NRO – Anti-PPP propaganda and reality: an eyewitness account by Senator A. Rehman Malik

There are lot of controversies created in the media on an imaginary NRO supposedly signed between Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and General Pervez Musharraf for allegedly aiming at dropping all the case against PPP leadership. I would like to categorically deny this perception by challenging everyone who has been claiming that an NRO was signed between Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and General Pervez Musharraf. I expect someone either to accept my challenge or stop criticising against PPP leadership.

I feel that it is my national duty to put the facts straight related to series of meetings with General Pervez Musharraf and his team where I was leading on behalf of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in London and Dubai with the help of some important aides of General Pervez Musharraf.

The first conversation took place between Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and General Ehtisham Zamir on our way back to London from Bradford in which it was offered by General Pervez Musharraf to release Asif Ali Zardari from jail to start the dialogue. She, however, declined that offer and informed Gen. Zamir in my presence that she would like to first release the PPP workers and other party leaders including Jahangir Badar, Yousaf Raza Gillani and others as confidence building measures to start any dialogue with him, as they are kept in jail due to political vendetta. This was the first NRO, which was declined by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and regretted the offer of release of Senator Asif Ali Zardari.

There was a gap in the dialogue for some time and some of the government operators were talking to Yousaf Raza Gillani who declined to leave the Pakistan People’s Party to join Musharraf. Similar offers were given to Makhdoom Amin Faheem who also declined it with thanks.The second round of the dialogue started in mid-2006, when a message was received from General Pervez Musharraf for a dialogue on transition of democracy. I had couple of meetings with the close aides of General Pervez Musharraf from army and his Principle Secretary level in Dubai on various dates. Both Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Mr. Asif Ali Zardari were kept informed about the developments.

A couple of meetings between me and close aides of General Pervez Musharraf resulted into a meeting between Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Abu Dhabi in early 2007 in a palace in the presence of some royal members and DG ISI Gen. Kiyani. This meeting was coordinated and facilitated by certain dignitaries of UAE.

Two Generals, myself, General Musharraf and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto sat for the cup of tea and before saying goodbye, a few minutes before departure, General Musharraf asked Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto not to come Pakistan before 31st December 2007 and insisted to come after the General Elections and then we will celebrate the new year week together. She responded in negative and turned down the offer of General Pervez Musharraf by saying that “General Sahib it is not you who will decide my return date; it is my prerogative to decide as to when I would return and I have decided to return back on the 18th October, 2007”.

In the meantime, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto went to the ladies room and General Musharraf addressed me saying that she listens you as a brother so please convince her not to come to Pakistan before general elections and I told General Musharraf that once she has decided her return date then it is not possible to change her decision, so please follow what she has told him. I told him that those who are supporting you and your uniform, one day you will look behind and there will be no one for you. But General Musharraf did not agree with me by stating that there would be lot of people who would stay behind him. The time is testimony that how he left.

It was the second offer by Gen. Musharraf to Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, which was declined by her in the said meeting. The third attempt was made by General Musharraf when a senior General called me to come to Dubai from London, as he wanted to meet Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto with a special message of Gen. Musharraf. I accordingly flew from London to Dubai. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto indicated a time for meeting and I along with the said General drove to her residence and on the way I came to know that he has offer for her from Gen. Musharraf for the closure of all cases in return of deferring the return of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan before elections. The said meeting took place and resulted in a big no from her besides refusing the offer of closure of the cases. This was the third offer of NRO, which Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had turned down.

Lately, Gen. Pervez Musharraf sent two of his trusted Generals along with Iqbal Z Khan who met Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto with yet another offer where Ms Naheed Khan and Mr. Safder Abbasi were also present. It was offered to Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto to accept the Chairmanship of Senate however Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto declined this 5th offer of NRO by Gen. Musharraf via his three trusted friends.

For the fourth time I received a call from President’s office informing that Ch. Shujaat Hussain along with Ch. Pervez Elahi and Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed have been tasked by General Musharraf to meet Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto with yet another offer and to convince her to defer his return to Pakistan before elections. I was flying from Dubai to London and I had taken my boarding card to fly but on the instructions of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto I returned the boarding card and returned to her residence where we discussed the pros & cons of the meeting with three members of opponent party on behalf of Gen. Musharraf and finally Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto decided not to meet the visiting politicians. Hence I informed the Principle Secretary to Gen. Musharraf and in return I was informed that a special plane has been arranged for three of them to fly to Dubai and they were present at the airport. I however regretted that she has refused to meet them. It was the fourth time that the offer of an NRO was scrapped by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.

At another later date a telephonic conversation took place between Gen. Musharraf and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto wherein she demanded of Gen. Pervez Musharraf to hold elections on time, to take off his uniform, to appoint a new Army Chief and successful transition of power to the next elected government. Gen. Musharraf however stated that Gen. Hamid would get in touch for some further proposals.

Few days later Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari were present in a hotel in London and I was also there when I received a message from Gen. Hamid informing me that he is faxing a document like an agreement between Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Gen. Musharraf to take the mutual understanding forward. I went to the reception, collected the fax received from Gen. Hamid, presented it to her and as a result of discussion she decided to decline the said offer which was obviously not acceptable to her not to travel back to Pakistan before elections in return of the closure of cases against her. I accordingly informed Gen. Hamid and it was 6th time offer of the NRO, which was frustrated by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.

There was no written or verbal agreement between Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Gen. Pervez Musharraf, which could have been termed as NRO at later stage. However, there were persistent demands from Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto to Gen. Pervez Musharraf, as mentioned above. The same demands were followed later on when she arrived and it was me who conveyed to Gen. Musharraf and the guarantors of the dialogue that Gen. Musharraf had left with no choice except to take off his uniform. The persistent demands of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto for the sake of restoration of democracy in the country had dismayed Gen. Musharraf. Besides, there were lot of under current issues within the government institutions but can be stated at some appropriate time.

In fact, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had declined the offer of Gen. Musharraf for 6th time, but Gen. Musharraf wanted to oblige MQM for the closure of the cases by using the shoulders of the PPP. Mr. M. Anwar spoke to me about this offer of NRO and I told him that we were out of it and never been in search of any NRO. What I learnt later was that the Law Minister Mr. Hamid drafted the NRO which in fact Ch. Shujaat and two other political leaders wanted to bring to Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto for her consent and having been declined several time Gen. Musharraf issued an NRO Ordinance proposed by the Ministry of Law duly approved by the Cabinet headed by Shaukat Aziz and it was implemented.

It may be kept in mind that none of the leadership of Pakistan People’s Party including Asif Ali Zardari were part of the Government and/or the Cabinet to have either influenced the government to issue National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). Hence PPP Leadership cannot be blamed for such NRO, which was, in fact, initiated by Gen. Musharraf on behalf of other party and not PPP.

If the investigation take place, the number of beneficiaries, cases closed, accused released from the jail will clear as to who were the actual beneficiary of NRO. It would be without any exaggeration to say that MQM had been the major beneficiary of the NRO of which thousands of cases were closed as a result of NRO and were never reopened after having NRO scrapped by the Supreme Court.

Once again I with full responsibility categorically stated that there was no NRO between PPP and Gen. Musharraf. The big achievements, which Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto achieved, were the dosing off the uniform by Gen. Musharraf, conducting of elections on time, appointment of new Army Chief and smooth transition of power. These were the achievement of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and she got those achieved without surrendering herself and without signing NRO.

Whatever I have written above, every word can be corroborated with evidence hence I appeal to all those who are blaming PPP for signing the NRO to not to distort historical facts out of personal disliking of the party.

  Note: The Article was published in "The Nation" dated October 28, 2018 and the link : NRO – Anti-PPP propaganda and reality: an eyewitness account by Senator A. Rehman Malik

Saudi financing – Not enough Mr. PM by Senator A. Rehman Malik

Saudi Arabia is like our elder brother and has always helped Pakistan in difficult times. The recent aid by Saudi Arabia on the request of Prime Minister Imran Khan is indeed a sympathetic gesture but it is neither first nor enough. Saudi Arabia is giving such grand favours to Pakistan since day one and supported us in the two wars with India in 1965 and 1971 also. This time, Saudi Arabia was kind enough to give us ‘Deferred Oil Payments Relief’ by increasing the payment period from three months to one year. The relief package shows that now Saudi Arabia would be selling its oil to Pakistan with an extended period of 12 months instead of 3 months.

On the invitation of the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, in 1974 King Shah Faisal of Saudi Arabia helped Pakistan to host the OIC Summit in Lahore. The historical summit was attended by great charismatic leaders i.e. King Shah Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, President Mohammad Muammer Gaddafi of Libya, President Houari Boumedienne of Algeria, Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razzak of Malaysia, Mr. Yasser Arafat Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, President Anwer Saddat of Egypt and others.

The major support came from Saudi, when Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto- the architect of the country’s atomic programme, said in an interview in 1965 ‘’we (Pakistan) will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own (atom bomb).... we have no other choice”. Pakistan had achieved the capability to detonate a nuclear bomb by the end of 1984, the development of which had begun in January 1972 under Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Pakistan became the first Islamic Nuclear State with brotherly help of Saudi Arabia and some other Muslim Countries. On 28 May, 1998, when Pakistan successfully conducted nuclear tests and subsequently sanctions were imposed by West, Saudi Arabia came forward and helped us by supplying 50,000 barrels of oil free of cost per day for one year. Besides, more than 1.5 million Pakistanis are working in Saudi Arabia contributing 10 % of total remittances being received from overseas Pakistanis.

Saudi Arabia along with UAE generously helped Pakistan in response to the 2005 earthquake in Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Northern Areas of Pakistan. The then Saudi King Abdullah had announced emergency aid package worth 133 million dollars for Pakistan to help the earthquake stricken areas. The people of Saudi Arabia had also made a big contribution in helping victims of the earthquake, on the call of Saudi government.

This time, when the country is passing through financial crisis, on the request of Pakistani Prime Minister, Saudi Arabia again came forward and announced a ‘Relief Package for Pakistan’. According to the reports, the Saudi Arabia has agreed to give Pakistan $3 billion in foreign currency support for a year and a further loan worth up to $3 billion in deferred payments for oil imports. Saudi Arabia will place a deposit of $3billion in our Central Bank, which will remain as a deposit in the name of Saudi treasury. This amount will remain there as balance of payment support and Pakistan will neither be able to use it for any of its economic needs nor will it be able to use it for repayments to International Monetary Fund -IMF. It must be mentioned here and the nation must know the fact that this Saudi package is neither a loan nor a grant and it should be treated as normal fixed deposit of a client in our Central Bank. The deposit would be withdrawn after a period of one year by the Saudi Government from Central Bank. This nominal deposit of $3 billion is not going to bring any qualitative changes to the economic burdens we are facing. This deposit will merely reflect our foreign reserves but the higher inflation rate will continue to increase and the price hike will continue even if the growth rate increases by some fractions.

Prime Minster Imran Khan has said that the Saudi Government has announced this amount of $3 billion for oil on deferred payment for one year whereas Saudi Arabia was already giving oil to Pakistan on the basis of three months deferred payment facility. The Prime Minister also claims that it cannot be treated as loan hence cannot be used to pay off the IMF repayments. This amount shall be used to buy crude oil only on some fixed FOB price and the additional cost will be added to make it C&F delivery to Pakistan. This ‘Defer Oil Payments Relief’ by Saudi Arabia is actually a business deal to sell the oil on easy conditions and extended period of payment, in other words a help in goods rather than cash.

The situation has raised the following common questions to be answered by Mr. Asad Umar, Finance Minister of Pakistan.

Will Pakistan have to pay some interest/ profit on this fixed deposit if it is allowed for investment purpose?

What are the terms of agreement on deferred payment for oil and will it be on spot basis cargo or through regular supHas Saudi Arabia allowed the using of $3billion deposit for economic needs of Pakistan?

ply?

If it is regular supply then I want to ask if it will be purchased on Brent basis or the ORB (OPEC Reference Basket). And, are the prices fixed or would be fixed on each cargo?

Will the supply be on FOB basis or the C&F?

Will there be interest on these deferred payments? And what are the present terms of Saudi sweet light crude oil presently being supplied by Aramco?

Will both the Governments agree on the existing terms of sale / purchase as decided by Aramco?

What volume / quantity in terms of barrels per month is agreed and how many cargos?

Is this help from Saudi Arabia going to fulfil our entire requirement?

The above questions should be taken in positive direction, as these are my questions for my Government as a Parliamentarian. This relief is not going to solve our deep-rooted economic crunches and it looks Pakistan will have to go to IMF for further loan. The economic specialists cannot cure this ailing economy with a Panadol only rather it needs very skilful economic surgery by infusing SOS measures in mobilisation of our own richly available resources. Nation needs a pragmatic economic plan whereas it is still being kept in dark vis-à-vis knowledge of the grave growing economic situations of the country and forthcoming tsunami of price hike, which will add further miseries for common people.

I pray that May Allah help our nation to get out of these grave economic crises.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The Nation’’ on October 26^th, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/26-Oct-2018/625844

Pak socio-economic time bombs by Senator A. Rehman Malik

Pakistan has been going through turmoil due to the isolation and stumbling of economy since long and we have not yet been able to get our economy back to the right track. I will attribute to the failure of successive governments which failed to keep watch on the leakage and destruction of the economy because of their bad fiscal policies. Let us not hesitate in terming this as national failure. Our main problem remained as lack of political wisdom to move the country as the country had fallen prey in the hands of own complexes rather the rulers worked more to save their rule against the internal and external political compulsion rather run the country on merit and the economy remained as the last priority.

The weak economy in fact forced the rulers to beg from US, IMF and the World Bank. All of these international aiding institutions have their own geo political agenda and we continued getting trapped in their hands. We are now in a tight grip of this octopus in the form of a non-ending web of debt trap. The weak dictatorships and fragile governance have always been under their pressure and unable to play in the greater national interest. What could be the fate of a nation whose President House is offered to CIA Director William J Casey to make war plans and make it a battle ground for world powers at the cost of national interest?

Let me confess that the terrorism is a created warfare by West in Pakistan in order to achieve the following:

1. To get a control over Afghanistan and to ensure that USA policies are implemented till the time USA wants. On December 25, 1991, the once-mighty Soviet Union had fallen, largely due to the great number of radical reforms that Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev had implemented during his six years as the leader of the USSR. Gorbachev also resigned from his job as he was disappointed, leaving Boris Yeltsin as president of Afghanistan in 1979, Mikhail Gorbachev, replaced the ineffectual Karmalas president of Afghanistan with Muhammad Najibullah. But after almost a decade of war, Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan in February 1989. By the end of Afghan war, Afghanistan erupted into a violent civil war that was to last until 1996 and was more intense in its violence than anything witnessed during the Soviet-Afghan War. As the Afghan Civil War progressed and Soviet aid diminished, Najibullah’s position became increasingly vulnerable as the Soviet back had also been cut. On 26th of September 1996 in the UN compound in Kabul city, Dr Mohammad Najibullah and his brother Shahpur Ahmadzai were tortured and killed publically by Afghan Taliban. He wanted to flee from Kabul and so he planned a secret flight to India along with Benon Sevan, head of the UN’s humanitarian aid division to Afghanistan. The Kabul airport was under the control of his friend Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan of Uzbek heritage and not just Dostum, most of his partymen had also abandoned Najibullah in this plan. Foreign minister Abdul Wakil and army Chief General Mohammad Nabi Azimi, keen on their own political and physical survival, wanted to offer Najibullah as a prisoner to the Mujahideen forces. They had rushed to the airport on getting news of Najibullah’s escape attempt, and asked Sevan to disembark the plane to avoid further embarrassment and potential violence as they wanted Sevan alive and safe given his UN connection. Najibullah was hated because of his connections with Soviets but was a true preacher of peace and laid down his life for the unity of his country. Execution of Najibullah is one of those many reasons of rift between Pakistan and Afghanistan as General Zia had trained Gulbudin Hekmatyar and other such warlords who destabilised Afghan government.

3. During the Afghan-USSR war, Pakistan got very close to Afghanistan as USA was channeling everything through Pakistan. During the rule of Taliban in Afghanistan, the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan was very close. It all changed after the 9/11 in 2001 attacks and Taliban was denounced by everyone including Pakistan. Pakistan basically toed the line of USA reluctantly because George Bush said, “Either you are with us, or with them”. In one stroke Pakistan lost their best Afghan ally. Taliban had Osama bin Laden as their state guest and they indulged in global terrorism.

Both attacks brought economic crunch in Pakistan with increase in production/consumption of drugs and culture of gun running.

Let us examine how these war strokes hit our economy, developments and contributed to the destruction of peace in Pakistan. We lost our developments progress which can be judged by the following indicators and we started losing our economic foot hold.

Let’s see how gradually we lost in terms of sliding rupee:

Priority of dollar to Rupee

1972 Z.A Bhutto 4.7- 9.9

1983 Zia-ul-Haq 13.1 - 17.7

1990 Benazir Bhutto 24.0

1991 Nawaz Sharif 25.0

1994 Benazir Bhutto 30.6 - 40.3

1997-99 Nawaz Sharif 53.0

1999-2008 Pervez Musharraf 62.0

2008 – 2013 Asif Ali Zardari 67.9 – 98.3

2013 – 2018 Nawaz Sharif 100.75 – 128.50

2018 Imran Khan 134

If you examine the corresponding timings you will see our destruction started during the Afghan war followed by unstable successive governments.

The downward slide shows that our socio-economic structure was badly destroyed with neighbouring Afghan giving rise to engineered terrorism which engulfed the peace as well as the law & order situation of our country. The situation has scared the investors resulting into the flight of capital from Pakistan to alternate locations chosen by rich businessman.

The above indicators show how badly the Afghan wars have affected our economy. The successive decline in rupee and other indicators are the testimony of socio-economic bogging down. We did not learn the lesson and could not understand the long terms of war against Pakistan. The West created forces like al-Qaeda, Taliban and now Daesh making peace in Pakistan to be at risk all the time. The Daesh is playing on its master’s voice in Middle East and it is being felt that next targets of Daesh will be Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and China and it is written on the walls that Daesh will operate worse than al-Qaeda.

The above data shows that the value of our rupee slid down because of these proxy wars/ Afghan war. Similarly our investments went low because of insecurities by investors.

The war on terror by the USA has been very damaging for Pakistan and it is not stopping and continuing on daily basis. The impact of Afghan refugees is huge on our fragile economy. It has also negative impact on our social fiber and country remained hostage in the hands of terrorism and the refugee’s camps remained hub of terrorist activities as they have served as nurseries for terrorists.

We need to build our national institutions by some good doable policies to improve our socio-economic sector and accountability processes to control corruption.

The negative propaganda must end now and let there be collective national approach to get out of the economic crunch and other grave crises. We are sitting on time bomb with this deteriorating economy which may lead us to international bankruptcy and serious internal crises as the rupee has gone under serious pressure.

Let us be honest in acceptance of the fact that this government has no option except to get further loan from IMF on their conditions whose impact in the shape of price hike is visible and it is going to be seen more. The government needs to focus on their own economic policies now to overcome these growing crises and to avoid these tiny and bigger time bombs from blowing in the form of bouts of price hike for a common man. It would be better for PM Imran Khan and his team to overcome these growing economic crises in time.

Now is the time that the government needs to drastically reduce the imports and allow the incentive based exports. Recovery of billions of dollars defaulted by business community and State Bank was unable to recover it. It will help towards retirements of foreign debt.

The Government must act without discrimination against the business community which has taken trillions of dollars out of Pakistan to Canada/Malaysia and Sri lanka but unfortunately the authorities have turned blind eye towards this illegal flight of capital from Pakistan. Pakistan suffered in the hands of corrupt business community and their supporters from banks. It is important to the core to get rid of these small time bombs of bursting economy everyday.

I appeal to everybody who matters to stop propagating about corruption in Pakistan without proofs as it is destroying our image and international rating for Pakistan economy and investment.

I would like to conclude by advising the ruling party that it is not the time to create unwise negative atmosphere in the Parliament rather take both the houses into confidence and place your government’s vision, policies and proposals on fiscal, foreign and internal security policies before the joint session of the Parliament to get collective vision for long term strategies and to take the country out of the crises with common vision.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The News’’ on October 22^nd, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/383862-pak-socio-economic-time-bombs

Need to halt fiscal tsunami by Senator A. Rehman Malik

In view of the foregoing plight of the people of Pakistan, I would like to humbly appeal to the CJP to invoke Constitutional Jurisdiction of Honorable Court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 to determine the question of public importance inter-alia on the strength of following grounds.

That colonisation of national economy of Pakistan by the foreign countries and corporations has jeopardised the economic life of the people of Pakistan.

That people of Pakistan have been mortgaged against their will to foreign and local debt of astronomical size.

That debt is an existential threat for Pakistan including our nuclear assets.

That sovereignty of Pakistan is now squarely within the tight grip of the ‘Financial Octopus’ and further loans from IMF & Asian Bank would further endanger us.

In order to enforce above noted and other fundamental rights of general public, questions of importance are being raised in this article with the hope and request that the Honourable Supreme Court may take Suo Moto action under Article 184(3) to redress the grievances. The Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan, besides constituting a judicial commission headed by a serving or retired judge of the Supreme Court to supervise and ensure the implementation of the directions of the Supreme Court, may like to direct:

1.            The Finance Ministry to submit a debt retirement plan in the honourable court with the undertaking that they will implement and stick to the plan in letter and spirit;

2.            The government not to take further loans, with further directions to take necessary measures to avoid foreign borrowing at such a monumental rate and to decrease the current external debt in a specified time frame.

No doubt that dams and debts are the determinants of future of Pakistan. The august Court has already taken notice of dams and the nation is on the way at the initiative of the Honourable Chief Justice towards recovery and containing the future water crises. These are the days of change. The good and great persons are teaming up to face the challenges upfront. It is an opportune time to draw the attention of this Honourable Court towards the economic emergency looming over this poor nation.

I honestly believe that the CJP is fully aware of the provisions of Article 38 of the constitution, which is being reproduced hereunder for ready reference for the general public:

Promotion of social and economic well-being of the people.—The State shall—

a)          secure the well-being of the people, irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, by raising their standard of living, by preventing the concentration of wealth and means of production and distribution in the hands of a few to the detriment of general interest and by ensuring equitable adjustment of rights between employers and employees, and landlords and tenants;

(d)          provide basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing, housing, education and medical relief, for all such citizens, irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, as are permanently or temporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account of infirmity, sickness or unemployment;

As is explained above, Article 38 of the Constitution visualises a bare minimum economic life of the citizenry. This Article is not merely a principle of policy if seen from the prospective of economic survival. I urge to press into service and operation this principle of policy because it has bearing on the chapter of Fundamental Rights enacted in constitution.

“The New Confessions of an Economic Hit man” by John Perkins, an international bestseller book identifies various consequences of debts and donations to the weaker nations of the planet. He has discussed the role of World Bank, USAID vis-à-vis underdeveloped countries which are force to accept enormous development loans from these institutions resultantly forcing them to acquiesce the political pressure from the United States on variety of issues. In fact, World Bank, IMF and USAID are a consortium formed to keep the underdeveloped or developing countries in their fiscal clutches. From the above tools and techniques of the foreign lenders, it is not hard to decipher what happens if we continue to drowning ourselves into further debts. The nation is at the verge of bankruptcy; hence, I took liberty to draw attention of the CJP to looming catastrophe.

The Constitution has provided auto-limitations of in-built restraints on the exercise of Fundamental Rights guaranteed in Chapter I Part-II. These auto-limitations or in built restraints not only provide protection to the rights themselves but also further the interest of social solidarity sought to be achieved by the makers of the Constitution. Therefore, there has to be mutuality even in liberty and for that matter the attainment of maximum opportunities for the orderly pursuit of happiness as a goal of progress itself which is linked with the availability of restrains on individual liberty.

The life and liberty as explained above, is dependent upon the direction of the Honourable Supreme Court for the future generations to come. The Parliament of any country is also one of its noblest, honourable and important institutions making not only the policies and the laws for the nation but in fact, shaping and carving its very destiny. The Chief Executive being leader of the House is responsible to eliminate the factors of economic emergency by promulgating an open plan and policy of debt retirement and to avoid future borrowing by presenting his policy in the Parliament.

At last I would suggest that in order to raise funds, please convert Kashmir Highway into a commercial road like Sheikh Zahid Road in Dubai. It will create nearly 2000 commercial plots and put them to auction only to Overseas Pakistanis. It is high time to grab attention of Overseas Pakistanis by giving them their own Bank with their own management especially in real estate sector. It will raise billions of dollars and would also create charm of investment for them. Create a road like Sheikh Zahid Road Dubai, in the name of our national heroes across the big cities and then see the response Mr. Prime Minister, as it will create an ideal environment for investors to invest here.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The Nation’’ on October 12^th, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/12-Oct-2018/need-to-halt-fiscal-tsunami

Madam FM Sushma Swaraj -be truthful By Senator A. Rehman Malik

The world witnessed the Anti-Pakistan and full of lies speech read by the Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj - a Minister of self-declared largest democracy. In fact India is emerging as the worst form of dictatorship under the leadership of Narendra Modi who has strong links with extremist organization RSS. Under his premiership RSS is controlling the public affairs, religious affairs as well as the media censorship. It uses terror as weapon to terrorise the opponents of PM Modi as well as minorities of the country.

The content of the speech seemed to have been written by none other than the RAW Chief Anil Dhasmana. The Indian Foreign Minister had the audacity to speak on the same forum, which has already asked India to implement the resolution of self-determination and India is constantly ignoring the said resolution. Where is the Indian respect for UNO/ International community?

It is only RSS, which is being used as the parallel force to terrorise the society whereas India today under RSS terror and the supreme command of their senior most leaders including the Premier Narendra Modi cannot afford to deviate from the terror charter of RSS. The worst part is that the terror wing of RAW has adopted RSS as its one of operational components.  The combined actions of RSS & RAW are no more a secret now and every Indian including media is scared to even utter the name of RSS.  The world witnessed the joint terrorist acts of RAW- RSS in the form of Samjhota Express and Babri Mosque attacks.

The Anti-Pakistan mindset of India is evident from Indian Supreme court’s verdict in which it granted bail in 2007-Samjhota Express incident to Lt Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit who was involved in the said terror attack, which killed 62 Pakistanis visiting India. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad declared that there was enough evidence of Purohit’s role in the said attacks.  Mr. Vikas Narain Rai, head of Indian Anti-Terrorist Squad also accused the government for trying to get Col. Prohit out and by erasing the hard evidence against the accused persons. He said that the witnesses are being forced to turn hostile and documents are being fabricated to help them due to their links with RSS. Subsequently the case supervisory officer DIG Karakary was targeted and killed in RAW stage-managed incident in Bombay.

Similarly, India’s extremist Hindu bias against Muslims can be judged by 25 year’s old Babri Masjid demolition which was done by RSS under the nose of PM Modi as the Chief Minister.

It is important to state that even the Indian Army assists RAW with terrorist attacks by providing the services of senior Army officers like Col. Prohit who was the chief provider of RDX in Samjhota Express incident.

The recent arrest of Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav in Balochistan who is also an officer from regular Indian Navel force is another example of Indian State Sponsored Terrorism in Pakistan.  Yadav’s confession was very much in the mind of Sushma Swaraj while delivering her lies at UN platform. It was a display of double-faced and split personality of India as she lied with no remorse at an international forum.

I wonder, before blaming Pakistan for terror attacks and blatantly calling it a terrorist state how could she forget about the terrorism by RSS and RAW in Pakistan for decades. There are number of examples of the incidents where India had itself engineered terrorist activities on its own soil and alleged Pakistan for them. A prime example of such incidents is 2nd January 2016’s Pathankot attack and Indian RAW orchestrated fake attack on its Uri bas close to LOC with Pakistan on 18th September 2016 and like all other previous incidents it was actually a “blatant” attempt to blame Pakistan to divert attention from the fast deteriorating human rights situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir since the death of Burhan Wani.

Pakistan has always extended hand for friendship towards India, but India, in order to avoid peace talks followed the same old strategy of self-orchestrated terror attacks to put the blame on Pakistan for it. Just like Uri attack, India recently blamed Pakistan for the killings of three policemen in South Kashmir’s Shopian district. They did it right after our newly elected PM called for resumption of peace dialogue with Narendra Modi, so that Pakistan could be discredited and embarrassed worldwide.

India holds Hafiz Saeed responsible for 26/11 Mumbai attacks and has been demanding the extradition of Hafiz Saeed ever since 2008 whereas after 10 years of Mumbai attacks till today, India has not been able to produce any kind of evidence against him for the attacks.

We as Pakistanis condemn all kind of extremist statements also but I want to ask you Madam which Indian would have moral courage to condemn RSS and other extremist organization. Your Prime Minister also vomits his grudges against Pakistan and Muslims publically. Problem arises when you deny your army’s atrocities in Kashmir and neglect RSS’s extremism but only criticize Hafiz Saeed, a social worker. You have failed to give any evidence against him then how can you keep drumming about it? India should first worry about her own extremist elements then she has right to criticize others.

The factual position of the above events coupled with brutalities and killing of thousands of Kashmiris actually exposes your white lies.

I wish you had the courage to mention how many innocent Kashmiris your Army kills every week and I wish you had mentioned the latest report of International Human rights on Kashmir.

I wish you had given the back ground of your PM and his present and past acts of terrorism instead of talking about Hafiz Saeed who only collects donations and helps the poor whereas RSS is officially being financed by your Indian Government for killing of Muslims and Christians. It is the same terrorist outfit which has vowed to eliminate all Muslim and Christian from India by 2030.

I wish you had told the UN why you have not declared your hot favourite RSS as terrorist organisation. It is understood that India cannot notify their rulers as terrorists.

Madam Foreign Minister! You should have also mentioned that these three police official were killed in Kashmir by your own Army as the police is resisting presence of the Army in occupied Kashmir which has made the local police jobless.

I wish she had told the International community as to why has she failed to implement the UN’s Humans Right resolution on Kashmir.

Kindly do not blame Pakistan for every other misdeed of your army which is being headed by a General who dances at the tune of PM Modi the way you and PM Modi are helpless before Lallit Modi and Anil Ambani.

Please, you and your boss need to change your status of being compulsive liars.

The speech of FM was merely a pack of lies and overt display of  antagonism of India towards Pakistan and Kashmir.

I would like to advise Indian PM & his FM, including his chief of RAW, that please follow these advises as it will bring good will for India and peace in the region:

1.            Either PM Modi may resign from RSS or he should resign from the office of the PM as he cannot be PM while holding the command as godfather of RSS.

2.            India should immediately announce the date of voting for “self-determination’ under the supervision of UN troops.

3.            India to immediately announce undertaking to implement the Tass water agreement.

4.            India should notify RSS as terrorist organisation in the great interest of India politics .

5.            India should stop treating Pakistan like Nepal or Sri Lanka and deal Pakistan on equal terms.

6.            Publicly confess the spy work against Pakistan through his agents like Kulbhushan Yadev.

7.            Withdraw your Army troops from Kashmir and allow Kashmiris to decide their fate as per the UN Resolutions.

8.            Stop playing against Pakistan in FATF otherwise Pakistan will be constraint to pull you India in FATF because of your state financial support to RSS.

9.            Allow religious freedom to every Indian and that will be possible if you ban RSS.

In the end I would urge the Indian leadership including PM Modi to please follow above friendly advice for regional peace.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The Nation’’ on October 6^th, 2018

The Link to the Article is: https://nation.com.pk/06-Oct-2018/madam-fm-sushma-swaraj-be-truthful

Wish list of common man from ‘Naya Pakistan’ By Senator A. Rehman Malik

The nature changes weathers and turn a day into night whereas a human being experiences change every day marching towards final change, which is named death. Basically we all love change as it is built in biology and ideology. The slogan of change has always worked well and will continue to work to lure masses into it till the end of this world.

All political parties advocated for a change and the people of Pakistan had been starving for a change since the independence of the country. Once again they are hoping that finally the said change will bring prosperity to their lives. The oldest and simplest justification for government had ever been posing as protector: protecting citizens from violence and providing them with their basic rights.

The idea of a government as protector requires money to fund, equip and train an army and a police force for their people’s safety; to build courts and jails for a good justice system; and to elect or appoint the officials on merit to pass and implement the laws that neither the citizens nor the officials should break. Regarding protecting from foreign threats, government as protector requires the basic ability to have good terms with fellow countries diplomatically and in worst case scenario to fight against foreign threats and aggressions.

The concept of government as provider comes next: government as provider requires to provide goods and services to the people on the basis of equality and without any discrimination that individuals cannot provide for themselves.The future of a government is thus built and dependent upon these foundations of protecting and providing. The more the Government is good at protecting and providing the rights of its citizens the more it sustains. In any country or any form of government, only the slogan of change would not help until it is brought and implemented.

The Pakistani public now has a wish list from this new government and they are expecting miracles of change. A common man in Pakistan expects these kind of changes:

1. A common man wishes for dropping the prices of essential commodities so that he could be able to run his house comfortably and could save for the future. This can only happen if the value of our currency is increased as promised by the new government.

2. A common man wishes for free primary education system along with a free pick and drop service.

3. He wants to be able to get free treatment at quality health facilities for himself and his family.

4. He wants a crime-free state where there will be no concept of robbery or theft and he can be able to park his vehicles openly with without any fear of being stolen.

5. He wants quality education and character building activities for his children at schools so that they do not fall victim of drugs or any such activity.

6. Common people want their pending cases in courts to be resolved as soon as possible.

7. Widowed/ divorced women, who are made homeless, want security for their dignity and future so that they do not have to beg anyone for their living.

8. People want police of their respective district or province to be impartial enough to help them get justice and resolve their issues quickly.

9. A common man wants safety of their children to be guaranteed by the government so that their children can play outside without fear of getting abducted or abused.

10. He wants the education system of their country to be equal for everyone so that their children do not feel inferiority complex of not being able to study with children of rich people.

11. A common man wants that his country’s dignity and respect not be compromised at any cost and they feel proud of their country while sitting with someone from other state.

12. A common man wants accountability across the board so that he can raise his voice against injustice with confidence of getting justice.

13. A common man wants that buying a house become easy in his country so that he can keep his family under his own roof.

14. A common man wants energy resources such as electricity and gas to be available on cheap rates, which are the basic necessities of life.

15. A common man wishes that his government of state would not take money or aid from international bodies such as IMF or World Bank or other countries.

16. A common man wants no political interference in civil service as well as the appointments to be made on merit alone.

Let us pray and watch that the hopes of common man are fulfilled

The Article has been Published in ‘’The News’’ on October 8^th, 2018

The Link to the Article is: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/378012-wish-list-of-common-man-from-naya-pakistan