Mar 26, 2009

Zardari.

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From Wikipedia:

Asif Ali Zardari (Urdu, Sindhi: آصف علی زرداری) (born 26 July 1955) is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Zardari is the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who twice served as Prime Minister of Pakistan. When his wife was assassinated in December 2007, he became the leader of the Pakistan People's Party. He is considered to be among the five richest men in Pakistan with an estimated net worth of US$1.8 billion (2005).[4]

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($3 billion by 2009 ????)

Charges of corruption

French, Polish, Spanish, and Swiss documents have fuelled the charges of corruption against Bhutto and her husband. They faced a number of legal proceedings, including a charge of laundering money through Swiss banks. Though never convicted, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, spent eight years in prison on similar corruption charges. After being released on bail in 2004, Zardari suggested that his time in prison involved torture; human rights groups have supported his claim that his rights were violated.[28]

His wife is killed; his country's falling apart whilst he's at the helm, but the foreign back clown is happy.....and the USA/UK adore him, thats what counts in Pakistan.

A 1998 New York Times investigative report[29] claims that Pakistani investigators have documents that uncover a network of bank accounts, all linked to the family's lawyer in Switzerland, with Asif Zardari as the principal shareholder. According to the article, documents released by the French authorities indicated that Zardari offered exclusive rights to Dassault, a French aircraft manufacturer, to replace the air force's fighter jets in exchange for a 5% commission to be paid to a Swiss corporation controlled by Zardari. The article also said a Dubai company received an exclusive license to import gold into Pakistan for which Asif Zardari received payments of more than $10 million into his Dubai-based Citibank accounts. The owner of the company denied that he had made payments to Zardari and claims the documents were forged.

Bhutto maintained that the charges levelled against her and her husband were purely political.[30][31] An Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) report supports Bhutto's claim. It presents information suggesting that Benazir Bhutto was ousted from power in 1990 as a result of a witch hunt approved by then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan. The AGP report says Khan illegally paid legal advisers 28 million rupees to file 19 corruption cases against Bhutto and her husband in 1990–92.[32]

His wife is killed; his country's falling apart whilst he's at the helm, but the foreign back clown is happy.....and the USA/UK adore him, thats what counts in Pakistan.

Yet the assets held by Bhutto and her husband continue to be scrutinized and speculated about. The prosecutors have alleged that their Swiss bank accounts contain £740 million.[33] Zardari also bought a neo-Tudor mansion and estate worth over £4 million in Surrey, England, UK.[34][35] The Pakistani investigations have tied other overseas properties to Zardari's family. These include a $2.5 million manor in Normandy owned by Zardari's parents, who had modest assets at the time of his marriage.[29] Bhutto denied holding substantive overseas assets.

Switzerland

On 23 July 1998, the Swiss Government handed over documents to the government of Pakistan which relate to corruption allegations against Benazir Bhutto and her husband.[36] The documents included a formal charge of money laundering by Swiss authorities against Zardari. The Pakistani government had been conducting a wide-ranging inquiry to account for more than $13.7 million frozen by Swiss authorities in 1997 that was allegedly stashed in banks by Bhutto and her husband. The Pakistani government recently filed criminal charges against Bhutto in an effort to track down an estimated $1.5 billion she and her husband are alleged to have received in a variety of criminal enterprises.[37] The documents suggest that the money Zardari was alleged to have laundered was accessible to Benazir Bhutto and had been used to buy a diamond necklace for over $175,000.[38] The PPP has responded by flatly denying the charges, suggesting that Swiss authorities have been misled by false evidence provided by the Government of Pakistan.

His wife is killed; his country's falling apart whilst he's at the helm, but the foreign back clown is happy.....and the USA/UK adore him, thats what counts in Pakistan.

On 6 August 2003, Swiss magistrates found Bhutto and her husband guilty of money laundering.[39] They were given six-month suspended jail terms, fined $50,000 each and were ordered to pay $11 million to the Pakistani government. The six-year trial concluded that Bhutto and Zardari deposited in Swiss accounts $10 million given to them by a Swiss company in exchange for a contract in Pakistan. The couple said they would appeal. The Pakistani investigators say Zardari opened a Citibank account in Geneva in 1995 through which they say he passed some $40 million of the $100 million he received in payoffs from foreign companies doing business in Pakistan.[40] In October 2007, Daniel Zappelli, chief prosecutor of the canton of Geneva, said he received the conclusions of a money laundering investigation against former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on October 29, but it was unclear whether there would be any further legal action against her in Switzerland.[41]

Poland

The Polish Government has given Pakistan 500 pages of documentation relating to corruption allegations against Benazir Bhutto and her husband. These charges are in regard to the purchase of 8,000 tractors in a 1997 deal.[42][43] According to Pakistani officials, the Polish papers contain details of illegal commissions paid by the tractor company in return for agreeing to their contract.[44] It was alleged that the arrangement "skimmed" Rs 103 mn rupees ($2 million) in kickbacks.[30] "The documentary evidence received from Poland confirms the scheme of kickbacks laid out by Asif Zardari and Benazir Bhutto in the name of (the) launching of Awami tractor scheme", APP said. Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari allegedly received a 7.15% commission on the purchase through their front men, Jens Schlegelmilch and Didier Plantin of Dargal S.A., who received about $1.969 million for supplying 5,900 Ursus tractors.[45]

His wife is killed; his country's falling apart whilst he's at the helm, but the foreign back clown is happy.....and the USA/UK adore him, thats what counts in Pakistan.

France

Potentially the most lucrative deal alleged in the documents involved the effort by Dassault Aviation, a French military contractor. French authorities indicated in 1998 that Bhutto's husband, Zardari, offered exclusive rights to Dassault to replace the air force's fighter jets in exchange for a five percent commission to be paid to a corporation in Switzerland controlled by Zardari.[46]

At the time, French corruption laws forbade bribery of French officials but permitted payoffs to foreign officials, and even made the payoffs tax-deductible in France. However, France changed this law in 2000.[47]

His wife is killed; his country's falling apart whilst he's at the helm, but the foreign back clown is happy.....and the USA/UK adore him, thats what counts in Pakistan.

Helicopter scandal

In 1998-1999, an enquiry was conducted by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament to investigate the matter regarding the purchase of the helicopter. The case involves defrauding substantive sum of $2.168 million and $1.1 million public money. The record shows that the case was not pursued properly nor diligently. FIR No 1 of 1998 was registered with Federal Investigation Agency State Bank Circle Rawalpindi on the complaint of Cabinet Division. Thorough investigation was conducted by the committee headed by Chaudhry Muhammad Barjees Tahir and two other members, namely Faridullah Jamali and Jamshaid Ali Shah. During this investigation the committee Chairman Barjees Tahir summoned both the former President Farooq Leghari and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto along with others, and they were investigated. The case received extensive media coverage both inside and outside Pakistan. The recommendations of the committee, obtained from the file, are as follows:

6.1: That FIR be lodged against (1) Malik Allah Yar Khan of Kalabagh, (2) Zia Pervez Hussain, (3) and Dr M.A. Khan, and that criminal proceedings be instituted against them for defrauding the government.

6.2: That the amount of $2.168 million be recovered from Malik Allah Yar Khan, Zia Pervez Hussain and Dr M.A. Khan by attaching their properties etc in Pakistan or abroad for this purpose. FIA may be directed to take steps to recover this money through Interpol, if necessary. Any banker or foreign national involved in this fraud may also be taken to task by the Federal Investigation Agency.

6.3: That since Benazir Bhutto is clearly responsible for this loss to the exchequer as major decisions in respect of this contract were taken with her approval or direction and passed on to Cabinet Division through former PS PM (Ahmad Sadiq), FIR may be registered against her for causing loss to state by misuse of her authority as PM, and criminal proceedings be initiated.
6.4: That since
Farooq Leghari knows that his name has visibly come up in this case, and he has tried to plead innocent; and since it is unimaginable that those operating in this scandal could have easy access to the top bureaucrats like Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and even to the Prime Minister herself without the backing and active support of the President, FIR against him must also be registered and criminal proceedings initiated.
6.5: That as for the senior civil servants involved in the case, Ahmad Sadiq former PS PM, Humayun Faiz Rasul, and Sahibzada Imtiaz former Cabinet Secretary, no action can be taken against them at this stage as they already stand retired/superannuated.

The case was further referred to the National Accountability Bureau in 2000-02 but no action was taken.

His wife is killed; his country's falling apart whilst he's at the helm, but the foreign back clown is happy.....and the USA/UK adore him, thats what counts in Pakistan.

Western Asia

In the largest single payment investigators have uncovered, a gold bullion dealer in Western Asia was alleged to have deposited at least $10 million into one of Zardari's accounts after the Bhutto government gave him a monopoly on gold imports that sustained Pakistan's jewellery industry. The money was allegedly deposited into Zardari's Citibank account in Dubai. Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast, stretching from Karachi to the border with Iran, has long been a gold smugglers' haven. Until the beginning of Bhutto's second term, the trade, running into hundreds of millions of dollars a year, was unregulated, with slivers of gold called biscuits, and larger weights in bullion, carried on planes and boats that travel between the Persian Gulf and the largely unguarded Pakistani coast.

His wife is killed; his country's falling apart whilst he's at the helm, but the foreign back clown is happy.....and the USA/UK adore him, thats what counts in Pakistan.


Shortly after Bhutto returned as prime minister in 1993, a Pakistani bullion trader in Dubai, Abdul Razzak Yaqub, proposed a deal: in return for the exclusive right to import gold, Razzak would help the government regularize the trade. In November 1994, Pakistan's Commerce Ministry wrote to Razzak informing him that he had been granted a license that made him, for at least the next two years, Pakistan's sole authorized gold importer. In an interview in his office in Dubai, Razzak acknowledged that he had used the license to import more than $500 million in gold into Pakistan, and that he had travelled to Islamabad several times to meet with Bhutto and Zardari. But he denied that there had been any corruption or secret deals. "I have not paid a single cent to Zardari," he said. Razzak claims that someone in Pakistan who wished to destroy his reputation had contrived to have his company wrongly identified as the depositor. "Somebody in the bank has cooperated with my enemies to make false documents," he said.[48][49][50][51]

Bhutto's niece and others have publicly accused Bhutto of complicity in the killing of her brother Murtaza Bhutto in 1996 by uniformed police officers while she was Prime Minister.[52]

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28. "C'wealth apprised of Asif's 'illegal' detention - Dawn Pakistan". http://www.dawn.com/2003/11/09/local35.htm.
29. a b Bhutto Clan Leaves Trail of Corruption in Pakistan, by John F. Burns, The New York Times, 1998-01-09
30. a b Bhutto's Husband Appeals 11 May 1999
31. World News Briefs; Bhutto's Jailed Husband Sworn In as Senator 30 December 1997
32. "The Bhutto saga takes a new turn". http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20060725/16131.htm.
33. Corruption amnesty may release millions for Bhutto, The Sunday Times, 2007-10-14
34. Asif Zardari lays claim to 4-mn-pound UK estate, The Times of India, 2004-08-22
35. £4 m Surrey mansion in Bhutto 'corruption' row, The Sunday Times, 2004-11-21
36. South Asia Bhutto 'corruption' documents reach Pakistan, Thursday, 23 July 1998
37. Swiss Want Bhutto Indicted in Pakistan for Money Laundering, 20 August 1998, Thursday, by Elizabeth Olson
38. Swiss Want Bhutto Indicted in Pakistan for Money Laundering, August 20, 1998, Thursday, by Elizabeth Olson
39. Asia: Pakistan: Bhutto Sentenced In Switzerland 6 August 2003
40. THE BHUTTO MILLIONS; A Background Check Far From Ordinary, 9 January 1998, Friday, By JOHN F. BURNS (NYT)
41. Swiss prosecutor gets case against Bhutto, 29 October 2007, Monday, by The Associated Press
42. £4 m Surrey mansion in Bhutto 'corruption' row 21 November 2004
43. Poland gives Pak papers on $ 2-mn Bhutto bribe 6 May 1999
44. World: South Asia Poland linked to Bhutto corruption charge, Friday, 7 May 1999
45. NAB says Swiss order names Benazir: Ursus tractor case 22 July 2004
46. "Sweet Economic-Political Deal". http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:bpWZNto3YNEJ:www.thepost.com.pk/OpinionNews.aspx%3Fdtlid%3D123803%26catid%3D11+AGP+1990+Bhutto+report&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&client=firefox-a.
47. "Steps taken by France to implement and enforce the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions". https://www.oecd.org/document/35/0,3343,en_33873108_33873838_36428195_1_1_1_1,00.html.
48. House of Graft: Tracing the Bhutto Millions -- A special report.; Bhutto Clan Leaves Trail of Corruption January 9, 1998
49. Bhutto and Her Legacy: Death in Rawalpindi December 28, 2007
50. The Gold Connection, New York Times, 1998
51. Graft charges against Benazir lead to UK April 14, 1998
52. "Murtaza Bhutto's Murder" by Fatima Bhutto retrieved Sun, December 30, 2007
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Busharaf was destabilized from early 2007, with urgings from his "friends" that he should relinquish his position as head of the armed forces, and promised political power and patronage as a civilian president by his "friends". Which he does. He entered into a "deal" brokered by the USA, where upon Bhutto and Zardari can come back into Pakistani politics with a clean chit and "share" power working together within a new democratic set up in Pakistan. Benazir is killed, and Musharaf is destabilized again, with Zardari's party allegedly winning the elections.

What can be learnt from all this for any aspiring Pakistani politician?

Don't get into any power sharing arrangements which compromises your future ability to maneuver policy wise............Pakistani politics is not India.

More importantly don't enter into any power sharing agreements entered into and arranged by the Pakistan military or the USA...........this de-legitimate your position and popular mandate. If you do, then you become beholden t0 them and their whims and wiles....as they deem you as their puppet who must obey on all matters. For Zardari such an arrangement is not a problem, but for a honest decent Pakistani politician it should be. On substantive policy areas you find that you have very little room to maneuver.....you are a non-government. Dutifully shaking hands for the camera, attending countless irrelevant international meetings and state functions, and reporting regularly to the American embassy in Islamabad. BUT NOT actually GOVERNING THE COUNTRY.

Is he saluting the wrong country? Maybe not.

So why was Busharaf removed, the well celebrated/entertained pro-American chamcha chamar chaud who basically did whatever he was told?

1) He opened Pakistani military bases to America which operates to reinforce America in Afghanistan, and the nation through which 80% of the vital logistics of the occupation forces run through into Afghanistan.

2) He withdrew Pakistani military personnel and logistics from the Taliban in 2001, substantially if not wholly, after investing huge amounts of Pakistan's military and logistical support to them for 7 years running.

3) He maintained and reinforced the "al-Qaeda" myth and lie for Israel/America/UK that such a fake organization actually existed, and that they carried out 9/11. Did Musharaf kill OBL in December 2001 using Omer Sheikh, to prevent him repeatedly airing his side and angle about 9/11, contrary to the official Jewish narrative?????Further that a good deal of "al-Qaeda's" members were in Afghanistan/Pakistan...handing over 650 innocents to be tortured, murdered, raped and humiliated....with his full knowledge, some of them Pakistani.

4) Conducted military operations in FATA for the Americans against Pakistanis mainly, killing many Pakistani civilians in the process.

5) Accepting some $12 billion in American aid.

6) Unproven secret guarantees between the USA and Pak military about Pakistan's nuclear sites.

7) In relation to point 1, the opening and handing over of Pakistani bases to be used by the Americans to attack Pakistani targets in Pakistan, in the process of fighting a fake counter-insurgency war. The use of Pakistani bases by America against Iran and the training of Jundallah.

8) Related to point 3. The advertisement through omission and commission by Busharaf of the idea that Pakistan was the "most dangerous state on earth" harboring OBL into 2008 and his "al-Qaeda", and that Musharaf was the only man capable/qualified/loyal in fighting this danger for America/Israel/UK. To be sure $12 billion worth of military and economic aid might be of some good for Pakistan if its not pocketed by corrupt babus and military men in Pakistan...............however what is far far far more dangerous is if Pakistan is perceived to be a dangerous failed state, about to collapse into the hands of the "al-Qaeda" and Taliban. Busharaf in his 9 years in power at the helm with more or less dictatorial powers as a"military strong man" has played a no small part in this dangerous scenario and development in Pakistan, for the JEW.

Hence, with all this service to America and the Jew, as an after thought the attempt at his rehabilitation into Pakistani politics more recently by his American masters.

Why remove Busharaf in the first place? For the Jew behind America enough is never enough........more, more, and more, onwards towards Eretz Israel....the Pakistan nukes must be secured for Israel................for Israel to destroy many Middle Eastern countries there should not be any other nuclear power in the vicinity (not Iraq, not Iran, not Pakistan).


Busharaf for all his "service' to America was not enough of a Chamcha chamar chaud to the Jews (meeting and greeting Sharon, and Barak in NY and Paris). The Jew wanted to realize the dream of securing Pakistan's nuclear weapons finally, and that maybe Busharaf was an obstacle for that final objective and what was needed was a civilian government in Pakistan, extremely weak and corrupt which the Jew could then use as an excuse to say that Pakistan was a unstable failed state about to fall apart, and thus required America to "save" it, ......just like Iraq and Afghanistan by the Jew proxy forces.

From Pakistan's counter strategy perspective, Zardari should not be allowed to operate as President of Pakistan............not a day longer.

An effective civilian government must be installed in his place.

The reinstatement of Chaudri symbolically is good; someone ordinary Pakistanis can believe in who is good, honest, upright, decent, moral, Pak working for Pakistan within the state apparatus of Pakistan........psychologically this is an important need for ordinary Pakistanis..........the civilian politicians and the military have not provided this.

However Chaudri's reinstatement with the tacit approval of the military, and my guess the Americans behind them, does not address the substantive issues and challenges mentioned above about ZARDARI, and why he was brought into power by America/UK in the first place. Thats why some Pakistani commentators have described the recent saga as "the Judge and the fudge.".................its more of a symbolic victory for the Pakistani people, more so if Chaudri was reinstated with certain "pre-conditions" which he has tacitly or otherwise accepted...........1) No questions asked about Musharaf 2) No questions asked about Zardari and his numerous business deals 3) No questions asked about disappeared Pakistanis and the validity of GWOT within Pakistan, around which the Pakistani security system is geared..4) The Sharifs permanently barred from Pakistani politics.

..........so the Sharifs will have to resort to "other' means to obtain power...........in essence that is what the latest Supreme Court ruling is saying............but for God sake, when you've got Zardari as President running the show with his background and a "popular mandate' than technically on a level playing field any old bandoor from a Zoo in Pakistan should be allowed a chance to challenge him WITHIN THE SYSTEM.

Otherwise by default you are stating that Sharif is the rightful and legitimate President/PM of Pakistan, but for the nefarious use of the judiciary in Pakistan, and presumably the reason why Chaudri came into office officially on Tuesday and not Saturday as originally stated.

Finally, if you are an officer and a soldier in Pakistan, and you haven't been to America/UK to be trained and brainwashed, then maybe its time to think about how to defend Pakistan comprehensively, despite the nations leaders.