PM’s wife paid Rs45.5m against Rs570m liabilities

PM’s daughter collects 23.5 m for IDPs;
An amount of Rs 23.5 million was collected for the
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Swat and
Malakand at a fund raising dinner hosted by the Prime
Minister’s daughter, Syeda Fizza Batool Gilani at the
Royal Palm Golf and Country Club at Lahore.
(Source, APP, Daily The Mail
Contact: adnan.khan@pakboi.gov.pk)
First lady Mrs.Fauzia Gilani and daughter Ms. Fiza Batool Gilani talking to media persons in Lahore.—APP
PM’s wife paid Rs45.5m against Rs570m liabilities
By Syed Irfan Raza
Sunday, 22 Nov, 2009





ISLAMABAD: Although the wife of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had settled her default case with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), she had been given ‘undue favour’ and asked to pay only Rs45.5 million against total liabilities of Rs570 million, sources in the NAB alleged on Saturday in an interview with Dawn.

A scrutiny of Fauzia Gilani’s case revealed that she had obtained two loans totalling Rs200 million from Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), but she settled the case after committing ‘wilful default that prevailed over a decade’.

According to documents, the sources said, the principal of Rs200 million had swelled to Rs570 million as non-payment of instalments spanned a decade. However, she managed to settle the case by paying back Rs45.521 million.

The sources said she had obtained a loan of Rs120 million for Multan Edible Oil Extraction and another loan Rs77 million for Pak Green Fertilisers.

According to the NAB press release, the cases were settled by the ZTBL in pursuance of the Sindh High Court’s order of Oct 2, 2006, and March 17 of last year and a circular of the State Bank.

In consequence, ZTBL forwarded a request to NAB for withdrawal of the cases.

‘After having received clearance of liability certificate from ZTBL regarding full payment of the settlement amount of Rs45.521 million, NAB withdrew references against the companies.’

The source said Mrs Gilani had gone through the prescribed procedure of settlement of ‘wilful default cases’. They interpreted the move as a ‘confessed wilful default’.

The NAB Ordinance defines wilful default as: ‘Wilful default under this ordinance if he does not pay, or continues not to pay, or return or repay the amount due from him to any bank, financial institution, cooperative society, Prime Minister Gilani faced two other cases in NAB—illegal appointments in National Assembly when he was National Assembly speaker and purchase of vehicles. Both cases were settled in the Islamabad High Court.

A case of the prime minister’s personal secretary, Tariq Khakwani, in which he was accused of obtaining a plot in Sector I-8, Islamabad, under the prime minister’s quota in 1988-89 is still alive in Lahore High Court.

The NAB had filed an appeal against its own reference and had requested an accountability court to dispose of the case.

However, the court turned down the request and the NAB moved LHC against the accountability court’s decision.

The LHC upheld the verdict of the accountability court and the case is still pending.


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36 politicians, 3 envoys among beneficiaries; names of PM, his wife not on list

Beneficiaries outed

* NRO beneficiaries’ list includes names of Asif Ali Zardari, Altaf Hussain, Rehman Malik, Aftab Sherpao, Ahmed Mukhtar, Farooq Sattar, Babar Ghauri, Salman Farooqui, Tariq Anees
* State minister for law says Supreme Court will decide fate of beneficiaries g Government will implement SC decision in ‘letter and spirit’

By Irfan Ghauri

ISLAMABAD: The government officially announced on Saturday the names and details of some National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) beneficiaries – which include President Asif Zardari, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain, several federal and provincial ministers and top bureaucrats.

The NRO would cease to be a law on November 28, as the government has already decided not to legislate on the document in parliament.

Minister of State for Law Afzal Sindhu released the names of 248 of the 8,041 beneficiaries – whose “fate would now be decided by the Supreme Court (SC)” – at a press conference, which followed a meeting with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

The beneficiaries include the top leadership of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the MQM and the PPP-Sherpao (PPP-S) – in addition to several cabinet members, retired bureaucrats and technocrats, former military officials and diplomats.

Names announced on Saturday include Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, PPP-S chief Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar, Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Minister of State for Housing Tariq Anees, PPP Secretary General Jehangir Badar and Nusrat Bhutto.

Of the 248 names announced on Saturday, 36 are politicians.

The list of public servants who benefited from the NRO features the names of Pakistani Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani and Secretary General to the President Salman Farooqi. The APP news agency said two other envoys were also among the NRO beneficiaries.

Sindhu said the government would not only accept the SC verdict on the fate of beneficiaries – whatever it may be – but would also implement it in “letter and spirit”. He said in case the court decided that the ordinance was ultra vires to the constitution, all cases closed under the law would reopen.

Replying to a question, Sindhu said Zardari had constitutional immunity under Article 248 of the constitution as head of state.

Sindhu said most of the cases were “politically motivated”, and Nawaz Sharif had “admitted the fact”. He said the names of the prime minister and his wife were not on the list.

MQM beneficiary in mostly criminal cases

ISLAMABAD: With Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Huassain’s name on top of the list of MQM leaders who benefited from the NRO – details of the 72 cases against him show that all of the lawsuits were registered on criminal charges. Details show that 31 of the cases have been registered on murder charges, 11 on attempted murder charges, three on kidnapping charges, 25 on hooliganism charges and two on other charges. In all 3,230 cases – most of which had been registered against MQM members – were withdrawn in Sindh. Almost all cases against MQM leaders were registered on criminal charges. Other top MQM leaders who benefited from NRO include Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Farooq Sattar, federal Minister for Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri and Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad. zulfiqar ghuman
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A Leader With A Vision
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By Syeda Fizza Batool Gilani

The stage was set and the moment had arrived. It was time to introduce the next generation of Bhutto and Zardari to the world– Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Assefa. Who would have imagined that these children, who had always preferred to stay away from the glitz and paranoia of the dangerous world of politics would one day be entering it albeit, owing to circumstances neither to their liking nor of their own doing.

But it was the tragic and unfortunate assassination of their beloved mother that invoked them to change course and set afoot on a dangerous path trodden with surprises and anguish. While friends of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto say she always envisaged Bilawal becoming her political heir, they agree that she would not have wanted him to have to bear such a burden so young.In an interview in 2004, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was asked if he wanted to enter Pakistani politics. “We will see, I don’t know. I would like to help the people of Pakistan, so I will decide when I finish my studies,” he said. Today, he stood tall being forced into a decision much earlier than he would have imagined then. A person’s character is best judged once he is pitted against odds. Bilawal had to endure the loss of his mother when he so needed her to be around him to pamper him, to love him and to see him grow. Yet he lost it all in the flash of a second. It was at this crucial moment in his life that there emerged a leader out of him in whose voice echoed the words of his mother “democracy is the best revenge”.

All these thoughts resonated through my head and my eyes flooded with tears as I sat in the Presidency on the 18th of July 2009, listening to the magnanimous speech delivered by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s only son and the Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party. The event was attended by the parliamentarians and ticket-holders of Pakistan People’s Party, who had been awarded tickets for the elections by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto herself in 2007, along with their children and families.This was not the first time that I had met Bilawal, Bakhtawar or Assefa, yet there was something different about Bilawal tonight. This young man standing on the podium, talking to the members of the party, formulated by his grandfather and nourished by his mother had come a long way from the libraries of Christ Church, Oxford. Today, he seemed like an embodiment of perfection, ideally suited to hold the reigns as a true heir to the legend of the party; a people’s man, a true Bhutto.

There were many who had gone to the event with doubtful minds. They wondered as to whether this young lad in his twenties, who did not even reside in this country, could be entrusted with the enormous responsibility of leading the largest political party of this country and in future, the country itself. And this is what he had to say to clear the doubts of one and all. “The Pakistan People’s Party can and will solve all challenges. As the future generation, what can we promise the people of Pakistan? We can promise them that we shall deliver what our older generation has not yet delivered.”There was resolve, commitment, resoluteness but most importantly, there was recognition and acceptance of the fact that promises made had not entirely been fulfilled yet and it was the right of the people of Pakistan to point out the anomalies of the government in addressing the needs of the people. This coming from the chairman of the party that is in government is a big accolade and surely, we Pakistanis are not used to such true self analysis and accountability.On that evening, everybody present there saw Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto come to life again in Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

This young man has the potential, the capability and the courage to lead this party and this country forward. As I listened to Bilawal with tears in my eyes, I felt hope, hope that I had long forgone since the Shahadat of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. It just occurred to me sitting there that this was what Mohtarma meant once she aptly titled her last book ‘Reconciliation’. It is time to reconcile with the fact that the next generation of the Bhuttos is ready, ready to take on from where their predecessors left and when Bilawal says, “Khoon chaihay, khoon dein gay; sir chahiyay, sir dein gay, jaan chahiyay, jaan dein gay,” you know that this young man really means it because his name ‘Bilawal’ means “one without equal”.

The writer is the daughter of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani

PM’s daughter divorces her husband

Accuses him of mental and physical torture

LAHORE: Fizza Batool, daughter of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, has divorced her husband, Khurram Khan by ‘divorcing herself’ after four years of living separately.

Thirty-year-old Fizza has informed Khurram, son of Javed Umar Khan of her decision through a letter sent at his Lahore residence through a private courier service from the Prime Minister House, Islamabad. The letter is also signed by two witnesses including her brother Ali Haider Gillani and a relative Ahmad Khalil. She has also sent copies of the letter to the union council chairman at the Lahore Cantonment Board.

In the letter Fizza has accused Khurram of mentally and physically torturing her. The letter says, “Shortly after my marriage with you, on September 22, 1998,

you have been mistreating me physically and mentally and after the birth of our son, Muhammad Asfandyar in 2001, we both have been a subject of your inhumane, cruel and irresponsible behaviour and as a consequence of the same, we were forced to leave your house in 2006. Since then you have neither shown any repentance towards me and our son nor have you shown any interest to reconcile which has developed hatred in my mind, therefore, now I cannot live with you as your wife in accordance with the directions prescribed by Sharia, and hence, decided to invoke right of Talak-e-Tafweez conferred upon me, Vide clause 18 of Nikahnama dated September 22, 1998 duly registered with Nikah Registrar Ward No 7, union council Lahore Cantonment Board, Lahore.

Therefore I, Fizza Batool D/o Yousaf Raza, hereby using the above said right of Talak-e-Tafweez irrevocably pronounce Talak to myself as follows: I divorce myself, I divorce myself, and I divorce myself.

And I have no legal obligation towards you as wife with immediate effect”

, she concluded.

Khurram Khan’s counsel Surayya Farzand Chaudhry told The Express Tribune that the notice would be challenged before the guardian court. She said that it had no legal value. She said that although she was given the right of divorce in the nikahnama , Fizza had to adopt the right procedure to exercise it. She said Fizza should have approached the family court for divorce, adding that she could not dissolve the marriage herself.

Family law expert Advocate Muhamamd Sharif Khokhar told The Express Tribune that according to the Shariat law, Fizza had divorced her husband properly.

He said that she needed no court’s help to exercise her right of divorce given her in the nikahnama. He noted that she had appropriately sent a copy of the letter to the arbitrator, who would summon both parties. If he failed to reconcile the couple, he would issue a divorce certificate.

However, he said that Khurram could contest the custody of his 12-year-old son, Muhammad Asfandyar, in a court as the mother was a ‘natural guardian’ of a child till the age of 7. He said that a guardian court must decide the custody of a child above 7 years of age.

Khurram has two suits pending with family courts against Fizza, one for the restitution of conjugal rights and the other for the custody of their son.

In the suits, Khurram claimed that in 2006, Fizza left their home and went to live with her parents. He said that despite repeated requests, she had not returned to their home.

Khurram has married again in April 2010.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2010.