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Saying,
Thank You
Dear
Readers:
I want to thank you all for the tremendous response given
to the South Asia
Tribune's first issue. It was very well received and widely
quoted by Pakistani, Indian, Gulf media and by BBC. I must
apologize to many of you who found the site a little disjointed
technically on your monitors. The format we have chosen, I
am told by the technical people, is quite complex. We are
trying in this issue to overcome these problems and make a
better
presentation, better organized and easier to navigate. Please
do give your comments on the format changes we have made so
that we can further improve them. The content, I can assure
you will remain live and exciting with as much of documentation
and evidence as is practically available. It is a valid
observation by many that the first issue was almost totally
Pakistan focused. We had to launch in a hurry as some of our
stories were becoming outdated. Now it is going to change
and the change will be visible, sooner than later.
I must mention this week's lead story on the mysterious Saudi
investment
offers and its implications. The interview with Lt. General
Asad Durrani has
added more mystery to it than answering some questions. As
the documents presented indicate, this whole issue needs deep
probing. Nevertheless, the
story has to be told as it stands today. In our first issue,
we announced to run a story on the touchy controversy of
whether the outgoing Pakistani Ambassador to US, Dr. Maleeha
Lodhi, steal some portions of an American professor's doctoral
thesis for her
dissertation at the London School of Economics. While our
story is ready and
we have obtained all the letters of correspondence on the
subject, including
the latest letter of Prof. Philips Jones, whose original thesis
was said to
have been plagiarized, we have not yet received any response
from Ambassador
Lodhi herself. It would not be fair to run a story without
her version. So we will wait for the next issue.
In the interview of Colonel (Retd) Shuja Khanzada of ISI,
some listeners may
notice brief pauses or disturbance at some points. It was
caused because of the tape quality and its transformation
into Real Audio format. At one or two places the tape has
also been edited to omit unnecessary language. The
interview was in inter-mingling Urdu and English languages
and the closest
possible translation has been provided in English for international
readers.
Please keep registering at the site for better service. Keep
sending hot
tips as well.
Shaheen
Sehbai
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Special
SAT Report
ISLAMABAD:
General Pervez Musharraf's law ministry is rushing through a judicial
treaty with the Sheikhs of UAE to enable the military government put
handcuff on Pakistanis living in the Gulf, outside their jurisidiction
at the moment. The diplomatic name of the treaty is "Serving
of Judicial and Extra Judicial Documents, Taking of Evidence and the
Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters".
 Simply
speaking any Pakistani living in UAE, the most prominent being PPP
Chairperson Benazir Bhutto, would come under Islamabad's legal purview
as "enforcement of judgments" is also part of the treaty.
A
draft text has been rushed to the Cabinet and everybody is obediently
saying yes. Little does anyone realize that the same treaty would
take away the protection of Dubai or Abu Dhabi, if any of them was
to flee the country after whatever wrong done in this government now.
View
the Draft of Treaty
Page
1 | Page
2 | Page
3 | Page
4
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Special
SAT Report
WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD:
General Pervez Musharraf's military government last week sealed
the business offices of a leading critic, journalist Hussain
Haqqani, who resigned from the chairmanship of his PR company
after two government contracts were cancelled and heavy income
tax notices issued in Islamabad.
"Senior
government officials told me that I was crossing permissible
limits in criticism of government policies and one went to the
extent of saying that the government was reacting to 'anti-Pakistan'
writings", Hussain said in his resignation announcement
in Washington.
Complete
Story | Interview
in Real Audio
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WASHINGTON:
A senior ISI Colonel, posted as a diplomat in 1992 in Washington,
was booted out in 24-hours in July 1994, because he foiled secret
plans of the Benazir Bhutto Government to cut deals with Americans
on Pakistan's nuclear program and its support for the Kashmiri fighters.
 Col
Shuja Khanzada said in a reveal-all interview, he also opposed plans
of the Pakistani Ambassador in US, Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, to push for
resuming the payments of the suspended installments for the F-16 aircraft,
banned under the Pressler Amendment.
Complete
Story
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 ISLAMABAD:
General Musharraf's government is leaking. Juicy stories of corruption
have started to ooze as civilian officials have started feeling more
confident, and outspoken, because they see some political set up returning
and some dilution of army power. Creepy, but familiar tales, of making
money on the quiet are being whispered. Omar Asghar Khan died with
one buried in his heart, of Employees Old Age Benefit Institution
(EOBI). Grapevine.Comm will bring you the buzz doing the rounds in
busy Black Label parties in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, week after
week.
Complete
Story | A
Sizzling Cartoon
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Assassinated
Kashmiri Leader Abdul Ghani Lone spoke on record to Pakistani journalists
during his last US visit. The interview covered a variety of topics
including infiltrators from Pakistan and the policy of All Parties
Hurriyet Conference on their "help" in Kashmir Jihad. Listen
to Mr Lone's recorded voice.
Quietly,
hidden under dubious rules and provisions, a select group of corporate
thieves is ripping off the tax payers to the tune of billions every
year. This story shows how an oil refinery bilked the government and
received subsidies which were happily distributed. Some government
probe has begun. Would it be enough?
Has
anyone counted how many Pakistani officials and diplomats, civilian
and in uniform, refused to return to Pakistan after completing their
posting in US? A quick count popped up embarrassing numbers. SA Tribune
decided to get a full count with all the names and how these people
are doing now.
While
Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is trying his best to ensure that his
friends Hariri and company of Lebanon get the lucrative and sensitive
Pakistan Telecom, when it is privatised under IMF pressure, other
players have also jumped in, some with former ISI connections. What
awaits the fate of the telecom giant?
This
unpleasant story cannot be written without the versions of all the
players. SA Tribune has obtained the versions of two US professors.
The response of Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's out-going Ambassador,
the main player accused of plagiarization, is awaited and so this
story will wait until the next issue.
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© 2002 South Asia Tribune Publications, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
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