Pakistani politician, Syeda Abida Hussain calling Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan “LIAR”. Everyone knows Abdul Qadeer Khan apologized to nation on national media for proliferating nuclear technology to other countries. General Musharaf gave pardon to him after his apology. She is right, we should go with facts. The language of the talk show is urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy: Duniya TV (In Session with Asma Chaudhry, 28 May 2011)
I am ashamed of being the part of Ziaul Haq’s cabinet: Hashmi
Pakistan Muslim League –Nawaz (PML-N) leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said he wanted party chief Mian Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to apologize to nation over their past mistakes.
Addressing National Assembly (NA) here with Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi in chair, he said a doctorate degree was required to fully comprehend the politics manifested by President Asif Ali Zardari.
Stung by the pang of conscience on siding with General Ziaul Haq in his government, Hashmi said he sought pardon from nation, National Assembly and the future generations, urging all the politicians including Sharif brothers to do the same.
‘I am ashamed of being the part of Ziaul Haq’s cabinet,’ said Hashmi.
He further said, ‘The country will fall apart if we do not seek pardon from the nation.’
Commenting on Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, PML-N leader said, ‘I think the national history has not witnessed a leader greater than Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.’
Hashmi said he wept at the assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto after the demise of his parents.
Read more : The Nation.com.pk
More details : BBC urdu
Excerpt:
Islamabad: The Raymond Davis saga finally seemed to come to a conclusion on Wednesday after a Pakistan court acquitted the US diplomat-cum- CIA contractor as the relatives of the victims agreed to accept blood money in exchange for pardon.
American CIA contractor Raymond Allen Davis has been in jail since Jan. 27 after he was arrested on the account of shooting and killing two Pakistanis. His detention was known to seriously strain the US-Pak relations.
Shortly after Additional District and Sessions Judge Yousuf Aujla indicted Davis on murder charges during in-camera proceedings at the Kot Lakhpat Jail, 18 relatives of the dead men appeared in the makeshift court and said they were willing to forgive the American if compensation was paid under the Qisas and Diyat Law.
“The relatives appeared in court and independently told the judge that they had accepted the diyat (compensation) and forgiven him,” said Rana Sanaullah, the Law Minister of Punjab province. …
… Sources said that the Saudi Arabian government played a key role in secret negotiations to arrange the “blood money” deal to settle Davis’ case, which had resulted in Pakistan-US ties plunging to a new low.
The Saudi royal family played a key role in convincing Pakistan’s radical groups and religious hardliners to agree to the deal, the sources said.
Read more : ZeeeNews
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Saudis come to Raymond’s rescue! – [More detail -BBC urdu]
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Courtesy: Dunya TV (Cross Fire with Mehar Bukhari, 16 March 2011-1)
– An overactive judiciary might undermine a fragile democracy
PAKISTAN’S chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is riding high. At a time when most of the country’s political leaders are despised as venal, lazy or inept, its senior jurist is held in esteem. People tell pollsters they trust him more than anyone. They cheer his efforts to take on the corrupt and hapless president, Asif Ali Zardari. Yet Mr Chaudhry may be crossing a line from activist judge to political usurper.
His judges pass up no chance to swipe at the government. Mr Chaudhry spent months trying to get Swiss officials to reopen a corruption case that could have toppled Mr Zardari (in Pakistan, criminal proceedings against a sitting president are prohibited). After that failed, the courts took up a thin-looking case in which the president is accused of unconstitutionally holding an office for profit. That looks vindictive: the office in question is his post as head of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party.
The courts quickly adopt populist causes, especially those that squeeze Mr Zardari. After an American diplomat shot dead two men in the street in Lahore last month, the mother of one victim appealed for justice on television, saying that she would trust only Mr Chaudhry to help. The High Court in Lahore promptly ordered that the diplomat, who had been arrested, must not be allowed out of the country—even if the government were to rule that he had immunity. In this case, as in many others, the judges have shown themselves to be able self-publicists. Their stance has won approving coverage.
And on the country’s illiberal but widely popular blasphemy law, the Lahore High Court intervened to forbid the president from issuing an early pardon to anyone convicted by lower courts. Before the murder last month of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab and critic of the blasphemy law, Mr Zardari had told him he was planning such a pardon. The courts seem set on boxing him in. …
Read more : The Economist
President pardons 59 Christians in Pakistan – By: George Masih
About 59 Christian prisoners in Pakistan received a new lease of life when President Asif Ali Zardari pardoned and freed them on Friday. Heeding to an appeal by ‘Life for All’, a Lahore-based Christian organization, the President released the prisoners who were falsely accused of minor crimes and languished in jails without obtaining legal aid due to financial constraints.
Continue reading President Zardari pardons 59 Christians in Pakistan
Zardari issues pardon in Malik’s corruption conviction
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has given a presidential pardon to Interior Minister Rehman Malik after the latter was convicted by the Lahore High Court in two NAB corruption reference cases.
Continue reading President Zardari issues pardon in Malik’s Sentence
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