pakistan.

·         The last and most important is the weak political management which has led to disgruntlement among the ruling coalition parliamentarians from the province and many times it has been echoed in the cabinet meetings.

·         The musical chair situation Of the IGs have also added fuel to the fire.

·         Failure of bringing the much promised and awaited reforms

·         NA -75 Daska election controversy was also another episode of embarrassment and sign of incompetence for Punjab Government.

 

   Governments and Opposition response: -

In the last two years, there has been a visible attempt by the PTI’s federal leadership to run Punjab’s affairs from Islamabad. The results have not been encouraging. Yet, Prime Minister Imran Khan continues to reiterate that Mr Buzdar is the most suitable person for the job.

This despite the fact that people in his own party and allies have been advising him to rethink his decision to keep him on as chief minister. This is linked to an increasing tempo of pulls and pushes by aspirants from within the ruling coalition to elbow their way into the province’s top office. Within the PTI, there is a long list of aspirants who have been lobbying to replace Mr Buzdar. From among the allies, PML-Q leader and Speaker of the Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is seen as the strongest candidate. However, the PTI leadership is said to be reluctant to hand over the reins of the province to an allied party. The PPP is also eyeing an in-house change in the Punjab Assembly by roping in the PML-Q and having the PML-N lend its support. For now, there is little headway on this front.

      Consequences: -

If the performance of the present chief minister is an indication of how things will be managed ahead, it is hard to see the kind of betterment happening in Punjab as claimed by the ruling party. This means with each passing day the poor governance will start to weigh heavy on the PTI’s re-election prospects in the province. This can have dangerous consequences because Punjab remains a stronghold of the PML-N and mismanagement in political and administrative areas will help the PML-N build its own stock for the next elections and if this continues until 2023, so no wise man can think of PTIs return to control Punjab in 2023. Political Pundits even fear that after this type of performance many of the PTI MPAs may not win next time even from their own constituencies as many people still want the PML(N) to rule Punjab and frankly speaking PML(N) was far better than PTI In the Land of five rivers as they have upgraded and modernized Punjab with many schemes and development projects 

The prime minister will need to take some action in order to halt the slide. However, the complexity of the situation will make such a change very difficult. Punjab is turning out to be the biggest challenge for the PTI government at a time when it needs to show performance in all areas. Till such a change happens and there are visible signs of improvement in the province, the fate of Usman Buzdar will keep featuring prominently in our national discourse.

The lost legacy of Congress in UP

 Uttar Pradesh (UP) literally means northern state and population wise is the largest state in India and area wise it is the fourth largest state after Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. UP accounts for 8-10 percent of India’s GDP. If UP become an independent country, it will be one of the largest democracies in the world after, the USA and Indonesia. With around 220 million people, UP is smaller than Indonesia that boasts over 250 million people but looking at the faltering democratic traditions in Indonesia, UP stands out as much as a better democracy.

If we deeply look into the political history of UP, we find that after independence in 1947, for 2 decades, the Indian National Congress (INC) ruled on its own. The longest serving CM was Govind Ballabh pant who remained CM from 1946 to 1954.Then another INC politician Sampurnanand , who occupied the post for 6 years until 1960;followed by Chandra Bhanu Gupta and Sucheta Kriplani for3 years each.

Finally, in 1967 a former leader of the INC, Charan singh deprived the congress of its hold in UP to become the first non–congress CM of UP, Charan Singh became a bitter critic of both JL Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, but could maintain his rule in UP for 2 years only, from 1970 to 1977 Congress somehow managed to regain and retain power in UP but in 1977 Janata Party formed its government in UP but lost to again to congress just after 3 years in 1980.

From 1980 to 1989 for almost a decade the Congress Party once again regained the power, following which the Mulayam Singh Yadav (MSY) took hold of UP for the first time which lasted only for 18 months. Then the BJP’s Kalyan Singh was elected the CM who was dismissed when he failed to restrain the Singh Parivar (the RSS and its coteries) from destroying the Babri Mosque in December 1992, then MSY remained in power for another 18 months, followed by BSP’s Mayawati just for 4 months.

For the next 10 years BJP and BSP alternatively held power to be succeeded by Mulayam Singh once again in 2003, this time he remained the CM for 4 years till 2007.in 2012 MSY again formed the government but selected his son Akhilesh to be the CM who remained the master of UP until 2017. In 2017 elections BJP won the UP elections and formed the government and Yogi Adityanath was made CM.In UP the congress had not been able to form the government since 1989 and if we look into the political arena of the UP for last 31 years ,slightly better is the BJP who had formed the government two times. Another important player has been the BSP formed by Kanshi Ram but later led by Mayawati. The BSP claimed to represent the lower casts and tribes.In addition the BSP has also attracted the votes from religious minorities.After the death of Kanshi ram Mayawati became the supreme leader of BSP and until now has been the CM for four tenures. The INC has been losing the game consecutively despite Rahul’s Gandhi efforts to revive the party in UP. Now we all can do is just wait for the next UP elections.

The million-dollar question is, Will the INC regain its legacy or not????