Steps against corruption remained futile in Pakistan’s history
Martial Law of General Ayub Khan 1958
On October 7, 1958, President Iskander Mirza abrogated the Constitution and declared Martial Law in the country. This was the first of many military regimes to Pakistan’s history. With this step, the Constitution of 1956 was abrogated, ministers were dismissed, Central and Provincial Assemblies were dissolved and all political activities were banned. General Muhammad Ayub Khan, the then Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, became the Chief Martial Law Administrator. The parliamentary system in Pakistan came to end. Within three weeks of assuming charge on October 27, 1958, Iskander Mirza was ousted by General Ayub Khan, who then declared himself President. This was actually welcomed in Pakistan, since the nation had experienced a very unstable political climate since independence. General Ayub Khan gave himself the rank of Field Marshal. Corruption had become so widespread within the national and civic systems of administration that Ayub Khan was welcomed as a national hero by the people. Soon after coming to power, the new military government promised that they would carry out reforms in the entire government structure and would cleanse the administration of the rampant corruption. A thorough screening process of all government servants was conducted and service records were closely scrutinized. Public servants were tried for misconduct by tribunals consisting of retired judges of the Supreme Court or High Court. If charges were proven, disciplinary action such as dismissal or compulsory retirement of the public servant could take place. http://notesforpakistan.
What were the main reasons for the downfall of Ayub Khan? (1969)
Zufiqar Ali Bhutto exploited the Tashkent declaration to turn the public opinion against Ayub. The increasing popularity of Awami League under Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman in East Pakistan and Pakistan Peoples Party under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in West Pakistan was alarming for the stability of General Ayub’s Regime. Then there was also Asghar Khan’s movement and few other political alliances which were creating hurdles for a stable Ayub’s government. Finally, the movement against his government intensified towards the end of 1968 and in the beginning of 1969. The movement was launched by Urban middle class i.e. Students, lawyers, teachers, doctors, labourers, politicians etc. It became quite difficult for General Ayub to face so much opposition from politicians as well as common people from all walks of life. He ultimately decided to resign in March 1969. In his last radio address to the nation on 25 March 1969, he said, “I cannot preside over the destruction of my country”. www.vusr.net/stan & historypak.com/
Yahya Khan succeeded Ayub Khan
as president when the latter resigned his office in March 1969. In 1971 a serious conflict erupted between the central government and the Awami Party of what was then East Pakistan, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The East Pakistani leader demanded autonomy for his half of the geographically divided country, and Yahya Khan responded by ordering the army to suppress the Awami Party. The brutality with which his orders were carried out and the resulting influx of millions of East Pakistani refugees into India led to the Indian invasion of East Pakistan and the rout of its West Pakistani occupiers. East Pakistan became the independent country of Bangladesh, and with its loss Yahya Khan resigned (Dec. 20, 1971). He was replaced by his foreign minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who put him under house arrest. Shortly afterward he was paralyzed by a stroke and, after his release, played no further important political role
“Two Men, One Grave” — The Execution of Pakistan’s Ali Bhutto
What goes around: the movement against Bhutto Between March and June 1977, Z.A. Bhutto had to face a protest movement against his government the kind he had himself triggered and then led 10 years earlier against the Ayub Khan regime. After a month of violence, Bhutto invited the PNA for talks. The PNA demanded fresh elections and the implementation of Shariah Laws. To stall the first demand, Bhutto agreed to conditionally implement the second request and in April 1977 he ordered the closure of all nightclubs and bars. He also banned the sale of alcohol (to Muslims) and replaced Sunday with the Muslim holy day (Friday) as the weekly holiday. PNA decided to stay in the talks. More than a decade later, veteran Jamat-i-Islami (JI) leader, late Professor Ghafoor Ahmed, who played a leading role in the movement, told journalists that the talks went well and just when Bhutto had agreed to hold fresh elections, General Ziaul Haq decided to impose the country’s third Martial Law (July 1977). He said that most PNA leaders were happy at how the talks had gone but some leaders, such as Asghar Khan (of the moderate conservative, Thereek-i-Istaqlal) and Begum Wali (wife of the left-wing Pushtun nationalist, Wali Khan), desired military intervention. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), served as president of Pakistan in the 1970s. By 1977, opposition against Bhutto and the PPP had grown due to incidents of repression, corruption, and alleged election fraud. Violence escalated across Pakistan, and Bhutto was overthrown by his army chief, General Zia-ul-Haq. Bhutto was put on trial for authorizing the murder of a political opponent, and executed on April 4, 1979,
General Zia-ul-Haq. 1977- 1988
General Ziaul Haq came out repealing the earlier anti-corruption laws and issued two presidential orders, commonly known as PPO No 16 and 17 (1977). Critics still argue that the Zia regime had basically institutionalised corruption as it introduced ideas such as development funds for MNAs and MPAs and wrote off the bank loans taken by the supporters and loyalists of the military ruler. Aug. 17— President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan and the United States Ambassador to his country were killed today when a Pakistani Air Force plane exploded in midair and crashed in eastern Pakistan.. nytimes.com/
Benazir Bhutto 1990-92
In 1990, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was ousted from power on corruption charges by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who had approved hiring of private legal advisers to file about 20 corruption cases against Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, during 1990-92. Nawaz Sharif dethroned from power in 1990 It is interesting to note that when Ghulam Ishaq Khan had dethroned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from power in 1990, he had inducted Asif Zardari as a federal minister in the caretaker government of Balkh Sher Mazari. After the 1993 elections, when Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as country’s premier for the second time, she had vehemently accused the Sharifs of receiving kickbacks in the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway and Yellow Cab Scheme, besides alleging her arch political rival of extracting huge loans from nationalised banks to build the House of Ittefaq and also benefitting from a Rs18 billion Cooperative scam in Punjab. A total of 150 cases of corruption and irregu- larities were instituted against Nawaz and his family members.
Benazir Bhutto’s second time dismissed
In November 1996, President Farooq Leghari had dismissed Benazir Bhutto’s second government on charges of corruption and other offenses. He promulgated the Ehtesab (accountability) Ordinance, under which the process of accountability was to start from the date in 1985 when General Ziaul Haq had lifted the Martial Law.
Nawaz Sharif second time PM(1997-99),
Following the 1997 general elections, Nawaz Sharif came into power for the second time and enacted the Ehtesab Act of 1997. Under this law, he curtailed the powers of Ehtesab Commissioner, Justice Mirza, and had appointed his friend, Saifur Rahman, to call the shots. The Ehtesab Cell was later renamed as the Ehtesab Bureau in 1998. The Ehtesab Bureau had only targeted former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, though a few leading businessmen of Karachi and senior journalists were also “fixed”. During Nawaz Sharif ’s three-year rule (1997-99), the only major case adjudicated by the courts was the 1999 conviction of Benazir and Zardari on charges of money laundering. The duo was sentenced to five years in prison and fined US $8.6 million. The PPP chairperson was abroad at the time of the decision and her counsel filed an appeal against the decision before the Supreme Court.
Musharraf fumbles … then falls 1999- 2008
In October 12, 1999. General Parvez Musharraf pulled-off a popular military coup against the second government of Nawaz Sharif (PML-N) in 1999. Just like Ayub, Musharraf too came to power and received a hearty round of applause from a populace exhausted by the economic downturns, corruption and chaos of the 1990s in which the country’s two main political parties, the PPP and PML-N, constantly pulled the carpet under each other’s feet and at the same time wore themselves out by combating political intrigues whipped up by remnants of the Zia era in the ‘establishment.’ General Musharraf had assumed power and issued the “seemingly fearsome” National Accountability Bureau Ordinance by replacing the Ehtesab Act of 1997. NAB was given sweeping powers. It could arrest anyone for 90 days without producing the arrested person in any court of law. The accused could not apply for bail even after 90 days. However, following Premier Shaukat Aziz’s intervention, General Musharraf ’s NAB had let many people off the hook. And then in October 2007, General Pervez Musharraf had promulgated his infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which had granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, money laundering, murders and terrorism etc between January 1, 1986 and October 12, 1999, the time between two Martial Law stints in Pakistan. The NRO was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on December 16, 2009, but not before it had benefitted 8,041 allegedly tainted people, including 34 politicians and three ambassadors. Then in late 2006 Musharraf casually dismissed a controversial and ambitious Supreme Court judge, Iftikhar Chaudhry. The TV channels gave a sensationalist twist to the episode and drummed-up a narrative that explained Chaudhry as deifying ‘the illegitimate orders of a dictator.’ Lawyers poured out on the streets of Lahore and Islamabad and demanded that Chaudhry be restored. As the protests of the lawyers grew louder, they now also demanded that Musharraf resign and fresh elections held.
President Asif Ali Zardari 2008-2013
Between 2008 and 2013, or the time when the Asif Zardari-led PPP had held sway in corridors of power, the already-politicised NAB was ordered to closed down the corruption inquiries against almost 60 leaders of the ruling coalition – mostly from the PPP. The decision was taken at the Executive Board meeting of the NAB on January 29, 2011. If a few people, including top bureaucrats or federal ministers, were arrested during the 2008-2013 PPP tenure, it was primarily due to the suo moto notices of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry-led Supreme Court. It was at this point that the Lawyers’ Movement that had been initially started by progressive groups of lawyers began its shift to the right as parties like PML-N and JI began to dominate it. It was also believed that PML-N had begun to bankroll the movement. The movement’s greatest presence was felt in urban Punjab and the NWFP. It was almost nowhere in Sindh and not at all in the province’s capital, Karachi. This was the first major protest movement ever since 1968 and 1977 in which Punjab participated wholeheartedly. The province had largely remained quiet during the movements against Zia and many of Musharraf ’s supporters in Sindh and Karachi suggested that Punjab only rises against non-Punjabi rulers. And not different has been the situation since May 2013, when Nawaz Sharif had bagged the popular vote to rule the country for the third time. One hardly finds any conviction and will of the ruling PML-N to make the corrupt stand in the dock---political expediencies perhaps! :dawn.com
‘Panama Papers’ reveal Sharif family’s ‘offshore holdings’
A massive leak of secret files from a Panamanian law firm that specialises in offshore tax havens has revealed the often-murky financial wheelings and dealings of some of the world’s most powerful political players, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the king of Saudi Arabia, Iceland’s prime minister and the family of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, among dozens of others.
PTI announces November 2 as new date for Islamabad protest
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf announced Monday that the new date for its much talked about Islamabad sit-in is November 2. Senior leaders of party met in the capital today to decide a new date for the party’s planned siege of Islamabad, which was earlier scheduled for October 30.
‘Panama Papers’ leaks case: Pakistan Supreme Court issues notice to PM Nawaz Sharif
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on issued notice to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members in the ‘ Panama Papers’ leaks case, acting on petitions seeking his disqualification over alleged corruption and illegally possessing assets abroad. The court heard several petitions, including by Imran Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which accused Sharif and his family members of illegally transferring money abroad after the ‘Panama Papers’ leaks showed his family of possessing properties in the UK. In addition to Sharif, the court also issued notices his daughter Maryam, sons Hasan and Hussain, son-in-law Muhammad Safdar, finance minister Ishaq Dar, director general Federal Investigation Agency, chairman Federal Board of Revenue, and the attorney general. The three-judge SC bench, consisting of Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, adjourned the case for two weeks after initial hearing.