The Emergency Times 35

The Emergency Times Dec 24th, 2007 1
Please Photocopy and Distribute Issue 35
The Emergency Times
Quote of the Day

“To tell the truth is revolutionary.”
- Antonio Gramsci
Pakistan’s Tyranny Continues

Courtesy The New York Times
December 23, 2007
By AITZAZ AHSAN
Lahore, Pakistan
THE chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and his family have been
detained in their house, barricaded in with barbed wire and surrounded by police officers in riot gear since
Nov. 3. Phone lines have been cut and jammers have been installed all around the house to disable
cellphones. And the United States doesn't seem to care about any of that.
The chief justice is not the only person who has been detained. All of his colleagues who, having sworn to
protect, uphold and defend the Constitution, refused to take a new oath prescribed by President Pervez
Musharraf as chief of the army remain confined to their homes with their family members. The chief justice's
lawyers are also in detention, initially in such medieval conditions that two of them were hospitalized, one
with renal failure.
As the chief justice's lead counsel, I, too, was held without charge — first in solitary confinement for three
weeks and subsequently under house arrest. Last Thursday morning, I was released to celebrate the Id
holidays. But that evening, driving to Islamabad to say prayers at Faisal Mosque, my family and I were
surrounded at a rest stop by policemen with guns cocked and I was dragged off and thrown into the back of a
police van. After a long and harrowing drive along back roads, I was returned home and to house arrest.
Every day, thousands of lawyers and members of the civil society striving for a liberal and tolerant society in
Pakistan demonstrate on the streets. They are bludgeoned by the regime's brutal police and paramilitary
units. Yet they come out again the next day. People in the United States wonder why extremist militants in
Pakistan are winning. What they should ask is why does President Musharraf have so little respect for civil
society — and why does he essentially have the backing of American officials?
The White House and State Department briefings on Pakistan ignore the removal of the justices and all these
detentions. Meanwhile, lawyers, bar associations and institutes of law around the world have taken note of
this brave movement for due process and constitutionalism. They have displayed their solidarity for the
lawyers of Pakistan. These include, in the United States alone, the American Bar Association , state and local
bars stretching from New York and New Jersey to Louisiana, Ohio and California, and citadels of legal
education like Harvard and Yale Law Schools.
The detained chief justice continues to receive enormous recognition and acknowledgment. Harvard Law
School has conferred on him its highest award, placing him on the same pedestal as Nelson Mandela and the
legal team that argued Brown v. Board of Education. The National Law Journal has anointed him its lawyer of
the year. The New York City Bar Association has admitted him as a rare honorary member. Despite all this,
the Musharraf regime shows no sign of relenting.
Disclaimer: This publication is not affiliated with or does not endorse any political party or social group.
It is a humble effort to inspire and make aware- for we together can make a difference in these
troubled times.
Write to us at theemergencytimes@gmail.com. Our online version is on
pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com
But for how long? How long can the chief justice and his colleagues be kept in confinement? How long can the
leaders of the lawyers' movement be detained? They will all be out one day. And they will neither be silent nor
still. They will recount the brutal treatment meted out to them for seeking the establishment of a tolerant,
democratic, liberal and plural political system in Pakistan. They will state how the writ of habeas corpus was
denied to them by the arbitrary and unconstitutional firing of Supreme and High Court justices. They will
spell out precisely how
one man set aside a Constitution under the pretext of an "emergency," arrested the judges, packed the
judiciary, "amended" the Constitution by a personal decree and then "restored" it to the acclaim of London
and Washington.
They will, of course, speak then. But others are speaking now. The parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan.
8 have already been rigged, they are saying. The election commission and the caretaker cabinet are overtly
partisan. The judiciary is entirely hand-picked. State resources are being spent on preselected candidates.
There is a deafening uproar even though the independent news media in Pakistan are completely gagged. Can
there even be an election in this environment?
Are they being heard? I'm afraid not.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a former minister of the interior and of law and justice, is the president of the Supreme Court Bar
Association of Pakistan.
The NAB Diaries – Part One

Courtesy Teeth Maestro (www.teeth.com.pk)
By Amer Nazir
My name is Amer Nazir. I live in exile in London. It is a forced exile. I left Pakistan as soon as NAB took my name
off the Exit Control List after a period of three years. If I had not left, probably I would have also disappeared
forever like my best friend Ahmed Shujaudin – a leading architect.
God willing and the Teeth Maestro permitting, I intend to write about my journey from a modest middle-class
background to one of the top IT entrepreneurs of Pakistan before I fell to the extent that I became homeless. Once
a familiar face in the so-called corporate social circles in Karachi it came to a point where no one was willing to
take my phone call – after all, I was a NAB accused. I was never to be convicted but it did not matter. The logic
was straight forward. If Shuja had been kidnapped then surely Shuja must have done something terrible to
cause it or else at least deserve it…
The scope of these four narrations hopefully to be published during the next four weeks is to narrate a very brief
account of my business journey, my labor of love, after a briefest possible introduction of myself, the major space
will be given to my NAB experience, the actual inside account, and the behavior and the attitude of our kings of
the castle.
The hope is that some of you may see a part reflection of your own lives in this account and it may perhaps help
you in some way. Another hope is that once it reaches the Free World and once fully investigated the world will
realize that the common Pakistanis have never had the chance and that they deserve an honest break. There is
also this hope to try and shame the shameless. And last but not least, and though it is a long shot, perhaps even
Musharraf may realize the extent of damage he has done. He may finally understand, that although it is true for
every institution, but especially when it comes to matters of justice, a self-designed system, a crude
accountability set-up which is from day one formed on principles that are outside universally accepted rule of law
– is soon bound to become abusive and corrupt itself…
For the non-Pakistanis, NAB is the acronym for The National Accountability Bureau. The flag ship of Musharraf.
The main reason he gave for assuming power. He said that the nation had become too corrupt. NAB is composed
of serving and retired army officers with unlimited powers. They are answerable to none. Present in every major
troubled times.
city, each NAB office has a jail within its compound where prisoners are kept without any possibilities of bail.
Some of them picked up from the streets, most from their beds at dawn. Several have died during
interrogations…
And lastly, my narration will detail how a proud Pakistani was forced to claim asylum in his wife’s homeland.
Who although married to a British national for twenty years had never applied for the British nationality and had
instead sponsored his wife for the Pakistani nationality instead…
I belong to an educated middle-class family which never had sufficient savings in the bank. I studied in
Cathedral School and then Cadet College Hasanabdal and finally Government College Lahore. Now in
retrospect, when one has a 20 by 20 vision, I think I was naive from the outset. I was not ready to
compromise. I could never reconcile to the fact that I could actually be less than any high and mighty that I
came across. I rejected constraints. I could do anything… as long as nature was just…
And then however it happened, starting from a salary of Rs. 1800 after graduation, I eventually became the
Founding Director of Hi-Tech Business Machines at the age of twenty-four and few years later it’s Chief
Executive. This company was the first IBM dealer in Pakistan and it later re-launched Compaq in the country
as well. With offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad it employed 100 personnel which were to increase to
250 over the years.
Hilinks Pak was my next venture which launched hilinks.com the first international portal from Pakistan that
was accessed in 56 countries. The first cyber based financial instrument the e-card was also launched by this
company prior to Citibank. The next milestone was the first Telco-grade ISP in Karachi called Hinet which had
twenty-five thousand users before it was forcibly closed down one day.
Collectively, the companies were called the E-Tech Group of companies. This set-up was the only one of its
kind in the country. With an ISP, a hardware and software company, and an advertising company in the
portfolio, and with products such as a portal and an e-card about to be granted credit and debit function by
participating banks – all this enabled the group to conduct the first B2B and B2C transactions in Pakistan in
local currency. Along with many other firsts in the market, the Group also successfully managed remote
trading for the first time on Karachi Stock Exchange on a trial basis. It was already providing access to KSE at
zero delay free of cost to the visitors on hilinks.com with the assistance of Reuters.
The final glory of the group was the mutual co-branding of the e-card and the PIA frequent flyer card with PIA.
This was announced in a press conference by the COO of PIA and myself. We had already re-launched the PIA
site and had signed an agreement that gave the E-Tech Group rights to sell PIA cargo space and passenger
seats on-line and on a worldwide basis, manage the last minute auction of seats, and establish the PIA call
centre. Several international travel related industry partners including hotels and banks showed their interest
to join the alliance which would have brought PIA at par with modern airlines in terms of customer services. It
is worthwhile to note here that the E-Tech Group did not charge any fee to PIA for the services rendered. All
profits were based on new and increased revenue streams because of the turn key solutions that we had
offered to implement. In fact, the group saved PIA one million dollars to start with which otherwise would
have gone to a foreign company when it linked the sabre system with the frequent flyer database.
And this was the stage when NAB came in… and since then PIA has struggled to follow the vision that we gave
them… the actual outcome of which is for the people to judge themselves.
A burning ambition is an excitement that does not let you be. It sets you out on strange adventures. On a
lonely path that promises great fortunes in terms of wealth, satisfaction, and recognition. The concept of
being self-made seems as the ultimate prize, a dream – at the risk of waking up one dreary morning to
discover that it is at best only a rationalisation which is suppose to somehow justify the precious time that
has gone by unnoticed, when it may even seem like a half-hearted consolation, perhaps even self-deception,
with the rewards coming too late if they do come at all and when too much cost has already been paid in
advance. And yet the yearning of a good life, of a purposeful and eventful life can still be felt in the wake. Even
when one is forced to think that perhaps inherited wealth is the only solution – that it is the only wealth that
can be truly enjoyed since it may not demand much sacrifice or responsibility… but yet there will remain
people like me who will never draw a line, who will never learn, who will never be content with whatever they
troubled times.
are born into, and they will still attempt, they will do it all over again no matter what the cost until the very
end…
I did manage to have my share of excitements. My group provided the first internet connectivity to ICTN Asia
and Musharraf gave me a trophy, the photograph was carried by all the major newspapers. I had met
Musharraf earlier also at parties when he was the Corps Commander Mangla – but that is another story… I
was also frequently invited to dinners at the Governor House when Soomro was governor. We had contributed
financially and technically to his Caravan Karachi endeavour and he had given me a trophy in recognition at
a public event at the Governor House…
However, the worse aspect of entrepreneurship especially in a non-structured economy is raising capital. The
only form of capital available is through equity participation and I don’t think there is any need for me to say
more… this tells a story by itself…
On assuming powers Musharraf had declared IT as a major sector for development that his government would
pursue. Perhaps, he had been told by his advisors that IT had the potential of becoming the cottage industry
of Pakistan and that we will soon beat India at her own game – but that did not mean that the banks were
ready to invest in intangibles with there being plenty of tangible plots and textile loams available for mortgage
and re-mortgage. The banks did not find any consolation in the human collateral either – it being the most
inconsequential especially when it comes to Pakistanis.
But there was no stopping the Presidential courtiers. On the last day of the first ITCN, I was approached by
the convenors of the exhibitions and was told to declare at a press conference that I had signed foreign
contracts worth US 35 million. I refused… A month later, when I returned from a presentation to the
Pakistani/American IT entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, the first few newspapers that my secretary placed on
my desk had screaming headlines that included my group having signed major international contracts for the
said amount… the statements came from our Minister Dr Atta Ur Rehman… this must have pleased the
President tremendously even though not even ten percent of this revenue was ever expected to realize and it
did not also in the end…
Coming back to raising capital, a classmate from Cathedral, a PIA captain, had approached me several times
in the past to make PODF which stands for Pilot’s Occupational Disability Fund and which is the financial
arm of PALPA as my partner – but I had refused each time… I had personal reasons. My elder brother is a PIA
captain and an ex-air force officer. And I had walked out on him several years ago, the reasons for which I
have so far refused to publically discuss in spite of much provocation by the NAB officers… I always told them
to ask my brother instead… but his version was already known and that too officially and on paper… I was a
financially corrupt man beside the several other major flaws in my character… which even to this day, when
not much has been left of me and my family, he insists on forwarding to newspaper editors..
However, in 2002, just when I was close to a partnership deal with Faisal Investment Bank which was later
absorbed by Faisal Islamic Bank, my captain classmate insisted day after day that I should not allow a project
of national importance to fall into the hands of foreigners… and finally I succumbed once he and the PODF
board assured me that my brother will never have anything to do with it…
I was burning with ambition as usual. I was willing to do anything that could make my group achieve what I
had envisioned. The terms of the new partnership were unconventional but I was willing to go to any extent to
see my dream come true. PALPA did not pay me for my fifty percent equity in Hilinks that I passed on to them
– but it did not matter to me, I was overjoyed that they would invest to take the project forward and that they
will also act as the Lender Of Last Resort to the group. However, they did pay me for half the share holding of
Hi-Tech, and that entire amount I deposited as my equity in Hinet the next day – the new company that we
formed immediately and which owned the ISP… And as time was to tell, subsequently, PALPA also refused to
pay me salary for the next two years as the Chief Executive… for the entire period of our partnership. It is
therefore no wonder that having put everything in a group that I believed in, including the proceeds from the
sale of my thousand yard house in Defence Society, into a business that I had nurtured for eighteen years… I
was bound to become penniless and homeless soon after…
My brother did not take the news well when he heard about the new partnership. The events that were to
unfold in the next two years therefore were a result of some serious manoeuvrings. The PALPA board came up
for elections every two years. And this time, a very senior captain named B was not sure whether he would be
troubled times.
able to win or not. He had been elected a few times in the past and now wanted a last stint as President
before he retired – but he was not confident about winning this time around since he had just been acquitted
from a rape case… But there was good news as well. The entire country was excited about the accountability
initiative in Pakistan and the Chairman NAB was Captain B’s personal friend, while the Vice Chairman was
my brother’s colleague from Air Force. It was a comfortable setting – rather perfect in fact, almost impossible
to ignore. Accountability was the war cry in the streets of Pakistan at the time. People had developed fresh
hopes due to Musharraf’s promises of eradicating corruption forever. In their minds they hoped to see the
corrupt swinging from trees from their bedroom windows when they got up in the mornings – and at the same
time, it was also easy to accuse anyone and be counted amongst the moral… and thus, it should not take
much imagination to guess what happened next…
My brother and Captain B declared in front of the PIA captain community that the current trustees of PODF
( serving captains) were embezzling huge amounts of money from the Group along with me… and that they
had solid evidence. They also declared that the Chairman NAB had promised to put all the culprits behind
bars and recover all the money… It was to be honest a rather battered old election slogan but which now
possessed a fresh breath of life due to the nation’s leader whose own bread and butter depended on it. And
therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the panel of vigilantes won the election rather easily and it
now came upon them to make good their election promise…
There were a few technical problems though. Firstly, the case was outside the mandate of NAB since
government, public or bank funds were not involved. Secondly, the Group had signed arguably the biggest co-
branding in the country and a contract that could return the entire investment within perhaps even a year,
and thirdly there were these several audits… the latest, a third-party audit, conducted by Ferguson only few
weeks ago accounted for each and every penny. And then ironically, Ferguson was also the auditor of PALPA
and PODF as well at the time… there could not have been any valid basis for suspecting foul play.
Moreover, there could also not be any doubts on any other aspect such as the viability of the project in case
even if someone was blind to the PIA alliance since there was present a three-week old evaluation report from
Ferguson Consultants in their capacity as the local partners of PriceWaterHouseCoopers. The report
concluded that the value of the group had increased five fold even prior to the PIA alliance…
The above was a difficult preposition for NAB but the command came from the top. It had to be executed. And
therefore, the only weapons in their arsenal, to start with and for the next three years, were the almost
fantastic stories by their captain friends and the personal testimony of an estranged brother. Perhaps, there
was also this overwhelming hope that I might have made a mistake somewhere which would eventually be
discovered. Nonetheless, this was enough for NAB to come into action. They entered the picture ruthlessly,
and though for the first year they out rightly refused to hand over any documentation in spite of the fact that
my name was continuously on the Exit Control List throughout this period in later years they became either
too reckless or else too arrogant and started to leave a massive paper trail as evidence. I yet kept on
challenging them and once at a juncture of extreme frustration, they even opened a new and completely un-
related case against me and my wife since she was also a director in the companies. And though they
blatantly refused to charge us for any specific crime once again or take us to a court, they often threatened to
have my wife extradited from UK since she had left for London taking our daughters to safety. As usual, in
this particular case as well, the onus remained on us, the accused, to prove our innocence… at times against
unspecified crimes – rather than the other way around.
‘But Brigadier Abassi,’ I once pleaded. ‘It has been three years now. Metaphorically speaking, no dead body has
been found so far, neither has a murder weapon been discovered, nor is there any missing person whom one can
presume as having been murdered, whose body has been possibly disposed and buried somewhere – so can
you please tell me my crime?’
‘If we knew the exact details… do you think you would be sitting so comfortably in that chair…’ was the reply.
(Part Two in the Next Issue)
Formation of Student Action Committee in Karachi

After the huge success of SAC chapters in Lahore and Islamabad, SAC is looking for students, lawyers,
doctors, and other members of the civil society in Karachi who can assist in the formation of a Student Action
troubled times.
Committee Chapter in Karachi. For this reason one of the SAC members from Islamabad is in Karachi and
will be holding meetings with people there. If you are interested in assisting the formation of SAC here please
get in touch with S.K. He can be contacted at 0300 5599085 for the next few days.
Details on Legal Relief Fund

Lawyers' who spoke out to protect our constitution have been hardest hit in this hour of trial since November
3rd. Their crime being making the effort to uphold the rule of law and reminding everyone of their
fundamental rights and the way these have been usurped over the years. The lawyers' biggest crime has been
to raise a voice against wanton destruction of a pillar of the state, the judiciary.
They have borne the brunt of state repression as a result. Cases are arbitrarily being decided against these
lawyers' clients to put further financial pressure on them. There are still many in Sahiwal who have been
physically abused with lasting burn and other injuries. Several other stories can be told of lawyers' suffering
from almost every city of the country.
An account has been opened to host a relief fund to help members of the legal community who are facing
hardships. This account is operated under the supervision of luminaries such as Justice Wajeehuddin
Ahmed and Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid among others.
Account details:
Bank: Habib Bank Limited
Branch: Sind High Court Branch (branch code 0606)
City: Karachi
Country: Pakistan
Account Title: Legal Relief
Account number: 0606-7900027203
For international funds transfer (wire transfer):
Swift code: HABBPKKAA007
Cash donations in Pakistan:
Simply visit any HBL Branch nearest you and give account details (as above) and send money using the
bank's facility. In case of any problems, reply to this email and ask for instructions.
Cash donations outside Pakistan:
Simply collect the money and send wire transfer direct to the fund using swift code given above. No
intermediaries required.
Let us know the amount sent so that we can confirm whether it has been received in the account. The reason
we will do this is because, occasionally, State Bank of Pakistan stops a few remittances and you will never get
to find out unless you ask from your local bank.
Upcoming Events
Teach-in/Skit at McDonalds (Seaview), Karachi on Tuesday, December 25th at 4 PM. 03062757887 for details.
Hunger Strike Outside Karachi Press Club on Wednesday, December 26th, from 10 AM to 4 PM.
Pictures from the Mazar-e-Iqbal Rally by CCP
troubled times.
troubled times.

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The Emergency Times 35

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The Emergency Times Dec 24th, 2007 1

Please Photocopy and Distribute Issue 35

The Emergency Times

Quote of the Day

Pakistan’s Tyranny Continues

Are they being heard? I'm afraid not.

The NAB Diaries – Part One

Formation of Student Action Committee in Karachi

Details on Legal Relief Fund

Pictures from the Mazar-e-Iqbal Rally by CCP

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