There is a lot to play for in Pakistani politics since the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Pakistani and US officials. This has opened gates for the transfer of approx $1.1 billion from the US to its counterparts. One only understands that since the news of the transfer, Pakistan’s interior political scene has seen high volumes of activity. The strong opposition party (Pakistan Muslim League – Nawazs; PML-N) has jumped to land corruption charges against the young and vibrant political party of once Pakistani cricketing hero Imran Khan (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or Pakistan’s movement of Justice; PTI).
This time the later has been charged for investing the people’s charitable donations for his cancer hospital in foreign real estate markets. Although these forms of allegations are nothing new, certainly not before the upcoming elections but for once the timing and nature of these allegations could not be any worse.
A young Khan riding on Pakistan’s cricket world cup victory launched a charity drive in the early nineties to create Shaukat Khanam Memorial Hospital. The hospital is one of the finest institutes in research and treatment for cancer patients and is the only hospital of such nature in the highly populated Pakistan. The hospital offers need-blind aid to its patients and the poor cancer patients foresee it as a beacon of hope.
In a country where medical infrastructure lacks basic necessities, Shaukat Khanam is one of the most technologically advanced and systematically managed hospitals in the country. A lot of the costs of the hospitals infrastructure and management are covered through donations by local and oversea Pakistani’s. A high spike in these donations could be noticed particularly in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan where in accordance to the Islamic pillars of belief; each Muslim is asked to pay Zakat (Charity) in equivalence to a portion of their income. It is very similar to the concept of tithing seen across various religions.
Unfortunately, a few years ago I had the opportunity to visit Shaukat Khanam hospital to visit my cousin Usman, who was suffering from blood cancer. Usman was there for his initial check-up. As we waited in a room for his visit, I couldn’t help notice how systematically the place was run. Each patient was given token numbers on arrival and everything was run in accordance to the numbers. No favors were shown based on wealth, influential powers or social status. This was my first time experiencing such equality laws and procedures in any institute in Pakistan.
During Usman’s treatment I made various visits to this hospital, each time being more impressed than the last. The doctors were highly educated individuals who had foregone lucrative foreign positions to be able to be part of this vision to help their own people. The nurses created bonds with their patients as if they were family. Usman finally lost his long battle with cancer on 8th of October 2011; he was only twenty-one years old.
This experience taught me how lucky Pakistan was to have an institute as special as Shaukat Khanam to be able to provide people with a realistic chance in the fight against cancer. How the locals who couldn’t afford travel to other countries for medical treatment could rely on Shaukat Khanam to provide them with the best, most of the time at no cost.
EIJING: China expressed regret Friday over former UN chief Kofi Annan\'s resignation as international envoy for Syria and said it would continue to \"work for a political resolution\" to the conflict.
Beijing, which along with Moscow has vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, also said it wanted the United Nations to play an important role in trying to solve the deadly 17-month conflict.
\"China expresses regret at Annan\'s resignation. We understand the difficulty of Annan\'s mediation work, and respect his decision,\" said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei in a statement.
\"China supports the UN playing an important role in the appropriate resolution of the Syrian issue.\"
Annan announced on Thursday that he was quitting his role as the UN and Arab League envoy for Syria, complaining that his April peace plan had not received the support it deserved from major powers.
Pakistani drawing rooms and talk shows are resounding with N-League’s onslaught on Imran Khan. As usual, talk shows are only serving a mere purpose of bringing opponents in the wrestling ring. However, the nation is interested to know why N-League has chosen this time to attack Imran.
There could be two main reasons of this onslaught:
1) N-League is scared of PTI’s success in the general elections. This may be true but the timing of assault was incorrect. The accusations of mishandling SKMH funds and tax evasion might be the only weapon that N-League could have used few days before the elections. And then, Khan would not have enough time to justify his position, and PTI election campaign could have been seriously impacted. Where it is a fact that N-League has an experience in conducting mud-slinging campaigns against their opponents, which have quite worked in the past. N-League’s politics revolves around maligning others and portraying themselves as ‘Sharifs’. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that N-League mistimed its best shot against the fast bowler.
2) N-League is quite convinced that PTI is their biggest competitor in the next elections. They might have also sensed the reality that mere allegations would not damage PTI image much. Unfortunately, they are up against a blue-eyed boy of media, army, and the educated class of Pakistan. They are not pitched against the PPP this time, which has been bashed and maligned in the past with the help of army, biased judiciary, and intellectually corrupt intelligentsia. Therefore, the only option is to facilitate defections in the ranks of PTI. Because, it will be difficult, morally and politically, for first rank leaders of PTI to desert their party right now without any real excuse.
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) resumed hearing of various identical petitions challenging the Contempt of Court Act 2012 Thursday where the attorney general objected over four out of five judges included in the bench, Geo News reported.
A five-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Shakirullah Jan, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, resumed hearing 27 identical petitions challenging the Contempt of Court Act, 2012.
During today’s proceedings, Attorney General Irfan Qadir objected over the four judges who are included in the bench hearing the contempt petitions. He was of the view that apparently four judges appear to be biased. On this, the chief justice remarked that he was trying to defame the judiciary and this was not the first time that he attempted to do so.
The federation’s counsel in the contempt law case, Abdul Shakoor Paracha, while arguing before the court on Tuesday, admitted that the Contempt of Court Act, 2012 might have been promulgated to protect the second prime minister from disqualification, submitting that everybody knew that law was never made in isolation or without motive.
Meanwhile, remarking that legislation is parliament’s job and the SC has the constitutional right to interpret the law during adjudication of matters placed before it, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry observed that the Contempt of Court Act, 2012 violated the principle of equity and equality and had been made only to save the new prime minister.
The chief justice observed that the government’s claim that the new contempt law was without flaws was incorrect and all matters of public interest could be taken up in courts.
Expressing concern over non-implementation of Article 9, 24 and 25, the chief justice asked the government through its counsel to ensure enforcement of the relevant provisions of the Constitution to protect the life and property of citizens.
The federation’s counsel contended that the instant petitions were based on speculations and apprehensions, adding that the petitioners had failed to identify which Islamic injunction was violated through the enactment of the new contempt of court law. |