ISI and Pakistani Politicians
Thursday, August 27, 2009
LAHORE: I was information minister in Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi’s cabinet and received Rs 5 million from the Inter-Services Intelligence to join the IJI, Abida Hussain told a private TV channel on Thursday. Talking to the channel, Abida said she was told that Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia had sent this money through Mahmood Haroon. She also revealed that Nawaz Sharif, [Zafarullah] Jamali and Mir Afzal Khan were also beneficiaries. daily times monitor.
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Labels: Corruption, Ethics, Government, Morality, Power Politics
posted @ 1:02 PM,
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Shumaila Rana resigns over credit card scandal
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The News International, Pakistan, Saturday, July 25, 2009
ISLAMABAD: MPA Shumaila Rana tendered her resignation from the Punjab Assembly on Friday on the demand of the PML-N investigation committee set up to probe the credit card scandal case.
The resignation was submitted to PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and would now be submitted to the Punjab Assembly speaker.Shumaila, who was elected on reserved seat of the Punjab Assembly, is involved in stealing a credit card and making payment through it to a jewellery shop.
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ISLAMABAD: MPA Shumaila Rana tendered her resignation from the Punjab Assembly on Friday on the demand of the PML-N investigation committee set up to probe the credit card scandal case.
The resignation was submitted to PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and would now be submitted to the Punjab Assembly speaker.Shumaila, who was elected on reserved seat of the Punjab Assembly, is involved in stealing a credit card and making payment through it to a jewellery shop.
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Labels: Leadership, Legislators, Morality, Parliamentarians
posted @ 12:37 AM,
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Gross Misuse of Free of Cost Fuel
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The News International, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 07, 2009
ISLAMABAD: The government is spending millions every month from the taxpayers’ money merely on the petrol facility of federal ministers amid reports of gross misuse of free of cost provision of fuel by those who are affluent but still involved in this petty corruption.
A finance ministry source, while revealing that a federal minister consumed almost Rs 70,000 petrol in just one month, said that the government provides unlimited petrol facility to federal ministers for just one staff car provided to them but they are misusing the facility for other vehicles too.
The source said that in addition to the misuse of the ministers’ fuel facility, the staff of these political masters also get free fuel for the unauthorised vehicles provided to them. None of the ministerial staff, including the private secretary (PS), is authorised under the law to have official vehicles, but, in most of the cases, the senior staff of the federal ministers is illegally provided official conveyance and free petrol.
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ISLAMABAD: The government is spending millions every month from the taxpayers’ money merely on the petrol facility of federal ministers amid reports of gross misuse of free of cost provision of fuel by those who are affluent but still involved in this petty corruption.
A finance ministry source, while revealing that a federal minister consumed almost Rs 70,000 petrol in just one month, said that the government provides unlimited petrol facility to federal ministers for just one staff car provided to them but they are misusing the facility for other vehicles too.
The source said that in addition to the misuse of the ministers’ fuel facility, the staff of these political masters also get free fuel for the unauthorised vehicles provided to them. None of the ministerial staff, including the private secretary (PS), is authorised under the law to have official vehicles, but, in most of the cases, the senior staff of the federal ministers is illegally provided official conveyance and free petrol.
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Labels: Corruption, Governance, Leadership, Morality
posted @ 7:52 AM,
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State Gifts and Musharraf
Monday, July 6, 2009
The News International, Pakistan, Monday, July 06, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Part-1 of this report published on Sunday revealed the generosity of the ruling Saudi royalty but that does not by any means suggest that it was the end of former president Pervez Musharraf’s official gifts binge. But the dilemma here is what gifts to list and what to ignore due to space constraints because some items tell us of the criminal undervaluing of valuable national property while there are others that reveal the paucity of character of our self-proclaimed statesmen. An attempt, therefore, has been made to identify a few of both categories, which have one characteristic in common: they expose the pettiness of those involved in national plunder.
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ISLAMABAD: Part-1 of this report published on Sunday revealed the generosity of the ruling Saudi royalty but that does not by any means suggest that it was the end of former president Pervez Musharraf’s official gifts binge. But the dilemma here is what gifts to list and what to ignore due to space constraints because some items tell us of the criminal undervaluing of valuable national property while there are others that reveal the paucity of character of our self-proclaimed statesmen. An attempt, therefore, has been made to identify a few of both categories, which have one characteristic in common: they expose the pettiness of those involved in national plunder.
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Labels: Corruption, Governance, Morality, Musharraf, State Gifts
posted @ 9:21 AM,
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Musharraf and State Gifts
Sunday, July 5, 2009
The News International, Pakistan, Sunday, July 05, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Former president General Parvez Musharraf, following in the footsteps of his hand-picked prime minister Shaukat Aziz, has taken away 168 expensive gifts worth about Rs 40 million (at the pitifully low official price) given by top foreign dignitaries along with him (mostly free of cost) before leaving Pakistan to settle in London. These gifts include dozens of boxes of jewellery, necklaces, pearls, diamonds, four American revolvers, Rolex watches, gold, earrings and rings.
Interestingly, the former president insists that he has not moved abroad permanently and is only there for the convenience of his lecture tour.
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ISLAMABAD: Former president General Parvez Musharraf, following in the footsteps of his hand-picked prime minister Shaukat Aziz, has taken away 168 expensive gifts worth about Rs 40 million (at the pitifully low official price) given by top foreign dignitaries along with him (mostly free of cost) before leaving Pakistan to settle in London. These gifts include dozens of boxes of jewellery, necklaces, pearls, diamonds, four American revolvers, Rolex watches, gold, earrings and rings.
Interestingly, the former president insists that he has not moved abroad permanently and is only there for the convenience of his lecture tour.
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Labels: Corruption, Ethics, Governance, Morality, Musharraf
posted @ 9:20 AM,
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Gifts he didn’t even reveal, let alone pay for
Saturday, July 4, 2009
The News International, Pakistan, Saturday, July 04, 2009
ISLAMABAD: In two earlier reports, The News shared details of 736 ‘cheap’ gifts that former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had taken away to London with him. But according to latest documents obtained by The News, there were another 250 gifts which he received as finance minister and prime minister and worth a minimum of but he never deposited them with Toshakhana as required by rules.
He took away many important and expensive gifts without getting any evaluation done and thus and retained them free of cost. He did not send several important books he received from different heads of states on important subjects of history to the Cabinet Division or even pay their drastically slashed prices. This list shows that several expensive coins given by the head of states of different countries were also retained by Aziz free of cost and no price evaluation was made.
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ISLAMABAD: In two earlier reports, The News shared details of 736 ‘cheap’ gifts that former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had taken away to London with him. But according to latest documents obtained by The News, there were another 250 gifts which he received as finance minister and prime minister and worth a minimum of but he never deposited them with Toshakhana as required by rules.
He took away many important and expensive gifts without getting any evaluation done and thus and retained them free of cost. He did not send several important books he received from different heads of states on important subjects of history to the Cabinet Division or even pay their drastically slashed prices. This list shows that several expensive coins given by the head of states of different countries were also retained by Aziz free of cost and no price evaluation was made.
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Labels: Governance, Leadership, Morality, Shaukat Aziz
posted @ 11:28 AM,
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Shaukat Aziz and State Gifts
Friday, July 3, 2009
The News International, Pakistan, Friday, July 03, 2009
ISLAMABAD: On Wednesday The News had reported that the former prime minister and billionaire, Shaukat Aziz, had walked away with bulging suitcases full of 393 state gifts bought at pawn shop rates. We stand corrected. It has transpired that the gentleman had actually taken 736 gifts worth price) with him on his last bye-bye Pakistan flight to London. The state booty included half a dozen more necklaces, 18 kt gold, gold coins, pearls, crowns, diamonds, Rolex watches, bracelets, carpets, Chinese pandas (presumably figurines because the list does not elaborate) etc after getting them massively undervalued by the obliging Cabinet Division evaluators.
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ISLAMABAD: On Wednesday The News had reported that the former prime minister and billionaire, Shaukat Aziz, had walked away with bulging suitcases full of 393 state gifts bought at pawn shop rates. We stand corrected. It has transpired that the gentleman had actually taken 736 gifts worth price) with him on his last bye-bye Pakistan flight to London. The state booty included half a dozen more necklaces, 18 kt gold, gold coins, pearls, crowns, diamonds, Rolex watches, bracelets, carpets, Chinese pandas (presumably figurines because the list does not elaborate) etc after getting them massively undervalued by the obliging Cabinet Division evaluators.
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Labels: Ethics, Governance, Leadership, Morality, Shaukat Aziz, State Gifts
posted @ 10:03 AM,
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Aziz says he kept diamonds, gold, carpets & watches under rules
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The News International, Wednesday, July 01, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Honourable prime ministers are supposed to leave behind legacies but what do you say about individuals who don’t even leave behind things that were never theirs to begin with, such as official gifts received while in office? The irony gets more profound when the gentleman happens to be declared billionaire and prone to jumping at every opportunity to harp on the mantra of ethics in dispensation of responsibilities of a public office.
Welcome to the world of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, who proving a calculating banker to core took away not a dozen or two but a hearty gift hamper of 395 official gifts given by foreign dignitaries.
ISLAMABAD: Honourable prime ministers are supposed to leave behind legacies but what do you say about individuals who don’t even leave behind things that were never theirs to begin with, such as official gifts received while in office? The irony gets more profound when the gentleman happens to be declared billionaire and prone to jumping at every opportunity to harp on the mantra of ethics in dispensation of responsibilities of a public office.
Welcome to the world of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, who proving a calculating banker to core took away not a dozen or two but a hearty gift hamper of 395 official gifts given by foreign dignitaries.
Labels: Ethics, Leadership, Morality, Shaukat Aziz
posted @ 9:29 PM,
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Rape and our MPs
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The News International, Pakistan
Thursday, June 04, 2009
The rape allegations against a Punjab MPA who is also an adviser to the chief minister are a reminder of the mindset that leads representatives to think they are above the law. The sordid case also involves the exploitation of a desperate woman trying to have a property dispute resolved. The registration of a case against the MPA is good news. Not so good is the fact that he escaped detention and avoided a medical examination that may have helped establish the charges made. Nevertheless officials at the CM's office have stated no one is above the law. We hope they will now act to prove this and avoid the inevitable efforts that will be made to pull strings and use influence.
Political parties must also do more to ensure representatives prove themselves models in terms of conduct and public dealings. Expectations in this regard must be made clear to them. Indeed they should also be made aware that instances of misconduct or the exploitation of vulnerable persons will simply not be tolerated. There have in the past been cases similar to the one that has come to light now. If the charges made are established as correct, the PML-N must demonstrate that it is ready to set an example and act against the representative. By doing so parties would set in place important traditions and act also to prevent the discrediting of our democracy and of those who form a part of its structures.
Source
Labels: Morality, MPs, PML(N), Rape, Women's Rights
posted @ 9:57 AM,
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