Very interesting article about key appointment !!

Degas · October 10, 2013, 6:05am

Can u guess which is this appointment

Ex-brigadier’s book draws attention towards key appointment in Islamabad

Babar DogarThursday, October 10, 2013
From Print Edition

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**LAHORE: A chapter of Brig (R) Syed A I Tirmizi’s (SIM) book Profiles of Intelligence — ‘The President’s ADC’ — is under discussion in the bureaucratic and political circles these days in the aftermath of some recent key developments in Islamabad regarding high profile appointments.
**
Brig (R) Syed A I Tirmizi, who had been posted in “DGI” and afterwards remained number two in ISI wrote and got published the book “Profiles of Intelligence in 1997”. This correspondent found most bureaucrats and political elite in Lahore reading “The President’s ADC” with keen interest keeping in view the significant developments in Islamabad.

The five-page photocopies of The President’s ADC can be seen in the drawer or table of every senior bureaucrat and politicians while there are many who have purchased the book as well.

According to the text of “The President’s ADC”, “One very capable and smart ADC to the President, Gen Zia-ul-Haq, went a little astray and was tempted to earn a few extra bucks which, according to his perception, was perfectly legal and in order.”

Chaudhary Zahoor Elahi was the Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis in Gen Zia’s cabinet. It was in his jurisdiction to allot quotas to hundreds of recruiting agencies which had mushroomed during those days, to send Pakistani labour abroad.

That ADC to the President asked Chaudhary Zahoor Elahi if he could also get quota of just 20 men per month. Begum Sahiba (Shafiqa Jahan Zia) being kind lady, as she always has been, also personally rang up Chaudhary Zahoor Elahi and recommended the case of the ADC.

There was never any question of Ch Zahoor Elahi refusing the ADC or Begum Sahiba. Consequently, the ADC started to get his quota of 20 vacancies per month. He would personally handle this business and would charge Rs 14,000 per man. The job seekers started to visit him from the backdoor of the Presidency and the passports started to pile up on his desk. Gen Muhammad Riaz Khan was the DGI then. A report was prepared and given to him. It was recommended that the report be sent to the President as ‘Eyes only’.

“Is the report hundred per cent correct”? Asked General Riaz. “Sir, it has been personally rechecked by me and it is correct,” I replied.“Who is the witness?” “The President can check the table drawers of his ADC or ask the Begum Sahiba”.

During his next visit to the President, the DGI took the file and gave it to the President. When the DGI came back I inquired if there was any reaction from the president? He said, “No, the president went through the paper and kept it on his table without any comments”?

A month passed and there was no response. One day, I reminded the DGI and said, “The ADC’s recruiting business is flourishing and he has become quite a popular figure. Reportedly, his initial quota of 20 has been increased by the minister and the ADC is also likely to raise the fee”.

The DGI said, “We are only a reporting agency and not the executive authority. We have done our job. Now it is up to the president to take any action or not. Let’s forget about it”.

I said, “Sir, with due apologies, I feel our job is not done yet. The ADC can become a serious security risk. If the enemy comes to know of his activities and his lust for money, which our ever-vigilant enemy must have certainly come to know by now, they would surely make a bid to purchase his loyalties. The ADC can be lured into selling state secrets that pass through his hand or even could be tempted to sell the president. I consider it a serious security hazard and you better apprise the president of our concern. If indulging in private business, while in service, was not a cognizable offence in the president’s views, we do not insist on any disciplinary action against the ADC, but he must be removed from his present appointment”.

The DGI listened to my views with patience and said, “I agree with you”. I am sure the DGI must have conveyed our concern to the president.A few days later we read an order issued by the Establishment Division, “Major X… has been transferred to District Management Group and posted as Deputy Commissioner…with immediate effect. We wish him well where ever he is.”

My contentions in such cases and the necessity to have a system of keeping an eye on the personnel working on sensitive appointments are borne out of experience and observations. We ought to develop ‘Defensive Sources Programme’ on the lines of CIA. Following instance may be enough to vindicate my stances.This is the concluding point of the chapter of Brig (R) Syed A I Tirmizis’ book “Profiles of Intelligence”.

waleedhbk · October 10, 2013, 7:08am

Re: Very interesting article about key appointment !!

No we cant can you

Degas · October 10, 2013, 9:10am

Re: Very interesting article about key appointment !!

new NAB Chaiman

Sachaydino · October 10, 2013, 11:47am

Re: Very interesting article about key appointment !!

A good article. Mardood so called Amirul Munafiqin was morally corrupt.

Some times I wonder if Pakistan had ever a real honest official in key position in the history of Pakistan? Mostly were corrupt, selfish, prejudice and laanti kirdaar. One such example was Saif-ur-Rahman ex Chairman of the Ehtesab Bureau. Look at his working. I wonder what credibility they have to trial a corrupt in Pakistan because they themselves are the most corrupt sobs. Why not chose a person on such positions with clear record of honesty and integrity? Or No Paki is honest any more? It is a shame.

ch6

How FIA kidnapped notables to please Saif-ur-Rahman

Chairman of the Ehtesab Bureau, Senator Saif-ur-Rahman, used his power to harass political opponents and kidnapping leading businessmen. He operated mostly through a select group of FIA officials while Nawaz Sharif had first-hand information about Saif’s involvement in the kidnapping of some of the very reputed citizens as he ignored strong complaints against this nasty operation even from his cabinet colleagues. [3]

For instance when the FIA sleuths kidnapped Farooq Hasan, owner of Hasan Associates, a renowned builder and developer of Karachi in 1998 and locked him at a Saif-run safe house in Islamabad, federal minister Halim Siddiqi had rushed to Nawaz Sharif to inform him about Saif’s involvement in the kidnapping of a well-known Karachi businessman. Halim Siddiqi’s pleas both to Sharif and Saif went unheeded as Hasan had to stay for about a week in Saif’s dungeon and was only released when he signed a confessional statement that had been prepared by Saif’s lieutenant at the Ehtesab Cell. Saif prepared confessional statement for Farooq Hasan relating to dealings of AES power plant with the Benazir government. Throughout his confinement Hasan was physically abused, mentally tortured and was not allowed to sleep. Hasan was also kept and interrogated at Saif’s personal residence in Islamabad.

Jamil Ansari, the Chief Executive of a famous trading and business group in Karachi, was also kidnapped in 1998 by the FIA while he was about to board a Karachi-bound flight from Islamabad. For the next four days Ansari’s family in Karachi had no knowledge of his whereabouts. The case was soon brought to the knowledge of Nawaz Sharif, who conveniently ignored protest from an associate who thought that such daylight kidnappings of the business luminaries without any charges would bring the PML government into disrepute. For more than a week, Ansari, a businessman, was questioned for his friendship with a ranking naval official. This week-long illegal detention under Saif’s orders of the chief executive of a reputed firm had sent a shock wave in Karachi’s mercantile community, but the Nawaz Sharif administration was not bothered.

The FIA was also involved in the kidnapping of Shahzad Sherry, a well-known international banker, from Karachi. Like other victims, Sherry was also swiftly shifted to Islamabad, where he was locked at a government-run safe house. For several days Sherry was kept in illegal confinement and questioned by the former Ehtesab Bureau stalwarts including Senator Saif-ur-Rahman. Sherry was apparently also paying price for his friendship with certain naval officials. His detention also continued for several days before being released without bringing any criminal charges against him.

Karachi-based Jamil Hamdani, another representative of an international bank, was kidnapped from his house in Defence Society Karachi in Oct. 1999 and was forced to board an Islamabad-bound flight for an urgent meeting with Saif-ur-Rahman and his team. Saif pointedly informed Hamdani about his disliking for his bank’s interest in the privatisation of Habib Bank Limited. Jamil Hamdani was believed to be working on an international consortium that was interested in the management of overseas operations of Habib Bank. No apologies were offered after Hamdani was set free three days later by the Ehtesab sleuths who also warned him not to talk to the press about his ordeal.

Saif’s frenzy to get private citizens abducted through the FIA touched its peak last year when he used the federal agency to kidnap Arif Zarwani, a UAE national and a reputed businessman, from his friend’s house in Defence Society Karachi. Zarwani, who had been arrested in an FIA-cum-police raid, was quickly flown to Islamabad, where he was handed over to Wasim Afzal, a close associate of Saif-ur-Rahman. The Ehtesab action created a stir in the UAE as Nawaz Sharif was personally told that Zarwani’s kidnapping in Karachi had endangered his official visit next day to the UAE. Zarwani, who was apparently picked up for his ties with Asif Zardari, was freed from the Ehtesab clutches, two days later, only after he was forced to listen to a telephonic sermon from Saif who was then touring Europe. No reasons were given for Arif Zarwani’s arrest nor any criminal charges were brought against him. Despite an official protest from the UAE Nawaz Sharif did not question Saif or the FIA for the kidnapping of a foreign national.

In another case Ghulam Mustafa Memon, a well-known petroleum dealer and a former friend of Asif Ali Zardari, was kidnapped in an FIA action from his house in Defence Society, Karachi in 1998. During the operation the FIA sleuths ransacked his house. Memon, like other victims, was quickly flown to Islamabad where he was kept at a safe house for about a week. Mustafa Memon said that during the detention, he went through severe physical torture and mental harassment at the hands of senior Ehtesab officials. At last a week later Mustafa was quietly released from Islamabad and no criminal charges were brought against him.

Among others who made the hostage list of Saif-ur-Rahman was Naeemuddin Khan, a senior United Bank Limited (UBL) executive responsible for recovering Rs 1.2 billion loans from Saif-ur-Rahman’s Redco Textile Mills. While using the FIA in the kidnapping of Naeemuddin Khan from his room at Karachi’s Pearl Continental Hotel, Senator Saif is understood to have told the FIA that Naeemuddin was involved in money laundering. Without verifying the facts an FIA team barged into Naeemuddin’s room in August this year and in the next few hours he was facing a Saif-ur-Rahman interrogation squad at an unspecified location in Islamabad. Naeemuddin’s ordeal ended after Nawaz Sharif listened to a strong complaint in this regard from National Assembly Speaker Illahi Bukhsh Soomro and ordered the bank executive’s release. Sharif, however, refused to order any probe into the kidnapping of a bank executive who was being punished for his attempt to recover Rs 1.2 billion of loan from Saif-ur-Rahman.

Leading newspaper columnist Hussain Haqqani had been kidnapped by the FIA sleuths along with his brother, an active service Army Colonel, during an evening stroll on direct orders from Saif-ur-Rahman in early 1999. It was at least three days after Haqqani’s kidnapping that Saif-ur-Rahman ordered the FIA bosses to “produce” a case against him. Official sources confirmed Haqqani’s account that he was beaten and kept awake during the first week of his arrest. Haqqani was of the few Saif victims whose captivity brought criminal charges, vehemently denied by Haqqani who said that the cases against him was the figment of Saif’s imagination.

The annual 1997 Human Rights Report of US State Department said the Accountability Commission, established by the caretaker government and headed by a retired judge, had been overshadowed by an “accountability cell,” headed by a close associate of the prime minister. This cell had been accused of conducting politically-motivated investigations of politicians, senior civil servants, and business figures, designed to extract evidence and, in some cases, televised confessions of alleged wrongdoers. The report gave the examples of televised confessions extracted from Salman Farooqi, secretary of commerce under Benazir Bhutto; Ahmed Sadiq, Benazir Bhutto’s principal secretary; and Zafar Iqbal, chairman of the Capital Development Authority. It said most politicians and bureaucrats, who had been charged with corruption or other crimes, were out on bail.