Federal lawyer says govt facing threat from GHQ, CIA

ISLAMABAD: The federal government’s lawyer Kamal Azfar on Monday stunned the Supreme Court bench hearing challenges to the controversial NRO by saying that he alluded to the American CIA and the GHQ (General Headquarters) when he cautioned in the petition he had filed last week about threats that could derail the democratic system in Pakistan.

‘You want me to say it more openly? The danger comes from the CIA and the GHQ,’ Mr Azfar responded after the 17-judge bench repeatedly asked him what apprehensions he had in mind about the democratic set-up.

The counsel, however, hastened to add that these were his personal views when Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday asked him to say so in writing. The judge said if there were threats from the CIA or the GHQ, these concerned the executive.

‘Look what we have done to Pakistan which otherwise (was) destined to become an Asian tiger, but one prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged while the other, Benazir Bhutto, was killed,’ Mr Azfar bemoaned.

Mr Azfar’s remarks in the court sent ripples across the country the moment it was beamed on television channels. In the evening, Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and though no details were available, the matter was believed to have come up during the discussion.

The federal government had on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court expressing fears that any decision on the NRO ‘outside what petitioners had sought’ could destabilise the democratic system.

The court was visibly disturbed with a paragraph in the petition which stated: ‘Pakistan today is poised at the crossroads. One road leads to a truly federal democratic welfare state with the balance of power between an independent judiciary, a duly elected government representing the will of the people and a determined executive which is fighting the war against terrorism and poverty. The second road leads to destabilisation of the rule of law. The people of Pakistan await your verdict.’

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry again observed that the court was here to guard democracy and the rule of law.

‘I feel hurt when somebody says against what we have struggled for,’ the CJ said, adding that the court would not tolerate such allegations.

Outside the court, acting Attorney General Shah Khawar described Mr Azfar’s remarks as his personal views.

He told DawnNews that this had never been the stand of the federation and he was convinced that whatever Mr Azfar had said before the court was based on his own understanding of developments and had nothing to do with the views of the federation.

The acting attorney general told the court that he would seek instructions from the government whether he should withdraw the entire petition or some parts of it.

‘You asked us not to go into wider issues. Which slate to be wiped off clean of what and what are those wider issues in your mind,’ Justice Ramday asked Mr Azfar.

‘These had to be cleaned by the petitioners who were taking the court into wider issues,’ Mr Azfar replied, but failed to satisfy the court as it repeatedly asked about his apprehensions about derailment of democracy and the name of the person of the law ministry who had instructed him to submit the petition.

‘Your client needs to satisfy us by filing a personal affidavit explaining about the apprehensions,’ the court said.

The counsel repeatedly said that whatever he had stated in the petition was his own opinion and he would not pass on the buck. He later said there were extra-constitutional forces both inside and outside Pakistan which wanted to destabilise democracy.

Justice Javed Iqbal said the court had already stressed that it would jealously safeguard democracy, but it should be kept in mind that the democratic system did not mean protecting a few ‘illegitimate groups’ of people.

Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan came to the rescue of Mr Azfar by suggesting him to consult his client and go ahead if he thought he could afford to delete objectionable paragraphs from the petition.

Mr Azfar was of the view that the government was confronted with issues like terrorism, poverty, wheat and sugar crisis and many others and that it would be a relief for the nation if the verdict on the petitions came soon.

The chairman of the National Accountability Bureau informed the court that the bureau had spent Rs192 million on pursuing money laundering cases in the Swiss court against President Asif Ali Zardari.

An amount of Rs188 million was paid as fees to Swiss lawyers and Rs4.1 million spent on visits of NAB officers to Switzerland.

However, the chairman clarified that the amount pertained only to the post-1999 period (after the removal of the Nawaz government) as the money exhausted by Ehtesab Bureau chief Saifur Rehman, who was a member of the Nawaz government, came from secret funds.

Justice Ghulam Rabbani wondered what action had been taken against people responsible for initiating these corruption cases as the NAB had stated all cases were false.

‘Action should be taken against those who initiated these cases and this matter should also be probed by this court,’ the acting AG argued.

The NAB chairman admitted that the investigating magistrate in his inquiry had found $59.45 million in SGS and Cotecna cases, but this probe and money laundering cases initiated by the Swiss authorities on its own came to an end after the Pakistan government said that it was withdrawing the request of mutual legal assistance.

After the request, the Swiss authorities had unfrozen the money lying in a Swiss bank, he added. The NAB will also submit supporting documents before the court on Tuesday.

Both Advocate A.K. Dogar, representing petitioner Feroz Shah Jillani, and Shahid Orakzai concluded their arguments.

Replies to the federal government’s petition by Jamaat-i-Islami and Roedad Khan were also filed.

Engineer Jamil, of the Communist Party of Pakistan, challenged the president’s immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution.

He said that such powers were not enjoyed by the president in many countries of the world.

Petreaus conveys concerns to PM, COAS

ISLAMABAD: US Central Command chief General David Petraeus said on Monday he had discussed with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani operational aspects of US plans to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and reinforced his view that the civilian government in Pakistan did not face any threat.

Talking to a group of journalists after meetings with the prime minister and the army chief, the visiting US general declined to comment on speculations that the US had plan to carry out drone attacks in Balochistan.

This was the first high-level visit of any top US official after the recent announcement of the Afghan strategy by President Obama.

Gen Petraeus said that Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral, Mike Mullen, would visit Pakistan on Tuesday, followed by US commander in Afghanistan Stanely McCrystal, in a few days.

During his meeting with Gen Petraeus, the prime minister was assisted by the army chief. Gen Kayani also had a separate meeting with the US general.

Gen Petraeus said that besides military cooperation against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the US was sharing with Pakistan details of the operational plan because it would have implications on either side of the border.

He praised the army, Frontier Constabulary and air force for the success they had achieved in operations against militants in Swat, Buner, Malakan, Mohmad, Bajaur and South Waziristan.

Pakistan has been seeking details of the implementation aspects of the US strategy on Afghanistan since its announcement two weeks ago.

Officials said the area of deployment of troops was the foremost concern of Pakistan because a significant deployment close to its borders might give rise to cross-border infiltration.

Gen Petraeus said he had also shared with Pakistani leadership the ‘impressive unity’ shown by the nation, all political parties, clerics and the armed forces in opposing the Taliban who, according to him, were threatening the writ of the government and trying to destabilise it.

In reply to a question if his belief that the army had no desire to wrap up civilian rule in Pakistan was based on his discussions with Gen Kayani, the US general said that although he did not directly ask Gen Kayani about this, he had been visiting Pakistan after almost 45 days and interacting with the military leadership and he never found any indication of that kind.

‘The army has always shown commitment to supporting the civilian government in Pakistan whenever the subject was remotely discussed,’ he said, adding that he was ‘quite confident’ about the future of the civilian government because he did not feel even a ‘sense of frustration’.

In reply to a question about Pakistan’s concerns that the US only shared outlines, and not details of operations across the Afghan border, Gen Petraeus said that one reason of his visit was to provide those details.

Asked if he was able to satisfy Gen Kayani over the concerns, he said: ‘I think so.’

He said his government was constantly providing updates to the Pakistani authorities on phone and during visits by senior military officials.

He said the US military authorities responsible for operational details were scheduled to have meetings with the Pakistani military leadership, but these were delayed for a few days in consultation with the military because of the terrorist attack on an army mosque in Rawalpindi.

Kashmiris protest against reports of women’s case

SRINAGAR: A protest strike shut down Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday after investigators said two women allegedly raped and murdered had actually died by drowning, triggering angry claims of a cover-up.

Public anger and outbreaks of violence shook the region in May after the bodies of the two Muslim women were found in a stream. Locals said they had been sexually abused and killed by the security forces.

The strike closed shops, offices, banks and post offices in the Kashmiri summer capital of Srinagar and other Muslim-majority towns, including the victims’ home town of Shopian, witnesses said.

Hundreds of Kashmiris held noisy anti-government demonstrations in Shopian overnight as authorities deployed riot police to avert any new mass unrest over the case.

‘We urge the people of Kashmir to observe a complete shutdown against the concocted story presented by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigations) before the court,’ Abdul Rasheed Deva, one of the protest leaders, told AFP.

Police initially said the 17-year-old girl and her 22-year-old sister-in-law had drowned, but later agreed they might have been raped and murdered. In September, the CBI took over the case.

In a report for India’s high court on Monday, the federal agency concluded that the two had drowned, ruling out rape and murder.

Even some pro-India politicians rejected the CBI’s conclusions.

‘The whole charade of investigations by multiple agencies was aimed at shielding the culprits rather than bringing them to book,’ said Mehbooba Mufti, the leader of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party.

The government has yet to react to the report.

Awan, Pirzada asked to record statements

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau has asked Parliamentary Affairs Minster Babar Awan, senior lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada, former attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum and Ali Waseem (son of Waseem Sajjad) to appear before its investigators on Tuesday to record their statements on allegations that they had received millions of rupees from the owner of Haris Steel Mills to get a favourable verdict for him in a case relating the Rs9 billion Bank of Punjab scam.

‘The bureau has called them on the directives of the Supreme Court to record their statements,’ a senior NAB official told Dawn.

On November 24, Sheikh Mohammad Afzal, the owner of the mills, informed a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry that he had paid Rs35 million to Babar Awan, Rs10 to Sharifuddin Pirzada, Rs20 million to Malik Qayyum and Rs7.5 million to Ali Waseem to get a verdict in his favour.

‘The bureau’s investigators will ask them if they had received such a hefty amount from the mills owner as their fees or as bribe,’ the NAB official said, adding that the statements would be submitted to the court which might order formal proceedings on a new case.

The court had asked NAB to explain why the accused had not been questioned over the allegation.

NAB officials said the bureau had no powers to call a sitting minister to record his statement, but the situation had changed because of the court order.

Mr Awan could not be contacted for his comments despite repeated calls made to his residence and mobile phones.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by the Presidency on Monday said Mr Awan had called on President Asif Ali Zardari and ‘offered’ to resign from the cabinet to face the NAB inquiry.

The president, however, asked him to continue to work and said that an inquiry was not an adequate reason to resign from the cabinet.

Political analysts here do not appear to be convinced that Mr Awan was serious about his resignation offer and say that if he really wanted to quit the cabinet he should have submitted his resignation to the prime minister.

The owner of Haris Steel Mills had also informed the court that he had paid Rs400-500 million as bribe to former BoP president Hamesh Khan, Rs30 million to bank’s control risk manager Aziz Ahmed, Rs50 million to Haroon Aziz, Rs10 million to Shoaib Qureshi, Rs40 million to the head of the bank’s treasury Saleem Mirza and Rs5 million to Fazeel Asghar for helping him to leave the country because his name was on the exit control list.

Obama refuses to rule out drone attacks in Quetta

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has warned that the United States would launch strikes inside Pakistan if it had actionable intelligence about the presence of top Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in a particular area.

His statement – included in the transcript of an interview released on Monday – contradicts earlier US media reports that President Obama opposed drone attacks at suspected Taliban targets in and around Quetta.

Mr Obama made the statement when he was reminded that for almost a year officials in his administration had been saying that the Taliban leadership was now somewhere in Quetta and yet he was reluctant to call in drones to target those leaders.

‘Well I don’t want to comment on certain sensitive aspects to our efforts in this border region. I think it is fair to say, number one, that my principle – and I articulated this in the campaign – is if we’ve got actual war intelligence on high-ranking Al Qaeda leaders, or for that matter high-ranking Taliban leaders who are directing actions against US troops –then we will take action,’ Mr Obama told CBS’s Steve Kroft.’Now, a lot of this border region is big and complicated. And even a city like Quetta is a big city. And, you know, we have to respect the sovereignty of Pakistan as we engage in potential actions that would involve going into a major metropolitan area with a lot of civilians around it. We expect Pakistan to cooperate more effectively in the future than they have in the past,’ he added.

Mr Obama pointed out that the US would like Pakistan to recognise the degree to which the presence of such elements inside its borders threatened its own stability. ‘This isn’t America’s war. This isn’t the West’s war. This is a situation in which you’ve got a very dangerous, extremist network that is growing, and right now is killing more Pakistanis than anybody else,’ he said.

The Pakistani public and the military were both turning against the militants and it grew with the threat. ‘But it takes some time to operationalise, and our hope is that we see progress over the next couple of years,’ he added.

‘Do you believe the Pakistanis have any appetite for going into Quetta and finding Mullah Omar?’ he was asked.

‘I think that the Pakistanis recognise that these networks are killing Pakistanis a lot more than they’re killing Americans right now, and that it’s in their interest to start moving in a new direction. How fast they do that in part is gonna depend on how effectively we can partner with them,’ said Mr Obama.

Meanwhile, the Newsweek reported on Monday that President Obama had ‘nixed the expansion’ of drone strikes to Quetta.

‘Five administration officials tell Newsweek that the president has sided with political and diplomatic advisers who argue that widening the scope of the drone attacks would be risky and unwise,’ the report said.

‘Mr Obama is concerned that firing missiles into urban areas like Quetta, where intelligence reports suggest that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and other high-level militants have sometimes taken shelter, would greatly increase the risk of civilian casualties.’

But the Los Angeles Times reported that the Obama administration was leaning towards expanding the drone war to places like Quetta.

‘The concern has created tension among Obama administration officials over whether unmanned aircraft strikes in a city of 850,000 are a realistic option,’ the newspaper noted. ‘Proponents, including some military leaders, argue that attacking the Taliban in Quetta — or at least threatening to do so — is crucial to the success of the revised war strategy President Obama unveiled last week.’

A senior US official involved in the deliberations told LAT that it’s all about sending a message to the Taliban. ‘What the Pakistanis have to do is tell the Taliban that there is too much pressure from the US,’ the officials said. ‘We can’t allow you to have sanctuary inside Pakistan anymore.’

In his interview to CBS, Mr Obama also said that ever since occupying the White House, his administration had been trying to convince Pakistan that it was terrorism and not India which posed a threat to the country and thus impressing upon Islamabad to shift more troops from its eastern border with India to its western front.

‘We have had very detailed and serious conversations with the Pakistan government and the Pakistan military about the fact that their traditional orientation, which has been to compete with India, has now been overtaken by extremists within their own midst that are exploding bombs with impunity throughout Pakistan,’ he said.

Mumbai terror suspect had Bollywood, temple in sights

CHICAGO: A Chicago man accused of planning the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege also had Bollywood and one of India’s most sacred Hindu temples in his sights, US prosecutors said Monday.

David Coleman Headley, 49, is accused of being a scout for two different terrorist groups who used a friend’s immigration company as a cover for his surveillance activities.

The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and American mother, Headley reportedly befriended Bollywood stars and even dated an actress during his lengthy surveillance trips to Mumbai.

Nearly a year after the bloody 60-hour siege which began November 26, 2008, Headley was allegedly recorded discussing five future targets.

Prosecutors said the targets included: Bollywood; the Indian temple Somnath; the National Defense College in Delhi; Shiv Sena, a political party in India with roots in Hindu nationalism; and a Danish newspaper which sparked a furore in the Muslim world by publishing 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested in October on terror charges related to the plot to attack Denmark’s highest circulating daily, Jyllands-Posten, and kill an editor and the cartoonist.

Headley – who prosecutors say is cooperating with investigators – was charged last week with spending two years casing out Mumbai, even taking boat tours around the city’s harbor to scope out landing sites for the attackers.

Rana, who owns the Chicago-based First World Immigration Services that Headley allegedly used as a cover, insists that he is a pacifist who was ‘duped’ by his friend.

But prosecutors said Monday that the Pakistani-born Canadian national knew about the Mumbai attacks days before they occurred and released fresh details from a secretly recorded conversation to support their claims.

While Rana has not been charged in the Mumbai attack, which left 166 people dead and hundreds wounded, prosecutors said ‘the investigation into Rana’s conduct continues.’

‘Rana’s own statements, made in what he believed to be a private conversation, belie his argument to this court that he believes in non-violence,’ prosecutors wrote in a 10-page memo in support of Rana’s detention pending trial.

They cite a September 7 conversation recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in which Rana ‘asked Headley to pass Rana’s compliments directly to the specific Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) member they both knew who had coordinated the (Mumbai) attacks.’

Headley allegedly told Rana that he was going to ask this LeT member to target the National Defense College in Delhi ‘first,’ to which Rana responded that he agreed and allegedly said ‘they should be really commended. I appreciate them from my heart.’

Rana allegedly also told Headley that he learned about the upcoming Mumbai attacks during a November 2008 meeting with retired Pakistani military officer Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed in Dubai.

‘It is clear from the conversation and extrinsic corroboration that Rana was told just days before the Mumbai attacks that the attacks were about to happen,’ prosecutors wrote.

Syed, who has also been charged in the Danish newspaper plot, is accused of having ties to LeT and being Headley’s direct link to Ilyas Kashmiri, who the Department of Justice said is the operational chief of a terrorist organization called Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami (HuJI), which has links to Al-Qaeda.

India and Washington blamed the deadly Mumbai rampage on Pakistan’s banned militant group LeT. The attacks stalled a fragile four-year peace process between the two nuclear-armed south Asian rivals.

Syed’s alleged foreknowledge of the attack could expand the scope of the investigation to HuJI. He has not been charged with helping to plot that attack.

Rana is scheduled to appear in a Chicago court at 2030 GMT Tuesday for a detention hearing. —AFP

US court sentences two for conspiring to support attacks

ATLANTA: Two US citizens of Pakistani origin were sentenced Monday to 17 and 13 years in prison for conspiring to support terror groups by videoing American landmarks and sending the tapes abroad.

In the latest of a spate of cases that have raised fears that radicalization is gaining momentum in the United States, Judge Willam Duffey was scathing in his final remarks in the courtroom in Atlanta, Georgia.

‘I’ll say this, our Gods are very different,’ Duffey told the first to be sentenced, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee.

‘This is a day of reckoning for you, Mr. Sadequee. This is to deter you and to deter others from this conduct.’

Sadequee, 23, refused to stand when Duffey, a former US attorney, asked him several times to do so.

The judge had allowed him almost 45 minutes to explain why a harsh sentence should not be imposed, but the convicted terror plotter instead used the time to explain his religious beliefs.

‘I have not and I will not request any sentence,’ said Sadequee. ‘It does not matter to me. I submit to no one’s authority but to the authority of God.’

Sadequee’s friend and fellow Georgian Syed Haris Ahmed, a former student at Georgia Tech University, was sentenced to 13 years for conspiring to provide material support for terrorism in the US.

Duffey admonished Ahmed in court for not taking responsibility for his actions and suggested that he could have received a lighter sentence if he had repented.

‘You and others have distorted the values of your faith. You are a myopic, self-interested person,’ the judge said.

Ahmed, 24, a thin man, slightly built, tried to interrupt Duffey during sentencing, but the judge scolded him and said, ‘the time for speaking is over, the time of reckoning is now.’

Both Sadequee, who was born in Fairfax, Virigina and Ahmed, who moved to the US in the mid-1990s, were also sentenced to 30 years of supervised release following their jail time.

Ahmed and Sadequee were found guilty, in June and August respectively, of supporting terror groups by videotaping US landmarks, including the US Capitol and the headquarters of the World Bank, and sending the tapes overseas.

During the trial, prosecutors said the pair developed relationships over the Internet and maintained contact online, along with other ‘supporters of violent jihad’ in the United States, Canada, Britain, Pakistan, Bosnia and beyond.

They travelled to Canada to meet other militants, including members of the ‘Toronto 18’ Al-Qaeda-inspired group, and Sadequee went to Bangladesh, where he sent an email in 2001 when he was only 15 seeking to join the Taliban to fight US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Among the suspected terror operatives to whom they sent videos were Aabid Hussein Khan, a facilitator for the Pakistani militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Prosecutors also told the jury that Sadequee tried to get into a terrorist training camp and that he also tried to recruit a 17-year-old Californian for martyrdom.

‘The radicalization of US citizens by jihadist recruiters abroad is a very real and growing concern that the FBI and the US government as a whole must deal with,’ FBI Atlanta Special Agent Greg Jones said on Monday.

‘The risk posed by men such as these defendants continues, both here and abroad,’ Acting US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Sally Quillian Yates said, reacting to Monday’s sentences for Ahmed and Sadequee.

‘Hopefully, meaningful sentences such as these will make our citizens and our soldiers safer around the world as the message is sent that we will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who would ally themselves with terrorists.’ —AFP

Triple bomb attack leaves four dead in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: Three car bombs in quick succession during peak morning rush hour in the centre of Baghdad on Tuesday killed at least four people and injured 14, an Iraqi interior ministry official said.

The first car bomb exploded near the Iranian embassy around 7.30 am, the second minutes later near the foreign ministry and the third soon after near the ministry for émigrés and displaced persons.

The car bombings were the fourth wave of coordinated attacks in four months to target official buildings in the Iraqi capital despite the security measures in place.

On August 19 a double suicide attack against the foreign and finance ministries killed 106 people and injured some 600.

On October 25 it was the turn of the justice ministry and a provincial office, with the blasts killing 153 people and injuring more than 500.

And on December 8 five attacks in Baghdad killed 127 and injured 448.

Tuesday’s blasts, near the highly protected ‘Green Zone’ where the US and British embassies are located as well as the Iraq prime minister’s office, come just days after senior officials were grilled by lawmakers over the series of blasts to strike the capital.

Two Nato tankers torched near Quetta

QUETTA: Unknown assailants torched two Nato tankers on the periphery of Quetta city. The tankers were headed towards the border town of Chaman.

DSP Kharotabad, Jamil Kakar, told DawnNews that the tankers were set ablaze on the western bypass.

He said police found both the tankers without drivers and cleaners when they reached the spot. He added that the police were trying to locate the drivers.

The tankers were carrying fuel for Nato personnel in Afghanistan, he further said. — DawnNews

Suicide blast kills one, wounds 20 in Kabul

KABUL: A suspected suicide bomber struck an upmarket district of the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, killing at least one person and wounding another 20 near a guest house, government officials said.

‘I believe it was a suicide attack. So far 16 wounded and one dead have been evacuated to our hospital, the military hospital,’ defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.

‘They are all civilians, including men, women and children,’ he added.

‘We have received four wounded so far,’ said Ahmad Shah Shokohman, a senior doctor at the Wazir Akbar Khan civilian hospital.

Ambulances were seen rushing from the scene of the blast where the cloud of black smoke and dust hung over the upmarket district of Wazir Akhbar Khan, home to many foreign embassies and aid groups.

The blast occurred shortly before 10:00 am as lawmakers, government officials and foreign ambassadors gathered for the conference on efforts to crack down on endemic corruption in Afghanistan.