US Calls for Pakistan to Adhere to Legal Obligations: Illegally Detained Diplomat Has Full Diplomatic Immunity

Islamabad - The United States Government once again calls upon the Government of Pakistan to abide by its obligations under international and Pakistani law and immediately release the American diplomat illegally detained in Lahore. The U.S. Embassy reiterated to the Government of Pakistan today that his continued detention is a gross violation of international law.

The U.S. Government has repeatedly communicated to the Government of Pakistan that the illegally detained diplomat enjoys diplomatic immunities under the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations (1961).

The U.S. Government notified the Government of Pakistan on January 20, 2010 that the American diplomat was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad as a member of the administrative and technical staff. Under the Vienna Convention and Pakistani domestic law, he is entitled to full criminal immunity and cannot be lawfully arrested or detained.

This morning, the American diplomat was remanded in court without notice to the U.S. government, without his lawyer present, and without translation assistance. He was denied due process and a fair hearing.

We deeply regret that the January 27 events in Lahore resulted in the loss of life following an attack on the diplomat by armed assailants. However, the Government of Pakistan must comply with its obligations under international and Pakistani law and ensure that he has immunity from criminal jurisdiction.

We look forward to working with the Government of Pakistan toward the expeditious resolution of this incident. Responsibility for the safety and well-being of the illegally detained diplomat rests with the Government of Pakistan and Punjab provincial authorities.(PR)

Earthquake in Pakistan: Tremors felt in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Multan, Hyderabad and other Cities

7.4 Magnitude Tremors felt in all major cities of Pakistan on wednesday. Epicentre of earthquake is afghanistan border. Quake also felt in New Delhi and Dubai.

We are fast running towards our end: Feryal Ali Gauhar

I feel sorry for governor and  his family. may his soul rest in peace.I feel sorry to call myself a Pakistani A country where every voice which is against mullah brigade is eliminated A country where no one knows the meaning of tolerance. a country where there is no concept as free speech.i guess time is not far when this God forsaken country would b in a blood bath we are fast running towards our end.

R.I.P Mr. Taseer

HRCP concerned over case against military farm tenants

Lahore, November 15: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed concern over reports of registration of a criminal case against 175 tenants of military farms in Okara, for allegedly resisting a contractor from taking possession of 100 acres of land leased to him.

A statement issued by the commission on Sunday said: “It is a matter of concern that tensions have once again risen in the villages of military farms in Okara. The tenants’ claim that a number of tough men had accompanied the contractor to take possession of land that had previously been under the tenants’ cultivation is a matter of concern. Media reports suggest that the tenants had overpowered and handed over to the police at least one proclaimed offender. In the circumstances, registration of a case against the tenants necessitates a transparent inquiry.

HRCP must emphasise that no one must be allowed to take the law into his own hands. The movement of Okara tenants for their rights has been characterised by non-violence. HRCP hopes that the legal process will not be used to victimise anyone.

The Commission also has apprehensions about the living conditions of tenants in six villages of the Okara military farms—villages 11/4L, 15/4L, 16/4L, 24/4L, 25/4L, and 26/4L—in the Okara cantonment limits. Credible reports suggest that no development work has taken place in these villages for a decade. Basic facilities such as roads and sewerage in the six villages have fallen apart due to lack of allocation of funds.

Furthermore, HRCP has received with alarm reports that although National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had issued National Identity Cards (NICs) to residents of the six villages, and that these cards bear the address of these villages, now the NADRA authorities in Okara say that no such villages exist and that they have no record of the six villages. This despite the fact that in the last general elections voters from the villages had exercised their right to vote on the basis of NICs issued by NADRA.

The tenants also say that four years earlier the authorities had stopped the construction of a primary school building for boys in village 26/4L, and village children were facing difficulties as the incomplete building only needed a roof. Meanwhile, measures to prevent tenants’ children from attending school in the cantonment area, if true, can only be strongly denounced.

To state the obvious, the tenants are as entitled to development in their area as residents of any other part of the country and a systematic denial of development funds gives credence to the apprehension of the tenants that they are being punished for demanding their legitimate rights and that such tactics are a device to force them out of their villages.

HRCP demands that the military farm tenants must be allowed to exercise all the rights that the law of the land provides and that they must not be targeted through abuse of the legal process. They must also not be denied their identity documents nor the right to peacefully live, work and prosper on land that they and their forefathers have brought under cultivation through their sweat and toil.”

172 journalists got plots in Islamabad

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is in possession of a list of 172 journalists who were given plots in the federal capital in line with their two per cent quota in G-13 and G-14 sectors. The names of journalists who were given plots against payments were:

Sarwar Munir Rao

Sohail Iqbal

Ayesha Haroon

Syed Fahd Hussain

Shakeel Ahmed Turabi

M Najeeb

Sarmad Salik

Sheikh Zamir Ahmed Qadri

Rana Qaiser

Absar Alam (he later returned the plot)

Hanif Sabir

Muhammad Malick

Nazir Naji

Shoaib Bhutta

Mustansar Javed

Kh Sharif Ahmed

Sami H Zubari

Aslam Javed

M. Ziauddin

Zafar Rashid

Muhammad Ilyas Bhatti

Noor Faizi

Khan Zaman Malik

Shaukat Ali

Syed M Qasim

Tahir Khan

Ikram Hoti

Syed Qamar Abbas

Shamim Sherrei Sardar

Shakil Sheikh

Abdul Aziz Muhammad

Abrar Ali Saeed

Syed Farhan Bokhari

Muhammad Ashraf

Muhammad Ishaq

Ch. Muhammad Ilyas

Rashida Begum Butt

Iftikhar Nazar

Muhammad Sarwar Awan

Muhammad Afzal Nadeem

Aqeel Ahmed

Ejaz Malik

Muhammad Fayyaz

Altaf Hussain Bhatti

Muhammad Ehsan Elahi

Ali Raza

Shahid Mahmood Malik

Zafar Malik

Wajih Siddiqi

Farman Ali

Muhammad Bilal

Arif Rana

Syed Itrat Hussain

Rana Ghulam Qadir

Saleem Khilji

Abdul Saleem

Safdar Hussain

Imran Nallam Ahmed

Abdur Rauf

Masood Majid Syed

Zahid Khawaja

Muhammad Akram

Syed Zargoon Shah

Kunwar Rashid Habib

Anis Ahmed

Waseem Akthar

Rao Khalid

Abdul Manan Haid

Jehangir Raja

Shaukat Rehman Malik

Muhammad Javed Akhtar

Akthar Munir

Muhammad Javed

Muhammad Nawal

Nasir Chishti

Malik Safdar

Abrar Mustafa

Muhammad Latif

Suleman Hidyat

Murad Shaz Khattack

Attaur Rehman Tahir

Maqsood Mehdi

Muhammad Jamil Khan

Kh Javed Bhatti

Kaleem Ahsan Shah

Khadim Husain

Muhammad Javed Iqbal Khakwani

Mazhar Ali Khan

Syed Qasir Sherazi

Karim Madad

Ghulam Hussain

Zia Shahid

Azam Ahmed Khan

Khalid Awan

Khalid Mahmood

Tanveer Shahzad

Seema Mir

Najumul Islam Usmani

Khalid Mustafa

Saleem Usmani

Syed Ali Nasir Jaffiri

Shahid Butt

Zulfikar Ghuman

Abdul Razak

Ali Imran

Syed Raza Shah

Muhammad Aslam

Shabir Khamid Bukhtawari

Shagufta Jabeen

Bashir Ahmed Shad

Syed Aswad Ulfat

Agha Mahrooz Haider

Nasir Iqbal

Masood Abdul Raheem

Raja Mahmood Bashir Usmani

Muhammad Ilyas Khan

Muhammad Mushtaq Ghuman

Mashkoor Hussain Shah

M Taimur

Masroor Mohsin Gilani

M Ibrahim Khan

M Shahbaz Khan

Amir Sajjad

Mumtaz Alvi

Azhar Jamal

Shakil Awan

Tanveer Alam

Habibur Rehman

Naveed Akram

Syed Azhar Hussain

Mubashir Raza

Arif Hussain

Jabbar Zakriya

Muhammad Farooq Khan

Rahat Naseem

Saeed Murad

Ali Imran Javed

Ejaz Khan

Munir Aziz

Muhammad Riyaz Akhtar

Rahat Munir

Jahanzeb

Muhamamd Afzal Malik

Afzal Nadeem

Muhammad Jameel Mirza

Abdul Mateen Khan

Hamidur Rehman

Saadat Bashir

Akhtar Ali Khan

Abdul Jabbar Khan

Khalid Mahmood

Muhammad Rizwan Khan

Rafiq Hussain Khan

Malik Muhammad Ilyas

Sohail Nashir

Uzair Khan

Zahid Hussain Hashwani

Four journalists Rauf Klasra, Amir Mateen, Khaleeq Kiani and Javed Ch were given plots in light of the Lahore High Court decision of 2006 in their favour after their names were deleted from the final list on the orders of the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz.

The list also contains the names of PTV employees who were given plots. They include Nazir Tabsum, Qamar Mohiuddin, Nisar Baloch, Syed Javed Ali, Khalid Iqbal Warriach, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Ayub Minhas, Asmatullah Khan Niazi, Muzamil Ahmed Khan, Majeed Afzal Khan (Sajan Khan), Awaid Butt, Rashid Baig, Ramzan Khalid, Muhammad Arshad Saleem, Muhammad Zakariya, Musadiq Kaleem, Arif Mahmood.(ET)

Average Value of MNAs’ Assets increases three folds since 2002; the current National Assembly twice as rich compared to the previous one

A comparative analysis of the assets declared by MNAs belonging to the 12th and the 13th National Assembly of Pakistan reveals that the average value of an MNA’s assets has increased three folds in six years from 2002-2003 to 2008-2009. The average value of an MNA’s Assets in the 12th National Assembly was just below Rs. 27 million in 2002-2003 which has increased to almost Rs. 81 million in 2008-2009, a 3-fold increase in six years, according to a PILDAT Analysis of the Declarations of Assets submitted by MNAs. The analysis also indicates that an average MNA of the current (13th) National Assembly is twice as rich compared to his/her counterpart in the previous (12th) National Assembly.

The PILDAT report series titled How Rich are Pakistani MNAs? has analysed assets declared by MNAs for the years 2002-2003 to 2005-2006; 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 through 3 separate reports. The latest of this series of PILDAT reports, comparing assets declared by MNAs belonging to the 13th (current) National Assembly of Pakistan, has used data contained in the Gazettes published by the Election Commission of Pakistan on October 15 2008 and October 27 2009.

The report depicts that the current average value of assets held by an MNA stands at Rs. 80.89 million, based on the 2008-2009 declarations. This figure demonstrates a modest increase of 9.5% from the 2007-2008 figure of Rs. 73.92 million. The average value of assets owned by non-Muslim MNAs, Rs. 20.35 million, is 75% lower than the overall average of almost Rs. 81 million, based on 2008-2009 figures.

In terms of individual wealth, the 2008-2009 declarations reveal the wealthiest MNA to be Mr. Mehboob Ullah Jan (NA-23, Kohistan, KP, PPPP) with total assets of Rs. 3.288 billion. He is followed by Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (NA-50, Rawalpindi-I, Punjab, PML-N), with total assets of Rs. 1.627 billion, Mr. Jahangir Khan Tareen (NA-195, R.Y.Khan-IV, Punjab, PML-F) with total assets of Rs. 1.095 billion, Mr. Saeed Ahmed Zafar (NA-162, Nankana Sahib-II Old Sheikhupura-VII, Punjab, IND) with total assets of Rs. 1.030 billion, and Ms. Nuzhat Sadiq (NA-277, Punjab-V, PML-N) with total assets of Rs. 912.81 million.

In 2007-2008 declarations reveal the wealthiest MNA to be Mr. Mehboob Ullah Jan (NA-23, Kohistan, KP, PPPP) with total assets of Rs. 3.252 billion. He is followed by Ms. Nuzhat Sadiq (NA-277, Punjab-V, PML-N), with total assets of Rs. 1.514 billion, Chaudhry Zahid Iqbal (NA-162, Sahiwal-III, Punjab, PPPP), with assets amounting to Rs. 1.248 billion, Chaudhry Nazir Ahmed Jatt (NA-167, Vehari-I, Punjab, PML) (who later resigned while facing charges of processing a fake degree; Chaudhary Asghar Ali Jatt is re-elected on this seat in by-election 2010), with assets worth Rs. 843 million and Mr. Jahangir Khan Tareen (NA-195, R.Y.Khan-IV, Punjab, PML –F), with assets amounting to Rs. 716 million.

At the other end of the assets spectrum, the least wealthy MNAs in 2008-2009 is Mr. Saeed Iqbal Chaudhary (NA-81, Faisalabad-VII, Punjab, PPPP) with approximately Rs. 29 million net liabilities, followed by Mr. Roshan Din Junejo (NA-236, Sanghar-III, Sindh, PPPP), Sheikh Rohale Asghar (NA-124 Lahore-VII, Punjab, PML-N), Mr. Ghulam Farid Kathia, (NA-161 Sahiwal-II, Punjab, PPPP), Minister of State for Education, and Mr. Ayaz Amir (NA-60 Chakwal-I, Punjab, PML-N).

Ms. Nuzhat Sadiq (NA-277, Women Punjab-V, PML-N), has remained the richest female MNA in 2008-2009 and 2007-2008, with assets worth Rs. 912.81 million and Rs. 1.514 billion respectively. The second richest female MNA in the current National Assembly is Mrs. Asma Arbab Alamgir (NA-325, Women KP-IV, PPPP) with assets of 515.25 million and 682.05 million in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 respectively while Ms. Belum Hasnain (NA-292, Women Punjab-XX, PPPP) with assets of 332.50 million in 2007-2008 and 298.40 million in 2008-2009 is the third richest female MNA.

Mr. Mohammad Kamran Khan (NA-40, Tribal Area-V, FATA, IND) proved to be the most effective asset manager whose assets grew 42 times from over the period of a year, followed by Maulana Muhammad Qasim (NA-10, NA-10 Mardan-II, KP, MMA), with a 12 time increase in assets and Mr. Bilal Yaseen (NA-120, Lahore-III, Punjab, PML-N) whose assets increased 9 times during the period.

In 2008-2009, the PML-F is the richest or on top of the list in terms of the average wealth of its MNAs (average assets per MNA: Rs. 239 million), followed by the NPP Rs. 122 million, the independents Rs. 108 million; the PPPP Rs. 102 million; the PML-N Rs. 75 million; the PML Rs. 62 million; the ANP Rs. 61 million; the PPP-S Rs. 37 million; the MQM Rs. 25 million; the BNP Rs. 14 million and the MMA Rs. 6 million. These figures demonstrate a 42 fold difference between the average wealth of the MNAs in the party with the greatest average wealth and that with the least. From 2002-2006, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) topped the list in terms of average wealth of its MNA as its lone MNA Mr. Imran Khan (NA-71, Mianwali-I, Punjab, PTI, 12th NA) held assets worth Rs. 85 million at that time, followed by the PML-N (average assets per MNA at Rs. 61 million); PML Rs. 56 million and the PPPP Rs. 34 million.

In geographical terms, the differences in average wealth are significant. In 2008-2009, MNAs from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) have the highest average value of assets per MNA followed by those from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, FATA, Sindh and Balochistan respectively. Similarly, in 2007-2008, MNAs from the ICT headed the list. This trend has been maintained earlier from 2002-2006 when on average an MNA from the ICT was the richest followed by an MNA from Punjab, FATA, Balochistan, Sindh and KP.

In terms of the percentage share of the combined value of assets in the year 2008-2009, Punjab tops the list, with a share of 54 % (down from 73% in 2002-2006); followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 31 % (up from 4% share in 2002-2006); Sindh 10 % (down from 11% in 2002-2006); FATA maintaining its 3 %; ICT 1 % (down from 5% in 2002-2006) and Balochistan at 1 % (down from 4% in 2002-2006).

HRCP alarmed over labour leader’s murder

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed serious concern over the murder of labour leader Mustansar Randhawa and his brother in Faisalabad and called upon the government to track down and try the culprits and to prevent violence against those raising their voice for labour’s rights.

In a statement issued on Friday, HRCP said: “The murder of Mustansar Randhawa, a leader of textile and power loom workers in Faisalabad, and his brother, Naseer, is a stark reminder of the risks labour leaders and human rights defenders face in Pakistan.

The state is under an obligation to protect the lives of all human beings, but individuals that are exposed to specific threats deserve additional protection measures. Mustansar had been receiving death threats reportedly from power looms and textile mill owners for several days, apparently because of his role in orgainzing workers in the area.

The labour movement in Pakistan has long been protesting in a peaceful manner for the rights of workers who find themselves squeezed by the economic downturn, lack of benefits, poor and unsafe working conditions, and wages that bear no relation with the escalating cost of living and inflation. The government is duty-bound to ensure not only that workers get their rights, but also that they are not prevented from raising their voice for such entitlments.

The government must ensure that the killers of Mustansar and his brother do not enjoy impunity. Failure to apprehnd and punish the killers would convey the message that the barrel of the gun is the most effective means to further one’s interests. It is in the interest of the state to do all it can to prevent that message from taking root.”