Asif Zardari faces being engulfed in Pakistan corruption scandal
Nov 28, 2009 News & Events, Pakistan, pakistan politics
By Saeed Shah in Islamabad
Asif Zardari, Pakistan’s president, faces being engulfed in a damaging corruption scandal which threatens to distract the country from its battle with the Taliban.
Asif Zardari: Mr Zardari is himself on the list but is protected from prosecution by presidential immunity. Photo: AFP
The Pakistani leader and members of his fragile pro-Western government will be hit by a string of criminal allegations when an amnesty protecting high-ranking politicians expires on Saturday.
Hundreds of court cases could be revived just as the nuclear-armed government battles a stubborn Taliban insurgency.
The publication of a list of more than 8,000 politicians covered by the amnesty has disclosed it covers bureaucrats, senior ministers and ambassadors who are charged with offences ranging from murder to embezzlement.
The Supreme Court has ruled the amnesty on charges dating back to the 1990s, which was introduced in 2007, will end on Saturday.
Mr Zardari is himself on the list but is protected from prosecution by presidential immunity.
However some lawyers believe they could prove him unfit for office and cases could be renewed against allies including Rehman Malik, interior minister, and the ambassadors to London and Washington.
The end of the amnesty has alarmed the West which fears lengthy politically-motivated trials could distract their key ally in Islamabad from the Pakistani army’s war with the Taliban in Waziristan.
Mr Zardari has become a critical part of Western efforts to defeat the militants and hunt al-Qaeda in the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The amnesty was introduced through a decree by former President Pervez Musharraf in 2007 under a plan to share power with Mr Zardari’s wife and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Mr Zardari gained the nickname “Mr Ten Percent” from accusations he received kickbacks while awarding lucrative contracts during his wife’s two stints in office in the 1990s.
he publication of a list of more than 8,000 politicians covered by the amnesty has disclosed it covers bureaucrats, senior ministers and ambassadors who are charged with offences ranging from murder to embezzlement.
The Supreme Court has ruled the amnesty on charges dating back to the 1990s, which was introduced in 2007, will end o
He spent years in jail on the charges, and while he was never convicted, the allegations have continued to pursue him.
The 8,000 names on the list are dominated by politicians from the ruling Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and its coalition partner Muttahida Quami Movement.
Mr Zardari’s supporters believe the publication of the list of names and successful challenge of the amnesty is a military backed plot to oust him.
In a speech this week, Mr Zardari said that: “We are not afraid of conspiracies”, adding that “it is the right of the PPP government to complete its term”.
Despite presidential immunity, some lawyers have argued Mr Zardari is not protected from charges stemming from the period before he took office.
Even if his immunity protects him, the regurgitation of old corruption allegations will add greatly to the political pressure on him to step down.
To try to placate his critics, Zardari may be forced to give up most of his powers to the prime minister.
Arif Nizami, a political analyst, said: “It seems sometimes like a witch-hunt,” he said “Zardari is perceived as too dependent or too pro the United States, and sometimes not quite in agreement with the strategic view of the army.”
Several court petitions are prepared, including cases against Mr Zardari’s right to be president and lawsuits that will test the limits of presidential immunity.
One lawsuit will even challenge the president’s mental health – another ground for removal from office.
AK Dogar, a lawyer preparing to sue the president, said: “The president is not protected for his personal actions, only for whatever he does through the office of president.
“The idea of anyone being above the law is wrong.”
Tags: Asif Zardari, corruption, Pakistan, President Zardari, scandal, zardari
Pakistan ranked 139 in global corruption list
Nov 17, 2009 News & Events, Pakistan, pakistan politics
BERLIN: Graft watchdog Transparency International hit out at rich countries over shady banking practices on Tuesday as it published its annual rankings naming and shaming the world’s most corrupt countries.
‘Corrupt money must not find safe haven. It is time to put an end to excuses,’ said the Berlin-based group’s head Huguette Labelle.
‘Even industrialised countries cannot be complacent: the supply of bribery and the facilitation of corruption often involve businesses based in their countries,’ the report said.
In the wake of the financial crisis, the Group of 20 (G20) industrialised countries turned up the heat on tax havens, targeting rich countries with long-held banking secrecy laws like Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
But Labelle said extra efforts were imperative, calling for more bilateral treaties on information exchange in order to ‘to fully end the secrecy regime.’
Overall, the 2009 corruption list is ‘of great concern,’ the organisation said, with the majority of countries scoring under five in the ranking, which ranges from zero, highly corrupt and 10, which is very clean.
With a score of 2.7, Pakistan was ranked 139 out of the 180 countries on the list, a position it shares with fellow South Asian nation Bangladesh, the SE Asian country Philippines and the Baltic state of Belarus.
The bottom five nations — Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan and Iraq — show that ‘countries which are perceived as the most corrupt are also those plagued by long-standing conflicts, which have torn apart their governance infrastructure,’ TI said.
The five countries seen as least afflicted by corruption were New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden — and Switzerland.
New Zealand scored 9.4 points whereas Somalia scored 1.0 points.
The score is based on perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts. —AFP
Tags: 139, corruption, Global, Pakistan
NRO: Geo to Aisey
Nov 12, 2009 News & Events, Videos, pakistan politics
Tags: corruption, geo, Geo to Aisey, NRO, Pakistan, Rehman Malik, zardari
