Attorney-General Justice Qayyum is handling the government’s case against the return of the Sharif brothers. The real irony is that AG Malik Qayyum was the man who was the lead counsel for Mian Shahbaz Sharif in his 2004 case where the Supreme Court had passed a verdict allowing him to return. Today, AG Qayyum argues:
that he had seen the agreement under which the Sharif brothers preferred exile. “The agreement contains signatures of the two brothers and is valid for 10 years. It would be produced before the Supreme Court most probably on the next day of hearing,” he added. (DAWN Newspaper)
However, Nawaz Sharif denies any deal and says:
that the agreement under which he went into exile had been signed with the Saudi government, and not with Gen Musharraf. A private TV channel quoted Mr Sharif as saying that he had not entered into any agreement with Gen Musharraf, and challenged the government that if it had any such agreement it should make it public. (DAWN Newspaper)
Nevertheless, since the government has not made this evidence of a deal between Musharraf and the Sharif’s public the CJ asks:
“Paragraphs 15 and 28 clearly indicate that both Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif are citizens of Pakistan and can come back any time. We have failed to understand why are petitioners not availing the benefit out of the judgment when all the executive authorities are bound to obey it.”
Too bad for Nawaz Sharif as a court has ruled that cases of corruption against him be reopened as reported by a BBC News story.
A court in Pakistan has ruled that cases of alleged corruption against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif may be opened again.
The cases were closed at the government’s request and Mr Sharif was sent into exile in December 2000.
Mr Sharif said this week that the government’s request to reopen the cases was an attempt to prevent him for returning to Pakistan.
He has filed a petition in the Supreme Court pleading for his right to return.
Ardent critic
Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayum, who represents the government, told the Supreme Court in a recent hearing that Mr Sharif had left the country for 10 years under a deal reached between him and the government, with the Saudi government as the guarantor.
Legal experts believe the government has moved to reopen the corruption cases in anticipation of a Supreme Court verdict that may allow him to return.
The ruling means Mr Sharif could be arrested if he did.
The cases were initiated by the National Accountability Bureau in 2000, after Mr Sharif’s government was overthrown by Gen Pervez Musharraf in a coup in October 1999.
A special anti-terrorism court convicted Mr Sharif on charges of hijacking and terrorism and passed a sentence of life imprisonment.
The ousted premier was charged with endangering the lives of Gen Musharraf and nearly 200 passengers on a commercial flight.
Gen Musharraf was returning to Pakistan from Sri Lanka and Mr Sharif was said to have issued orders preventing his plane from landing in Karachi.
The plane was eventually able to land and Mr Sharif was overthrown.
Mr Sharif and several of his family members were jailed.
Mr Sharif has been the most ardent critic of Gen Musharraf’s government.
He heads a new opposition alliance that seeks to prevent Gen Musharraf from becoming president for another term.
By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Karachi
All sincere & fair people will agree with me that the base of all evils in Pakland is corruption. There are many reasons behind this evil. Main reason is the big gap between poor & rich due to present injustice system secondly people want to be billionaire within days.
Sorry to mention this open secret maximum politicians, generals, ulmas…….claiming well wisher of Nation are silent over this crime.
Plz let me know what is agenda of main political parties , high command of army, judiciary & media for elimination of this disease of society, which is base of all problems of Pakistan.
My request to all well wishers of Pakistan, plz let me know any Govt department or any major private institution free from corruption ? Can any body tell me about such department which is with solution without corruption or approach for common public in Pakistan ? But sorry to mention majority of high cadre of all sections being themselves involve directly or indirectly in corruption are silent over this unfair system. This corrupt system is the main reason behind the tragedies like collapse of by pass bridge in Karachi, ….& other evils & crimes. Also main hurdle in development & in practicing friendly public policies.
Let me expose here this spicy truth also that due to corruption of some fabricated leaders via misusing their status & relief funds is main reason of change of tone of Kashmir freedom movement. The open proof for this spicy realty is that only those unfair elements are enjoying like kings in both sides of so called LOC. While majority of affected in both sides do suffer in both sides, who have sacrifices. Which is open injustice in justice movement of Kashmir. Resulting there is also big gap between the standard of life between fair sincere freedom fighters & fabricated self desired people.
The reason behind corruption is that there neither any proper check & balance system nor agenda of official or nonofficial dignities.
Common man is victim of all types of injustice via all sides. There is neither any say nor any relief for common man. All types of facilities are for some dynasties, who have upper hand in administration as well as in society.
Let us be practical & accept these realties. For example for common man it is very much difficult even to get Rs 50,000 loan in present unfair system, while the known dynasties from last 58 years are getting big loans in billions. Let us now say truth that in all regimes policy for providing facilities & deed of amnesty for these big loans is continue.
Due to big gap in standard of Education it is very difficult for poor student to have chances of bright future. So we do observe due to this double standard of Education grip of capitalists is in civil administration & defense . As long as there is upper hand of some dynasties in all sectors & common public is asleep, we should never expect any type of relief for common man.
This common innocent Pakistanee is not only victim of official injustice but also target of cruel land lords, sardars, religious painted immature elements & sectarian anti Pakistan elements. Tragedy is that now this poor common man is not safe in streets but victim of blasts. Just getting bad News about bomb blasts of Rawalpandi, can anybody justify these anti Islamic acts.
So duty of common poor Pakistane is to expose openly all official & civil anti Pak elements, who are involve in looting & making it second Lebanon for their interests.
In any soil of the World where innocent public is victim of blasts is complete anti Islam act. So to fight against such criminals in Pakland is duty of all patriot Pakistanees.
It is duty of Ulmas, sincere political leaders, intellectuals, media & all civil society to provide proper guide line to innocent public & expose injustice system & anti Pak elements. Then any peaceful mass movement can be launched by any sincere leadership, which will ensure to full fil the dream of Quad Azam about Pakistan: which is justice, equality & accountability. Also this is spirit of ISLAM base of Pakistan. Then we can feel more proud for PAKISTAN.
Thanks
Brotherly yours
Eng.Mehmood
Kashmir Study Circle
Nawaz has proved himself a liar after accepting a deal with Saudi Govt. for keeping aloof from Pakistani politics for 10 years. A day before Mian bros. were claiming that no such pact had been made. This family has never suffered any material or life loss at the hands of pakistani establishment.Instead they have always benefitted from the hatred of the establishment towards Bhutto name. During their 18 years of rule over Punjab and Pakistan this family twisted the laws in their favour, appointed their salaried lawyers as judges of higher courts. Inspite of all these manouvers the family tried its best to make out of court decisions in personal or state trials. Their desire to kill all cases which had been in the pakistani courts (not all were state sponsored) at the time Nawaz Sharif became Prime Minister in 1997 led to his collision with justice Sajjad Ali Shah and which resulted in storming of The Apex Court while a final proceedindgs were underway contempt of court case against him.His speeches all along the Lah- Islamabad motor way a day before were the root cause of the plundering of supreme court. The mob had been taken to Islamabad on state sponsored buses and the people had been fed on state expenses. Again the money rescued him from being penalized after he “worked on judges of supreme court”. Mian Nawaz Sharif is again making tall claims of innocence and criticising the so called NRO progulmated by the GOP, scratching corruption cases of political figures. It was the Mian family who got this dropping of cases in 2000 with a request to the then President of Pakistan a previous employer of the Family, routed through no other than Pervez Musharraf the then Chief Executive.
Let us see the clemency letter Mian Bros. addressed to the president for getting pardon in 2000
A four-page document signed by Nawaz Sharif, his brothers Shahbaz Sharif and Abbas Sharif, and his son Hussain Nawaz contained no conditions attached to their “deportation” to Jeddah on December 10, 2000.
They had, however, sought that the sentences of imprisonment awarded to Nawaz by the anti-terrorist court be “waived” to enable him to proceed abroad for medical treatment. It was also stated, “…the petitioners may not be prosecuted in respect of any alleged past conduct.”
On the basis of this document, which was a petition addressed to the president, the then Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf advised the-then President Muhammad Rafiq Tarar on December 9, 2000 to remit the sentences given to Nawaz Sharif.
The former president, according to the official documents, approved the same on December 10. On the same night, the Sharif family flew to Saudi Arabia. Except this document, there is no other paper containing the signatures of Sharifs and reflecting any accord between the two sides.
However, sources confirmed that the Saudi government through a mediator – Saeedul Harriri, who was brother of Rafiq Harriri – convinced the Sharifs to sign the document. There is, however, no clue of any written agreement reached between Jeddah and Islamabad to the effect.
Tarar – who remained president till June 2001 – when approached confirmed that there was no other document available with the government except the four-page “petition” of the Sharifs. He also denied that any written agreement was signed by Jeddah and Islamabad, adding that under the Constitution, any agreement with a foreign state is required to be ratified by the president. However, he did never ratify any such agreement.
The government spokesman and Federal Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani when approached said, “I don’t have anything to say in this regard.” A leading federal minister, who has been defending the “deal” in the media, told this correspondent on condition of anonymity that he never saw any agreement between the Sharifs and the government or between Islamabad and Jeddah. He also said that he was not even in the knowledge of the four-page document or its contents.
The following is the text of the four-page petition signed by four Sharifs:
“To, The President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Dear Sir, That petitioner No 1 (Nawaz Sharif) along with others was tried for offences under sections 120B, 212, 121A, 123, 365, 402B, 109 and 324 of Pakistan Penal code and section 6/7 of the Anti-terrorism Act 1997 by the Anti-terrorism Court No-1 Karachi.
The other co-accused of petitioner No. 1 were acquitted but petitioner No 1 was, by the judgment dated 6 April 2000 of the said court, convicted for offences under section 402 P.P.C read with Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act 1997 and sentenced as under.
Offence under Section 402B PPC. (i) Rigorous imprisonment for life. (ii) Fine of Rs 500,000 (in case of non-payment of fine R.I of 5 years). (iii) Confiscation of entire property.
Offence under Section 7 of Anti-terrorism Act. (i) Imprisonment for life. (ii) Fine of Rs 500,000 (in case of non payment of fine R.I for 5 years). (iii) To pay Rs 2,900,000 as compensation to all passengers of flight PK-805 in equal shares.
That on appeal by petitioner No.1 against the judgment has maintained conviction under Section 402B PPC read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and modified the sentences as under:- (i) Imprisonment for life. (ii) Fine of Rs 500,000 (in case of non payment of fine R.I for five years). (iii) Forfeiture of property (movable and immovable to the extent of the value of Rs 500 million).
That on a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau under the NAB Ordinance 1999, petitioner No 1 has been tried by Accountability Court Attock Fort and convicted for an offence under section 9(a)(v) of the NAB Ordinance and sentenced as under:- (i) R.I for 14 years. (ii) Fine of Rs 20,000,000 (in case of non-payment of fine R.I for 3 years). (iii) Disqualification for 21 years for seeking or from being elected, chosen, appointed or nominated as member or representative of any public office or any statutory or local authority of the government of Pakistan.
That the petitioner No 1 has developed serious health problems.
That certain inquiries and investigations against conduct of petitioner No. 1 and petitioners No 2 to 4 are pending with the investigating agencies and investigations may culminate into the petitioners’ prosecution.
In view of the above it is requested that the sentences of imprisonment of petitioner No 1 may be waived to enable him to proceed abroad for medical treatment and the petitioners may not be prosecuted in respect of any alleged past conduct.
(Signed) 9.12.2000. Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif- petitioner No 1. (signed) Mian Shabaz Sharif- petitioner No. 2. (signed) Mian Abbas Sharif- petitioner No. 3. (signed) Hussain Nawaz- petitioner No. 4.”
On December 9, 2000, the-then Chief Executive Secretariat wrote to the President: “Subject: Grant of Pardon. In terms of Article 45 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan the president is advised to:- (a) Remit the sentence of imprisonment for life awarded to Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif by the High Court of Sindh in its judgment dated October 30, 2000 in Special Appeal No 43 of 2000 under Section 402B of the Pakistan Penal Code read with section 7(ii) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and (b) Remit the sentence of R.I for 14 years awarded to Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif by the Accountability Court Attock Fort in its judgment dated July 22, 2000 in reference No 2 of 2000 under Section 9(a)(v) of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance 1999. (signed) Pervez Musharraf, Chief Executive of Pakistan and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff and Chief of Army Staff. 9 Dec 2000.”
On this the-then president wrote, “approved. Sentences remitted. (signed).”
In the light of above Mian’s outcry against dropping of fabricated cases against BB, is another tool of deceiving the nation. Their is a marked difference between the two. BB or Asif Zardari have not been sentenced in any case after a long span of 12 years from among the dozens. The only time BB was sentenced One High Court judge and two sitting judges had to resign for their malafide. On the other hand mian Nawaz Sharif was sentenced in both of the cases one of plane hijacking and the other Helicopter case in which a tral was proceeded before they sought pardon and went abroad on the pretext of illness.
from Islamabad