Issue No 9, Sept 16-22, 2002 | ISSN:1684-2075 | satribune.com



The Plan to Grab More Land

The Generals are ready to Conquer Capital's Hill

Special SAT Report

NEW YORK: In a secret, highly controversial plan, disguised as a national security imperative, Pakistan's top spy agency has asked General Pervez Musharraf to allot 100 acres of prime land in Islamabad's beautiful hills, the Margallas to build its new HQ and Housing Colony. No political government would think about destroying the Capital's landscape, but the army would do it in a moment and soon top Generals would be living in the cool heights of the Margalla Park, thanks to national security.

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Qureshi-Memon Row: Son-Brother Grid: The 3 Cooks

By LampPost

NEW YORK: The infighting between media managers of the military government was publicly visible in New York when a General was asked to take a back seat and a civilian handled the Press. The General felt insulted. It was a clear signal of what would happen when the top General is asked by a civilian Chief Executive to take the back seat. It may never happen.

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How the Grabbed Lands are Being Mismanaged, Losing Billions

By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: It is not just the State lands which are being taken over by the defence forces, billions are also being lost through mismanagement of these lands. In this official audit report prepared by the Defence Services themselves, in just four of the 11 Military Estate Offices, almost Rs 5 billion were wasted. No one is asking for any accountability of those who are throwing good money after bad, despite the recommendations in the Report. Read the Report as well.

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Defiant Tribal Areas Ready to Fight Merger with Pakistan

By Hafiz Sana Ullah Khan

PESHAWAR: President Pervez Musharraf’s plan to merge the defiant Tribal Areas in the north west of Pakistan with the rest of the country is bound to face strong resistance and use of force is likely to be repaid in kind. The tribesmen are already furious following the hunt for Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives in their territory

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Thank You for the Compliment!

Dear Readers:

How does it feel when the country’s head of state acknowledges an investigative newspaper’s work publicly before the entire community? Terrific, would be the obvious answer. It does not matter whether the compliment paid was in shape of an insult. Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf did exactly that last week at his New York community dinner when he recognized the work being done by the “South Asia Tribune.” He naturally was not happy with what we have been writing and tried to give his own justification for why we are, in his words, “spitting venom” against his government. “They are washing the dirty linen in public,” he said referring to an internet newspaper (SA Tribune) started by “journalists who have left the country”. It was sad to see him admit that some linen is getting dirty under his rule. His objection that we should not wash it publicly, is a debatable one.
In an expected goof-up, the Pakistani General mixed up between two journalists and blamed the Internet Newspaper for trying to “blackmail” him after he refused to give us a job. He was probably pointing towards Hussain Haqqani, a very vocal ex-adviser to both Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, who also had public affairs contracts in the General’s government. Haqqani has nothing to do with SA Tribune except that we published his story recently when his offices were shut down by the military regime in Islamabad. Otherwise the regime’s response to SA Tribune has been mean and despicable: persistent harassment of its Editor’s family in Pakistan, with an 18-year old innocent boy thrown in jail and police parties raiding homes of other relatives to put further pressure. These tactics, however, do not work. Enjoy the paper.
Shaheen Sehbai

Complete Story of Harassment of Sehbai Family in Pakistan
View Police Report (FIR) pg 1 | pg 2

RSF statement
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.President Pervez Musharraf has just finished his 3rd visit to the United States in which he met President George Bush for 30 minutes. But the long Wish List Pakistanis had brought with them remained either undiscussed or not much progress was made. Neither side spoke about the items on that list. Read here how the visit progressed from Day-1 to his Departure. Click Here or on the Banner above.

The Motorway was built around a huge scandal, but money-making around this project did not end with the fall of the Nawaz Sharif Government. People involved in the project are still skimming off millions in different ways and the military government has done little to stop the corruption.

The poor, powerless consumers of power, electric power, have to pay ever-increasing rates no matter if the company they are paying is making huge profits or running into losses. This report gives all the documents to show how mismanagement is causing costs to rise which are quietly and without any qualms, passed on to the consumers, who have to pay, through their nose at times.

This is a story of how double standards are followed, when counting losses and writing them off, without accountability. Pakistan Ordnance Factory imports defective artillery shells, to help someone, worth millions. When caught the losses are simply written off. The importers and exporters enjoy their loot and no one asks them any question. It is not like this when civilians are involved.

Has anyone counted how many Pakistani officials and diplomats, civilian and in uniform, refused to return to Pakistan after completing their posting in US? A quick count popped up embarrassing numbers. SA Tribune decided to get a full count with all the names and how these people are doing now.

The present Government claims it has nothing to do with corporate and business corruption. Yet senior most officials have been directly involved in the corruption that was rampant in the past. SA Tribune brings the story of one such high official who gave the sugar lobby much more than it demanded, but at what price to the tax payers.

Car manufacturing in Pakistan is a certified fraud. Influential groups, with the right links and connections, have obtained car making licenses under the garb of manfacturing. In fact these companies provide a big cover for imports, which are otherwise banned. Now thesegreedy car makers have been joined by the military government to rip the people off their money. A huge scandal in the making.

 

Billions swallowed by tycoons

The country's business community has gobbled up billions upon billions in bad loans but the Musharraf Government is content with only persecuting the politicians because they represent a threat to the regime. SA Tribune has got the lists of all defaulting companies of just one financial institution and the total adds up to over Rs 16 Billion (US$ 275 million). Read the lists.

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