NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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NAB is officially now a joke organization. Could this again be part of some deal to save Mush?

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\05\31\story_31-5-2007_pg1_4

NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has withdrawn from a $150 million corruption case against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and two others in a Swiss court.

NAB officials confirmed the withdrawal of the case against Ms Bhutto, former Federal Investigation Agency director general Rehman Malik and S Jaffari, because of a lack of evidence.

Lawyers hired from Spain filed an application in the Swiss court stating that NAB no longer wished to be a party to the case. The court accepted the application, the sources said. However, they added that the court would still continue with the case.

The NAB application stated that the company allegedly used in the $150 million scam, part of the UN oil for food programme scandal, was registered at Dubai Airport as Petro Line. Ms Bhutto was the managing director of the company and Mr Malik and Mr Jaffari directors.

NAB said that Ms Bhutto was not prime minister of Pakistan when the company was allegedly involved in the oil for food scam, and Pakistan had no link with the money accumulated through the scam.

A NAB team under former bureau deputy chairman Hasan Wasim Afzal spent millions of dollars investigating the case.

The withdrawal of the case is likely to intensify speculation that the government and Ms Bhutto will strike a ‘deal’. nni

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

benazir ki backdoor deal ho gayee

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

musharraf will sell pakistan to prolong his rule , deal with benazir will be no surprise, the list of NAB zada politicians baptized by musharraf will continue to mount , I hope this will end up to be a political suicide for benazir

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

Time for MQM & PML(Q) to go home

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

Hahaha, abay, all those wakeels, opposition politicians, PPP jiyalas, and Nawaj Sharif will all be sorely disappointed by talk of a deal. All their dreams and hopes will be blown out of the window in one foul swoosh.

In the end it is all siyasat, and all the talk of 'ain ki baldasti' is just hot air.

People want to be back in power. They are missing being away from the country for over 8 years, and see for themselves how much money is in the kitty :D

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

na na ....deal nahi ... "baat cheet" as per Makhdoom Ameen Fahim :)

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

what a tamasha…:bummer:

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

This is pathetic, for teh first time we were going somewhere with a corrupt leader being prosecuted..and overseas so she cant even claim bias..(she did claim swiss were using her to divert attention from nazi assets stuff but it was laughable)

now we backtrack, and thus give othe rpoliticians a green flag that not only will you not be answerable to authorities in Pakistan, but we will not pursue you overseas.

I do hope that teh swiss courts continue their investigation, even if Govt of Pakistan is not party to it, because she needs to be officially unmasked. I mean the rockwood estate (surrey palace) thing made headlines in Uk courts and papers already but the SGS and other scandals are bigger.

I am thoroughly disappointed by the govt backing off, and trying to make a deal.

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

If the deal is to get back into power, and that is what everyone wants according to u, why would PPP be disappointed with it? I am curious. Surely none of these goons can be principled enough to be disappointed with their leader for abandoning ideals to get into power. SO why?

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

PPP will almost certainly have to ally with MQM to run the country. interesting.

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

Not really, the PPP has won sindh on it’s own in the past. Anyway, there is no deal..that boat sailed two months ago, now BB will wring as much concessions as possible without conceding anything. The way things are going for Mush he’d make a deal with LK Advani right now to stay in power. (not that I am giving him ideas):snooty:

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

time when PPP could take sindh on its own was when Nawaz was playing the Punjab card. cant happen anymore I think.

what makes you think that the boat has sailed, or that BB will get concessions for anything?

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

It's something I've been saying since well before the attack on the CJ by Mush.
The reasons for both are simple..the boat has sailed because even before recent events, there were some issues that would have required a superhuman effort to overcome.

1) Does the PPP support Mush for re-election before it gets brought into power? For Mush the answer is yes, for the PPP it's a no..because the PPP's worth to the establishment would vanish if they did that..

2)PPP workers and voters would back a deal on the condition that Mush quits his "uniform", if that was linked to support ...it leaves the question..what kind of guarantee can Musharraf offer the PPP that has any credibility? An oath or a speech to the nation? Considering the PPP has the MMA example in front of it, BB wouldn't fall for that trap shot of iron clad guarantees from foreign powers (translation amrika via the former UK ambassador)

3) From Musharrafs side he instinctively dislikes BB, as do most political Army men when they hear the word Bhutto there blood pressure goes up. He also doubts BB's credibility to honour a deal; he in his stead has a conundrum, if he quits the Army and the PPP backtracks on a deal he'll end up a repeat of Ghulam Ishaq Khan ..which for him is an horrific though..contest and lose an election? Impossible ..he is a general..

4)Another very very important issue is Musharrafs allies, ultimately there is only a finite number of posts and political space people can occupy. Consider two things about the PML-Q and it's coalition. One how many Ministries in the provinces and Islamabad can Musharraf offer to the PPP? For each one offered ..that's one unhappy corrupt, lota who is out of a job. Secondly many of the PML-Q have been elected on an anti PPP vote (Ijaz ul Haq , sheikh rashid is a good example) while others like the former patriots Sher Afgan, Sherpao and Leghari have risked a great deal by joining Mush..trust me when I say they would be terrified of what could happen to them if the PPP has access to power. For them it is in their best interest to sabotage any deal. (the MQM ended up doing much the same)

All these were problems before march that had to be overcome, the talks had made good progress but Musharraf was taking a leisurely pace believing he had all the cards...with the US and UK trying to broker a liberal alliance. But the core issues were still those above..now recent events have overtaken Musharraf and he has lost the intiative, now he will be far more eager to strike a deal and offer concessions to save himself from the brewing storm..while the PPP is now far less willing to support Musharraf but has no problems in securing itself before the elections.

phew!

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

heres what I think will happen:

  1. Mush will completely ditch PML(Q) meaning political death for the unknowns, joining the future ruling party (PPP) for the severely baighairat but politically influential lotas, and joining the opposition PML(N) for the relatively less-baighairat lotas.

  2. Benazir will Mush will engineer a power sharing mechanism, where technically the President wouldnt be wearing a uniform but for all practical purposes he would be. Maybe by inventing a new title :D (a return to chief executive?). He will not quit the army because thats his source of power.

  3. PPP workers and voters will vote for PPP regardless of what Benazir does. People find a way to rationalize the machinations of the group they support. Some token concessions by Mush that PPP will need to comfort their base, but no real change.

  4. PPP and MQM will be uneasy allies. PPP will cite necessity, MQM will say we only care about our city Karachi and we are compromising for the good of Karachi.

  5. PPP govt will be dissolved in 2 years

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

is there any recent good news regarding pak?

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

yup here goes..

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=akVgnRyW1vzw

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

not as long as I am the mod :soldier:

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

Interesting. I was watching a program on TV today with umm 4 or 5 prominent economist being interviewed. None of them was happy with the spending on social sectors and questioned the long term sustainability in absence of formulation of new social capital. :hmmm:

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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

I have a question and its pretty naive one but here goes
does the ecnomic growth has any significant effect on rate of inflation in Pakistan?

Do people take pangas with you?
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Re: NAB withdraws from Swiss case against Benazir

You mean not until 5;25 p.m. tomorrow? :fraudia: