[Pak-Media] Manmohan in ‘secret talks’ with Kayani

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Manmohan in 'secret talks' with Kayani


'PM Appointed Unofficial Envoy To Make Contact With Pak Army Chief'


PRESS TRUST OF INDIA


London, Apr 23: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh opened secret talks with
Pakistan Army chief ten months ago to build on the cricket-inspired
diplomatic thaw between the two countries, a media report said on Saturday.

Singh "appointed an unofficial envoy to make contact with General Ashfaq
Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's chief of the army staff who exercises de facto
control over foreign policy," The Times reported.
The talks, through a back channel, have encouraged the UK and US believe
that the countries competition for influence in Afghanistan could be better
managed during efforts to start a peace process, it said.

The visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to watch the
semi-final match between India and Pakistan in the cricket World Cup at
Mohali last month has sparked hope of a diplomatic thaw between the two
neighbouring countries.

Kayani visited Kabul this week to meet members of the high peace council, a
body set up by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to build contacts with Taliban
groups.
The army chief was accompanied by General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, head of
Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

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[Pak-Media] IDEAS co-sponsored Pakistan Tax Week

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IDEAS is a new economic policy and development think-tank that is being
set up with funding from the Open Society Foundation New York and will be
based in Lahore. In collaborations with its partners, The Asia Research
Center at London School of Economics, Center for Development Research at the
University of Bonn, Development Policy Research Center (DPRC) at the Lahore
University of Management Sciences (LUMS), the Institute of Business
Administration (IBA), University of Karachi and the National Press Club of
Pakistan , IDEAS is sponsoring a week of seminars in Islamabad, Lahore and
Karachi entitled Tax Week: The Urgency of Tax Reform: the Challenges to the
Macroeconomic Situation and Devolution. The seminar series will be led by Dr.
Ehtisham Ahmed, the eminent international fiscal expert, former Pakistan
representative on the International Monetary Fund board, and current fellow
at the Asia Research Center at the London School of Economics and the
Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn.
The focus of this seminar will be to move the debate forward and address
questions which have derailed the tax reform agenda in the past months.
Detailed discussion topics will include:
§ The sustainability of Pakistani public finance. Do we need to go back
to the IMF? What are the debt dynamics and is another IMF program
inevitable? What might be involved in such a successor program? Is the relevant
debate spending restraint or tax reform, or will both be needed?
§ What are the parameters of tax reform? What are the Government's
options in addressing the fiscal crisis if politically RGST is not feasible?
What are the short and medium-term macroeconomic scenarios? Is there a
political sequencing of reform which may be second best from an efficiency point
of view but more viable politically, with the added benefit of potentially
increasing tax compliance? A big argument against the RGST has been that
tax administration is incompetent and corrupt. How have other countries
addressed this issue and are there lessons for Pakistan from this experience?
§ Tax reform and devolution. How does the lack of tax reform effect
devolution under the 18th Amendment? Is there a role for reconsidering some of
the revenue assignments to ensure greater efficiency of administration and
better sub-national accountability?
The venues and timing of events are given below. If you are interested in
attending, please contact Asad Beg at _abaig@osipak.org_
(mailto:abaig@osipak.org)
Islamabad
Seminar Title: The Urgency of Tax Reform: The Challenges to the
Macroeconomic Situation and Devolution
Place: National Press Club Islamabad, Sector F-61, Islamabad.
Date: Monday, April 25, 2011; Time: 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Lahore
Seminar Title: Tax and Social Policy Design and Intergovernmental
Relations
Place: Faculty Lounge, Lahore University of Management Sciences, DHA
Lahore.
Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2011;Time: 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Karachi
Seminar Title: Intergovernmental Relations after the 18th Amendment, 7th
NFC Award & the Failure of Tax Reform
Place: Center for Executive Education, Institute of Business
Administration City Campus: Garden/Kayani Shaheed Road, Karachi.
Date: Thursday April 28, 2011;Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm


--

Dr. Reehana Raza
Director
Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS)
Foundation Open Society Institute Pakistan
Serena Business Complex
G-5/1, Khayaban-e-Suhrawardy
Islambad, Pakistan
Tel:+92-51-2600192-95
Fax:_+92-51-2600196_ (tel:+92-51-2600196)


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Re: [Pak-Media] Is This Justice?

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The legal system in our country is so weak that sometime it release persones involved in heinous crimes and sometime innocent persons becomes its victim. Mukhtaran Mai case is one of the easiest example of flaws in our legal system. Many times it has been witnessed that the cases have been prolong for weakening the witnesses and giving benefit of doubt or lack of evidences to the real culprits. In these circumstances one day we will also hear the release of accused involved in Sialkot brothers case. The judiciary & the lawmakers should sit together to remove all lekunas to provide justice to the masses.

On Sat, Apr 23, 2011 at 7:32 AM, Bashir Syed <bsyed@att.net> wrote:
 

My sister-in-law, Razia Shah Mohammed, a retired Head Mistress residing at
102 Gulberg III, Lahore was "Strangled to Death" by two servants (whome she
helped for twenty years) and their female accomplice, in August of 2008,
just to rob her for money. One of the Servant and his girl-friend happened
to be Christians from Punjab, but all "three were acquited" of this heinous
CRIME last week by the Criminal Court in LAHORE.

What kind of JUSTICE is practiced in Pakistan?

Aren't the JUDGES and Lawyers (Vultures, being Muslims) aware that they will
be held accountable for their actions on the Day of Judgement!

Bashir A. Syed

Retired Aerospace Physicist

Houston, TX, USA

Mobile: 713-560-6668

E-mail: bsyed@att.net

From: Pakistan-Media@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Pakistan-Media@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Javeria Ayaz Malik
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2011 7:00 AM
To: pakistan-media@yahoogroups.com
Cc: Media-Tribe@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Pak-Media] ActionAid Pakistan Policy Statement

ActionAid Pakistan

22 April 2011

Policy Statement

ActionAid Pakistan raises serious concerns over gaps in the legal system
that led to acquittal of suspects in Mukhataran Mai's case. The agency fears
the "bad precedence" would discourage women from raising voice against
violence, and will pave way for heinous crimes against women to continue.

In a policy statement issued on Friday 22 April, ActionAid Pakistan's
Country Director Jemal Ahmed termed absence of women's representation in the
most strategic institutions like the medico-legal system, courts, lawyers
and police to be responsible for restricting women's access to true justice.

He demanded that a larger political discourse should be initiated to ensure
'special treatment' of cases of 'Violence Against Women' by introducing
pro-women amendments in criminal justice system.

While referring to a statement issued by Justice (Retd.) Nasir Aslam Zahid
who alleged that not a single person in Pakistan has ever been convicted on
rape charges in last ten years, ActionAid Pakistan condemned patriarchal
mindset behind social, political and legal injustice towards women.

Background Notes:

The fundamental and crucial statement in any rape case across the world and
according to criminal justice system in Pakistan is of the rape victim. The
statements of the victim is always taken as the most important evidence for
the case. But in Pakistan the inefficient criminal justice system,
patriarchal mindset of the institutions (police and judiciary), lack of
sufficient medico-legal facilities always hamper those courageous women who
despite all odds against them come forward to voice for their right to get
justice.

In the judicial system of Pakistan the burden of proof is on the woman
victim. The responsible institutions like police and medico-legal system
remain silent, inefficient and unmoved. Even in the case of Mukhtaran Mai,
the statement of victim has not been properly recorded by the Police nor
have courts taken the statement as evidence.

Mukhtaran Mai's case had the potential to become a landmark case which could
show the commitment of state and state's institutions that justice is upheld
for women. It should be understood that in this case, producing hard core
evidence was not possible, but circumstantial evidences should have been
taken into account which in Mai's case were absolutely in her favour.

ActionAid is an international anti poverty agency working in over 40
countries to fight poverty and injustice.


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[Pak-Media] Article from Yvonne Ridley

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 The Sting of the Scorpion ... Egypt's Darkest Corner was the forerunner to Guantanamo
 
By Yvonne Ridley
 Welcome to Tora Land, declares the headline on a magazine rack which caught my eye as I was swept along in the rush hour inside Cairo's chaotic train station.
 The bold declaration on the glossy front page confirms two things. The first is that Egyptians have a great sense of humour and the second is that the Peoples' Revolution continues to have a seismic impact on the country's political landscape.
 Tora is the name for a notorious prison complex on the outskirts of Cairo and since most of the former government - including Hosni Mubarak's two sons - are now resident there you can begin to understand the tongue-in-cheek headline.
 Everyday there are new arrests, new charges among the corrupt elite and it seems no one is immune from the Egyptian prosecutors.
 This has, for many, turned in to a revolving door revolution as those once in prison for daring to stand up to Mubarak and his iron rule are now on the outside while their tormentors are replacing them behind bars.
 It is indeed poetic justice … but sadly not for all; it seems there are some buried so deep inside the brutal prison system that they've been all but forgotten.
 As the Egyptian Revolution hurtles breathlessly towards its 100th day there is still a group of prisoners who appear to have been abandoned in all of the excitement heralded by the arrival of the Arab Spring.
 The forgotten few number just over 100 residents of Al'aqrab that, an Arab word which means the Scorpion.
 It's an apt name for a prison buried away in the desert sands that once concealed the treasures of Tutankhamun. Now those grains hide even more secrets that mask the real depth of wickedness and depravity plumbed by Egypt's Last Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak.
 The Scorpion Prison is a hellish institution that former prisoners told me became the blueprint for Guantanamo, the world's most notorious jail.
 In fact this is Egypt's own version of Guantanamo.
 The high security super max is two kilometres from the main entrance to the official Tora cluster of prisons where former government ministers now reside in comparative comfort.
 Some of the monsters who served Mubarak will even have signed off on the torture endured by the Scorpion inmates whose day-to-day existence is quite different to those which house the Mubarak sons.
 Many of the detainees have been held for years without trial or charge for simply expressing an opinion vocally or in written articles critical of Mubarak's regime. Other were convicted of trying to overthrow Mubarak ... the irony is that they did far less than those who rallied bravely in Tahrir Square just a few weeks back.
 But while the revolutionaries are rewarded for heroic deeds and derring do with hard won freedoms and liberties, the 100 or so languishing behind the high walls of The Scorpion fear the have been completely forgotten.
 Their voices remain unheard in the forboding complex hidden behind an imposing seven metre high wall that is protected by heavily fortified, armour-plated gates.
 According to the Ikhwan website Al'aqrab was the brainchild of a group of officers who spent five years training in the US under  the FBI.
  On their return the Scorpion and its H blocks were built and opened by May 30 in 1993.
  Prison staff have the power to cut off water, light and electricity and close individual windows at the flick of a switch as punishment. Twenty other cells are used purely for solitary confinement.
 It seems the 'American idea' worked so well that the Scorpion model was replicated in the spring of 2002 at the US military base Guantanamo Bay in Occupied Cuba.
 As I relayed the description of its interior to Moazzam Begg, Director of the London-based NGO Cageprisoners, he winced in recognition. The layout was, indeed, familiar to the former ex-Guantanamo detainee who spent three years in the American version of The Scorpion.
 Mubarak's Ministry of Interior moved detainees from Liman, Istekbal Tora and Abu Zaabal to the new supermax jail and it is thought at one point around 20,000 so-called enemies of the state were being held without trial or charge.
 But there could be other political prisoners held elsewhere in the prison system in Egypt - at this stage, we simply don't know.
 But rumours abound of what has gone on behind the high walls of The Scorpion even today and include harrowing tales of torture, abuse and years of solitary confinement without sunlight.
 While all of the Muslim Brotherhood's political prisoners have now been released from across Egypt the agony continues for the inmates of The Scorpion Prison that is so well hidden from the nearby Cairo-Alexandria desert highway and is about 20 kilometres south of the Egyptian capital.
 Most of the men belong to the now defunct group Talae al-Fatah, Jihad, al-Gama'h Al Islamia and other Islamic groups and although the majority signed so-called "adoption of repentance papers" years ago they are still held with little or no  prospect of a trial.
 Some have gone years without family visits, whipping, flogging and electric shock treatments as well as collective punishment has defined the "Scorpion Experience". Of the 20,000 or so who have passed through its gates around 15 per cent are believed to have died.
 The secretive and sinister Ministry of Interior has succeeded in hiding these men from the outside world in all that time but even today it seems justice is as elusive as ever.  Let's hope they will soon be able to join in and enjoy the Arab Spring and celebrate the 100th day of the Egyptian Peoples' Revolution – if justice is going to be one of the cornerstones then the sooner these men are set free or put on trial the better.
 * British journalist Yvonne Ridley is a patron of Cageprisoners – it's website is http://www.cageprisoners.com  

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