{"id":76505,"date":"2023-04-04T15:54:58","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T15:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pppp.org.pk\/website\/?page_id=76505"},"modified":"2023-04-04T15:54:58","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T15:54:58","slug":"bhuttos-case-putting-the-record-straight","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pppp.org.pk\/website\/bhuttos-case-putting-the-record-straight\/","title":{"rendered":"Bhutto\u2019s Case Putting the Record Straight"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bhutto\u2019s Case Putting the Record Straight
\n<\/strong>By\u00a0<\/strong>Wajid Shamsul Hasan – August 8, 2003<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The man who is more popular by his nickname “Sheda Tully”\u00a0 than his own or\u00a0 his high public office and who as a Pakistani is still remembered for his\u00a0 semi-nude romp after the escort girls in a posh Park Lane hotel in London\u00a0 denying him the pleasure of both their flesh and their whips-on being\u00a0 refused to be paid properly for “services” to satisfy his kinky needs, has\u00a0 been waging his poisoned tongue incessantly in his effort to make a mountain\u00a0 out of a mole hill.<\/p>\n

Islamabad government and its Information Minister seem to have discovered a\u00a0 new life for the dying 6-year long character-assassination campaign against\u00a0 Benazir Bhutto launched by Shaikh Rashid’s former boss and revived by his\u00a0 present mentor. He is behaving like a child who when getting a new\u00a0 toy-boastfully shows it to all.<\/p>\n

Jamali’s loud mouth propaganda goebbels has been abusing the media by\u00a0 misleadingly describing a one-sided finding of an FIA-like probe carried out\u00a0 by an investigating Swiss magistrate as a judicial conviction of Pakistan’s\u00a0 former Prime Minister still better known internationally than all other\u00a0 Pakistani leaders including President Musharraf put together in a basket.\u00a0 With governmental perks and benefits including more advertisements, he has\u00a0 also managed to pick a section of Pakistani media onto his bandwagon for a\u00a0 rejuvenated anti-Bhutto propaganda joy ride.<\/p>\n

The following facts need to be put on record to clear those doubts that are\u00a0 being deliberately generated to convince the Pakistani people that\u00a0 character-assassination campaign against Benazir Bhutto futilely waged\u00a0 against her since November 1996 by successive governments after all was not\u00a0 entirely fabricated as some iota otherwise has been allegedly disclosed in\u00a0 the one-sided finding of Swiss Investigating Officer Daniel Devoud. This\u00a0 finding-it may be mentioned is not final, it has to go through a judicial\u00a0 process of appeal and there are more chances of its quashment at the\u00a0 Attorney General’s level rather than it been sent for further action.<\/p>\n

It is an effort-deliberately to misguide the Pakistani masses-to make them\u00a0 believe that Daniel Devaud has passed a sentence convicting Bhutto and her\u00a0 spouse of corruption. In fact, Devoud’s is a finding of an investigation,\u00a0 which is a totally different matter than a normal judicial process. On\u00a0 government of Pakistan’s represenation Devaud was assigned to investigate to\u00a0 see if there is a prima facie\u00a0 case. For six years he investigated the matter and just when he was to\u00a0 retire from his office (to be exact on July 31), he mysteriously reached the\u00a0 conclusion.<\/p>\n

His investigation kept getting repeated every few years–1997, 1998, 2002\u00a0 and now 2003. More often than once, government of Pakistan had Bhutto\u00a0 baselessly indicted by him to keep Pakistani public’s interest alive in the\u00a0 case. Through out Daniel Devoud’s investigations were one sided and\u00a0 defendants had no right to his investigative papers.<\/p>\n

Since the conduct of his is one sided, defendants have the right to reject\u00a0 his finding within two weeks and seek further Swiss judicial redress.\u00a0 Besides that, it is the legal and inherent right of a defendant to get\u00a0 notice of presence at the time when Devoud was to release his findings.\u00a0 Devaud passed the order on July 31 and did not inform either Senator Asif\u00a0 Ali Zardari or Benazir Bhutto.<\/p>\n

What makes it very intriguing in the eyes of independent analysts is that it\u00a0 was announced just a few weeks after Musharraf’s return from his Europe and\u00a0 American yatras. Many believe that it could be a quid pro quo secretly\u00a0 agreed to by Musharraf to send a division of Pakistani soldiers to kill\u00a0 Iraqi Muslim bothers to protect American occupationary forces and US\u00a0 interests in the occupied Iraq for the price of getting Devoud release his\u00a0 ‘findings’ with last minute changes just when he was to leave his office.<\/p>\n

The other view is related to Swiss domestic politics. Devaud-a socialist-in\u00a0 an elected office, had come under immense flak for his out of the way\u00a0 playing into the hands of Pakistani government during the course of his\u00a0 investigations. Swiss and French press had raised their doubts about the\u00a0 veracity of the course he had adopted. Analysts said that while quitting\u00a0 office Devaud was driven by political motivations to gain international\u00a0 media publicity as Bhutto, is an internationally recognized celebrity. Moreover, he had to\u00a0 justify the six-year investigation as well.<\/p>\n

It is believed that the government of Pakistan-since 1997-has spent over a 100 million dollars in hiring Swiss lawyers, investigators, wire-pullers,\u00a0 agents, detectives and sending its own teams frequently more so on pleasure\u00a0 trips, to conjure up an acceptable case against Bhutto and Zardari. Devoud’s\u00a0 investigation have also cost in expenses a great deal to the Swiss\u00a0 authorities. During last six years he spent most of his time searching a\u00a0 black cat in a dark room with doors wide open and now when he was going out\u00a0 to another assignment, in order to prove that his was not an exercise in\u00a0 futility, he passed a 6- month suspended sentence and fined 50,000 US\u00a0 dollars each without telling the world that he had failed to find billions\u00a0 of dollars that Bhutto and Zardari had piled up through alleged corruption\u00a0 and stacked up in Switzerland. His failure to find those billions in a\u00a0 six-year long search is a vindication of Bhutto as innocent and is a censure\u00a0 \u00a0of the two successive governments that had tried their level best-spent\u00a0 millions of dollars-to damage Bhutto’s international and domestic\u00a0 credibility.<\/p>\n

Bhutto-Zardari lawyer-Senator Farooq Naek is absolutely right describing\u00a0 Devoud’s decision as a major set back to the anti PPP forces since the\u00a0 investigating officer Devaud has failed to find “billions of dollars stolen\u00a0 from Pakistan” as claimed by the anti PPP forces. In fact, his finding was\u00a0 that if wrong doing is proved, it would amount to a minor suspended sentence\u00a0 of six months and a fine of 50, 000 dollars each in the pre-shipment\u00a0 inspection case.<\/p>\n

According to Senator Naek: “His order on the last day of office was to\u00a0 justify an inquiry that failed to find billions of corrupt dollars despite\u00a0 international publicity. The order diverts public attention from a\u00a0 politically motivated inquiry that could have resulted in a possible civil\u00a0 suit from the defendants who were wrongly alleged to have collected billions\u00a0 of dollars from corrupt practices.<\/p>\n

The Geneva Canton, investigating the Pakistani charges, claimed in 1997 that\u00a0 it had frozen Bhutto accounts. She has rejected the finding and cited the\u00a0 letter given to her by a Swiss law officer that the disputed accounts were\u00a0 unrelated to her. In a communication to Peter Hafter, Mrs Carla Del Ponte,\u00a0 the then Swiss Federal Attorney, had confirmed that those alleged funds had\u00a0 nothing to do with Bhutto and she reiterated that she had no information\u00a0 which could be used against Bhutto personally and that she was not aware of\u00a0 any assets of Bhutto in Switzerland. Following this admission by the Swiss\u00a0 Attorney General, Bhutto disassociated from the inquiry.<\/p>\n

As regards much orchestrated diamond necklace is concerned both Devoud and\u00a0 Supreme Court of Pakistan have an affidavit on record submitted to them by\u00a0 Chattila Jewellers of London’s Old Bond Street, certifying that “as per our\u00a0 record the purchase invoice marked “Initial-1”: for the piece of jewellery marked “Initial-2” is not in the name of Ms Benazir Bhutto whose passport\u00a0 copy is marked “Initial-3”.<\/p>\n

Independent observers add yet another dimension to Bhutto story-they relate\u00a0 it to an international conspiracy to teach her a lesson-as had been the case\u00a0 with her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was made a horrible example for\u00a0 making Pakistan a nuclear power. Benazir Bhutto was told not to seek help\u00a0 from China and North Korea and not to fund Pakistan’s programme for the\u00a0 development of long-range missile technology. Like her father she also\u00a0 defied that international pressure not realising that that very institution\u00a0 that she helped at the cost of her career, to develop nuclear warhead\u00a0 carriers, would stab her in the back. Pakistan has a Praetorian history full\u00a0 of Mir Jaffers and Sadiqs.<\/p>\n

Instead of honouring its leaders who have made Pakistan’s defence\u00a0 impregnable fortress, the lengths to which powers that be went were proven\u00a0 when judges were blackmailed into rubber-stamping a judgement written by the\u00a0 Law Ministry against Bhutto and Zardari in 1999. The Supreme Court set the\u00a0 judgement aside when video tapes of telephonic conversations surfaced\u00a0 proving the perversion of justice through collusion of the judges, the Law\u00a0 Ministry and the NAB.<\/p>\n

Bhutto has every justification now to demand release of all correspondence\u00a0 between Devaud and the Pakistani regime claiming this will show that a Swiss\u00a0 elected official was drawn into a politically motivated campaign against\u00a0 her.<\/p>\n

The battle for justice is far from over. In the meanwhile, however,\u00a0 Islamabad’s dirty trick operators have gone in full swing to create a\u00a0 perception that the Swiss action still to be appealed against, has put the\u00a0 last nail in Bhutto’s political career. A case of wishful, opitiated and\u00a0 heavily perverted thinking, they need to learn a lesson from the past so\u00a0 that they do not make the same mistakes again and again.<\/p>\n

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto-after he posed a serious political threat to Field\u00a0 Marshal Ayub Khan-was subjected to most vicious and dirty\u00a0 character-assassination campaign headed by his goebbels Altaf Gauhar. And\u00a0 yet when elections were held in 1970 he won the majority of seats in West\u00a0 Pakistan. When the powers that be decided to over throw him in July 1977-\u00a0 night of fourth and fifth– after American Independence day–not only he was\u00a0 made to face an opposition campaign but also there was a western propaganda\u00a0 against him that he had sold Gawadar Port to the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

When Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan to a mammoth welcome hitherto\u00a0 unknown in our history, she and her mother Begum Bhutto were subjected to\u00a0 bitter character assassination. The more Ziaist tried to vilify her and\u00a0 lower her prestige in the eyes of the people, the higher it went and esteem,\u00a0 respect and the love of masses for her new no bounds. In 1988 General Hameed\u00a0 Gul and ISI in order to stop her landslide victory, not only conjured up IJI\u00a0 but also subjected her to most vulgar mud slinging. In 1990 it was ISI under\u00a0 General Asad Durrani that tried to repeat history and erected tin-pot\u00a0 politicians, funded them from ISI sources to stop Bhutto. Their conspiracy\u00a0 succeeded then but it failed in 1993.<\/p>\n

Having used an ungrateful Farooq Leghari who saw fulfillment of his own\u00a0 political ambitions after she was sacked by him in November 1996, the revived exercise\u00a0 has been to ensure that she does not return to Pakistan or to power. Her\u00a0 husband has been held as a hostage to her political career. But despite all\u00a0 the dirty trick operations, pre-rigging, and result manipulations, the\u00a0 powers that be did not succeed in dissuading the majority of voters to vote\u00a0 for Bhutto and her party in October 2002 elections. If Musharraf and his\u00a0 Al-Qaed Muslim League think that the so-called Swiss verdict has done her\u00a0 in, then Musharraf should take off his uniform, call for free and fair\u00a0 elections, let her contest them and see where the popular vote goes. That\u00a0 would be the verdict at the bar of the people of Pakistan and not by pliable\u00a0 foreign investigative officers or the Pakistani judiciary eating out of the\u00a0 hands of Prime Minister Jamali’s boss.<\/p>\n

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