Veteran journalist, columnist and former caretaker federal information minister Irshad Ahmed Haqqani died today in Lahore.
He was 81. Haqqani was born on September 6, 1928 in Kasur, he was appointed as lecturer at Kasur Government College after completing his education and was retired as the principal of the same college.
Haqqani worked with different newspapers and currently he was a senior editor of an established national newspaper (Jang). He was one of the founders of Jang, Lahore. Besides his popular daily column titled ‘Harf-e-Tamanna’, he remained well acclaimed among different schools of thoughts including scholars, politicians and thinkers.
Initially, Mr Haqqani was a member of Jamaat-i-Islami and served as editor of its organ Tasneem for some time. But he and a group of senior scholars and ideologues led by Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi left the party after developing differences with the party’s founder Maulana Maududi over his policy of bringing about the Islamic revolution through the ballot. The differences erupted at the 1953 Machhi Goth meeting of the Jamaat.
Haqqani also worked as a caretaker information minister with President Farooq Leghari in Miraj Khalid’s caretaker government in 1993.
He was suffering from heart disease since long. His funeral was held at Lahore while he was buried at Kasur.
By the way he served “Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Laghari” very well and conducted a successful TV Show on PTV hosted by Sajjad Mir [NewsOne] and guest was Kamran Khan “narrating” the details of Benazir/Zardari Corruption:[Watch a very rare video of Kamran Khan on PTV in 1996/97]
Conspiracy: Kamran Khan, Farooq Laghari, Sajjad Mir, Saifur Rehman & Media Trial of PPP.
Rana said Leghari should be ashamed of himself as he was again levelling baseless allegations against the PPP leadership after 17 years. “Leghari had betrayed his patrons. The Mehran Bank corruption case against him is still pending with the Supreme Court. Besides, he allowed his family members to commit financial corruption during his regime,” Rana Aftab said. PML-N, PPP flay Leghari’s remarks
Sunday, 24 Jan, 2010 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/12-pmln,-ppp-flay-legharis-remarks-410–bi-07
As per Daily Dawn dated 20 Oct 2007 Former President of Pakistan Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari [a former central member of PPP] while addressing a press conference at Leghari House on Raiwind Road on Friday said, Mr Leghari opposed the National Reconciliation Ordinance. He said he had proposed national reconciliation a month ago but amnesty for corruption looked strange. He said amnesty could not be justified if army officers, bureaucrats and politicians who had plundered national resources did not return the money stolen by them. He said the ordinance had been challenged in the Supreme Court and its fate depended on its verdict. He said corruption was one of the reasons for which he had dismissed the Ms Bhutto’s government in 1996 and the Supreme Court had upheld his decision. He said an accountability commission constituted by him had found corruption of $1.5 billion by Ms Bhutto. Evidence of corruption of Nawaz Sharif was also collected but Saifur Rehman destroyed evidence against him. [1] REFERENCES: Ghaddar Kaun? Author: Sohail Warraich – Nawaz Sharif opens up to Sohail Warraich in a big way READ THE BOOK sohail waraich – ghaddar kaun http://www.scribd.com/doc/2411542/sohail-waraich-ghaddar-kaunhttp://www.dukandar.com/ghaddarkaun.html Former President of Pakistan [uncle/father and father in law of many who are sitting with those members of the government of Musharraf/PML-Q who were earlier with PPP and PML-N whom Mr Leghari is condemning by saying them corrupt half of [PML-Q Cabinet have cases of corruption and loan default on 12 Oct 1999] Tumandar Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari [as per news and articles] was involved in several nastiest scandal in the history of Pakistan. So it seems that whoever who is supporting the present regimes’ wrong policies which are detrimental for the Federation of Pakistan are one way or another were and are part of the permanent establishment of Pakistan and used by the same and even they were saved when in trouble by the same establishment and Lagharis are one of those.
As per the dark pages of dark history of Pakistan.
During the so-called Lost decade of 90s as per Former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Dr. Ishrat Hussain and often repeated by Mr. Musharraf. Following event is also from the lost decade but no action was taken.
PRESIDENT LEGHARI’S LAND SALES:
The controversy over the sale of a 531-acre farm in Darkhwast Jamal Khan owned by President Leghari and his family to six people from Karachi alleged to be fronting for jailed banker Yunus Habib, gave a new and dramatic twist to the Mehran gate scandal. The president’s integrity and his image, as an honest politician, came under question when Nawaz Sharif alleged that Farooq Leghari was involved in the Mehran Bank scandal. Releasing photocopies of bank drafts worth 17 million rupees deposited in Mr. Leghari’s account in Mehran Bank, Sharif charged that the money was a pay off by Yunus Habib in return for Leghari’s bailing out Mehran bank.[Newsline June 1994]
On June 4, 1994, President Leghari conceded that the documents produced by the opposition were related to the sale of a farm that had been owned by him and several of his family members. He defended the deal, saying that there was nothing illegal about it. After much delay, the government set up two judicial commissions to enquire into the Mehran Bank affair and the 140 million rupees paid to the ISI by Yunus Habib in 1990 while he was provincial chief of Habib Bank.
President Leghari told the Newsline, Karachi: “I did ask Mr. Yunus Habib to see if he could arrange for any buyers for the land … But I didn’t know those six people (who eventually bought the land). I am not aware of whether they were fronting for Mr. Yunus Habib or if the land was actually bought by Mr. Yunus Habib and his family…. As a seller, my only interest was to make sure that I got the price of the land.” President Leghari, however, admitted, that he was approached by Yunus Habib in April, 1993, when he was Finance Minister in the interim government (April/May 1993) to save Mehran Bank from collapsing. Mr. Leghari referred Yunus Habib’s request to the State Bank, but before getting any reply, the interim government was dissolved and Mr. Sartaj Aziz, who became the Finance Minister in the revived government of Nawaz Sharif in April, 1993, ordered the relief given to the Mehran Bank. “The allegation of my having helped Yunus Habib and saved Mehran Bank is false. It was done by Mr. Sartaj Aziz and Mr. Nawaz Sharif. But I have the moral courage to say that yes, I also wanted to do the same and if I had a longer stay as finance minister I would have done the same.”[Newsline June 1994]
On Dec. 14, 1995 Younus Habib was awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 36.7 million in a fraud case by the Special Court for Offenses in Banks in Sindh.[Dawn 15.12.1995]
However, two years after the appointment, the judicial commission did not complete its enquiry into the Mehran Bank scam. The Mehran Bank scam exemplifies the increasingly corrupt political culture that has taken root in this country. And Mehrangate is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of banking and financial scams involving politicians that have yet to surface. It seems that all politicians — whether they belong to the ruling coalition or the opposition — are part of this corrupt political culture. The charges and counter-charges made by both seem to have only one aim: to cover-up their own crimes. [Newsline, June 1994]
In July 1994 a commission, comprising five judges, was formed to investigate the Mehran Bank scandal. It took eight months to complete its inquiry in February 1995 but its report was never published. However, parts of the reports were released on December 8, 1996, according to which the commission exonerated President Leghari from any wrong doing in his so-called benami deal. But the commission did not mention to whom the land was sold by the president for Rs. 15 million and from which account the money was debited to make the payment. The Commission also cleared the former chief minister of the North West Frontier Province, Aftab Sherpao and Senator Anwar Saifullah, who were accused of being the main beneficiaries of the Mehran Bank, of all the allegations. (DAWN 9.12.1996) On May 13, 1997, the Commerce Minister, Ishaq Dar informed the Senate that the report was missing from the Law Ministry. According to Dar, the Mehran Bank scandal cost a total of Rs. 9.92 billion to the national exchequer.
During the Mehrangate investigations of 1993 which led up to the Supreme Court case, Younas Habib (YH) of HBL/MBL, as per his statement filed in court (recorded in Karachi under section 161 Cr.P.C), disclosed that the following political and other pay-offs were made between 1991 and 1994:
Sardar Farooq Leghari 12/12/93 (payment set/off) Rs 30 million – 6/1/94 Rs 2.0856 million – 19/3/94 Rs 1.92 million.”
Farooq Leghari PO Issued 1,50,00,000. Another 1,50,00,000 paid through Bank. {2} For further graphic details see the notes and references.
Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, former president of Pakistan. and his son Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari were elected from NA-172 and NA-173, and Sardar Farooq’s first cousin, Sardar Mohammad Jaffar Khan Leghari, won elections from NA-174 under the banner of the National Alliance. Meena Ehsan Leghari, wife of Sardar Jaffar, and Ayla Malik, niece of Sardar Farooq Leghari, have been accommodated on women reserved seats. Whereas, Sumaira Malik, sister of Ayla Malik, has won elections from NA-69 from the platform of National alliance. The wife of Farooq Leghari belongs to the family of Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, who is also a member of National Assembly and federal minister for water and power. Sikandar Sherpao, son of Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, is member of the NWFP assembly.
BETWEEN 1996 TO 1999:
It is widely believed that when Nawaz Sharif met with President Farooq Laghari in the third week of December, a deal was struck by which Nawaz agreed to continue the process of turning Pakistan’s political system into “guided democracy’ which the interim government was about to initiate and supreme court judgments were about to facilitate. In return, Nawaz was promised the removal of barriers to his comeback and modification of the accountability process in a way that adversely affected only his opponent Benazir Bhutto’s People’s Party. Farooq Laghari dismissed Benazir to let Nawaz Sharif come back into power. Short of imposing martial law, this was the only course available. But simply letting one “corrupt and irresponsible” political leader to be replaced by another of the kind and leaving the things as they are did not make any sense at all. There had to be a sweetener in the deal for the establishment. The agreement to impose a supra-cabinet, military-dominated body (now called the Council for National Defense and Security) to oversee the day-to-day running of the government, and the continuation of Article 58 (b) 2 and other unsavory elements of the Eighth Amendment, must have been reached before Farooq Laghari announced the overthrow of Benazir Bhutto and the dissolution of the parliament.
It is hard to believe that Farooq Laghari simply dragged the military into joining the CNDS, prompting General Jehangir Karamat to say that the parliament would be free to dispense with it. Regardless of whether and when Nawaz Sharif struck a deal with the establishment, it is clear that the context in which Nawaz Sharif is stepping into Prime Minister’s House has all the earmarks of guided democracy, the contours of which have been clearly drawn by the interim government. Like it or not, this is the mother of all constraints under which Nawaz Sharif is expected to function.
Farooq Laghari’s proclamation laid primary emphasis on the extra-judicial killings in Karachi and the Supreme Court accepted that as a valid basis for the dismissal of the Benazir government, even though the President’s counsel failed to produce any evidence in support of the allegation. It goes without saying that human rights violations of all kinds must be stopped and the culprits must be punished. However, in this particular case, the “extra-judicial” killings are just being used most brazenly to victimize one side. Farooq Laghari’s human rights concern, and its validation by the Supreme Court, can open a Pandora’s box for Nawaz Sharif unless he chooses to become a henchman for Laghari’s operation vendetta. As anyone not suffering from amnesia knows, the Operation Clean Up was started during Nawaz Sharif’s first term and the army was involved in it. With the army’s withdrawal in late 1994, the messy situation in Karachi was off-loaded on Benazir Bhutto. To the extent the federal government was involved in it, President Laghari cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for the violations. This is, perhaps, the most cynical ploy from Laghari’s arsenal of artifacts. Nawaz Sharif need not buy into it.
THE LAGHARI CLAN
“Farooq Leghari, his son Awais Leghari and other members of their family, should be held accountable for their various corruption scandals such as cooperatives and PTCL scandals” but it should be done alongside the holding accountable PPP and PML-N and other NRO beneficiaries and not instead of it, as seems to be the plan. Farooq Leghari’s corruption did begin when PPP was in power. Also, how is PPP going to deal with the fact that Zardari’s henchman Malik Riaz of Bahria Town is a business partner of Farooq Leghari?
Senator Jamal Leghari, the elder son of Farooq, who is no less corrupt. That Farooq and Awais are guilty of corruption, there is no doubt about that either. It is a fact that Farooq Leghari (and Jamal and Awais jointly) had less than 1250 acres of land when he became president but today Farooq Leghari alone has acquired more than12,500 acres of agricultural land (I have no clue about the acquisitions by Awais and Jamal Leghari but they have been on a land buying spree as well). And this does not include other property and bank accounts. His cousin Sumaira Malik of the “Cat House” fame has spent twice that. PML-Q removes chief of women’s wing by Our Staff Reporter [ Former federal minister Sumera Malik has been removed from the post of the chief of the women’s wing of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q. She had attended a dinner at the presidency and again met President Zardari on Saturday – http://www.dawn.com/2008/11/03/top18.htm%5D Her sister Ayla Malik’s (these days with DunyaTV) husband (now ex) Sardar Rind has bought another 12,500 acres in the same area as Farooq Leghari. Farooq’s cousins of course are not only among NRO beneficiaries but also big loan defaulters (but sitting pretty in the National Assembly or as Nazims)
“QUOTE”
WASHINGTON, October 17: Dear Readers, this is the final piece on the South Asia Tribune, as this site is now being closed for good. I understand that it may come as a rude shock to many and may create despair and depression for all those who had started to look up to SAT as a beacon of courage and resistance, but this decision has been based on many factors, which I will explain briefly. SAT would be on line for the rest of this month, till the end of October. On November 1, 2005 it will disappear from the Internet. All those who may be interested in keeping a record of any SAT article or report can save it any time before that date. REFRENCE: The Final Word from theSouth Asia Tribune By Shaheen Sehbai WASHINGTON DC, Oct 17, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 http://www.satribune.com
Mr Shaheen Sehbai [Present Group Editor, The News International]’s web based magazine South Asia Tribune [Shaheen Sehbai Founded this magazine after he escaped from Pakistan in 2002 to seek political asylum in USA]. From the website of Shaheen Sehbai [link is dead text is as under]
Prime Minister Jamali Orders a Probe on Secret Report – How a Present Minister Leaked a $25 Million Phone Tender to His Party SOUTH ASIA TRIBUNE – By Rauf Klasra – August 3-9, 2003
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali has directed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to probe the unprecedented leakage of international tenders worth $25 million prior to opening of bids for the expansion program of government-owned mobile telephone service, U-Fone. Young Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Awais Leghari, son of former President Sardar Farooq Leghari, who had appointed the Board of Directors of both PTCL and U-Fone, is being accused of giving favors to some of his favorite companies. Pakistan Telecommunication Limited commonly referred to as U-Fone is a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of PTCL. It came into existence in 2001. Government owns 88 percent shares in PTCL. It is a GSM-based technological enterprise with almost 500,000 customers nationwide. Mobilink is its main competitor whereas other competitors,Paktel and Instaphone, are based on Analog system.
MS Nortel of Canada provided the equipment to U-Fone under an agreement. It was a turn key project agreement. The said Canadian company provided the entire network by virtue of which U-Fone is operating in the market today. U-Fone has to increase its network in Pakistan.
Although, a smart and young minister from Dera Ghazi Khan, Awais Leghari denies these charges but secret reports sent to the Prime Minister have clearly indicated his name in the scam.
According to an official estimate, people involved in the leakage of the tenders and bids to a particular firm could pocket at least $4m to $5m out of the deal which has become a cause of serious political tussle between theJamali Government and former President Farooq Leghari.
General Pervez Musharraf is said to be displeased with these corruption reports about Leghari and a clear hint has been given to the elder Leghari by PM Jamali that Awais could be out of the Government in a cabinet reshuffle likely next week.
But, Farooq Leghari has threatened to walk out of the Government alliance if his son was replaced on charges of corruption.
A highly classified report sent to the Prime Minister has advised the Prime Minister to immediately intervene in the first financial scam of his government, otherwise, tax payers would suffer a massive loss of $10m on purchase of equipment from a particular firm at much higher prices for the expansion of mobile service in other cities of Pakistan.
This classified report sent to Prime Minister has been prepared by a ministerial level person in the Jamali cabinet who is not ready to disclose his name. This report clearly establishes the link of Awais Leghari with those who were leaking the tenders to a particular international company.
The PM has also been asked in the secret report to get the copy of the agreement of $25 million regarding expansion of official mobile service from U-Fone and pass it on to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to maintain transparency.
When contacted by South Asia Tribune, Spokesman PTCL Sultan Hassan said that he had no information about any such inquiry or other details of the developments as claimed to be part of a report to the PM by some concerned government quarters.
Chief Executive of U-Fone, Arshad Khan strongly defended the performance of his company saying it had done a good job in the past and would continue to perform its duties in the greater interests of the entire nation. He said only people with vested interest were spreading such rumors to malign the company. He also lectured this scribe on the benefits of reporters staying away from such issues as this was against the interests of the country.
Mr Khan who actually helped launching of U-Fone mobile service and making it a success story, said the company had been doing everything in a transparent way and concerned quarters had already been conveyed our view point on the issues involved. On the question of an inquiry, he said he could not give the details and those should be asked from whoever had either ordered the inquiry or started the probe. He repeatedly made it clear that the company was being run on professional and commercial lines.
Meanwhile sources in the Prime Minister Secretariat confirmed that Mr. Jamali had ordered Director General IB to inquire into the matter and submit him the report after it was brought to his notice that tenders were leaked before the formal opening of the bids. According to available copy of the report submitted to the Prime Minister regarding irregularities in the U-Fone expansion program, tenders were invited for the “new cities expansion” category. It was planned to expand the network of
U-Fone service.
In order to procure equipment for these new cities under the third phase, five new vendors were pre-qualified by the board and management of the mobile service company for the bidding process. They were Alcatel,
Ericsson,Huawei Technologies, Motorola and Siemens.
PM was informed that tenders were invited and subsequently bids were opened on March 26, 2003. But prior to opening of bids, papers of one of the bids were found to have been opened. This matter was agitated. PM was informed that the Board of Directors decided not to go for the re-tendering process as it would consume time and official phone service might lose the prospective market/potential customers. The Board, it may be added, has several members appointed by the young minister under probe.
Moreover, it was told that it would also not be in the financial interests of the U-Fone company since its rival,Mobilink, was already ahead of the U-Fone, as it was actively involved in the process of commissioning the equipment for its proposed expansion. U-Fone probably will be in a position to do so in six to nine months, PM was told with the apprehension that there were chances that the Government-owned mobile service may lose its market.
The PM was also informed that there were doubts about the honesty levels of some of the Directors of U-Fone, since they owed their recent appointment to Minister Awais Leghari. Fears were conveyed to the PM, that these Board members may work even against the interests of the company, if the situation so demanded. The PM was informed that this can be very aptly verified from the record if there is any, as the word in the market was that even the minutes of the meeting of the U-Fone Board were not circulated to some of the Directors. The PM was told that this Board had already decided about the procedure of bidding which was not fair and if the Government did not intervene, U-Fone will suffer an irreparable loss, according to some estimates close to $10-12 million. The PM was told that the negotiations being carried out at the U-Fone Headquarters showed equipment worth $24 to $25 million may be bought for $28 million or more and the extra amount will end up in the safe accounts of many. The report to the PM said the expansion program, commonly referred to as the Third phase of U-Fone, can be categorized under two schemes:
(a) the existing network expansion category
(b) The New Cities expansion category.
Since both these categories are included under the same expansion program, therefore, this concern, amongst others, has caused reason to prepare the report.
The Existing Network Expansion Category: The inexorable logic from the afore stated will be that the cities ofPakistan in which U-Fone is already operational will inevitably be equipped with the network of MS Nortel. So, theneighboring cities of such areas where the services of mobile phone is already available have to be provided with the equipment of Nortel. It is logical and will of-course be cheaper too. These cities have been included in the further expansion program now being termed as the third phase.
The Board of Directors of U-Fone has approved this. The report said it might be worth mentioning that the Federal Minister for IT&T Awais Leghari recently appointed the majority of the Directors of the Board of both PTCL and U-Fone.
With these considerations, one is poised with an important issue and that is of the price i.e. will U-Fone pay the same price which it paid at the time of its start on, or will it be any other price. The report says that Nortel will and should remain as the solve vendor for the proposed expansion under this category.
The New Cities Expansion Category: The report said the government is trying to provide network in order to enable the U-Fone mobile telephone services to the people in other cities in addition to major ones.
Therefore, in order to procure equipment for these new proposed cities under the third phase, five new vendors were pre-qualified by the Board and the management of U-Fone for the bidding process namely Alcatel, Ericsson, HuaweiTechnologies, Motorola and Siemens.
But, the bids were leaked. The report has now suggested that the government may immediately constitute a committee to ensure something like this does not happen again. At the same time, we must also ensure that U-Fone does not lose its prospective customers either. But in any event, before the conclusion of the agreement, the NAB should approve it.
We may have recourse to any of the following:
(i)We can either recall for the entire re-tendering. This might cause a further delay of at least four to six months but as it is our main competitor Mobilink has won the race. It is opening its market to its customers in a couple of weeks.
(ii) Since the vendors will remain the same, we may alternatively ask all the remaining four to compete with each other in the presence of a committee especially constituted for the purpose. If this proposal is accepted, then the entire exercise should be over within a week and U-Fone may invariably save millions of US$ with our small efforts.
Moreover, Nortel will have to match the same price and it will.
(iii) it must be categorically borne in mind that there is no technological difference in the equipment of all these vendors. At least U-Fone’s management should not have any problem since they were the ones who pre-qualified all these categories after technical evaluation.
(iv) by this exercise, an important factor will also be elucidated. Nortel who has been enjoying monopoly status so far in supplying equipment and has been charging their desirable charges in connivance with PTCL management, this would have to be settled scores with us at our terms. This exercise will also unveil the magnitude of the corruption in which our management has been actively involved.
Most of you kids probably don’t know who the recently deceased Irshad Ahmed Haqqani was, but the dude ruled the daily Jang’s op-ed pages for more than a quarter of a century. I remember reading a column by Haqqani where he quoted his own earlier column which quoted another column that he had written in another decade.
In his early days he was the editor of Jamaat-e-Islami’s in-house magazine Tasneem. But he had a falling out with its chief Maulana Maududi in the ’50s because the Jamaat just wasn’t radical enough for him. So, obviously, on to Jang. And after taking up his Jang slot (in 1981) he soon became the most influential op-ed hack in the country. Zia, Benazir, Nawaz, Musharraf, all at one point or the other took him along for an umrah, sought his opinion on everything, listened to his whines and dined him. And he diligently reported it all in his columns. He turned namedropping into an art form. Almost every Urdu columnist in Pakistan has called him their ustaad at one point or the other. But now that he is dead, this is what they are writing about him.
This is Abdul Qadir Hassan (a former Jamaat-e-Islami comrade) in the daily Express today:
“Whenever a reader wrote him a letter of appreciation, he would add a few more words to it and include it in his columns. He lived with this mental sickness all his life and found fame that he always craved…I couldn’t attend his funeral but I have been told that not many people turned up.”
“When I published my first collection of columns I wrote on the cover ‘One Hundred Columns by Javed Chaudhry That Will Live For Two HundredYears.’ Irshad sahib called and admonished me. I had the line removed but, Allah ka karam, the same book has had 192 print runs and is the best selling book in Pakistan’s history.”
(All you angrezi writers, try beating that! But Javed does have a self reflective side though. His email address is javed CH…)
“He started repeating the compliments given to him in his columns and this became a weakness and turned into chronic narcissism.”
Of course they have all said nice thing in these obits too, but basically the message is, ‘We all learnt from you but good riddance, you bastard. We can do it better than you.’
Whatever they might say about him, he did invent the modern Urdu column, which is half analytical drivel, half dinner menus. Only during the last week, for example, Jang columnist Haroon-ur-Rashid (according to his column) demanded and got desi murghi from the Azad Kashmir prime minister, and Hamid Mir (according to his column) discovered new insights into judicial activism over a Kashmiri dish. I forget the name of the dish but according to Jang / Geo’s brightest star, it is made of mooli and shaljam and served with rice. The host was the Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khwaja Sharif.
A particularly poignant observation has been made by columnist Nazir Naji, comparing turn out at the funerals of revered journalist Irshad Ahmed Haqqani and a gentleman known as Tipu Truckanwala, who was shot dead at the Lahore airport parking lot.
The said Tipu was widely known as underworld figure, innately familiar with guns and their uses. Irshad Haqqani wielded an authoritative and eloquent pen. Yet, the attendance at his funeral was a few dozen while large hordes thronged to the last rites of the aforesaid Tipu. What does this say about our society?
We are a deeply religious people. We even have it in our Constitution that no law would be made that is not in conformity with Holy Quran and Sunnah. And we don’t just leave it to a verbal commitment. The attendance in mosques for prayers and at other religious occasions is large and growing. And yet, how do we explain this moral vacuum within?
The only explanation I can come up with is that poverty and a generally tough life in a poor country, overrides innate morality that is present in everyone. Simple demands of existence become more important than desirable but impractical moral values.
Politicians are elected because they get things done not because they live a saintly life. Irshad Haqqani is respected but his pen only preaches. Tipu Truckanwala has power to make things happen. It is a crucial difference in a place where nothing works.
I read a little something related to your ” Farewell, Irshad Ahmed Haqqani. Farewell, Harf-e-Tamanna!;Let Us Build Pakistan” post at another site I frequent…
LAHORE- A Civil court on Monday ordered Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) authorities to submit details of PTCL assets before the court.
As the counsel of Global IT Vision civil Pvt had filed a suit seeking damages of Rs. one billion from PTCL for suspending services to the IT Company without any legal justification. The court had already issued notices to PTCL Chief Executive, Senior Executive Vice President Tariq Salman, General Manager Muhammad Bsharat Qureshi and Senior Manager Nadeem Abbasi.
The suit for damages was filed by the Company’s counsel Azher Siddique Advocate.
Petitioner’s counsel contended that PTCL had suspended agreement with IT firm on May 4, 2010 and suspended SIP services to the company without giving an opportunity of hearing to company.
Counsel said that due to suspension of services, the Company has to bear loss of billions of rupees and suspension by PTCL also tarnished the image of the company.
He prayed before the court to freeze all the assets of PTCL and put names of senior officials including a foreigner on exit control list (ECL).
Azher further prayed the court to direct PTCL to submit Rs. one billion as security so that PTCL could not sell the assets of the company in case of a decision against it.
Veteran journalist, columnist and former caretaker federal information minister Irshad Ahmed Haqqani died today in Lahore.
He was 81. Haqqani was born on September 6, 1928 in Kasur, he was appointed as lecturer at Kasur Government College after completing his education and was retired as the principal of the same college.
Haqqani worked with different newspapers and currently he was a senior editor of an established national newspaper (Jang). He was one of the founders of Jang, Lahore. Besides his popular daily column titled ‘Harf-e-Tamanna’, he remained well acclaimed among different schools of thoughts including scholars, politicians and thinkers.
Initially, Mr Haqqani was a member of Jamaat-i-Islami and served as editor of its organ Tasneem for some time. But he and a group of senior scholars and ideologues led by Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi left the party after developing differences with the party’s founder Maulana Maududi over his policy of bringing about the Islamic revolution through the ballot. The differences erupted at the 1953 Machhi Goth meeting of the Jamaat.
Haqqani also worked as a caretaker information minister with President Farooq Leghari in Miraj Khalid’s caretaker government in 1993.
He was suffering from heart disease since long. His funeral was held at Lahore while he was buried at Kasur.
By the way he served “Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Laghari” very well and conducted a successful TV Show on PTV hosted by Sajjad Mir [NewsOne] and guest was Kamran Khan “narrating” the details of Benazir/Zardari Corruption:[Watch a very rare video of Kamran Khan on PTV in 1996/97]
Conspiracy: Kamran Khan, Farooq Laghari, Sajjad Mir, Saifur Rehman & Media Trial of PPP.
http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/11/conspiracy-kamran-khan-farooq-laghari.html
Rana said Leghari should be ashamed of himself as he was again levelling baseless allegations against the PPP leadership after 17 years. “Leghari had betrayed his patrons. The Mehran Bank corruption case against him is still pending with the Supreme Court. Besides, he allowed his family members to commit financial corruption during his regime,” Rana Aftab said. PML-N, PPP flay Leghari’s remarks
Sunday, 24 Jan, 2010 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/12-pmln,-ppp-flay-legharis-remarks-410–bi-07
Tummandar Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Laghari
http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2008/11/tummandar-sardar-farooq-ahmed-khan.html
As per Daily Dawn dated 20 Oct 2007 Former President of Pakistan Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari [a former central member of PPP] while addressing a press conference at Leghari House on Raiwind Road on Friday said, Mr Leghari opposed the National Reconciliation Ordinance. He said he had proposed national reconciliation a month ago but amnesty for corruption looked strange. He said amnesty could not be justified if army officers, bureaucrats and politicians who had plundered national resources did not return the money stolen by them. He said the ordinance had been challenged in the Supreme Court and its fate depended on its verdict. He said corruption was one of the reasons for which he had dismissed the Ms Bhutto’s government in 1996 and the Supreme Court had upheld his decision. He said an accountability commission constituted by him had found corruption of $1.5 billion by Ms Bhutto. Evidence of corruption of Nawaz Sharif was also collected but Saifur Rehman destroyed evidence against him. [1] REFERENCES: Ghaddar Kaun? Author: Sohail Warraich – Nawaz Sharif opens up to Sohail Warraich in a big way READ THE BOOK sohail waraich – ghaddar kaun http://www.scribd.com/doc/2411542/sohail-waraich-ghaddar-kaun http://www.dukandar.com/ghaddarkaun.html Former President of Pakistan [uncle/father and father in law of many who are sitting with those members of the government of Musharraf/PML-Q who were earlier with PPP and PML-N whom Mr Leghari is condemning by saying them corrupt half of [PML-Q Cabinet have cases of corruption and loan default on 12 Oct 1999] Tumandar Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari [as per news and articles] was involved in several nastiest scandal in the history of Pakistan. So it seems that whoever who is supporting the present regimes’ wrong policies which are detrimental for the Federation of Pakistan are one way or another were and are part of the permanent establishment of Pakistan and used by the same and even they were saved when in trouble by the same establishment and Lagharis are one of those.
As per the dark pages of dark history of Pakistan.
During the so-called Lost decade of 90s as per Former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Dr. Ishrat Hussain and often repeated by Mr. Musharraf. Following event is also from the lost decade but no action was taken.
PRESIDENT LEGHARI’S LAND SALES:
The controversy over the sale of a 531-acre farm in Darkhwast Jamal Khan owned by President Leghari and his family to six people from Karachi alleged to be fronting for jailed banker Yunus Habib, gave a new and dramatic twist to the Mehran gate scandal. The president’s integrity and his image, as an honest politician, came under question when Nawaz Sharif alleged that Farooq Leghari was involved in the Mehran Bank scandal. Releasing photocopies of bank drafts worth 17 million rupees deposited in Mr. Leghari’s account in Mehran Bank, Sharif charged that the money was a pay off by Yunus Habib in return for Leghari’s bailing out Mehran bank.[Newsline June 1994]
On June 4, 1994, President Leghari conceded that the documents produced by the opposition were related to the sale of a farm that had been owned by him and several of his family members. He defended the deal, saying that there was nothing illegal about it. After much delay, the government set up two judicial commissions to enquire into the Mehran Bank affair and the 140 million rupees paid to the ISI by Yunus Habib in 1990 while he was provincial chief of Habib Bank.
President Leghari told the Newsline, Karachi: “I did ask Mr. Yunus Habib to see if he could arrange for any buyers for the land … But I didn’t know those six people (who eventually bought the land). I am not aware of whether they were fronting for Mr. Yunus Habib or if the land was actually bought by Mr. Yunus Habib and his family…. As a seller, my only interest was to make sure that I got the price of the land.” President Leghari, however, admitted, that he was approached by Yunus Habib in April, 1993, when he was Finance Minister in the interim government (April/May 1993) to save Mehran Bank from collapsing. Mr. Leghari referred Yunus Habib’s request to the State Bank, but before getting any reply, the interim government was dissolved and Mr. Sartaj Aziz, who became the Finance Minister in the revived government of Nawaz Sharif in April, 1993, ordered the relief given to the Mehran Bank. “The allegation of my having helped Yunus Habib and saved Mehran Bank is false. It was done by Mr. Sartaj Aziz and Mr. Nawaz Sharif. But I have the moral courage to say that yes, I also wanted to do the same and if I had a longer stay as finance minister I would have done the same.”[Newsline June 1994]
On Dec. 14, 1995 Younus Habib was awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 36.7 million in a fraud case by the Special Court for Offenses in Banks in Sindh.[Dawn 15.12.1995]
However, two years after the appointment, the judicial commission did not complete its enquiry into the Mehran Bank scam. The Mehran Bank scam exemplifies the increasingly corrupt political culture that has taken root in this country. And Mehrangate is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of banking and financial scams involving politicians that have yet to surface. It seems that all politicians — whether they belong to the ruling coalition or the opposition — are part of this corrupt political culture. The charges and counter-charges made by both seem to have only one aim: to cover-up their own crimes. [Newsline, June 1994]
In July 1994 a commission, comprising five judges, was formed to investigate the Mehran Bank scandal. It took eight months to complete its inquiry in February 1995 but its report was never published. However, parts of the reports were released on December 8, 1996, according to which the commission exonerated President Leghari from any wrong doing in his so-called benami deal. But the commission did not mention to whom the land was sold by the president for Rs. 15 million and from which account the money was debited to make the payment. The Commission also cleared the former chief minister of the North West Frontier Province, Aftab Sherpao and Senator Anwar Saifullah, who were accused of being the main beneficiaries of the Mehran Bank, of all the allegations. (DAWN 9.12.1996) On May 13, 1997, the Commerce Minister, Ishaq Dar informed the Senate that the report was missing from the Law Ministry. According to Dar, the Mehran Bank scandal cost a total of Rs. 9.92 billion to the national exchequer.
During the Mehrangate investigations of 1993 which led up to the Supreme Court case, Younas Habib (YH) of HBL/MBL, as per his statement filed in court (recorded in Karachi under section 161 Cr.P.C), disclosed that the following political and other pay-offs were made between 1991 and 1994:
Sardar Farooq Leghari 12/12/93 (payment set/off) Rs 30 million – 6/1/94 Rs 2.0856 million – 19/3/94 Rs 1.92 million.”
Farooq Leghari PO Issued 1,50,00,000. Another 1,50,00,000 paid through Bank. {2} For further graphic details see the notes and references.
Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, former president of Pakistan. and his son Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari were elected from NA-172 and NA-173, and Sardar Farooq’s first cousin, Sardar Mohammad Jaffar Khan Leghari, won elections from NA-174 under the banner of the National Alliance. Meena Ehsan Leghari, wife of Sardar Jaffar, and Ayla Malik, niece of Sardar Farooq Leghari, have been accommodated on women reserved seats. Whereas, Sumaira Malik, sister of Ayla Malik, has won elections from NA-69 from the platform of National alliance. The wife of Farooq Leghari belongs to the family of Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, who is also a member of National Assembly and federal minister for water and power. Sikandar Sherpao, son of Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, is member of the NWFP assembly.
BETWEEN 1996 TO 1999:
It is widely believed that when Nawaz Sharif met with President Farooq Laghari in the third week of December, a deal was struck by which Nawaz agreed to continue the process of turning Pakistan’s political system into “guided democracy’ which the interim government was about to initiate and supreme court judgments were about to facilitate. In return, Nawaz was promised the removal of barriers to his comeback and modification of the accountability process in a way that adversely affected only his opponent Benazir Bhutto’s People’s Party. Farooq Laghari dismissed Benazir to let Nawaz Sharif come back into power. Short of imposing martial law, this was the only course available. But simply letting one “corrupt and irresponsible” political leader to be replaced by another of the kind and leaving the things as they are did not make any sense at all. There had to be a sweetener in the deal for the establishment. The agreement to impose a supra-cabinet, military-dominated body (now called the Council for National Defense and Security) to oversee the day-to-day running of the government, and the continuation of Article 58 (b) 2 and other unsavory elements of the Eighth Amendment, must have been reached before Farooq Laghari announced the overthrow of Benazir Bhutto and the dissolution of the parliament.
It is hard to believe that Farooq Laghari simply dragged the military into joining the CNDS, prompting General Jehangir Karamat to say that the parliament would be free to dispense with it. Regardless of whether and when Nawaz Sharif struck a deal with the establishment, it is clear that the context in which Nawaz Sharif is stepping into Prime Minister’s House has all the earmarks of guided democracy, the contours of which have been clearly drawn by the interim government. Like it or not, this is the mother of all constraints under which Nawaz Sharif is expected to function.
Farooq Laghari’s proclamation laid primary emphasis on the extra-judicial killings in Karachi and the Supreme Court accepted that as a valid basis for the dismissal of the Benazir government, even though the President’s counsel failed to produce any evidence in support of the allegation. It goes without saying that human rights violations of all kinds must be stopped and the culprits must be punished. However, in this particular case, the “extra-judicial” killings are just being used most brazenly to victimize one side. Farooq Laghari’s human rights concern, and its validation by the Supreme Court, can open a Pandora’s box for Nawaz Sharif unless he chooses to become a henchman for Laghari’s operation vendetta. As anyone not suffering from amnesia knows, the Operation Clean Up was started during Nawaz Sharif’s first term and the army was involved in it. With the army’s withdrawal in late 1994, the messy situation in Karachi was off-loaded on Benazir Bhutto. To the extent the federal government was involved in it, President Laghari cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for the violations. This is, perhaps, the most cynical ploy from Laghari’s arsenal of artifacts. Nawaz Sharif need not buy into it.
THE LAGHARI CLAN
“Farooq Leghari, his son Awais Leghari and other members of their family, should be held accountable for their various corruption scandals such as cooperatives and PTCL scandals” but it should be done alongside the holding accountable PPP and PML-N and other NRO beneficiaries and not instead of it, as seems to be the plan. Farooq Leghari’s corruption did begin when PPP was in power. Also, how is PPP going to deal with the fact that Zardari’s henchman Malik Riaz of Bahria Town is a business partner of Farooq Leghari?
Senator Jamal Leghari, the elder son of Farooq, who is no less corrupt. That Farooq and Awais are guilty of corruption, there is no doubt about that either. It is a fact that Farooq Leghari (and Jamal and Awais jointly) had less than 1250 acres of land when he became president but today Farooq Leghari alone has acquired more than12,500 acres of agricultural land (I have no clue about the acquisitions by Awais and Jamal Leghari but they have been on a land buying spree as well). And this does not include other property and bank accounts. His cousin Sumaira Malik of the “Cat House” fame has spent twice that. PML-Q removes chief of women’s wing by Our Staff Reporter [ Former federal minister Sumera Malik has been removed from the post of the chief of the women’s wing of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q. She had attended a dinner at the presidency and again met President Zardari on Saturday – http://www.dawn.com/2008/11/03/top18.htm%5D Her sister Ayla Malik’s (these days with DunyaTV) husband (now ex) Sardar Rind has bought another 12,500 acres in the same area as Farooq Leghari. Farooq’s cousins of course are not only among NRO beneficiaries but also big loan defaulters (but sitting pretty in the National Assembly or as Nazims)
“QUOTE”
WASHINGTON, October 17: Dear Readers, this is the final piece on the South Asia Tribune, as this site is now being closed for good. I understand that it may come as a rude shock to many and may create despair and depression for all those who had started to look up to SAT as a beacon of courage and resistance, but this decision has been based on many factors, which I will explain briefly. SAT would be on line for the rest of this month, till the end of October. On November 1, 2005 it will disappear from the Internet. All those who may be interested in keeping a record of any SAT article or report can save it any time before that date. REFRENCE: The Final Word from theSouth Asia Tribune By Shaheen Sehbai WASHINGTON DC, Oct 17, 2005 ISSN: 1684-2057 http://www.satribune.com
Mr Shaheen Sehbai [Present Group Editor, The News International]’s web based magazine South Asia Tribune [Shaheen Sehbai Founded this magazine after he escaped from Pakistan in 2002 to seek political asylum in USA]. From the website of Shaheen Sehbai [link is dead text is as under]
Prime Minister Jamali Orders a Probe on Secret Report – How a Present Minister Leaked a $25 Million Phone Tender to His Party SOUTH ASIA TRIBUNE – By Rauf Klasra – August 3-9, 2003
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali has directed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to probe the unprecedented leakage of international tenders worth $25 million prior to opening of bids for the expansion program of government-owned mobile telephone service, U-Fone. Young Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Awais Leghari, son of former President Sardar Farooq Leghari, who had appointed the Board of Directors of both PTCL and U-Fone, is being accused of giving favors to some of his favorite companies. Pakistan Telecommunication Limited commonly referred to as U-Fone is a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of PTCL. It came into existence in 2001. Government owns 88 percent shares in PTCL. It is a GSM-based technological enterprise with almost 500,000 customers nationwide. Mobilink is its main competitor whereas other competitors,Paktel and Instaphone, are based on Analog system.
MS Nortel of Canada provided the equipment to U-Fone under an agreement. It was a turn key project agreement. The said Canadian company provided the entire network by virtue of which U-Fone is operating in the market today. U-Fone has to increase its network in Pakistan.
Although, a smart and young minister from Dera Ghazi Khan, Awais Leghari denies these charges but secret reports sent to the Prime Minister have clearly indicated his name in the scam.
According to an official estimate, people involved in the leakage of the tenders and bids to a particular firm could pocket at least $4m to $5m out of the deal which has become a cause of serious political tussle between theJamali Government and former President Farooq Leghari.
General Pervez Musharraf is said to be displeased with these corruption reports about Leghari and a clear hint has been given to the elder Leghari by PM Jamali that Awais could be out of the Government in a cabinet reshuffle likely next week.
But, Farooq Leghari has threatened to walk out of the Government alliance if his son was replaced on charges of corruption.
A highly classified report sent to the Prime Minister has advised the Prime Minister to immediately intervene in the first financial scam of his government, otherwise, tax payers would suffer a massive loss of $10m on purchase of equipment from a particular firm at much higher prices for the expansion of mobile service in other cities of Pakistan.
This classified report sent to Prime Minister has been prepared by a ministerial level person in the Jamali cabinet who is not ready to disclose his name. This report clearly establishes the link of Awais Leghari with those who were leaking the tenders to a particular international company.
The PM has also been asked in the secret report to get the copy of the agreement of $25 million regarding expansion of official mobile service from U-Fone and pass it on to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to maintain transparency.
When contacted by South Asia Tribune, Spokesman PTCL Sultan Hassan said that he had no information about any such inquiry or other details of the developments as claimed to be part of a report to the PM by some concerned government quarters.
Chief Executive of U-Fone, Arshad Khan strongly defended the performance of his company saying it had done a good job in the past and would continue to perform its duties in the greater interests of the entire nation. He said only people with vested interest were spreading such rumors to malign the company. He also lectured this scribe on the benefits of reporters staying away from such issues as this was against the interests of the country.
Mr Khan who actually helped launching of U-Fone mobile service and making it a success story, said the company had been doing everything in a transparent way and concerned quarters had already been conveyed our view point on the issues involved. On the question of an inquiry, he said he could not give the details and those should be asked from whoever had either ordered the inquiry or started the probe. He repeatedly made it clear that the company was being run on professional and commercial lines.
Meanwhile sources in the Prime Minister Secretariat confirmed that Mr. Jamali had ordered Director General IB to inquire into the matter and submit him the report after it was brought to his notice that tenders were leaked before the formal opening of the bids. According to available copy of the report submitted to the Prime Minister regarding irregularities in the U-Fone expansion program, tenders were invited for the “new cities expansion” category. It was planned to expand the network of
U-Fone service.
In order to procure equipment for these new cities under the third phase, five new vendors were pre-qualified by the board and management of the mobile service company for the bidding process. They were Alcatel,
Ericsson,Huawei Technologies, Motorola and Siemens.
PM was informed that tenders were invited and subsequently bids were opened on March 26, 2003. But prior to opening of bids, papers of one of the bids were found to have been opened. This matter was agitated. PM was informed that the Board of Directors decided not to go for the re-tendering process as it would consume time and official phone service might lose the prospective market/potential customers. The Board, it may be added, has several members appointed by the young minister under probe.
Moreover, it was told that it would also not be in the financial interests of the U-Fone company since its rival,Mobilink, was already ahead of the U-Fone, as it was actively involved in the process of commissioning the equipment for its proposed expansion. U-Fone probably will be in a position to do so in six to nine months, PM was told with the apprehension that there were chances that the Government-owned mobile service may lose its market.
The PM was also informed that there were doubts about the honesty levels of some of the Directors of U-Fone, since they owed their recent appointment to Minister Awais Leghari. Fears were conveyed to the PM, that these Board members may work even against the interests of the company, if the situation so demanded. The PM was informed that this can be very aptly verified from the record if there is any, as the word in the market was that even the minutes of the meeting of the U-Fone Board were not circulated to some of the Directors. The PM was told that this Board had already decided about the procedure of bidding which was not fair and if the Government did not intervene, U-Fone will suffer an irreparable loss, according to some estimates close to $10-12 million. The PM was told that the negotiations being carried out at the U-Fone Headquarters showed equipment worth $24 to $25 million may be bought for $28 million or more and the extra amount will end up in the safe accounts of many. The report to the PM said the expansion program, commonly referred to as the Third phase of U-Fone, can be categorized under two schemes:
(a) the existing network expansion category
(b) The New Cities expansion category.
Since both these categories are included under the same expansion program, therefore, this concern, amongst others, has caused reason to prepare the report.
The Existing Network Expansion Category: The inexorable logic from the afore stated will be that the cities ofPakistan in which U-Fone is already operational will inevitably be equipped with the network of MS Nortel. So, theneighboring cities of such areas where the services of mobile phone is already available have to be provided with the equipment of Nortel. It is logical and will of-course be cheaper too. These cities have been included in the further expansion program now being termed as the third phase.
The Board of Directors of U-Fone has approved this. The report said it might be worth mentioning that the Federal Minister for IT&T Awais Leghari recently appointed the majority of the Directors of the Board of both PTCL and U-Fone.
With these considerations, one is poised with an important issue and that is of the price i.e. will U-Fone pay the same price which it paid at the time of its start on, or will it be any other price. The report says that Nortel will and should remain as the solve vendor for the proposed expansion under this category.
The New Cities Expansion Category: The report said the government is trying to provide network in order to enable the U-Fone mobile telephone services to the people in other cities in addition to major ones.
Therefore, in order to procure equipment for these new proposed cities under the third phase, five new vendors were pre-qualified by the Board and the management of U-Fone for the bidding process namely Alcatel, Ericsson, HuaweiTechnologies, Motorola and Siemens.
But, the bids were leaked. The report has now suggested that the government may immediately constitute a committee to ensure something like this does not happen again. At the same time, we must also ensure that U-Fone does not lose its prospective customers either. But in any event, before the conclusion of the agreement, the NAB should approve it.
We may have recourse to any of the following:
(i)We can either recall for the entire re-tendering. This might cause a further delay of at least four to six months but as it is our main competitor Mobilink has won the race. It is opening its market to its customers in a couple of weeks.
(ii) Since the vendors will remain the same, we may alternatively ask all the remaining four to compete with each other in the presence of a committee especially constituted for the purpose. If this proposal is accepted, then the entire exercise should be over within a week and U-Fone may invariably save millions of US$ with our small efforts.
Moreover, Nortel will have to match the same price and it will.
(iii) it must be categorically borne in mind that there is no technological difference in the equipment of all these vendors. At least U-Fone’s management should not have any problem since they were the ones who pre-qualified all these categories after technical evaluation.
(iv) by this exercise, an important factor will also be elucidated. Nortel who has been enjoying monopoly status so far in supplying equipment and has been charging their desirable charges in connivance with PTCL management, this would have to be settled scores with us at our terms. This exercise will also unveil the magnitude of the corruption in which our management has been actively involved.
“UNQUOTE”
Pakistani Establishment have Mullahs of every kind to serve their purpose as per desire in different regime for different goals.
Rest in peace Mr.Haqqani………
You will always be missed.
Its an end of an era………
Nazir Leghari
Ataul Haq Qasmi
Muhammad Amir Khakwani’s article:
Obituary by Nazir Naji:
The ‘King’ Of Urdu Columnists Is Dead. But Is He?
Most of you kids probably don’t know who the recently deceased Irshad Ahmed Haqqani was, but the dude ruled the daily Jang’s op-ed pages for more than a quarter of a century. I remember reading a column by Haqqani where he quoted his own earlier column which quoted another column that he had written in another decade.
In his early days he was the editor of Jamaat-e-Islami’s in-house magazine Tasneem. But he had a falling out with its chief Maulana Maududi in the ’50s because the Jamaat just wasn’t radical enough for him. So, obviously, on to Jang. And after taking up his Jang slot (in 1981) he soon became the most influential op-ed hack in the country. Zia, Benazir, Nawaz, Musharraf, all at one point or the other took him along for an umrah, sought his opinion on everything, listened to his whines and dined him. And he diligently reported it all in his columns. He turned namedropping into an art form. Almost every Urdu columnist in Pakistan has called him their ustaad at one point or the other. But now that he is dead, this is what they are writing about him.
This is Abdul Qadir Hassan (a former Jamaat-e-Islami comrade) in the daily Express today:
“Whenever a reader wrote him a letter of appreciation, he would add a few more words to it and include it in his columns. He lived with this mental sickness all his life and found fame that he always craved…I couldn’t attend his funeral but I have been told that not many people turned up.”
This is Javed Chaudhry, also in Express:
“When I published my first collection of columns I wrote on the cover ‘One Hundred Columns by Javed Chaudhry That Will Live For Two HundredYears.’ Irshad sahib called and admonished me. I had the line removed but, Allah ka karam, the same book has had 192 print runs and is the best selling book in Pakistan’s history.”
(All you angrezi writers, try beating that! But Javed does have a self reflective side though. His email address is javed CH…)
And finally, Ata ul Haq Qasmi in today’s Jang:
“He started repeating the compliments given to him in his columns and this became a weakness and turned into chronic narcissism.”
Of course they have all said nice thing in these obits too, but basically the message is, ‘We all learnt from you but good riddance, you bastard. We can do it better than you.’
Whatever they might say about him, he did invent the modern Urdu column, which is half analytical drivel, half dinner menus. Only during the last week, for example, Jang columnist Haroon-ur-Rashid (according to his column) demanded and got desi murghi from the Azad Kashmir prime minister, and Hamid Mir (according to his column) discovered new insights into judicial activism over a Kashmiri dish. I forget the name of the dish but according to Jang / Geo’s brightest star, it is made of mooli and shaljam and served with rice. The host was the Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khwaja Sharif.
Source: Cafe Pyala
http://cafepyala.blogspot.com/2010/01/king-of-urdu-columnists-is-dead-but-is.html
A particularly poignant observation has been made by columnist Nazir Naji, comparing turn out at the funerals of revered journalist Irshad Ahmed Haqqani and a gentleman known as Tipu Truckanwala, who was shot dead at the Lahore airport parking lot.
The said Tipu was widely known as underworld figure, innately familiar with guns and their uses. Irshad Haqqani wielded an authoritative and eloquent pen. Yet, the attendance at his funeral was a few dozen while large hordes thronged to the last rites of the aforesaid Tipu. What does this say about our society?
We are a deeply religious people. We even have it in our Constitution that no law would be made that is not in conformity with Holy Quran and Sunnah. And we don’t just leave it to a verbal commitment. The attendance in mosques for prayers and at other religious occasions is large and growing. And yet, how do we explain this moral vacuum within?
The only explanation I can come up with is that poverty and a generally tough life in a poor country, overrides innate morality that is present in everyone. Simple demands of existence become more important than desirable but impractical moral values.
Politicians are elected because they get things done not because they live a saintly life. Irshad Haqqani is respected but his pen only preaches. Tipu Truckanwala has power to make things happen. It is a crucial difference in a place where nothing works.
The absence of morality
Friday, January 29, 2010
By Shafqat Mahmood
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=221306
Article by Professor Naeem Qasim:
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/feb2010-daily/01-02-2010/editorial/col9.gif
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/feb2010-daily/01-02-2010/editorial/col9a.gif
I read a little something related to your ” Farewell, Irshad Ahmed Haqqani. Farewell, Harf-e-Tamanna!;Let Us Build Pakistan” post at another site I frequent…
LAHORE- A Civil court on Monday ordered Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) authorities to submit details of PTCL assets before the court.
As the counsel of Global IT Vision civil Pvt had filed a suit seeking damages of Rs. one billion from PTCL for suspending services to the IT Company without any legal justification. The court had already issued notices to PTCL Chief Executive, Senior Executive Vice President Tariq Salman, General Manager Muhammad Bsharat Qureshi and Senior Manager Nadeem Abbasi.
The suit for damages was filed by the Company’s counsel Azher Siddique Advocate.
Petitioner’s counsel contended that PTCL had suspended agreement with IT firm on May 4, 2010 and suspended SIP services to the company without giving an opportunity of hearing to company.
Counsel said that due to suspension of services, the Company has to bear loss of billions of rupees and suspension by PTCL also tarnished the image of the company.
He prayed before the court to freeze all the assets of PTCL and put names of senior officials including a foreigner on exit control list (ECL).
Azher further prayed the court to direct PTCL to submit Rs. one billion as security so that PTCL could not sell the assets of the company in case of a decision against it.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online//Regional/14-Dec-2010/Court-seeks-PTCL-assets-details