Fascism on the march By Ardeshir Cowasjee

Week Ending : 13 December 1997 Issue : 03/50

http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1997/13Dec97.html#fasc

THEORETICALLY, in a Westminster-style democracy that this country has tried to emulate, there are four pillars of state – the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and the press. But our
country rests imbalanced on five. The fifth pillar, the most powerful, the richest, the most organized, is the army. Fortunately for us, it is now headed by a good commander.

Nawaz Sharif’s `overwhelming’ mandate, comprising less than ten per cent of the total population of the Republic, but sufficient for him and his `sovereigns of parliament’ to do good by the 140 million should they so wish, did not satisfy him.

He first tackled the executive, emasculating the president, rushing through at midnight the 13th Amendment, suspending all rules of procedure, aided and abetted by a pliant assembly speaker and a pliant senate chairman (both front-runners in the present presidential race). To neutralize the legislature, he repeated the exercise with his 14th Amendment (passed without a single dissent) banning dissension or abstention in parliament. Never in the recorded history of any democracy have parliamentarians voluntarily given up their right to speak.

At the time when Farooq Leghari and his caretaker government were assuring Nawaz Sharif his second term, Abbaji was heard to declare, “leghari Sahib kay ehsan, mein, aur merey baitey, aur hamara khandan, kabhi nahin, bhoolengey.” This was forgotten on February 3 when Nawaz Sharif was elected.

Nine months down the line, a weakened Leghari, given the choice between a threatened impeachment (which, because of the numbers game, may never have come off) or resignation, chose the latter. He should have called Nawaz Sharif’s bluff, and, following the dictates of his conscience, gone on to sign or not sign whatever was presented to him. An independent judiciary would have intervened and passed appropriate orders against a mala fide and colorable impeachment.

Leghari having resigned, a new president now has to be elected. When my friend, Nawab Mohammad Akbar Shahbaz Khan, Tumandar Bugti, was asked whether he was an aspirant, he replied “No. I do not qualify. I have a spine.” Amongst the pliable favorites are Wasim Sajjad, Sartaj Aziz, Ilahi Bakhsh Soomro, and, of all people, Ghous Ali Shah. Of this sorry lot, one is guilty of having lied under oath in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The fourth pillar of the state, the press, is no longer just the printed word. it is also the predominating electronic media. Nawaz Sharif and his men do not, or cannot, read, so, by and large, we remain relatively free. PTV, our prime ministers’ personal television channel, remains abjectly controlled, so much so that it was prevented from broadcasting President Leghari’s resignation speech to the nation. Shots were shown on foreign television channels, and the world informed that it was banned from the national channel. This reinforced international opinion as to Nawaz Sharif’s authoritarian tendencies.

The army stands as one. Chief of Army Staff General Jehangir Karamat has acted prudently. Nawaz Sharif’s propaganda about his having army backing is neither correct nor is it generally
believed. Why do you glorify the army chief so, asked Ayaz Amir (not so long ago one of our credible national columnists but now a budding Nawazite)? Have you forgotten your history? Have you forgotten how Hitler divided and destroyed the Wehrmacht? Have you forgotten the Blomberg-Fritsch affair? Have you forgotten how the ageing giant Hindenburg was duped by Hitler? If Nawaz succeeds in his aim, will Karamat be forgiven? I told him I had not forgotten any of it and how not so long ago I had sent to the general a copy of a video film on the Fuhrer which is being followed up by a copy of Shirer’s `The Rise and Fall of the third Reich’.

As for the judiciary, Nawaz Sharif with his (or rather, our) money, with his carrots and sticks, has successfully managed to undermine this institution so recently built up. Neither history nor the people can ever forgive him for this.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Sajjad Ali Shah (to the Bar and the people he is neither `under restraint’ nor `under suspension’) was appointed by Benazir in 1994. No judge, or member of the Bar, up to November of this year, voiced any protest against his appointment or his administration. As Rashed Rahman, son of a former Supreme Court judge, wrote about him in The Nation, “That he is a man of courage and has a clean record goes without saying. In that sense he can be compared to a hero of a Shakespearian tragedy whose fall is brought about as much by a flaw in his own character as by outside factors.”

Fali Nariman, a former Attorney-General of India and now president of the bar association of India, who keeps himself abreast of happenings in the courts of our country, asked me to fax him the orders passed by the Quetta and Peshawar Benches and by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah relating to the ouster. On December 5, a perplexed Nariman asked, `but is there any legal or constitutional basis for the orders of the Quetta and Peshawar Benches?”

My constitutional adviser and senior counsel, Barrister Makhdoom Ali Khan, was immediately consulted. Careful Makhdoom’s first response was to say, “Not to my knowledge.” I asked him for a one- word answer, either `yes’ or `no’. “No,” he said. There are certainly no precedents in Pakistan for what has happened, but there are many against. It is a settled principle that no writ will be issued by one judge to another.

On November 28, I was in the Supreme Court whilst the contempt case against Nawaz Sharif and others was being heard by Chief Justice Shah’s Bench. Sitting beside me was my friend and lawyer, Khalid Anwer, now federal law minister. Whilst alleged contemner Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer, S.M. Zafar, laboured on and on, Khalid shook his head from side to side. Zafar, making his usual noises, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, told the court that its constitution was in question. A calm and composed Sajjad asked, why then are you here before us? Zafar also questioned the legitimacy of Sajjad’s appointment as chief justice. If you do not recognize me as chief justice, do you recognize me as a judge of the Supreme Court? queried Sajjad.

As the harangue continued, I remarked to Khalid that his writ as law minister does not extend far, and asked if it would extend far enough for him to protect my seat whilst I nip out to attend to a call of nature. Good humouredly, he replied that though he may not succeed as law minister, he could manage to do so as a senior counsel of the Supreme Court. Before I could reach my destination one floor below the courtroom, a surging screaming crowd of hooligans appeared in the corridors. Zahid Hussain, correspondent for The Times (London) and the chief of AP in Pakistan, was with me. We were both hurriedly sent back by court officials who were rushing around instructing each other that the doors of the courtroom be closed, that the crowd had arrived to arrest the Chief Justice.

As we re-entered, I heard Sajjad remark, to Zafar, “Thanks to you,” whilst adjourning the case and leaving the courtroom just before a section of the crowd, spearheaded by women, rushed in. Turning to Khalid I said that if Nawaz Sharif must use women, he should at least see to it that they are good looking rather than frightening. A lawyer of Lahore standing close by informed me that they were not actually women, but intermediary beings, and that I would look like them were I to shave off my beard and moustache and put on lipstick and make-up. He even recognized a few of them as being famous `tanglas’ from certain specialized areas of Lahore. As we pushed our way out of the courtroom, a dejected Khalid Anwar muttered to himself, “Most unnecessary, most unnecessary.”

Acting Chief Justice Ajmal Mian is so far clean on record, and, as far as is publicly known, free from any impropriety. His first challenge is to deal with all those involved in the attack on the Supreme Court. This will not be easy. It must nevertheless be faced. The mob did not attack a man, or a building. The institution of the judiciary, with the Supreme Court at its apex, was the
target of the assault. This was contempt of court of the worst kind, and any lack of firmness or alacrity in dealing with the culprits will only encourage others to use similar methods each time the court is seized of a politically sensitive matter. The authority of the court will become subject to the muscle- power of the mob and the machinations of those who hire them.

The master-fixer, my friend the Jadoogar of Jeddah, Sharifuddin Pirzada, who snoozed besides me as we flew back to Karachi, was firm in his opinion that the gravest of contempt had been
committed, that it’s an open and shut case.

Fascism on the march – III Ardeshir Cowasjee

Week Ending : 27 December 1997 Issue : 03/52

http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1997/27Dec97.html#fasc

THIS true story relating to the election of the first president, to suit the genius of the 1973 Constitution warrants repetition. When President Bhutto decided to step down to the prime ministerial slot he looked around for a ‘suitable’ replacement. What he sought ideally was a blind, deaf, mindless, crippled candidate. Prior to his sighting of the gentle Fazal Elahi Chaudhry, his eye lit upon the politically acceptable Begum Shahnawaz, daughter of Sir Mohammad Shafi, sister of my late lamented friend, Mian Iqbal Shafi.

My first reaction was to exclaim, good grief, she must be pushing ninety. To check, and to congratulate Iqi in the event that it was true, I rang him. Yes, he said, there is something to it and, yes, she is getting on for ninety. But she qualifies perfectly. She can barely see, she is almost stone deaf, and she is mobile only if helped. We must hope they don’t let her down. She is preparing her trousseau for the move to the presidential palace, and it will hit her hard if it doesn’t come off. Nusrat and Zulfi have been visiting. Keep your fingers crossed, pal. You and I may be on to a good thing. She will have a special train. We’ll organize an extra bogey and tour Pakistan in style. Pack your bags, pal, he instructed me before he signed off.

A few days later Iqi called. Unpack, pal, unpack. Bad news. Jehanara’s chances have receded. She has regained her hearing in one ear, her eyesight has improved, and she has thrown out her
nurse. No go. She has ceased to qualify. Looking around this time, Nawaz Sharif’s eye focused on
octogenarian Fida Mohammed Khan as a suitable candidate. He also qualified on other grounds. Hailing from the NWFP, he would be acceptable to most as a symbol of the federation. But Wali Khan, Sharif’s coalition partner, spoilt that one. Fida did not suit his purposes. He was relatively sharp of hearing and sight, and had almost all his brain cells intact.

Up came the name of Mohammed Ali Khan Hoti, also from the NWFP. He was immediately rejected, for he has a good solid spine and is quite capable of deciding for himself what is what.

Ghous Ali Shah of Sindh’s name cropped up, but was hastily discarded as too many people who mattered insisted that he was far too ‘controversial’ (the local euphemism for ‘totally unacceptable’).

Then Abbaji stepped in, and within the space of one minute settled everything. Cut the cackle and forget about the ‘smaller’ provinces. Let’s keep it all in the family and in Punjab. Select my
friend and legal adviser, Rafiq Tarar, whose wit and wisdom I share, and with whom I often sup late into the night, exchanging sick Sikh jokes from our vast reservoirs. He is, and will prove to
be, perfect.

What is good for the Sharifs, is good for the party, and is good for the nation. Soon, with God’s blessings, we will have a Sharif nominee at the head of the Supreme Court and at the head of our
powerful army. ‘Der Fuhrer’ had spoken. Without further ado, without consulting his ruling party members, or the leaders of the coalition parties, Nawaz Sharif nominated Tarar.

Thought-broadcaster and ‘media developer’ Mushahid Hussain was ordered to tailor Tarar to fit the slot, and vice versa. Mushahid trumpeted: Tarar is a moderate Muslim, a clean, devout, upright man and, contrary to what is said, is not a misogynist. He has been cleared by the agencies (who codified him in the records sent to those prosecuting Benazir’s Bhutto government’s dismissal as DW1 — Dari Wallah 1). He is a son of the soil, officially born in Pirkhot, District Gujranwala, on November 2, 1929, educated in Gujranwala and Lahore. Gujranwala is his oyster. It was there he grew his formal beard and in 1951 launched himself as a pleader.

He moved up to become advocate of the high court, to additional district and sessions judge, to district and sessions judge, and was elevated to the bench of the Lahore High Court in 1974, in the good old days of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s PPP. In 1989, in the equally good old days of Zia, he became chief justice of that court, moving up to the Supreme Court in 1991, from where he retired in 1994. His brilliance on the bench of the Supreme Court has been immortalized. During the three years he sat there, one sole judgment authored by the Honourable Justice Tarar was recorded in a PLD — his concurring judgment in the case of the 1993 dissolution of the National Assembly when the presidential dissolution order was struck down and the government of Nawaz Sharif restored.

Amongst his friends who share his thoughts and beliefs and over whom he wields considerable influence are Justice Khalilur Rahman (codified as DW2), a signatory to the November 1997 order of the Quetta bench of the Supreme Court which sparked off the sorry disintegration process; Afzal Lone, a benefactor of the Ittefaq empire, rewarded with a Senate seat, who is inevitably to be found lurking in the prime minister’s secretariat, and Major General Javed Nasir (DW3), Nawaz Sharif’s former chief of the ISI and of the ‘Afghan misadventure’.

Tarar’s nomination was filed on December 16, together with that of his covering candidates Captain Haleem Siddiqi and Khwaja Qutubuddin. (It is somewhat of a disgrace that a master mariner should have allowed his name to be included amongst the spineless.) Tarar’s nomination was rejected on December 18 by Justice of the Supreme Court Mukhtar Ahmad Junejo, who also holds the post of Acting Chief Election Commissioner. Junejo, in this case, proved himself to be as strong as Seshan.

Can we remove Junejo, was Nawaz Sharif’s first Gawalmandi reaction. Risky, he was told. Then file a petition against Junejo’s order in the Lahore High Court and have the order suspended. Suitable counsel were hurriedly contacted, and it goes to the credit of the bar that not one of the top constitutional lawyers was willing to accept Tarar’s brief.

Ejaz Batalvi, expert criminal lawyer, was roped in. Justice Qayyum admitted the petition on December 19 and suspended Junejo’s order, allowing Tarar to “participate in the election provisionally subject to further orders”. A larger bench will hear the petition on the 23rd.

My renowned constitutional expert (who for his own good explicitly asked me not to name him) maintains that Tarar may sail through the Lahore High Court. But, in the Supreme Court, it may, just may, be a different kettle of fish. Passing muster there will not be that simple.

The irony is that the order of Acting CEC Mukhtar Junejo will be defended by Attorney General Chaudhry Farooq, who, though technically the first law officer of the land representing the people still acts as if he were the personal hired lawyer of Ittefaq and Nawaz Sharif.

As for the president of the republic, with the powers now left to him in the Constitution, all he can depend upon is his moral authority and his presentability to the world. Tarar, unfortunately, possesses neither. To quote from the ‘Comment’ of man-of-integrity Kunwar Idris, published in this newspaper on December 20 :

“Also casting a dark shadow on him is the referendum of December 1984 when, as a member of Zia’s Election Commission, he solemnly assured the people that 55 per cent and not just five per cent of the electorate had turned out to confer legitimacy on Zia’s dictatorial rule. Mr Tarar also has to dispel the widely insinuated impression that he was involved in the ‘Quetta Shuttle’ which
divided the Supreme Court and write the saddest chapter in Pakistan’s constitutional history.”

The task before the present de facto chief custodian of the Supreme Court, the honourable J-1, Justice Ajmal Mian, is onerous indeed. Before he can reform and unite his ‘farishtas’ (as the judges of the SC are affectionately known) he has to clean up the paradise over which they preside. The dignity and honour of the court remain desecrated and dented by the mob attack upon it organized by the ruling party. The court must be cleansed and reconsecrated, the sponsors and their stormers punished for committing a criminal act in the face of the court.

Another task awaiting Justice Mian is the reining in of the parallel judiciary incorporated in the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 (a Lone-Tarar creation).

Also (important and urgent) he must demolish the formation of a squad of honorary magistrates planned to be recruited in Punjab from the ranks of party bosses of the Muslim League. Following in his master’s footsteps, Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat is said to have thought up this brilliant fascistic move.

Storming of the Supreme Court By Ardeshir Cowasjee

21 November 1999 Sunday 12 Shaban 1420

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/991121.htm

AN affidavit in the case of the storming of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (Cr. Appeal 162/99 arising out of Cr.Misc.27/98) was sworn on November 17, 1999, and placed on the Supreme Court record:

“I, Ardeshir Cowasjee, son of Rustom Fakirjee Cowasjee, Parsi, adult, resident of 10 Mary Road, Karachi, do hereby solemnly state :

“1. Instigated, supported and aided by the leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) party then in power, legislators, party members and street activists of the party stormed the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the morning of November 28, 1997.

“2. On December 13, 1997, I wrote and sent the following letter to the then Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Ajmal Mian : ‘Gravest contempt committed in the face of the Supreme Court of Pakistan at Islamabad whilst the court was in session on Friday November 28 1997 ‘Sent herewith :

‘1) A copy of the manuscript of my column sent to Dawn to be printed in my regular slot on Sunday, December 14.

‘2) A video cassette.

‘3) A copy of the manuscript of my column printed in Dawn on Sunday, December 7, with excised passages highlighted.

‘You will undoubtedly appreciate the urgency of the matter. Apparently, encouraged by the successful storming of the Supreme Court on November 28, a fortnight later a mob invaded the court of a civil judge at Faisalabad.

‘It is my firm belief, which, needless to say, is shared by many others, that, as is the case with Benazir Bhutto, her family and followers, Nawaz Sharif and his adherents can neither tolerate nor survive a strong united judiciary.

‘If Nawaz does survive beyond the next six months, he will find ways to remove you.’

“3. On December 15, 1997, the Acting Chief Justice appointed Abdur Rehman Khan, J, of the Supreme Court to hold an inquiry for the following purposes :

‘(1) examine what steps the Federal Government has taken against the persons responsible for the incident on 28/11/97 at the Supreme Court premises and at what level investigation is being carried out as also the stage of investigation; and also to examine the various communications/information which have been received by this Court from various sources, including members of the public.

‘(2) to suggest what steps/ actions the Supreme Court should take/initiate in the above matter and for avoiding such incidents in future.’

“4, On February 18, 1998, two months later, not satisfied with what he could establish, the government of the day for obvious reasons being non-cooperative, Justice Abdur Rahman reported back to the Chief Justice suggesting, inter alia :

‘(C)(i) As the action of those individuals who forced their entry into the court premises and raised slogans against the judiciary prima facie amounts to gross contempt of this Court but, except for some of them, most of such individuals have yet to be identified, it is considered appropriate that the Hon’ble Chief Justice may constitute a Bench of the Court to initiate contempt proceedings for the outrageous incident of 28/11/97. The Bench so constituted can adopt such measures and take such actions as it may deem necessary to identify the concerned persons. Once the concerned persons are identified, the Court can then issue notice to them and then take further action under Article 204 of the Constitution and the applicable law. Necessity for initiating such action immediately is felt because of paramount importance of the matter as the sanctity, dignity and respect of the apex Court of the country is involved. Street power should not be allowed to coerce and intimidate the judiciary.’

“5. On February 25, 1998, the Chief Justice issued the following order :

‘Pursuant to the recommendation contained in para (C)(i) of the report, I constitute a Bench comprising Mr Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, Mr Justice Munawar Ahmad Mirza and Mr Justice Abdur Rahman Khan to identify the persons involved in the incident of 28th November, 1997, and to initiate contempt proceedings as recommended in the above para ……. ‘

“6. Pursuant to the order of the Chief Justice, Criminal Miscellaneous 27/98 was registered and proceedings in the case were commenced on March 2, 1998.

“7. Between March 25, 1998 (on which date I was for the first time summoned to give evidence), and May 21, 1998, I attended eleven of the hearings held from the commencement of the identification proceedings on March 2, 1998, to their completion on June 15, 1998. It was my distinct impression, and the impression of many others who attended these hearings, that the Attorney-General of Pakistan, Chaudhry Farooq, lawyer of the Ittefaq group of industries, and his assistants did their utmost to protect the leaders of the Muslim League (N) and the men who had stormed the court rather than prosecute them. Chaudhry Farooq himself having been accused of the grossest contempt in the face of the court of Mr Justice Munir A. Shaikh could obviously not have done otherwise.

“8. The actual storming of the Supreme Court (within the building) was recorded on two of the Court’s closed circuit television cameras and whereas these were seen on a screen by the Bench and the Attorney-General on March 11, 1998, despite my request, these two cassettes were not shown subsequently in the courtroom whilst witnesses were being examined.

“9. Names of witnesses who could have given valuable evidence were submitted to the Court but all these witnesses were not called. As is recorded on p.5, serial no.4, of Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid’s judgment in the matter :

‘Other persons made applications to the Court for being examined. Whenever the Court considered necessary, such persons were called and their statements recorded.’

“10. Whilst giving evidence, I accused the former prime minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif, and other members of the party in power of having masterminded and organized the storming of the Court. However, the Court did not find it necessary to summon such members of the ruling party to give evidence.

“11. Senator Saifur Rahman, former chief of the Ehtesab Bureau, was clearly shown on the cassette which I submitted to the Court. It was very evident that he was exhorting the crowd to storm Courtroom No.1 where contempt proceedings against the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, and other parliamentarians were being heard that day. Khwaja Asif, PML MNA, was also identified but not charged, as was the case with PML MPAs Chaudhry Tanveer and Mian Abdul Sattar. Former Information Minister Mushahid Hussain and the former political secretary to the prime minister, Mushtaq Tahirkheli, were clearly shown on the BBC film of the storming crowd outside the Supreme Court as being members of that crowd. None of these members of the ruling party were charged.

“12. During the course of the investigation proceedings it was not deemed necessary by the Court to inquire into the background and run-up to the storming of the Court, nor into the reasons why it was engineered.

“13. On July 3, 1998, show cause notices were directed to be issued to 26 respondents, and such notices were issued on October 11, 1998.

“14. On March 1 1999, further proceedings against eight activists of the Muslim League were postponed until the decision of the criminal case against them (FIR 229/97, PS Secretariat, Islamabad), and apologies tendered by ten officers of the police and administration were accepted. The show cause notice to Mushtaq Tahirkheli was withdrawn. Contempt charges were framed against two MNAs, four MPAs, and one PML (N) activist.

“15. On May 5, 1999, I was again summonded to give evidence and made the following statement: ‘I accuse the Prime Minister and the ruling party of storming the court on 28 November, 1997. They obstructed the course of justice (p.18 judgment of May 14, 1999).

“16. The judgment of May 14, 1999, signed by the three judges acquitted the seven respondents, as charges of contempt were not established against any of them on the basis of the evidence produced before them. The judgment impliedly held that no one had been responsible for the storming of the Supreme Court on November 28, 1997.

“17. Crl. Appeal 162/99 against the judgment of May 14, 1999, is to be heard on November 19, 1999, by a Supreme Court Bench of 12, and for the first time notice has been issued to the PML (N) at House No.4, Khayaban-e-Iqbal, F-7/3, Islamabad.

“18. Now, with the suspension of the PML (N) government and the new government in power, government functionaries and law enforcers will feel free to give evidence, as may certain members of the PML (N) itself. There will be no apprehension that the administration will coerce and intimidate witnesses. For this reason, it will be in the interest of justice and of the institution of the judiciary that Criminal Miscellaneous Application 27/98 be heard by the Supreme Court de novo .

“19. It is accordingly prayed that the honourable court set aside the judgment of the three members Bench and direct that the case be heard de novo . ”

On November 18 a letter was sent to Attorney-General Aziz Munshi, attaching a copy of the affidavit and stating, inter alia :

“You are the first law officer of the people and they are justified in their assumption that you will plead that the case be heard de novo.”

Munshi delivered. Seven hundred and twenty-two days after the Court was stormed, thirty-eight days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his ruling party were deposed, the Supreme Court sent a notice to Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, president of his own Muslim League group and former head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Storming of the Supreme Court By Ardeshir Cowasjee

01 October 2000 Sunday 02 Rajab 1421

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20001001.htm

AFFIDAVIT sworn at Karachi on September 27, 2000:

“In The Supreme Court of Pakistan (Cr. Appeal 162/99)…… I, Ardeshir Cowasjee …….. in reference to a front-page news report published in Dawn, the newspaper of record, on September 19, 2000, headed ‘Rowdyism at SC: Respondents seek mercy’ (Attachment 1) in which has been reported ‘… After conferring with his clients, the counsel said that his clients had thrown at (sic.) the mercy of the court. Referring to SC judgment in Masroor Ahsan vs. Ardeshir Cowasjee’, counsel said that whenever the accused threw himself at the mercy of the court the court showed magnanimity….’, do hereby affirm:

1) That the above news item implies that in Cr.O.P. 5/95, Masroor Ahsan v. Ardeshir Cowasjee, Mr Ahmad Ali Khan, Editor, Dawn and Mr Ghulam Ali A Mirza, Printer & Publisher, Dawn, the Respondents, threw themselves at the mercy of the court.

2) That, the factual position is, no charges were framed against any of the Respondents and that no Respondent threw himself at the mercy of the court. It is requested that the court record may be accordingly corrected.

3) That I attach hereto a copy of my unrefuted column published in Dawn on May 23, 1999, entitled Not guilty?’ (Attachment 2). Particular reference is made to the following passages:

(a) “At 0300 hours on Friday, November 28, 1997, the landing strip of the Islamabad airport was lit up. Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif flew in, having wished God Speed to his party stalwarts travelling by road from Lahore to the capital city. He had come to witness his stormers perform and to arrange a post-storming celebratory luncheon at Punjab House.”

(b) “With him, amongst others, was Senator Saifur Rahman. Saif was later to deny having had anything to do with the transportation of the hordes, explaining that he had ‘rushed’ to Lahore the evening before to visit a judge of the Supreme Court. Having met His Lordship at 11 o’clock at night, he had hitched a ride back with Shahbaz.”

(c) “At 0730 hours the same day, Lt General Nasim Rana, then heading the ISI, called on COAS General Jehangir Karamat to report that a large crowd of ruling party men had left Lahore the previous night and was now congregating in Islamabad preparing to storm the Supreme Court. General Karamat played by the book and asked Rana to warn the man whose orders he obeyed, Nawaz Sharif, prime and defence minister. Another general in Karamat’s place would have perhaps ordered a company of the 111 Brigade to conduct a ‘move’ exercise around the Supreme Court and the Parliament area that morning. The army is, after all, responsible for the security of the people and their institutions.”

(d) “The plan to oust Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, which had taken root as early as August 21, 1997, succeeded and he was deposed.”

(e) “On December 13, 1997, fifteen days after the event, I addressed an open letter to Acting Chief Justice Ajmal Mian [my column, 14/12/97), requesting that “it be accepted as a petition and that he take suo moto action, for the gravest contempt committed in the face of the court, against those who stormed the Supreme Court on November 28, 1997 as well as those responsible for organizing, paying, and directing them to so do, and that severe deterrent punishment be handed down to all of them. Collectively responsible and guilty is the entire federal cabinet and its primus inter pares”. Together with the letter, I sent him a video cassette which clearly showed the storming of the court and in which several Muslim League leaders were identified.”

(f) “Acting Chief Justice Ajmal Mian moved with trepidation. He referred to the ‘storming’ as a ‘very serious incident of rowdyism.’ By his order dated 15/12/97 he appointed Abdur Rahman Khan, J. to hold an inquiry.

Two months later, on 18/2/98, Justice Rahman submitted a report in which, inter alia, he stated: ‘As the action of those individuals who forced their entry into the court premises and raised slogans against the judiciary prima facie amounts to gross contempt of this court….. it is considered appropriate that the honourable Chief Justice may constitute a Bench of the court to instigate contempt proceedings for the outrageous incident of 28/11/97. The bench so constituted can adopt such measures and take such actions as it may deem necessary to identify the concerned persons ….. the necessity for initiating such action immediately is felt because of paramount importance of the matter as the sanctity, dignity and respect of the apex court of the country is involved. Street power should not be allowed to coerce and intimidate the judiciary’.”

(g) “The hearing of the contempt case began on 21/2/99 before a Bench of three headed by Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, the same Bench that had conducted the inquiry. I was asked to appear before it on May 6 as a prosecution witness. I was further directed: “If you wish to place on record any material regarding the incident, you are requested to send the same in advance.” I sent a copy of the video cassette of the recording of the court’s own CCTV cameras and fourteen documents, all of which had been handed over to the Supreme Court and/or the DAG between December 1997 and May 1998, i.e. prior to and during the course of the inquiry hearing of Cr.Misc.27/98.”

(h) “Before the Court on May 6, I challenged the capacity and capability of the DAG to prosecute, and handed over a statement suggesting that it was still not too late to appoint a special prosecutor, in conformity with current international judicial norms and practices, who is able to prosecute the case in an unbiased manner. The statement was accepted on record and the DAG was directed to sit down. The judges asked whether I had any statement to make. I accused the prime minister and the ruling party of having stormed the court on November 28, 1997, and of obstructing the course of justice. On what basis had I made my statement? I was asked. On the basis of the video cassette and of all the documents already sent to the court. During cross examination by a defence lawyer it was “put” to me that my accusation was malafide and made out of malice. “Right or wrong?” he asked. Wrong, I replied, and there the matter ended.”

(i) “On May 14, 1999, over one and a half years after the storming, the judgment was delivered. Statements made under oath, the video cassette recording, newspaper clippings – all these were not considered to be evidence.”

4) That with regard to the above cited passages, I have the following elaborations/questions:

(a) Mian Shahbaz Sharif flew to Islamabad in his special plane at dead of night. Why?

(b) Which Supreme Court judge did Saifur Rahman call upon at 2300 hours?

(c) A ‘move’ exercise would have entailed a company of 111 Brigade motoring up and down the Constitution Avenue without resorting to action.

(d) From the statement filed in the court by Senator Iqbal Haider on May 25, 1998. This was followed by the clandestine visit to the judges of the Quetta Bench of the honourable Supreme Court by the envoy of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Senator Rafiq Ahmad Tarar, whereafter the Quetta judgment of November 28, 1997, was delivered by Justices Irshad Hasan Khan and Khalilur Rahman Khan.

(e) The video cassette of the film recorded by the CCTV cameras installed in the Supreme Court building was considered sufficient evidence by Chief Justice Ajmal Mian to order a judicial inquiry into the storming.

(f) Justice Abdur Rahman Khan confirmed that the storming had coerced and intimidated the judiciary. A clear case of contempt in the face of the court.

(g) All the evidence remains on record of the Supreme Court.

(h) On the production of evidence recorded by the court cameras a judicial inquiry was conducted and contempt proceedings followed.

5) That in the interests of the “sanctity, dignity and respect of the apex court of the country”, I submit that Mian Nawaz Sharif, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Saifur Rahman, Lt General Nasim Rana, and the journalists present in court on November 28, 1997, be summoned to give evidence under oath.

6) That I request that this affidavit and its attachments be taken on record.

7) That whatever is stated above is true and correct.”

We must be thankful to providence for small mercies, and our honourable judiciary should be thankful to journalist Shahid Orakzai for his persistence. Three chief justices later and a thousand days down the road from the November 28, 1997, storming of the supreme court, Orakzai and his tenacity have enabled the court to restore, to some extent, its damaged image. Seven of the hundreds of stormers have been convicted and now that the second investigation ball has been lobbed to a superintendent of police, it is just possible that a few Untersturmfuehrers will be convicted equally swiftly. This is certainly not the end of the story.

‘Sharifs used paper mill to whiten money’ By Azaz Syed Friday, 13 Nov, 2009
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/13+sharifs+accused+of+money+laundering-za-08

ISLAMABAD: The Musharraf government prepared a money laundering reference against PML-N leaders Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif in 2000 on the basis of a statement recorded by one of their trusted lieutenants, Senator Ishaq Dar, according to a court document seen by Dawn here on Thursday.

Senator Dar’s handwritten statement, given before a magistrate back on April 25, 2000, had alleged that Sharif brothers used the Hudaibya Paper Mills as cover for money laundering during the late 1990s.

The reference was prepared on the orders of then president Pervez Musharraf, but it was shelved after the Sharif brothers went into exile in December of the same year.

The Musharraf government tried to reopen the reference in 2007 after Nawaz Sharif announced his return to the country.

The confessional statement of Senator Ishaq Dar was recorded before a district magistrate in Lahore. He was brought to the court from a jail by Basharat Shahzad, who was then serving as assistant director in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

According to legal experts, the senator’s deposition was an `irrevocable statement’ as had been recorded under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

Senator Ishaq Dar has always been regarded as one of the closest aides of the Sharif family, and is now also a relative as his son is married to Nawaz Sharif’s younger daughter.

However, the NAB record clearly shows that back in 2000 he had agreed to give a written statement against the Sharifs about their alleged involvement in money laundering.

The top PML-N leaders had hit a rough patch by then as some of their lieutenants were busy developing a new political system for Gen Pervez Musharraf after his Oct 1999 military coup.

In the statement, Ishaq Dar accused Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif of money laundering in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case.

At one point in the 43-page statement, Mr Dar said that on the instructions of Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, ‘I opened two foreign currency accounts in the name of Sikandara Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi with the foreign currency funds provided by the Sharif family in the Bank of America by signing as Sikandara Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi’.

He said that all instructions to the bank in the name of these two persons were signed by him under the orders of ‘original depositors’, namely Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif.

‘The foreign currency accounts of Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi were opened in Bank of America by Naeem Mehmood under my instructions (based on instructions of Sharifs) by signing the same as Nuzhat Gohar and Kashif Masood Qazi.’

The document shows Dar stated that besides these foreign currency accounts, a previously opened foreign currency account of Saeed Ahmed, a former director of First Hajvari Modaraba Co and close friend of Dar, and of Mussa Ghani, the nephew of Dar’s wife, were also used to deposit huge foreign currency funds provided by ‘the Sharif family’ to offer them as collateral to obtain different direct and indirect credit lines.

Senator Dar had disclosed that the Bank of America, Citibank, Atlas Investment Bank, Al Barka Bank and Al Towfeeq Investment Bank were used under the instructions of the Sharif family.

Interestingly enough, Ishaq Dar also implicated himself by confessing in court that he — along with his friends Kamal Qureshi and Naeem Mehmood — had opened fake foreign currency accounts in different international banks.

Mr Dar said an amount of $3.725 million in Emirates Bank, $ 8.539 million in Al Faysal Bank and $2.622 million were later transferred in the accounts of the accounts Hudaibya Paper Mills.

He said that the entire amount in these banks finally landed in the accounts of the paper mills.

The Hudaibiya Paper Mills case is still pending in the National Accountability Bureau.
If it is opened again, the Sharif brothers may be in for a rude shock: a confidant is to blame for the albatross around their necks.

In this regard Dawn made repeated efforts to contact Senator Dar on telephone, but without luck as his mobile number was switched off and he did not reply to text messages.

However, a PML-N spokesman Siddiq ul Farooq alleged that the signed statement was extracted from Mr Ishaq Dar under duress.