The Road to Raiwind!

[Norwegian]

PHOTO: AFP

In his speech to the nation on Sunday evening, Imran Khan seems to have hit all the right notes. It was a well scripted speech in which sensible demands were made. We need to know how the money was made by the prime minister’s family. Possibly, an inquiry through a Supreme Court judge would be the way to move ahead.

The government is in denial mode. One was amazed to see how quickly our PM reacted to the Panama Leaks, not even waiting one day to come on national television to address the nation to defend his family’s assets abroad. This is the same PM who dilly-dallied on other more important issues.

While the PM of Iceland has resigned and the British PM seems to be tottering, our PM seems to think he has done nothing wrong. And the manner in which he and his close aides are defending the first family begs more questions than gives answers.

One was disappointed by the statements of Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid and the accusations that he made against Imran Khan and the Shaukat Khanum Hospital. Rashid has always been a sensible and mature person. Using the tactic of offense is the best defence, his press conference leaves one somewhat disgusted.

The response of the Sharif government on the whole has been disappointing. Instead of clearing its name, it has instead attacked Imran Khan, the only prominent politician who took the government to task. One need not be a supporter of the PTI to understand that the PTI and the hospital are two different things.

The accusation that Shaukat Khanum Hospital’s name was used to launder money is laughable. But if that has happened, let us launder some more. After all, the poor people of Pakistan have benefitted from this hospital the most.

Keeping aside Imran Khan’s politics, his hospital is a beacon of hope in a sea of helplessness. The hospital is run on professional lines and has helped thousands of people who would otherwise not receive any help through our government hospitals or those funded by other trusts and foundations. Imran Khan’s politics may have affected funding of the Shaukat Khanum Hospital but it continues to serve the people without distinction.

What is sad about the Panama Leaks in Pakistan is that our main opposition political party cannot take a stand against the ruling party. That is because their leaders are also named in the scam. We can call this the bankruptcy of our political system where the representatives of the people cannot hold each other accountable as they are all tainted by the same brush. Who then do we turn to? The answer is very much there.

The demand to bring in experts who investigate white collar crime is a good one. But we all know it won’t happen. We have seen in the past how international or impartial investigators have always been hindered when it comes to investigating wrongdoing in Pakistan. Who can forget the Scotland Yard team that came to investigate the murder of former PM Benazir Bhutto. The team was not given access to important records or information.

So what will happen next? We look forward to the end of the month when Imran Khan promises to surround the Nawaz mansion in Rawind. This is the same place where the Indian prime minister visited on his pit stop trip to Pakistan. We need to know more about this palace as well. How much of our public money goes into maintaining this? How was it built? Lahore journalists have all the answers. Maybe it is time for another round of leaks.

In all this, another issue that came to the forefront was how apart from the ruling party, our publicly funded Pakistan Television, cannot be used by anyone else to express their views. PTV is a funded through our electricity bills. Even those who don’t have a television are paying for the government’s propaganda. Why can others not be brought on air? Incidently, we got this brilliant idea from Turkey and was introduced in the time of our debonair PM, Shaukat Aziz. However, now we need to make PTV a public television. It is time for some introspection by the ruling party. We cannot continue denying.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2016.
The Road to Raiwind - The Express Tribune

 

[Hyde]

I am still laughing on that Facebook picture which said Mariyam ne mohallay main committee daali hoe thee aur Phir kamaiti ke paise usne Hussain Nawaz ko diye to usne 50 billion ki property bana li

These Sharifs need to explain every penny they have earned or they must be dragged on the street alongside Zardari and Co

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

While I do support PTI

Presently ,

• Demonstration against Government of Pakistan are "Anti Pakistan" from my perspective or Negative
  
• I want the present government in Nawaz's leadership to complete full 5 years in service
• Investigation should be held in private with his son/daughter the family was kicked out in 1999 with then government with an understanding to move his belongings out of Pakistan
  
• Present civilian government was/is doing excellent job on financial side
• Energy projects have been rolling forward as expected

Last 4 months , a calculated operation has started against Pakistan

• RAW agent's capture with neighbor nation's visa, target being CPEC
  
• Allegation of RAW corruption in Karachi (MQM party) , voluntary disclosure from mysterious third party
  
• Leak of personal information for Government official , voluntary disclosure from mysterious third party
• Calculated Terrorist acts in Lahore to help RAW agents escape

China Rejected Leaks - threat to national security
Russia Rejected Leaks - threat to national security

Pakistan - should also formally follow same path and categorically REJECT Panama leaks on basis of threat to National Interest

I hope Military of Pakistan / Government of Pakistan & Opposition sit down and realize the danger and pattern of disturbance

Media needs to refrain from speculation , until there Supreme court states otherwise

 

[Sugarcane]

Waste of time and energies, nothing will happen to Sharifs, Bhuttos etc. People running the institutions to provide justice themselves are corrupt and darbaries.

 

[Norwegian]

While I do support PTI

Presently ,

• Demonstration against Government of Pakistan are "Anti Pakistan" from my perspective or Negative
  
• I want the present government in Nawaz's leadership to complete full 5 years in service
• Investigation should be held in private with his son/daughter the family was kicked out in 1999 with then government with an understanding to move his belongings out of Pakistan
  
• Present civilian government was/is doing excellent job on financial side
• Energy projects have been rolling forward as expected

• Was demonstration against ruling Icelandic PM anti Iceland, or demonstration against ruling British PM anti Britain? PMLN patwaris are brainless crooks who don't understand the difference between criticism of Nawaz Sharifs hidden foreign assets and general criticism of the party. Imran Khan is not asking the whole ruling party to resign only it's most corrupt leader. The party can appoint another leader as PM quite easily as they did in Iceland while he is being investigated.
• PMLN can complete 5 year term without Nawaz Sharif. Why are you defending this crook?
• Why private investigation?
• Good financial job? Like increasing Pakistans national debt 10 fold?
• All projects are financed through debt. Greece, Spain and many other countries did the same but are now in financial ruins.

Waste of time and energies, nothing will happen to Sharifs, Bhuttos etc. People running the institutions to provide justice themselves are corrupt and darbaries.

Then people will do justice the mob way

Pakistan - should also formally follow same path and categorically REJECT Panama leaks on basis of threat to National Interest

Pakistan is not an autocratic state, will never be.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

• Was demonstration against ruling Icelandic PM anti Iceland, or demonstration against ruling British PM anti Britain? PMLN patwaris are brainless crooks who don't understand the difference between criticism of Nawaz Sharifs hidden foreign assets and general criticism of the party. Imran Khan is not asking the whole ruling party to resign only it's most corrupt leader. The party can appoint another leader as PM quite easily as they did in Iceland while he is being investigated.
• PMLN can complete 5 year term without Nawaz Sharif. Why are you defending this crook?
• Why private investigation?
• Good financial job? Like increasing Pakistans national debt 10 fold?
• All projects are financed through debt. Greece, Spain and many other countries did the same but are now in financial ruins.

Then people will do justice the mob way

As far as I remember in 1999 , Nawaz Sharif and his family were forced out of Pakistan , obviously they must have sold their assets and moved out. If his children lived overseas , and decided to build company there it is becasue they could not enter Pakistan until NRO came into existence

To me opening / investing overseas was only option for his family

Nawaz Sharif's has close ties with Saudi family and attaing banks from Saudia would be not hard considering close ties with Saudia's King at that time

If again later their family moved to another country , it perhaps was only available choice


NAWAZ SHARIF Rerturned to Pakistan in Nov 2007

Any transactions that happened between 1999 - 2008, does not count for taxation as he was not LIVING IN Pakistan - if you don't live in Pakistan you don't pay taxes

Any property / company in Saudia etc again means no taxes as Saudia has no tax collection policy or treaty with Pakistan

If someone is forcefully removed from power (Understanding) , he/she has to move their asset out of Pakistan for survival of their family as part of agreement to move out of Pakistan and stay away from political setup for long period

LOAN FROM IMF is constructive loan , you take loan to construct Economy and then repay it with business from your economy



Why is Nawaz Sharif family Rich?
HISTORY OF ITTEFAQ GROUP:
The Ittefaq Group of Industries (English The Unity) is a Pakistani integrated steel producer with major operations in Punjab. It was founded by industrialist Muhammad Sharif, father of the current prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Muhammad Sharif along with his six brothers, established a foundry in 1939.In 1976, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto nationalized the steel industry, including the Ittefaq family business empire — Ittefaq Group.In 1985, General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq returned the business after developing political links with the Sharifs.

During the 1980s, Ittefaq Group expanded from five mills to 30 businesses which produced steel, sugar, paper, and textiles



NRO : Proposal passed in 2006-2007 for national interest of Pakistan , stated all politicians were forgiven for any open cases between 1986-1999, so any case open against Nawaz sharif or Group were forgiven in order for National Reconciliation


Between 2007-2016 , if company is not in Pakistan , person is living in Saudia or overseas
why would they pay taxes in Pakistan? They were removed from country in 1999

Panama Leaks is sponsored by USAID, why would they sponsor such activity ?? hmmm

• Same country that asked Musharaf for NRO
• Same country that supported Nawaz to return to Pakistan
• Same country that said Benazir just relax go to Pakistan when Musharaf told her no
• We enjoyed awesome Zardari government for 5 years we all hated it
  
• Same country that gave money to help facilitate PANAMA leaks
• Strangely US deference minister is in India few weeks after the leaks

 

[Norwegian]

As far as I remember in 1999 , Nawaz Sharif and his family were forced out of Pakistan , obviously they must have sold their assets and moved out. If his children lived overseas , and decided to build company there it is becasue they could not enter Pakistan until NRO came into existence

To me opening / investing overseas was only option for his family

Nawaz Sharif's has close ties with Saudi family and attaing banks from Saudia would be not hard considering close ties with Saudia's King at that time

If again later their family moved to another country , it perhaps was only available choice


NAWAZ SHARIF Rerturned to Pakistan in Nov 2007

Any transactions that happened between 1999 - 2008, does not count for taxation as he was not LIVING IN Pakistan - if you don't live in Pakistan you don't pay taxes

Any property / company in Saudia etc again means no taxes as Saudia has no tax collection policy or treaty with Pakistan

If someone is forcefully removed from power (Understanding) , he/she has to move their asset out of Pakistan for survival of their family as part of agreement to move out of Pakistan and stay away from political setup for long period

LOAN FROM IMF is constructive loan , you take loan to construct Economy and then repay it with business from your economy

Have you even read panama papers? Nawaz Sharif opened offshore companies in 1993, 1994. He was forced out in 1999.

LOAN FROM IMF is constructive loan , you take loan to construct Economy and then repay it with business from your economy

Pakistani exports have been declining for years with PMLN in power. What business to repay the loans with?

NRO : Proposal passed in 2006-2007 for national interest of Pakistan , stated all politicians were forgiven for any open cases between 1986-1999, so any case open against Nawaz sharif were forgiven in order for National Reconciliation

How is forgiving corrupt crooks in the national interest of Pakistan? Both nawaz sharif and zardari must answer about their foreign assets

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

This was accepted in 2007 NRO came into existence to help promote

Process accepted by Supreme court , Political circle , Military circle etc for benefit of DEMOCRACY

DEMOCRACY , many folks appreciated it at that time as it meant there would be elections and people would be happy

Any political wranglings between 1986-1999 have been forgiven

Nawaz Sharif only came back to country once it was accepted in political circle , legal circles and international circles

Its weird to me , that a person has to leave his country by force 1999 , he takes away his money / asset to international destination of his living - may be took loans

His sons decide to continue to work in international location (remember they were forced out of Pakistan), they said it is too complicated to move operations back

NRO was passed accepted all people had clean slate

Now in 2016 , a newspaper no one heard of release some document

Which have nothing new ... and now we have a CIRCUS
Your country (PAKISTAN) forgave all wrong doings when NRO came into being

Becasue international audience loved DEMOCRACY, IT WAS OK to forgive

Why should Nawaz Sharif not demand money from Government of Pakistan to compensate for losses to his father's business when Bhutto took their family business away from his father ?

• Just becasue NAWAZ started CPEC does not means he is EVIL NOW
• Just because Musharaf accepted NRO does not means he was EVIL

This SPOON of honey called Democracy is given to anyone willing to make the Honey Maker happy when the purpose has been served a dash of poison is mixed in Honey


Panama leaks = SOFT WAR, impede progress

Why is not USA chasing after Corporations who store Trillions offshore? Why don't the Panama leaks talk about BIG GIANT US companies storing Trillions overseas

With Nawaz Sharif he was forced out of Pakistan so its different then lets say US corporation who wanted to get tax shelter

 

[Norwegian]

DEMOCRACY , many folks appreciated it at that time as it meant there would be elections and people would be happy

yes but elections alone do not bring democracy. You need democratic culture first for democracy to develop and then elections can be held.

 

[VCheng]

We look forward to the end of the month when Imran Khan promises to surround the Nawaz mansion in Rawind.

Dharna Ver 2.0 a.k.a "let's shit on some more lawns". And probably just as effective as Dharna Ver 1.0 a.k.a. "free phoondi service".

And before some overzealous Hidden-Mullah or Pseudo-Liberal Mod takes umbrage at my comments, please take a good look at the what I have actually said above. My comment is quite an apt description of how the PTI hype was built up here on PDF, only to predictably fail, as it will also fail this time around (unless the umpire takes illegal action).

 

[Kompromat]

*Nothing will change*

 

[Hyde]

While I do support PTI

Presently ,

• Demonstration against Government of Pakistan are "Anti Pakistan" from my perspective or Negative
  
• I want the present government in Nawaz's leadership to complete full 5 years in service
• Investigation should be held in private with his son/daughter the family was kicked out in 1999 with then government with an understanding to move his belongings out of Pakistan
  
• Present civilian government was/is doing excellent job on financial side
• Energy projects have been rolling forward as expected

Last 4 months , a calculated operation has started against Pakistan

• RAW agent's capture with neighbor nation's visa, target being CPEC
  
• Allegation of RAW corruption in Karachi (MQM party) , voluntary disclosure from mysterious third party
  
• Leak of personal information for Government official , voluntary disclosure from mysterious third party
• Calculated Terrorist acts in Lahore to help RAW agents escape

China Rejected Leaks - threat to national security
Russia Rejected Leaks - threat to national security

Pakistan - should also formally follow same path and categorically REJECT Panama leaks on basis of threat to National Interest

I hope Military of Pakistan / Government of Pakistan & Opposition sit down and realize the danger and pattern of disturbance

Media needs to refrain from speculation , until there Supreme court states otherwise

There are few things that we can appreciate about the incumbent government such as their clear stance of total annihilation of terrorism and providing sufficient funds to achieve ultimate goal of total dominance in all parts of the country and removing moratorium was also a commendable step. Their economic policies has also been good and significant improvement in foreign policy lead us to greater respect across the partner nations etc

But it doesn't give them licence to loot public money because they have taken few good steps. If they had 5 billion rupees of fortunes, they might be rich by heritage but it doesn't give them licence to loot another 100 billion rupees and keep portraying to public that they have done nothing wrong and their wealth is inherited, that too liable to tax which was never paid in full amount

 

[Norwegian]

*Nothing will change*

It's because people don't want change. Overseas Pakistanis haven't changed their imported culture one iota when they settled here in the West. I expect noting from the majority but at least there is a minority doing something about it.

My comment is quite an apt description of how the PTI hype was built up here on PDF, only to predictably fail, as it will also fail this time around (unless the umpire takes illegal action).

Dharna didn't fail. It only proved that election rigging is a way of Pakistani life. If this new dharna fail as well it will prove that having crooks as leaders of Pakistan will never change either.

 

[VCheng]

Dharna didn't fail. It only proved that election rigging is a way of Pakistani life. If this new dharna fail as well it will prove that having crooks as leaders of Pakistan will never change either.

The old dharna failed miserably, as will this new one. Nothing that is already well known needs more proof.

 

[Hyde]

Dharna didn't fail. It only proved that election rigging is a way of Pakistani life. If this new dharna fail as well it will prove that having crooks as leaders of Pakistan will never change either.

For me that dharna was one of the biggest blunder in the history of Pakistan. PTI had waged and war against the entire state of Pakistan due to unbearable quench for power and did everything right and mostly wrong in order to fulfil their lust before time. I am not sure how many votes it gained but it definitely lost many supporters including myself who couldn't see the entire system being hijacked by few gangsters who did everything to incite violence but the people didn't listen to it and treated the entire dharna as music show or source of entertainment during night time