Here is a man, who comes on TV and tells us how the US shoud have mercy on Aafia Siddiqi, in fact he was in the commitee which visited her in a jail in the United States. Here’s the story:
The sorry story of political blackmail of a 72-year old lady
*Senator Talha denies fraud over expensive rented bungalow
*Wednesday, January 28, 2009
By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: The chairman of a Senate standing committee has been almost caught red-handed while trying to deprive a 72-year-old lady of her only but expensive F-7 bungalow in Islamabad and the story of the legal and physical abuse and torture depicts the plight of all those citizens who are victims of the powerful political elite of this country.
In this gory drama of illegal misuse of power, outright fraud, cheating and use of blackmail and physical force, The News talked to all the parties concerned, met them several times, saw the documents they provided, some of which turned out to be fake later, and found that the old lady and her 90-year-old husband had become victims of brute political influence.
Senator Talha Mahmood Aryan, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior, a ruling-JUI-F senator, has been occupying the house of the old woman in a posh Sector F-7 of Islamabad for the last seven years and not ready to vacate it despite high court and lower court’s verdicts while the whole Islamabad Police is openly siding with the chairman of the Senate interior committee.
Senator Talha, when approached by The News, provided some documents for proving the legality of his occupation of the house. However, all these documents given by Talha to this correspondent proved fake. When the documents provided by Talha to The News were found fake, a close friend of Talha, associated with the issue, approached this scribe and asked to mediate and close the issue.
Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik, when approached by The News and asked about the failure of the police to get the house vacated from illegal occupation of Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior despite higher court’s orders, said: “First, I have no knowledge of anything regarding Talha’s story. Secondly, I could only be held responsible for anything if the woman who is owner of the house visited my office and I did not help her in getting justice.”
According to official website of the Senate of Pakistan, Muhammad Talha Mahmood Aryan is resident of House No.13-A, St-61, F-7/4, Islamabad. According to documentary evidences available with The News, Talha has taken this house on rent from its owner Ms Bilqees Israr in Feb 2002. According to contract signed by both the parties, the contract was for a period of four years while the rent was decided at the rate of Rs 25000/- per month. A clause of the agreement says that if the owner (Bilqees) wanted to vacate the house, she will have to serve a one-month notice. According to Bilqees, one of her sons returned to Pakistan after completing his specialization from Ireland and needed a residence in Islamabad, so she served a vacation notice on Talha Mahmood in 2003.
According to documentary evidence, Talha, instead of vacating the house, went to the court of civil judge from where the case was transferred to the court of Rent Controller/Civil Judge. Talha, according to Bilqees, presented a tampered agreement in the court, which shows that agreement was for a period of twenty years, with the rent Rs 25,000/- per month, which could be increased by 10% only after every five years. The court of Civil Judge/Rent Controller decided in favour of Bilqees Israr on the basis of Talha’s default and breaching the agreement and ordered him (Talha) to immediately vacate the house.
Talha, again instead of vacating the house approached District Judge where the decision was made in his favour. On this, Ms Bilqees approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and pleaded for the vacation of her house, which she had rented out for four years and was trying to get it vacated for the last seven years.
The IHC on Sep 9, 2008, decided the matter in favour of Bilqees, declared Senator Talha as defaulter and restored the verdict passed by the Rent Controller ordering Senator Talha Mahmood to immediately vacate the house. When Senator Talha didn’t vacate the house despite the IHC orders, a bailiff of IHC raided H-13-A on Nov 27th but was unable to get the house vacated. Later, the bailiff was to come back on December 18th but the Islamabad Police refused to provide force for the purpose.
On the court’s intervention, the bailiff was sent again and raided the house on January 21 2009, but at the time Senator Talha was fully prepared and according to Adil, son of Ms Bilqees, 15 to 20 armed gunmen were present there who practically pushed the police out of the house and threatened Adil with death if he dared to visit the house again. Adil has the photographs of the whole episode with Talha present at the scene and ordering his gunmen.
When Senator Talha was approached by this correspondent on his cell, he narrated a new story. He said he had entered a new rent-contract with Ms Bilqees and had paid her Rs1.8 million and that one son of Ms Bilqees was having a dispute with his mother and wanted to get the property. “Bilqees wants to rent out her home while her son does not,” Talha told The News.
When the same was conveyed to 72-year- old Ms Bilqees, she reached the offices of The News in 20 minutes with her 90-year-old husband and her two sons. The whole family stated on oath that they never had any dispute on property issue and that Senator Talha was making up such statements, which he had also done before the courts. These statements are completely untrue. Ms Bilqees said that she had not signed any new agreement with Senator Talha and had not received any money from Talha. “Rather, I am trying to get my house vacated under the court’s ruling and last raid of court’ bailiff was made on Jan 21st just two days back,” she reminded this correspondent.
When Talha was called again and was told about Ms Bilqees and her family’s presence in The News office, he invited this correspondent at his home (H#13-A, Street-61, F-7/4) to see some fresh documents. When this scribe visited the house in question, even at that time more than 15 guards were present outside the gate of the house.
During the meeting, Talha introduced this scribe to a new man Syed Waheed Hussain Sabzwari and said: “In fact, after the IHC decision I have accepted the court’s ruling and was ready to vacate the house. But, one of my damages claim petition was pending before the court. I have claimed damages of Rs 6.5 million from Ms Bilqees, which include Rs 1.5m for development works in the house and Rs5m for the mental torture I faced during the whole episode.
“After the IHC verdict on December 3rd we (Ms Bilqees, Senator Talha and Syed Waheed Hussain) have entered into a compromise pact according to which, I have withdrawn my damages claim of Rs 5 million and Ms Bilqees has agreed to pay my expenses of Rs 1,533,575. Ms Bilqees has rented out her home to Syed Waheed Shah for five years on a rent of Rs. 30,000 per month. Total amount of rent for five years (Rs.1,800,000 was paid in advance by Syed Waheed Shah in a way that he (Waheed) paid me (Talha) Rs1,533,575 and the rest Rs 266,425 was paid to Ms Bilqees.”
Talha provided The News with three documents; a compromise statement between three parties, a lease agreement between Ms Bilqees and Syed Waheed Hussain, and a copy of check of account of Syed Waheed Hussain issued in the name of Ms Bilqees Israr amounting to Rs 266,425/-. Talha said that he no more had possession of the house for the last one and an half months as Ms Bilqees had entered into a contract with Syed Waheed Hussain, though while making this statement Talha was sitting in the same house with whole of his office staff. Syed Waheed is the owner of Web Com, a cable network, which operates in Islamabad.
On returning to the office, when Ms Bilqees was asked about her agreement with Syed Waheed Hussain, she denied even seeing or meeting any person with that name in her whole life. At this when the agreement was shown to her, she was shocked as even her signatures were there which she claimed were faked. She said that she never entered into any compromise agreement with any third party on December 3 as mentioned in the documents given and was regularly visiting the courts throughout the month of December, 2008 and January, 2009 in her bid to vacate her house and under which courts’ bailiffs were formed on December 18th and January 21st.
She said she had offers of rent of Rs 150,000 per month for the house, how can she go for any compromise after winning the case and on a rent of rupees 30,000 per month. “I have lost all hopes after fighting this long battle and facing such questions but do I look mad to you that I will rent out my house situated in F-7 Sector of Islamabad for merely Rs 30,000 when I have offers of Rs150,000 per month for the same house.” On the question of Rs1,533,575/- development work done by Talha in her house, she disclosed that Talha had provided her with bills of different things purchased for the house which include furniture, computers and air conditioners and some of these bills were bearing the date which was even before of our first-ever rent agreement.
When The News contacted three different property dealers operating in the area, it was known that the market rate of rent for a house like in question (580 yards, a little more than one Kanal with three bedrooms in a two-storey house) in Sector F-7, vary from Rs120,000/- to 150,000/ at least.
The other document provided by Talha was a cheque from Syed Waheed Hussain in the name of Talha amounting Rs1,533,575 bearing date of December 1, while the compromise agreement was reached on December 3, 2008. During her meeting with The News on Friday, January 23, Ms Bilqees denied receiving any amount of Rs 266,425 from Syed Waheed. She, however, contacted The News on Saturday and said that on contacting her bank she came to know that a deposit of Rs266,425 had been made in her account on December 19. She said that her account number was available with Senator Talha, and the amount was transferred in her account without her knowledge.
She said she had moved an application in the bank to reverse the amount in the account of the person who deposited it in her account without her permission with the aim of occupying her house. Ms Bilqees provided The News a letter of the HSBC Bank saying that the bank shall revert the amount in the account of person who deposited it without the will of the account holder as soon as possible.
The climax of the story came when Syed Waheed visited The News office on Saturday. On being questioned about the fake compromise agreement and the new rent agreement documents, he conceded that if the rent was less he and Senator Talha were ready to raise the rent. He said that he was even ready to purchase the house if Ms Bilqees wanted to sell it. Waheed admitted that he was in great tension because of the situation and asked this scribe to mediate between the parties to get him out of the issue. He said that when he invested for the house he was not in picture of the complication and the background situation of the issue. It appeared that the poor guy was worried that he had paid Rs1.5 million to the Senator and Rs266,425 to the lady and the amount may be lost.
Senior Civil Judge Islamabad issued the latest orders on January 23 to concerned Kohsar Police Station SHO to get the house vacated. However, when Ashraf Shah, SHO Kohsar Police Station Islamabad, was contacted to know that why he was not taking action for vacation of the house said he was not responsible for vacation of house. His duty is to provide force to the bailiff and the whole responsibility lies with bailiff.
Zardari/Nawaz/Musharraf/Altaf will also be cleared of all ill doings if they come on some channel and claim innocence?