Category: Pakistan Politics

Former president Pervez Musharraf, in a video message on Wednesday, welcomed the formation of a political alliance between Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), however, Musharraf did so even before it was formally announced.

The video message was shared on social media from the official account of Musharraf’s political party — All Pakistan Muslim league (APML).

Musharraf started the video message by expressing his delight on the merger of political forces representing the Mohajir community. He, however, was quick to clarify that he had no sympathy for MQM and didn’t see any future of that party, but it was necessary for the Mohajir community to unite under one political umbrella.

The former president went on to say that he did not support community-based politics and preferred to do politics for the betterment of the country.

“If the factions of APML unite in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and join hands with them [the newly formed alliance] then this will give birth to a new national-level political force,” Musharraf said while presenting his formula for changing the existing political scenario in the country.

He urged all the communities living in Karachi and rural Sindh to unite under this platform, so that they are able to defeat PPP and form the government in the province.

Alliance or merger?
The announcement of an alliance between the political parties that, until recently, were highly critical of each other attracted mixed reactions on Twitter from politicians. MQM stalwart Ali Haider Abidi announced his decision to quit the party and vacate his NA-251 seat while the press conference was ongoing.

On the other hand, Faisal Sabzwari provided clarification that MQM and PSP had only formed an “alliance” and not announced a merger.

Senior MQM members Nadeem Nusrat and Mustafa Azizabadi did not hold back in hiding their displeasure over the announcement. They lashed out at the “establishment” and praised Abidi for quitting the party. Azizabadi claimed that “Muhajirs” will not accept this alliance.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) leader Asad Umar regarded the event as a long-formed conclusion.
Umar’s colleague Naeemul Haque said there was “nothing wrong” with the announced alliance, however, he raised questions over the leaders’ past.

The leaders of MQM and PSP set aside their bitter rivalry to announce that they were gearing up for the eventual consolidation of their political forces.

“The modalities of this alliance will be decided in the days to come,” MQM Pakistan chief Dr Farooq Sattar had said while addressing a much-hyped press conference at the Karachi Press Club with PSP chairman Mustafa Kamal by his side.

Lahore, Pakistan – Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s wife Kulsoom has won a hotly contested by-election seen as the ruling PML-N party’s first key political challenge following the ex-premier’s recent dismissal.

Kulsoom, 66, comfortably defeated the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Yasmin Rashid in the by-poll in the eastern city of Lahore, considered the Sharifs’ political heartland, on Sunday, unofficial results showed.

Earlier in the day, long lines of voters were seen at many of the NA-120 electoral constituency’s 220 polling stations.

Kulsoom was contesting the seat vacated by Nawaz Sharif after his dismissal by the country’s Supreme Court in July over an omission in his parliamentary wealth declarations.

Her campaign has been spearheaded by Maryam Nawaz, the couple’s daughter and Nawaz’ political heir apparent, in her first real foray into electoral politics. Kulsoom herself is undergoing treatment in the United Kingdom for her recently diagnosed lymphoma.

Nawaz Sharif and three of his children, including Maryam, are currently facing a corruption investigation and trial by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, on the orders of the Supreme Court.

Delivering a victory speech in her mother’s stead, Maryam Nawaz congratulated her party’s workers on the win.

“Today, you have not only fought against those who are visible in the battlefield, but also against those who are invisible,” she said, a veiled hint at the country’s powerful military, which has ruled Pakistan for roughly half of its 70-year history since independence.

She said the by-poll result represented a rejection of the Supreme Court’s decision by voters.

“The people have given their verdict on the verdict today,” she told a roaring crowd of hundreds gathered at the Sharif residence in Lahore.

Standing against Kulsoom was the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Yasmin Rashid, a middle-class professional doctor who has mainly campaigned on the Imran Khan-led party’s anti-corruption platform.

The constituency, home to almost half a million of Lahore’s 11 million residents, is deep in the heart of the old city, and is considered a Sharif stronghold. His party has not lost the seat since it began contesting elections in 1985.

“It’s very difficult for them to take this from us,” said Sohail Butt, 48, a PML-N voter in the Mozang area of the city. “In our area, work only gets done if you go through [the PML-N’s] workers.”

Arif Khan, 32, a voter from the working class Bilal Ganj neighbourhood, said he voted for Sharif’s party because of its overhaul of the road, sewerage, and water network in his area.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) voters, meanwhile, appeared to be motivated to vote more on national issues, rather than connection to their party’s local networks.

“I see this is as the first main test for Nawaz Sharif [after his dismissal],” said Zeeshan Khan, 22, a student at Punjab University. “This is a way for the people to show whether they still stand with the PML-N after the verdict.”

Pakistan’s ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday insisted that his removal from office did not mean his future in politics was over, as he plans to go head with a rally this week and fight a legal battle to reverse his disqualification.

“I don’t want reinstatement for myself. I am struggling to ensure the rule of law in Pakistan,” he said in a meeting with a select group of journalists in Islamabad.

Sharif said his legal experts will soon file a review petition against the July 28 Supreme Court order that ousted him from power for concealing assets — specifically, that his son’s Dubai-based company listed a monthly salary for him. Sharif has repeatedly said he never received any of that money.

He said that he was determined to travel the following day to his powerbase, the eastern of city of Lahore, despite a deadly bombing there Monday which killed one person and wounded 30 others.

“I am going to my home. Do I not have a right to go to my home?” asked Sharif.

According to Malik Mohammad, a spokesman in Punjab where Lahore is the provincial capital, security arrangements for Sharif’s rally have finalized.

Ahmed said police were still investigating who was behind the Monday bombing.

Sharif said he wanted to start a debate, in parliament and public, to discuss why no elected prime minister has complete their full term in Pakistan, which has been ruled by army generals for more than half of its 70-year history.

When asked whether the army had influenced the judiciary against him, Sharif said “let’s leave this question for later.”

Sharif has a history of rocky relations with the military, and he was cautious about commenting on the sensitive issue of civil-military relations. He insisted he was a victim of a conspiracy, but he avoided a direct answer when asked who conspired against him.

“You will know the answers to these questions soon,” he said.

Sharif’s removal plunged Pakistan into political turmoil but parliament in less than a week elected senior lawmaker Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the country’s new prime minister. Sharif’s party initially wanted Abbasi to serve as an interim premier for 45 days until Sharif’s younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, secures a national assembly seat in a by-election.

On Tuesday, Sharif said his party won’t replace Abbasi with his brother, but that decision has yet to be finalized.

Sharif did not say who will now lead his ruling Pakistan Muslim League party as last month’s court decision also barred him from participating in politics.

He said he was first removed by a president in 1993, then military dictator Pervez Musharraf toppled his government in 1999 and “now the judiciary has sent me home.”

“Does Pakistan’s elected prime minister deserve to be removed in such an insulting manner?” he asked.
He reiterated that neither he and nor any of his family members were involved in corruption.

Sharif criticized the investigators in the probe against him and his family, saying “our worst opponents were part of the JIT (Joint Investigation Team)” which was appointed by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
Sharif insisted that a larger panel in the court should hear his review petition.

He vowed to launch a mass campaign to apprise his countrymen of the work he did to put the country “back on path of progress and prosperity.”

“God willing, I will remain active. I will keep guiding my party,” he said.

Meanwhile, in another challenge to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, firebrand opposition cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri returned home after mostly living abroad amid pending court-cases against him in Pakistan. He has vowed to get justice for eight of his supporters killed in anti-government rallies in 2014.

Qadri, the fiery cleric, said Tuesday that he will launch a new anti-government campaign and praised the Supreme Court for disqualifying Sharif.

Pakistan’s ousted Sharif vows to remain active in politics
“Nawaz Sharif lost power because of the curses of those who lost their dear ones” in the 2014 shootouts with police, the cleric said.
———
Associated Press Writer Zaheer Babar in Lahore, Pakistan, contributed to this story.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a politician educated in the United States, was elected prime minister of Pakistan on Tuesday. Parliament held a special election to replace his predecessor and mentor, who was disqualified on corruption charges.

Here is what you need to know about Pakistan’s new leader.
A Staunch Loyalist

A steadfast ally of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Mr. Abbasi, 58, was named interim prime minister last week after the Supreme Court disqualified Mr. Sharif from office and he was forced to resign.

Mr. Abbasi has gone to prison for his political patron. He spent two years behind bars after a 1999 coup, in which Mr. Sharif was overthrown by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Mr. Abbasi at the time was pressured by the military to testify against Mr. Sharif, but he refused and was jailed. He was later acquitted.

That loyalty to Mr. Sharif was later repaid with a high-profile cabinet position when the ousted leader returned to power in 2013. It is assumed that Mr. Abbasi is holding the office until Mr. Sharif’s brother Shehbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab Province, wins a seat in Parliament in a coming by-election and can become prime minister.

A Long Career
Mr. Abbasi is a member of the governing party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. He has been elected to Parliament six times, losing an election only once.

After losing his first and only election in 2002, Mr. Abbasi founded Airblue Limited, a budget carrier. After being elected to Parliament in 2008, he was named commerce minister, and he was appointed minister of petroleum and natural resources in 2013. He held that position until last week, when Mr. Sharif’s cabinet was disbanded by the Supreme Court.

An American Education
Mr. Abbasi comes from a wealthy and well-connected political family. His father was a member of Parliament and a commodore in the Pakistani Air Force. His father-in-law was director general of the powerful military intelligence agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence.

An electrical engineer by training, he received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s from George Washington University in Washington.

People who know him, including businessmen who have dealt with him, say he is highly intelligent and has a sharp sense of humor. In addition to his holdings in Airblue, he is said to own property in his hometown, Muree, and a restaurant business, making him one of Parliament’s richest members, according to the local news media.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the removal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office over accusations of corruption, delivering a ruling that is likely to shift the country’s tumultuous political balance and deal a serious blow to the legacy of a man who helped define the past generation of Pakistani politics.

The removal of Mr. Sharif, who was serving his third term in office, comes roughly a year before his term was to end.

The verdict means the governing political party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, must choose an interim prime minister to replace Mr. Sharif until the next general election, which is scheduled for mid-2018.

Announced by the five-member Supreme Court, the verdict caps more than a year of high political drama, breathless court proceedings and a piercing investigation into the finances of the Sharif family.

Watching the courtroom drama was the country’s powerful military, which has traditionally decided the fate of civilian governments. There had been hushed speculation that the court, in coming to its decision, had the tacit, if not overt, backing of powerful generals.

The charges against Mr. Sharif and three of his children — two sons and a daughter — stemmed from disclosures last year in the Panama Papers, which revealed that the children owned expensive residential property in London through a string of offshore companies.

In their unanimous verdict on Friday, the justices declared that Mr. Sharif was not “honest” and that he therefore was “disqualified to be a member of the Parliament.” They also ordered the opening of criminal investigations against the Sharif family.

Imran Khan, the opposition politician who has been spearheading the campaign against Mr. Sharif since he took power in 2013, stands to gain the most politically from the removal of Mr. Sharif. Mr. Khan has doggedly and almost obsessively led the charge against Mr. Sharif and rallied a wide swath of the public against him through a mix of street agitation and court petitions.

The Supreme Court had asked the members of the Sharif family to provide a paper trail of the money they used to buy their London apartments. Investigators found that they were “living beyond their means.”

Despite repeated court exhortations, Mr. Sharif’s family and its lawyers failed to provide satisfactory documentation, the justices said. Several of the documents they produced were declared fake or insufficient.

A representative of the governing party said that Mr. Sharif was stepping down because of the court verdict. But the party expressed “strong reservations” over the ruling and said it was contemplating “all legal and constitutional means” to challenge it, the representative added in a statement.

In 1990, Mr. Sharif was ushered into power as head of the Pakistan Muslim League. As his business grew, suspicions of corruption surfaced. He was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1993. The Supreme Court eventually deemed his dismissal unconstitutional, but Mr. Sharif resigned under pressure from Pakistan’s powerful military.

Mr. Sharif was elected again in 1997. Two years later, a military coup ended his term after he fired the army chief, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and then, according to reports, kept the general’s return flight to Pakistan from landing. Troops loyal to Gen. Musharraf seized the Karachi airport and overthrew the prime minister. Mr. Sharif was tried and found guilty of hijacking and terrorism and sentenced to life in prison.

After spending seven years in exile in a deal brokered by the Saudi royal family, Mr. Sharif returned to Pakistan in 2007. He was cleared of criminal charges and deemed eligible to run for office. Mr. Sharif was again elected prime minister in 2013, but he was met with opposition and faced large protests in 2014. He was tried on corruption charges after the 2016 Panama Papers revealed that his children owned expensive homes in London through a string of offshore companies.

Mr. Sharif has called the inquiry into his family’s finances a conspiracy and has asserted that in his three terms as prime minister he has not been tarred by a major corruption scandal. He repeatedly rebuffed calls to resign and said that he had done no wrong.

The ruling, while expected, leaves unanswered the long-term fate of the man who has been a dominating force in Pakistani politics for the better part of three decades.

“I did not expect Nawaz Sharif to go scot-free,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a prominent political analyst who is based in Lahore.

“If he has a long-term vision, he will sit back and guide his political party,” Mr. Rizvi added. “He and his supporters will portray the court verdict as victimization and a grave conspiracy involving international powers.”

Mr. Sharif’s removal from office throws his political succession plans into disarray. His daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif, who was being groomed as his political heir, was also implicated in the case.

Political insiders say there are several possible contenders to replace Mr. Sharif: Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the speaker of the national assembly; Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the minister of petroleum; Khurram Dastgir Khan, the commerce minister; and Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the defense minister.

“Whoever they bring will be a weak prime minister, as Nawaz Sharif would want to have someone who is more or less in line with his thinking,” Mr. Rizvi said.

Mr. Khan’s supporters had laid siege to the Parliament and other government buildings in 2014 after accusing Mr. Sharif of rigging the 2013 general elections. Another attempt to blockade the capital in 2016 was unsuccessful, but it forced the Supreme Court justices to take up the Panama Papers case.

“The whole country is at a standstill due to the Panama Papers case,” Mr. Khan said. Critics said Mr. Khan was pressuring the courts.

Political analysts say the court verdict hands Mr. Khan an undeniable political and moral victory.

“Imran Khan will be strengthened, but it remains to be seen how he capitalizes in Punjab Province, which is critical to winning the general elections,” Mr. Rizvi said. Punjab, the most populous and prosperous of the country’s four provinces, has remained a stronghold of Mr. Sharif for decades.

Mr. Sharif presided over a period of relative economic stability and was able to complete a few large infrastructure projects while reducing the crippling power outages that have long afflicted Pakistan.

But the stubborn scandal over the London real estate holdings sullied the reputation of the family.

Mr. Sharif’s political party nonetheless hopes that his achievements can bring it another electoral success next year even if Mr. Sharif cannot run for office. Mr. Sharif is expected to campaign for his party.

During his current tenure, Mr. Sharif had an uneven relationship with the powerful military. His overtures of more openness toward India, Pakistan’s longtime foe, backfired as generals spurned his efforts.

More recently, relations with the military took a darker turn after news reports detailed how civilian officials confronted the military over what they called a failure to act against Islamist groups. Mr. Sharif had to fire his information minister and two top aides to placate the army.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said the Panama Papers ruling was “a real test of our system.”

Some predicted a politically volatile time ahead.

“Until the elections, this will lead to a period of political instability,” Amber Rahim Shamsi, a prominent journalist who hosts a show on Dawn TV, said of the verdict.

“The Sharif political dynasty has somehow managed to survive Pakistan’s rough and bloody politics for over three and a half decades through wheeling and dealing,” Ms. Shamsi said. “It is hard to imagine all the family falling like a pack of cards. Nawaz Sharif has a following and could cash in on political martyrdom to stage a comeback.”

NEW YORK, July 22: Accused Umair Hamid has pled guilty for selling fake degrees at high costs under the garb of fake US colleges and universities. Instead of July 21, he will now be given the final sentence on August 21.

The accused has also signed an acceptance letter to pay $5 million and part of his wealth as fine in the fake degree-selling case.

By calling himself as the Pakistani company Axact’s vice president, the accused started the business of selling fake degrees in the US and other parts of the world at a very high level.

By going through the documents of this case from the US federal court, accused Umair Hamid of criminal case number 17 was kept under the supervision of the US law enforcement agencies. After receiving complaints from various residents, the inspector of the Postal Service Department kept investigating the case with a keen eye and also got support from the FBI. Finally, Umair Hamid was arrested on December 20, 2016.

However, on the basis of witnesses, who coordinated with the government, and proof gathered from various other sources, the lawyers presented a solid case in front of respected Judge Ronnie Abrams.

It should remain clear that the person who brought a bad name to Pakistan, Umair Hamid, was arrested and a case was prepared against him in the supervision of Obama tenure’s district attorney Preet Bharara, who had also revealed the irregularities and frauds of many renowned personalities of the Wall Street and stock exchange.

Accused Umair Hamid, who is also known as ‘Shah’ and ‘Shah Khan’, had pled guilty in April 2017 and is waiting for the final verdict of the court. The accused has signed a written acceptance letter to pay a fine of $5,303,020 and part of his wealth, according to the document number 36, dated April 6, 2017.

This document of the court is signed by Judge Ronnie Abrams, accused Umair Hamid, his lawyer Patrick Smith and the government lawyer David Abramowicz. This initial order of the court is termed as ‘money judgement’.

In another document, the lawyer of Umair Hamid has assured the court, in a letter, that the family of the accused will pay his all related fee. The lawyer also mentioned in this document that there might be a ‘third party’ willing or trying to pay the lawyer’s fee.

In the case, the court has ordered to keep some sensitive information and names confidential. Some other unknown people are being held accountable alongside Umair Hamid in this crime. By going through the record of this case, it can be understood that this case contains a lot of sensitive details and aspects.

However as per the case details, it is not known yet if accused Umair Hamid has appealed to the US government to lessen his punishment or if the accused has shown readiness to further cooperate in interrogation.

In the US system, it is a custom that if the accused provides more details on the case and names of more people involved, then the court would be less strict in its verdict. The final verdict on Umair Hamid case will be announced on August 21, 2017.